Single headlights on naked bikes

Originally Posted by justmacsv650

Details and update on Vltn3[Pete]
...I spoke with the woman who was driving the car, she explained that she had seen my car approaching as she came round the bend judged that she had enough time to get through the gap before me but had not seen the single headlight of Petes bike through the lights of my car I must state that my car was coming over a small rise... PLEASE ALL BE VERY VERY CAREFUL and consider that a single headlight as on the naked can be mistaken for another car behind the car approaching

...Or as a part of the vehicle behind the bike(bandit 600 in this case)... as experinced by me this evening on my way home from work I am now even more aware of what is going on around me as I saw a similar accident nearly happen under the exact same conditions as above this evening...

Please be careful out there people!

Noticed the same thing some time ago in my cage driving towards a sea of headlights, almost didn't see the bike filtering through on the outside.
I did try one of these strobe light thingys on my naked to make it stand out from the other lights but found it restricted the light output too much.

[Sid Squid]

I've got to say I think this is a load of codswallop.

Not long ago EU rules were considered such that twin light bikes could only have one light on for either beam, (we see this with many import bikes, hence the common "how do I make both lights come on" questions), I'm not sure where we are with this legislation right now, EU bikes still seem to have one light, ours still two. This is apparently done so that poor daft drivers won't think that your twin headlamp motorcycle bearing down upon them is a car further away and pull out in front of you.

That was a clear attempt at shifting the blame from those who don't look properly to you, dear motorbicyclist: if they don't see you right it's all your own fault.

Now we have the same crap again, only this time with the opposite excuse.

Two lights - we can't be expected to see you right - it's your fault.

One light - we can't be expected to see you right - it's your fault.

Anybody notice a trend? Not just me surely?

This may conceivably be a rant, all the same I remain unconvinced by this which seems to me, at a distance from the specific circumstance which inspired the post it's true, thus I'm not attempting to suggest that in this exact situation recklessness or worse was responsible, but all the same it's got excuse writ large across it.

Originally Posted by Sid Squid

EU bikes still seem to have one light, ours still two.

My CBR has two headlights but they only both come on with high beam, otherwise it is just one light. Hence all the dopey "did you know one of your bulbs has blown" comments I keep getting.

Saw this story on the bbc website yesterday, maybe drivers will begining to realise they actually have to look before they pull out at junctions.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/w...re/4663864.stm

Originally Posted by Stephen Ladyman, Road Safety Minister

"Drivers need to take an extra second or two to look out for bikers".

Or just try looking full stop!

Even when they do see you im sure some of the stuff they do is just pi55 you off, i had a bloke in a BMW in front of me Saturday & whenever i pulled out to the white line to look at going past him he also moved over, three times he did this before i got past & when i did he drove along on my rear wheel bipping his horn.
I just gave him the usual response.

Originally Posted by e.d.

Saw this story on the bbc website yesterday, maybe drivers will begining to realise they actually have to look before they pull out at junctions.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/w...re/4663864.stm

They're running a similar campaign through the summer in Barnsley and guess who's the biker for all the media shots.......yours truly autographs at a later date .They want me to roll up to a junction and take shots as i approach....Then ask drivers when they feel they could get out in front of me safely....sort of 5 secs to impact...4 secs to impact 3...2...1.

Seriously though...it shows that some concils are running bike friendly advertisements even if the UK government as a whole aren't. The head honcho of our traffic section has just retired but ade sure he initiated this scheme before he left as he was a 30 years + biker and tried his best to make everything bike friendly.

[northwind]

The one-headlight camoflague trick's a favourite on Visordown. Someone managed to get a shot of a bike in front of an old-model Land Rover Defender with the headlights in basiaclly the exact same place, and fair play, the bike's seriously hard to see. It's a good example, but in reality it's not likely to happen like that- the lights need to be at nearly the same height to make it work, and the bike needs to be perfectly on the line of sight from driver to car headlight. Not very likely at all. But the safer-than-thou brigade have jumped on it as a golden rule and it seems to be spreading.

They did the same with hi-vis... A single study in Holland showed that some hi-viz vest can act as camflague, as they break up the rider's outline and can confuse people- you see the vest fine, you just don't know what it is. But it was a tentative conclusion in a single study on one particular type of vest (which wasn't rated for road use)- yet suddenly this is "Proof that hi-viz is dangerous"

As a wise man (Homer Simpson) once said, "Facts, pfft. You can prove anything with facts."