Is it Me or does anybody else notice a lighting problem in corners?

Almost scooped up a deer down the winder not far from the house. Was messed up cause I rounded that sweeper pretty quick thinking, man these headlights are great, but they just never follow up the turn where you need to see with them... and just then the subtle white backend of a mr. deer came running diagonal just in front of me! Grabbed the brakes as quick as I seen him coming across. Almost scooped the SOB up - 10 feet maybe, was real close!

But here's my thing, wouldn't a V-Pattern set of Fogs at say a 60 degree "V" Inclination to the outboard sides of the VFR be perfect for sweepers at night? I seem to be considering this more and more when I get into a turn with any bit of lean. Maybe a beamspread of about 30-degrees up and down the V's would be all I need.

Anyone else ever look into this? Like some kind of way of lighting the inside corners they are turning into at night?

 

huh... good thing you've got the abs model!

 

i have an idea, you come up with some foglights that will turn as you turn the bars and then post how you did it?

Glad you got out of that okay...I almost hit a turkey vulture yesterday.

 

You know either that ABS is entirely transparent, or I've never heard it!

Yeah I agree, some kind of lean sensor with a servo-syncro motor of some kind. I think I am going to grab some fog lights or driving lights out of a salvage yard and try mounting them off the mirror mounts with a homemade bracket just to quick try something. This way I can see what kind of beamspread and type of light I would need. So busy right now though with the mods on the bike, will have to get back to it.

Turkey Vulture - holy crap, that's a big bird!!!

 

mount them to the fork legs...

 

I have a set of flat beam fog lights mounted on the front fender mounts on my ST1300. The problem is that at speed your front wheel is leaning over in the turn so there isn't much effect but they really help when going straight.

I had a similar close call in March. I went past a recent deer hit (blood, guts and carcass all over the road) as I was riding to work in the dark. I looked down to check to see if my fog lights were on and when I looked back up another one of those buggers was running across right in front of me. Missed him by about 10'!

 

We live out in the woods for the most part. Depending on the season, there is alot of moving dear and and numerous deer strike accidents. LETS FACE IT: WE'RE AT A DISADVANTAGE! Im not in my F150 with 4 inch well casing 188'' wall pipe "Deer Slayer" front bumper. They jump out, run across or just stand there like they do (sigh). We can run flood lights, spot lights or road flares out our ass, it ain't gonna help. They are gonna still be a dumb animal. Are you gonna take the risk? You take it evey time you gear up, start the motor and slip the clutch. Oh, and by the way, those bastards DO hurt like hell when you do strike them. I was luckey 'nuff to limp to my feet and bitch about it before I got a stupid smile ands was glad I was still sucking O2.

 

ive seen pics of locals on the dragon with lights on their mirrors pointed up and out to light up the turn when leaned over. cant find any of them now though.

 

Made me laugh, friend at work had a truck we called the Deer Slayer for the same thing, less the bumper. Just had a thing for his truck.

That's exactly what I'm thinking of!!!

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Yeah I've noticed they seem to run faster to get in front of you the faster you going! Must be a panic run. I here the Harley Guys aroung here from time to time plowing deer. And we have a lot of land out here that isn't built on and seems like even more deer.

 

Easiest way to deal with it is a momentary contact button mounted where you can find it all the time and a relay for fog lamps mounted so they will illuminate where you want in a corner. I used one switch and relay for each lamp on each bar. extremely high wattage bulbs are just fine, cause they're not on long enought to count. First did it way back on a '69 Kawasaki H1.
"The geezer"
(soon to own an 02 VFR)

 

My buddy's wife got hit by a deer about 10 years ago 20 miles west of Des Moines on I-80. In broad daylight the deer ran out in front of her and as she was trying to avoid it the second deer hit her broadside. She never saw #2. Bike went down, deer landed on the bike and she landed on the deer. Still holding on to the bars she pushed the bike away and ended up in the median. She immediatly sat up and taught everyone new cuss words. Iowa state trooper showed up and was grinning from ear to ear. He was soooo happy to be able to have a conversation with a biker who hit a deer. That type of accident is usually the worst part of his day. Not this time! My buddy's wife had full gear on. The accident was on a Saturday and she was back to work on Tuesday. She still rides to this day! Oh and yes the deer ran off, but judging from the blood on the scene he didn't make it too far.

Ride Safe!

 

Critters

They definitely do that. Elk do as well. In April, my neighbor got run into from the side on his bicycle by a HUGE cow elk. It ran into him, knocked him over, freaked out, turned, ran into a bunch of trees, and ran headfirst into one, breaking it's neck. In Colorado, that makes it road kill which can be claimed. We are going to have some of it at a picnic this weekend. (it's the local festival's 112th anniversary - Strawberry Days - that was the crop back then) Now it's tourists.
Scotty

 

When I was 24hr racing we tried all types of setups for lights. The best we found was running two 7" mc headlights with clear bezels. The lights were mounted side by side in the normal headlight location. Sitting on bike- the right light was canted to the left and the left light was canted to the right. The light pattern was a X when the bike ran straight. The cross of the light beams(middle of X) would center on the track way out front. When going in to a corner,lets say a right hander, the left light would illuminate the edge of the corner(apex). We did use 100w H4 bulbs and with the clear bezels they would throw out a round spot about 8' round and very bright. This setup let us be one of the fastest bikes at night.

I setup the lower (stacked headlights)high beam bulbs up that way (X) on my 66 GTO. Works great in the dark country roads at night.

 

I would just slow down at night around blind corners but hey thats just me. but during the day I never had a light problem...

 

It's been thought of forever......... What I'd suggest is extra lights that shine where you want them when leaning..... but connected to your high-beam switch...... so you can cut them off when you dim your reg lights......

 

I did that, and found that I preferred seperate lights with separate switches on each bar end. It's pretty easy to learn to push the button on the side you're cornering toward.
Different strokes - different folks.
I did it because my 69 Kawi 500 triple didn't have much spare generating capacity, and I didn't want to overstress it regularly.:biggrin:

 

It's amazing to me how some corners tun forward into upward... Wouldn't it be amazing if we could get a lighting system working that took that into account, using the (scant, non-existent, really) electricity we have to spare... Mercury switches probably wouldn't work due to centripetal force, I wonder about the stuff they have in game controllers, they can't draw much current.
The permanently walleyed fog lights sound cool and would make the VFR look even more Close Encountersy, but given the bike's one major weakness, you'd want to power them with a bicycle generator.

 

I had the same problem with the 69Kawi 500. I spent some time looking around, and got the stator rewound. 160% of original output. Yeah I had to rebuild the rectifier pack with better diodes and heat sinks, but it was worth the trouble, IMHO. Hardest part was where to put the pack made from cannibalized car alternator parts. Can be done on most anything, the electrons don't know the difference, or care.

 

Scotty... That sounds good as well

 

I once saw a Ruff Rider bike that... well, it sucked :doh: but the lighting was awesome.

He had auxiliary lights mounted on the forks, just above the calipers... cost him $20 at Kragen, and he did the wiringand brackets himself... the lights follow the forks, givin' ya better visuals around turns of any kind...

First time a Ruff Rider ever impressed me, honestly...