Wiggle those bars!

Hey guy's, we need to do everything to get noticed, including riding with high beams, which I do on every bike except the old Guzzi. Lights work great, I just don't want to "strain" the 40 year old electrics. BTW, if your not comfortable wigglng the bars, swerve gently within your lane. All I can say is just try it, I think you'll be amazed. I can't tell you how many cars have started to pull out, and then come to an abrupt stop as I wiggle the bars. Bikes are hard to crash if both wheels are turning (gyroscopic effect) so wiggle away, it may save your life. May also be a good time to find a deserted parking lot and practice your full on braking power. Go approx 50mph, slam (controlably) brakes, just to remember what you've got. I've taught my 22 year old son these lessons, with great effect. Our last ride, a policeman almost pulled right out in front of him, and the "wiggle" stopped the cop in his tracks. He was able to wiggle and slam brakes in the same incident (and he gave the cop a dirty look (as much as you can in a full faced helmet) as he went by. I feel pretty comfortable with my only son riding, as I've taught him all the roadcraft I know. It doesn't hurt that he was riding dirtbikes from the time he was 8. Dirtbikes are the very best trainer for low traction situations. We were riding pretty fast down a local curvey country road last year, and when we stopped for a rest he told me he had slid on some gravel (he was on the ZRX). I asked him what he did to avert disaster, and he say's " I didn't do anything, steady throttle, looking through the turn, no abrupt panic
moves, and it acted just like my dirtbike (only 300 lbs heavier). I am a proud papa!

 

I'm not going to make the Georgia rally (although I'd love to) but I am going to the ZRX rallie in Arkansas (eureka springs) in early May. Guess what? I'm planning on riding the '99 VFR:wink:
North Arkansas and southern Missouri is bike riding heaven. The ZRXOA always stays at the Swiss Chalet motel. The Rallie is 5/6 through the 9th. Good group of guy's. I hope the VFR is as competent in the twisty's as the ZRX.......talk about powering out of the corners. I've left some full on sportbikes in the dust down there. Nothing quite like 90+ lbs of torque! But, the VFR sounds like a GT40 or something! Sweet music!:biggrin:

 

i have marker lights on my bikes sides as well as a few reflective patches here and there for at night. if they cant see me on my bike being how big i am then the person isnt going to see a vw bug either and needs to stop driving.

 

Modulators can't be used with HIDs... sort of. In your case, you may be able to...

Some modulators flip between high and low beam, and some modulate the voltage going to the low beam only (like a dimmer being slid back and forth, as opposed to flipping the high and low switch).

With the latter, your halogen low beams would be compatible. The former, however, would not work due to the reason you stated -- HID warm up time.

I've been toying with the idea of HIDs in my VFR. However I'm not keen on putting them in the low beams since plug and play HIDs don't make a great beam pattern in a reflector housing designed for halogens (risk blinding oncoming vehicles at night). HIDs in the high beam would be great, since they are [typically] only on at night when there are no vehicles in front of you. Because of this, there is no worry of blinding oncoming vehicles.

My car came with halogen projectors for the low beam, and halogen reflectors for high beam. I added a plug and play HID kid from ddmtuning.com and am very pleased with the beam pattern and cutoff. Adding HIDs to the high beams of the car, while the extra light would be nice, makes it nearly impossible to "flash" with the highbeams due to the warm up time. Since I don't "flash" on the bike, this would be a moot point.

Another direction to go with the HIDs is a bi-xenon high/low HID setup. This is a high and low beam HID in one bulb. They get around the warm up time issue with this by using a magnetic servo to change the focus of the beam between high and low, as opposed to turning on and off. Thus the bulb is always burning, but the housing of the bulb shifts to refocus the beam. However this still doesn't address the VFR reflector housing in the low beam.

Another option for the VFR (at least the 6th gen) - the low beams are an H4 bulb which is a typical dual-filament motorcycle halogen. However it is only wired to use the low beam filament. When you flip the high beam switch, it just adds the two high beam bulbs to the two low beam bulbs. It shouldn't be too hard to alter the wiring very slightly so that when the high beam switch is flipped, the high beams come on as normal and the low beam H4's shift to high beam mode. Seems like a waste to only burn one filament in the bulb as setup with stock...

Well, that's enough of my rambling for the front of the bike. I don't have as much information about the rear of the bike. I too am a wiggler/swerver when coming to a light. However I'd really like to add some kind of rear modulator or "run-turn-brake" (RTB) system, similar to what I have on my VTX. Converted the rear amber turn signals to red running lights which also light when the brake is applied, as well as blink.

Anyone have any information or links on rear modulators/RTBs?? Thanks!

 

I had one of these installed on my bike. Though I am pleased with the outcome, in my view, iit should flash at a faster frequency:

Motorcycle brake light modulator or emergency flasher on eBay.ca (item 330326961970 end time 27-Mar-10 20:21:00 EDT)

This is how it looks. I put the signal light on so you can see how it looks with both running. The devil's face in the red light is in no way any reflection on my driving habits

IMGP0612.flv video by 34468RANDY - Photobucket

 

I was actually just on a website looking at the Backoff XP. I'd also prefer a quicker flash, but that's not a big deal.

Are there any plug and play kits out there to convert the rear turn signals to red to serve as running, brake, and turn signals all in one?

 

couldnt you put a standard flasher unit for a car in one of the wires for your brake light? would probably only cost about 3 bucks to do it.

 

Probably. Except I'd prefer it to go solid eventually.

 

I think that you would find that most jurisdictions require a solid running brake light. What these modulators do is give you that as well as the few flashes to attract your attention.

 

I agree. The ones who are bothered it by it are the same idiots pulling over thinking I am a cop. For some reason they don't notice I am not flashing anything in red or blue. I once had lady in front of me sit through 2 green lgihts. When I beeped my horn on the third light, she got out of the car and walked back to me and wanted know why I pulled her over and then only beeped at her. She still hadn't noticed my bike looks nothing like a cop bike. In fact, I was on my huge yellow Goldwing that day.

 

If I am not mistaken, the modulating lights are an option on some models of the Goldwing. Seeing as you ( I presume) are not a LEO, you should have answered her, "I am studying how long it takes for stupid people to react to common sense events."