Dual Headlights on the Super T

[Matt51F1]

Hello!
I’ve only had mine about 7 weeks and IT has been a bloody fantastic bike! I love riding my TDMs because I’ve set them up correctly and modded a few things that gives the kiddies on their supersports (with the inch wide chicken strips) a run from the lights.

The thing that I wonder about is the headlights.

Bikes used to have both headlights on many years ago but changed to single low + single high due to car drivers thinking that the bike was a car in the distance and would pull out in front of them. Just one reason for the change.

Yet, the Super T has both lights on (or appears to be from a distance to me).

Does anyone know why this is so?

 

[Jlq1969]

Bikes used to have both headlights on many years ago but changed to single low + single high due to car drivers thinking that the bike was a car in the distance and would pull out in front of them. Just one reason for the change.

I don't understand what you mean by this...... the only thing I can tell you is that: on a two-way road, if you come driving with the sun on your back... the more lights on you have (oem or accessories), it will make the vehicle that comes from the front, "he can see you" .. "invisibility" is the worst thing that can happen to a motorcycle….and even worse if one of the vehicles coming from the front is trying to overtake….

 

[Matt51F1]

I don't understand what you mean by this...... the only thing I can tell you is that: on a two-way road, if you come driving with the sun on your back... the more lights on you have (oem or accessories), it will make the vehicle that comes from the front, "he can see you" .. "invisibility" is the worst thing that can happen to a motorcycle….and even worse if one of the vehicles coming from the front is trying to overtake….

It’s one of the many studies done into bike crashes over the years. It’s like the old belief that people have that open face helmets are bad because of some urban legend they’ve heard. The psychological fact is that an open face is better in traffic situations because people driving a car- if they see you in the first instance- will recognise the rider as a human because they can see a face rather than a faceless entity.

In the case of headlights, I’ll ride with spotlight’s and high beam on until I’m certain the person has seen me or will switch them on at intersections to simply create a changing of circumstances for a person operating a car in the hopes they’ll realise something is different and not run into me.

If you think about how twin headlights look at night from the perspective of a car operator who wouldn’t see a bike because they’re not looking for a bike: they’ll see two headlights and assume that is a car at a distance and therefore be space for them to pull out in front or cross over in front. A single headlight is more likely to be a motorcycle (or a car here in Queensland with a broken headlight)

 

[thughes317]

Practice "the weave" until it becomes an unconscious reflex action; saved my ass on more than a few occasions. I understand the concept you've described, but: one headlight, two headlights, forty seven headlights, doesn't really matter....inattentive drivers are going to continue to try and kill us.

 

[Matt51F1]

Practice "the weave" until it becomes an unconscious reflex action; saved my ass on more than a few occasions. I understand the concept you've described, but: one headlight, two headlights, forty seven headlights, doesn't really matter....inattentive drivers are going to continue to try and kill us.

You’re not wrong there!

 

[Sierra1]

. . . . Bikes used to have both headlights on many years ago but changed to single low + single high due to car drivers thinking that the bike was a car in the distance and would pull out in front of them. Just one reason for the change. . . .

I can sorta get behind this one. My bad weather ride is my Jeep. The Jeep headlights, especially on the CJ/YJ, are narrower than regular cars. And at night, and only at night, it seemed that I might have had more people pull out in front of me. And I wondered if it was because the headlights appeared to be further away than they actually were. But it didn't happen often enough for me to be certain of it. I personally think that as bright as the Tenere lights are, as small as they are, and as close together as they are, they appear as one headlight anyway.

It’s one of the many studies done into bike crashes over the years. It’s like the old belief that people have that open face helmets are bad because of some urban legend they’ve heard. The psychological fact is that an open face is better in traffic situations because people driving a car- if they see you in the first instance- will recognise the rider as a human because they can see a face rather than a faceless entity. . . .

Man . . . . I have never heard of this one. And there is absolutely no way that I'm gonna buy into it. I have on occasions too numerous to count, been looking directly at a driver who has been looking directly at me, and watched them pull out in front of me on a bike. For whatever reason, they do not see anything when the pull out. Or maybe they do, and just don't care.

That all being said, I ride with my "high" beams on during the day. If they pull out, it not from not seeing me. I also believe it keeps my bulbs cooler, and lets them last longer.

 

[Matt51F1]

I can sorta get behind this one. My bad weather ride is my Jeep. The Jeep headlights, especially on the CJ/YJ, are narrower than regular cars. And at night, and only at night, it seemed that I might have had more people pull out in front of me. And I wondered if it was because the headlights appeared to be further away than they actually were. But it didn't happen often enough for me to be certain of it. I personally think that as bright as the Tenere lights are, as small as they are, and as close together as they are, they appear as one headlight anyway.

Man . . . . I have never heard of this one. And there is absolutely no way that I'm gonna buy into it. I have on occasions too numerous to count, been looking directly at a driver who has been looking directly at me, and watched them pull out in front of me on a bike. For whatever reason, they do not see anything when the pull out. Or maybe they do, and just don't care.

That all being said, I ride with my "high" beams on during the day. If they pull out, it not from not seeing me. I also believe it keeps my bulbs cooler, and lets them last longer.

That’s fair enough if you don’t buy into it about the open face thing as we all have different experiences.
I’ve had people do exactly that where they look directly at you and then pull out while others will stop again for whatever reason. Purely anecdotal evidence is all I can provide as proof positive.
I’ve even had clowns pull out in front of my F250 with headlights on and a dirty big bullbar on front. The last one to do it go woken up when I overtook close enough to take off their mirror and hit the big air horns as well.

 

[Little Joe]

I recently added cyclops aux lights with yellow lenses.
It has made a dramatic difference in being seen compared to all other bikes I’ve had.


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[Sierra1]

I will agree with more lights are more lights, and that is better. I've been thinking about the Tenere with two lights and others with only one. My kid's R6 and the KLR are two such bikes. Then it hit me. The two Tenere lights do not have a high and low like other bikes. "Low" beam is when the metal cover is restricting the shape/length of the beam. No wattage change. I ALWAYS ride with my "high" beams on in the day time.

Also, the two Tenere lights are so close together that they will appear as a single bulb from distance. I can't see individual bulbs until it's close enough to see that it's a motorcycle.

 

[Madhatter]

I like more light

 

[thughes317]

I like more light View attachment 103353

Dual gremlin bells for safety?

 

[Sierra1]

Dual gremlin bells for safety?

It's Texas. We have a lot of gremlins.

 

[Sierra1]

I like more light View attachment 103353

AAHHHHH. My eyes!!

 

[Matt51F1]

AAHHHHH. My eyes!!

That’s a cry you make in San Francisco when you make a wrong turn and end up viewing the naked bike ride- not when you see an S10

 

[Longdog Cymru]

I don’t know why manufacturers skimp on not having 2 working headlights. I have asked and was told “it is illegal to have 2 headlights on due to the distance between them”. Which I think smacks of BS, and when I point out that my S10 has 2 headlights, I am met with a shrug. The only reason I can think of is cost cutting by the manufacturers.

 

[MattR]

I’m not a believer in extra lights and I’ve never put them on any of my bikes since 1975. I too have had people look me in the eye and then pull out in front of me as if they were trying to kill me. I just ride expecting people to do this type of thing.


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[Madhatter]

factory headlights are adequate at best .... I ride it seems a lot in the dark , seeing ladders , tire carcasses ,dead animals , mysterious liquids on the road , live animals waiting to ruin your ride , are just a few of the reasons extra lighting brings to the ride . it adds safety . nothing is perfect , but being seen and being able to see is just common sense.

 

[Sierra1]

On paper projection headlights are great. But they're too susceptible to having the beam angle altered. Being narrow beamed, even just sitting on the bike changes the angle. You would have to adjust them with your weight, and then adjust them again when you add cargo or a passenger. The adjustable suspension is not enough.

My FJ has a glass lens. I have a 55w/100w halogen bulb in it. Low beam is normal wattage. The high beam is not. But as long as you don't go around on high beam, nobody is going to know, and the light output at night is great.

 

[Matt51F1]

On paper projection headlights are great. But they're too susceptible to having the beam angle altered. Being narrow beamed, even just sitting on the bike changes the angle. You would have to adjust them with your weight, and then adjust them again when you add cargo or a passenger. The adjustable suspension is not enough.

My FJ has a glass lens. I have a 55w/100w halogen bulb in it. Low beam is normal wattage. The high beam is not. But as long as you don't go around on high beam, nobody is going to know, and the light output at night is great.

Funny thing about some lights though is those in the TDM (not shipped to the USA as far as I’m aware). For some reason, the shape of the front end (akin to the alien on the cover of the original Was of the Worlds album by Jeff Wayne for those old enough to know it) would not register for the speed detection devices on the road and I swear it’s saved me from more than one speeding ticket from a cop with a LIDAR.

When I helped a mate rebuild his GPZ1000(A), he was determined to put in a 90/130. I said it would melt the wiring but he did anyway. I’m a little glad that he proved me wrong

I’m about to change my spots on the front (no, I’m not a leopard ) from these ones that are a good spread beam for fog to a narrower 25-degree kind for distance. There’s enough spill for animals on the side of the road as well as waking up the clowns who are oblivious to other road users.

A side bar to this is that I now change all my lights to LED as hare’s and possums and all manner of creatures that run into the road will either stop in front of you or turn to run in the beam of halogen.
As the light is more evenly spread by LED, they tend to not get dazzled by the beam and will react to the sound of the bike and run away.

 

[Sierra1]

. . . . I swear it’s saved me from more than one speeding ticket from a cop with a LIDAR.. . . . he was determined to put in a 90/130. I said it would melt the wiring but he did anyway. I’m a little glad that he proved me wrong . . . .

LIDAR goes straight out, and straight back. If it bounces off something at an angle . . . . no reading. I don't think it was so much a current thing with the 100w bulb(s), so much as the blinding on coming drivers.