Getting Seen... are Aux / Fog lights a plus?

[Splash]

I've just this minute watched 'War on Britain's Roads' highlighting the war between cyclist and vehicles on the roads of Britain. Link posted at the bottom should you want it.

Anyway, it made me think about motorcycling, I haven't been on the bike long compared to some and as I'm young I can generally be naive and feel invincible - I won't deny it. Apart from when I climb aboard my trusty Honda. It's like I'm a different person. I enter a 'mode'.

I've noticed that when I ride, I try to 'hang back' watch what everyone else is doing and commit myself to the road from there. Moving and riding so I'm almost consistently out the way yet in sight and in mind. As opposed to waving myself in front of traffic showing them I'm there and not moving, I'm a grumpy motorcyclist and don't give a toss.

Anyway, I do find however no matter how much you think in advance and ride in a prone and aware position road users still fail to see you. Which made me think I want to do something about it.

Recently I have been thinking about installing an Engine bar and adding Fog or Aux lights as I have read that these can and do increase visibility to other road users due to the three points oncoming as opposed to one.

I do pass a rather sexy GSA on my travels some mornings which has some Aux lights and It does draw attention, but then am I just looking at that because I'm a motorcyclist and always scanning for objects or because it is actually standing out?

I just wondered if anyone had not had and ridden without fog or Aux lights and then installed them and seen a difference with the reaction from road users.

I'd be interested to hear anyones experience on it!

Link should you want to watch it online:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01p7q2l/War_on_Britains_Roads/

[Swanny]

Aux lights are the way to go. I'm going to add some to mine, I want to be seen :)
I saw a bike the other night that had a very dim headlamp, luckily for him I do a double check to look for bikes.
I have a set of White Bikeviz bullet v2's for sale if you're interested
http://www.wiltshirebikers.co.uk/cgi-bin/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1344273994/0#4

[Mitch9128]

I just replaced the 501 sidelight bulbs with some LED's, really stand out at the side of the dipped beam http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trksid=p3984.m570.l1313&_nkw=501+led&_saca t=0&_from=R40

[Snowy]

I have them on both bikes - fogs on the K bike and Aux lights on the GS. The Aux lights have a distinct horizontal cut off whereas the fogs are more diffuse. On the GS I have HID conversions for the Aux lights and the K bike they're halogen.

They make a huge difference in my view to visibility. I vary whether they are on or not though - they're never on at night unless there actually is poor visibility and during the day I tend to have them on when there's a low sun behind me. If I remember I also turn them off in town as they can glare when close up behind a car due to the bike's lights being that much higher.

I also have some Bikeviz bullet LED's but don't think they're that effective to be honest - just not enough power.

[Swanny]

That cyclist program is great :)
Reminds me of this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpN4zoG2TiA

;D

[fd2526]

I seem to be noticed a little more since fitting my aux lights (bike vis Cree's)

[Splash]

Snowy,

So if I told you to pick either Fog or Aux what would you pick? :)

I have been looking at the Givi Trekker S310 Fogs, they seem to have good reviews and are halogen.

Or the Hawk fog light kit by Sw Motech :-?

Those Cree lights look pretty awesome too!

Shall I have them all? ;D ;D Then I could see 400 Miles... 8-)

[Swanny]

Cree lights are the best

Have you looked at the bikeviz site?
http://www.bikevis.com/

The bullets are very good, they aren't designed to light up the road they are designed to catch the drivers attention. I'd fit them to mine if I had a place to put them.

[Mitch9128]

Overkill, Splash does your bike have little 501 bulb sidelights? Then replace them with 501 cree off Ebay as i said oop there ^^ job jobbed for pennies, and no mods required.

[Splash]

Overkill, Splash does your bike have little 501 bulb sidelights? Then replace them with 501 cree off Ebay as i said oop there ^^ job jobbed for pennies, and no mods required.

It doesn't mate :( Just a single central bulb

[Splash]

Cree lights are the best

Have you looked at the bikeviz site?
http://www.bikevis.com/

The bullets are very good, they aren't designed to light up the road they are designed to catch the drivers attention. I'd fit them to mine if I had a place to put them.

Yeah just had a little look this morning, I like the Bullets but I don't have any where practical to install them, but thinking about it I do have fake air intakes.. not sure if I'm that keen on them though. and I would prefer a light that both enhances my visibility during the day and 'spreads a beam' onto the road at night as I ride a lot on unlit country roads.

[Senna(Dan)]

Touratech do a universal fog lamp mate, it is not as cheap as the Cree's but looks like a good bit of kit.

http://shop.touratech.co.uk/fog-lights-universal.html

Honda do a genuine kit but it is almost £600 and you could turn your bike into a moving Christmas tree for less than that!

[Snowy]

Snowy,

So if I told you to pick either Fog or Aux what would you pick? :)

I have been looking at the Givi Trekker S310 Fogs, they seem to have good reviews and are halogen.

Or the Hawk fog light kit by Sw Motech :-?

Those Cree lights look pretty awesome too!

Shall I have them all? ;D ;D Then I could see 400 Miles... 8-)

If I had to choose then I would go for aux lights simply because I can use them to get home if my dipped beam failed. Built in redundancy if you like. But, I also have Hella FF50 spots on both bike's specifically to light up the road at night so I don't have the additional need for that purpose.

If you're looking at purely daytime use and specifically for being seen by others then there's little in it to be honest,. Again, if I had to choose I would stick with Aux lights as they don't glare at night as much as fogs do and pretty much serve the same purpose.

There's loads of options out there and I doubt anyone has experience of all of them. We all have our own opinion on what's best based on our own experience. From the GS forums one of the most popular "fogs" for daytime use and to give the "three point" light effect is the Hella Micro DE lamp. They're fairly cheap and easy to install. I have a set in the garage pre-wired to fit to either of my bikes in case of a failure.

I have heard good things about the Cree's from the point of view of daytime use i.e to make yourself visible to other road users. In my opinion they are still not up to the task for generating real useable light at night but then I do have 50 watt HID conversions on mine which have 4 x the power of conventional halogen bulbs. I have OCD when it comes to additional lighting as I hate having to slow down at night simply because of rubbish OEM lamps.

The other consideration is what can your alternator handle? If you're just adding bullet lights etc then there's no issue as there's minimal current draw but once you start going hardcore on your lighting then you need to know you won't end up with a drained battery miles from home.

Also, don't wire anything up yourself if you don't know what you're doing.

Edit: Forgot to add that if you add additional lighting such as fog lamps you must also fit a seperate ON/OFF switch so they can be turned off independantly - if you don't then its an MOT failure.

[Splash]

Cheers Snowy,

Yeah I can't install anything big as the Alternator doesn't have a great output on the NC, but I think I will look at some Aux lights, I want something I will be able to pop off and pop back in the next bike.

I'm pretty good with electrical wiring sometimes, so hopefully all will be well ;D

Thanks for the tip on the switch I would have anyway, but even more so now ;)

You seem like a light Guru ;)

EDIT: What feed are you using to power the lights?

[Snowy]

You seem like a light Guru ;)

Nah, I'm a garage tinkerer - I just like doing this sort of stuff and it has a real use at the end of the day ;D ;D

[Splash]

Touratech do a universal fog lamp mate, it is not as cheap as the Cree's but looks like a good bit of kit.

http://shop.touratech.co.uk/fog-lights-universal.html

Honda do a genuine kit but it is almost £600 and you could turn your bike into a moving Christmas tree for less than that!

Thanks Dan, I had seen those but I had nothing but a rude sales assistant on the phone when I called a few months back at the start of the year, so I won't be shopping there. 8-)

[alanTDM]

I got BikeViz LED strips fitted to my TDM handguards there wired into the sidelight and make the bike look wide to car drivers and not just a small area.I had to put a led sidelight in so it matched the strips as it looked a bit yellowish.
It does the job and i have only had a couple of prats pull out in front of me since late September,You still have to be carefull though and not be to complacent http://www.bikevis.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=7ee094f2301773c7ea16c10775e659 c5&topic=807.0

[Splash]

Just had a look at the pics Alan, looks good! 8-)

[fd2526]

Mangled one of my Aux light mounts in a tiny "off" around a month ago & took them off til I can get them fixed up and have had so many near misses with people pulling out of junctions etc that I have been reminded of the benefits of the Cree's and will be sorting them out ASAP :)