Self leveling headlight for a motorcycle?

[och]

Hefty unit right there. Adding a lamp to a (relatively) fixed position is likely the most practical answer to this situation. A high output fog may be sufficient for low speed situations, as described. But perhaps a small "90mm " retrofit lamp would be a better choice. Would give you greater distance.

Edit- perhaps even looking at halogen options, for reduced expense, a hella 60mm low beam projector. Per the departed alaric/virgil, they were poor performing lamps, but they should have further projection than even a DD SS3 Max fog.

Interesting idea, but in my case it would be mounted very low on the bike, maybe 12-15" above the ground, so I don't think a true low beam can be pointed properly. A fog light may be the only practical solution.

You can see both my bikes - on the big cruiser I actually have the JW Speaker adaptive headlight + Denali fog lights mounted in a fixed position with a bracket that attached where the fender attaches to the fork.

On the Supermoto I will have to design a bracket that will mount where the fork protector mounts to the fork.

 

[jaycee88]

Interesting idea, but in my case it would be mounted very low on the bike, maybe 12-15" above the ground, so I don't think a true low beam can be pointed properly. A fog light may be the only practical solution.

'Proper' fog beams are wide and don't illuminate very far forward.* Additionally, in a turn, as the bike leans, a beam like a low beam or fog will point to the outside of the turn, leaving the turn in darkness. This effect is worse the lower the lamps are mounted.

A pair of driving lamps or aux high beams mounted to the fork lowers might work better than fogs. You'll need to aim them up a bit, but you'll be able to see the road ahead while braking, and they'll help illuminate the road as you turn.

Nice bikes!

* Then again, a lot of lamps you see advertised as 'fogs' (esp. on Amazon or Ebay or Aliexpress) don't have proper fog beams, so might actually be more suitable for this use case.

 

[och]

'Proper' fog beams are wide and don't illuminate very far forward.* Additionally, in a turn, as the bike leans, a beam like a low beam or fog will point to the outside of the turn, leaving the turn in darkness. This effect is worse the lower the lamps are mounted.

A pair of driving lamps or aux high beams mounted to the fork lowers might work better than fogs. You'll need to aim them up a bit, but you'll be able to see the road ahead while braking, and they'll help illuminate the road as you turn.

Nice bikes!

* Then again, a lot of lamps you see advertised as 'fogs' (esp. on Amazon or Ebay or Aliexpress) don't have proper fog beams, so might actually be more suitable for this use case.

Driving lamps are usually either offroad, or certified as high beams, in fact I used to have a set of Denali D4 driving pods and I had to point them way down to avoid blinding other drivers - so low in fact that they created a very bright spot within very near field of the bike, preventing me from being able to see further out.

I would never buy amazon/ebay junk, but fog beams from Denali and Diode Dynamics have a very wide and pretty long throw. Being mounted on both sides of the forks I think I should get some light into the turn, should be better than what I have now no matter what.

This is the beam of my yellow Denali D3 fogs + JW Speaker headlight against a white wall from 20-30 feet out.

 

[jzchen]

Not a lighting product but is there a suspension product that can (temporarily) limit or reduce suspension travel?

 

[alpg88]

yea, might as well disable brakes too, this way it wont dip.

 

[jzchen]

yea, might as well disable brakes too, this way it wont dip.

Guess you've never ridden a mountain bike with such switches on the front fork suspensions….

 

[alpg88]

Guess you've never ridden a mountain bike with such switches on the front fork suspensions….

Both of my MTB have lock out forks, but they are used for different reasons, not to keep the light on the road, idk why you would even compare this to OP situation. apples and oranges. now i wonder if even know why they install lock outs,

 

[och]

I made brackets that fit on the forks of the bike, and now I am trying to decide which lights to actually install. Before I pull the trigger on a set of fog beam lights, I am trying to see if there are small aux low beam lights available. I found these two, anyone have experience with them?

»MICROFLOOTER« LED auxiliary headlight F 900 R black

»MICROFLOOTER« LED auxiliary headlight F 900 R for 100% even area illumination

www.wunderlich.de

Koso Thunderbolt LED headlight

Small in size but big on brightness, the new Koso Mini LED headlights series features high power LEDs that are sure to be seen by all vehicles on the road day or night. This series features different types of headlights: Low beam, high beam and fog light.

kosonorthamerica.com

 

[och]

Check out what I have done so far. Made two brackets laser cut and brake formed using 1/8" thick stainless, and then did a very lousy job spraying them with orange paint.






The forks each have a plastic protector that is held with three M6 bolts. I used a combination of new Class 10.9 M6 bolts and stainless spacers to mount the new metal brackets over the fork protectors. Everything is mounted nice and solid. Now I just need to decide what type of lights to purchase to mount onto these brackets. I am thinking Diode Dynamics C1 fog lights.

 

[John_Galt]

Very neatly made brackets.

 

[och]

Finally installed, haven't had the chance to test how well they work yet.