Mods to increase visibility, any input?

[1_v8_merc]

The best defense is to STAY AWAY from them.
Never ride with cars.

I ride at my own pace, if there's a cluster of cars in my way... I'm going around them, too bad!
I'm NOT going to sit around and hang with the freak shows.
(i call clusters of cars "freak shows", because that's what they are.)

 

[Guest]

I LOVE those train horns, but I gotta get a Wing to put 'em on!

(Or maybe a Boss Hoss.) It looks like you hit a car with one and do some damage. This guy at least has an orange one, probably for visibility.

 

[shakeybone]

I have Motolights mounted on my calipers and have had a lot of comments that I am more visible. After riding with me a few friends got them for there bikes. They also light up the road down low at night which helps allot in the woods where I live.
Go with the LED bulbs for our amp challenged GS charging systems.

 

[Guest]

I really would like to put some LED driving lights on the GS.
Especially with deer season. The added visibility would be nice feature, as well.

Also my jacket and pants have built in "reflectivity" so do my tank and saddle bags.
LED tail light bulb is something I keep forgetting to install....

 

[Doug B.]

I went ahead and ordered the bikevis lights and pod mod(ulator) as well as a PIAA night tech headlight bulb and xtreme white taillamp bulb. I haven't picked up a headlamp modulator yet, or done anything about additional tail lighting.

I also bought a good light colored helmet and a nice jacket with reflective piping and panels (and armor)

 

[Guest]

In the old days they used a bloke with a red flag and that seemed to work really well.

Max , I kept running over him .
I was going to tie him to a stick and poke him out in front , but the stick broke .
Back to the design shed (rum included) .........

Cheers , Simon .

 

[Roy]

I think anything that causes other drivers to make note of you and put you on their mental map of the traffic situation is going to make you safer. I did a bunch of reading on this one day, Doug, and I learned a couple things that weren't all that obvious or intuitive. All of this is in the "for what it's worth" category.

Statistically most accidents are from an oncoming driver turning in front of you. (By you, I mean, the motorcycle rider.)

A modulating headlight in the frequency range of about 6 per second is something that is very hard for another driver to ignore--having something to do with human perception or something.

The other thing was that objects with more width get more attention from oncoming drivers, or there is increased awareness of them. So, I think more lights spread out horizontally would be preferable. Or, the worst front configuration would be a single light with a small dimension, no matter how bright or not it is. My son has an '09 Bonneville, with only one headlight, but it's quite large in diameter, and when I see him coming toward me at night, it has a good presence--it is something that you notice easily.

Good luck.

 

[BassCliff]

Greetings and Salutations!!

Greetings and Salutations!!

Hi Mr. Roy,

I use Sylvania Silver Star H4 bulbs in my headlight. I use superbright LEDs in my brake and turn signals. Other than that I haven't done much to the bike. I do wear a Hi-Viz vest.

Most of the time I'm seen.

Sorry I'm late with this, but here's some S.W.A.G. for you.

If you are here you probably have a 30 year old motorcycle that needs about 20 years worth of maintenance. You'll find all kinds of helpful tips, procedures, manuals, etc, in the links below. Let's get started.

Let me dump a TON of information on you and share some GS lovin'.

I just stopped by to welcome you to the forum in my own, special way.

If there's anything you'd like to know about the Suzuki GS model bikes, and most others actually, you've come to the right place. There's a lot of knowledge and experience here in the community. Come on in and let me say "HOoooowwwDY!"....

Here is your very own magical, mystical, mythical, mind-expanding "mega-welcome". Please take notice of the "Top 10 Common Issues", "Top 15 Tips For GS Happiness", the Carb Cleanup Series, and the Stator Papers. All of these tasks must be addressed in order to have a safe, reliable machine. This is what NOT to do: Top 10 Newbie Mistakes. Now let me roll out the welcome mat for you...

Please Click Here For Your Mega-Welcome, chock full of tips, suggestions, links to vendors, and other information. Then feel free to visit my little BikeCliff website where I've been collecting the wisdom of this generous community. Don't forget, we like pictures! Not you, your bike!

Thanks for joining us. Keep us informed.

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

 

[Dutch-Martin]

I stumble upon this thread, because i just recently had the same question; how to get seen better, after i almost kissed pavement for about 4 times in a month...

I hope this picture gets loaded:

(added a picture Attachment)


I added 2 LED-bars to my front-Fork... I do get seen now! Its just tie-wrapt, for testing... Dont know how the police likes it here... Its not beautiful, but its better than the hospital...

Greetings

 

[1980GS1000E]

I would bet the sequential KnightRider things are illegal, anyway. One out of fourteen drivers has alcohol in their system and those that are impaired tend to "home in" on lights and wind up hitting you. I just try and stay away from everybody. Oncoming traffic and left turners. Those are my major concerns.

 

[MisterCinders]

I recall reading that pairs of running lights or spaced head lights are better than the typical single head light. Doubling up does not make you brighter, but the pair of lights gives the oncoming driver a better sense of your speed than a single point of light. So he/she may not turn across your path.

Many of the left-turners screw bikers not because we are invisible (despite the "I didn't see you" refrain), but because they cannot gauge how fast we are traveling in the same way they can with a car. Cars obviously are larger, and that makes it easier to keep them in perspective (i.e., they get bigger as they close). But size is not the only component. The oncoming lateral shape is the biggest indicator of closing speed. So the headlights (at night) or the cage edges are the best clue of whether that oncoming vehicle will intercept your left turn. Bikes don't offer the same profile, and at night, they present a single point of light.

Split that light into two (or put some running lights on the sides) and the driver has a lot more information to work with.

HTH

 

[Guest]

I recall reading that pairs of running lights or spaced head lights are better than the typical single head light. Doubling up does not make you brighter, but the pair of lights gives the oncoming driver a better sense of your speed than a single point of light. So he/she may not turn across your path.

Many of the left-turners screw bikers not because we are invisible (despite the "I didn't see you" refrain), but because they cannot gauge how fast we are traveling in the same way they can with a car. Cars obviously are larger, and that makes it easier to keep them in perspective (i.e., they get bigger as they close). But size is not the only component. The oncoming lateral shape is the biggest indicator of closing speed. So the headlights (at night) or the cage edges are the best clue of whether that oncoming vehicle will intercept your left turn. Bikes don't offer the same profile, and at night, they present a single point of light.

Split that light into two (or put some running lights on the sides) and the driver has a lot more information to work with.

HTH

Kind of what I did to my bike. The 80-81 750 and 1100Es did not have any front running lights. I changed out the plug in the front turn signals and installed a dual filament plug in. Now I have running lights in front along with the blinkers. There is a power wire in the harness already that is just right for them.

 

[Doug B.]

I think anything that causes other drivers to make note of you and put you on their mental map of the traffic situation is going to make you safer.
Good luck.

Agreed, I know anything 'non standard' like emergency vehicle lighting and that sort of thing "pops" when I'm driving, I see it from way far away and can react accordingly.

Hi Mr. Roy,

I use Sylvania Silver Star H4 bulbs in my headlight. I use superbright LEDs in my brake and turn signals. Other than that I haven't done much to the bike. I do wear a Hi-Viz vest.

I put the night tech bulb in the headlamp, advertised as being alot brighter with the same current draw, and the extreme white tail / stop lamp.

I stumble upon this thread, because i just recently had the same question; how to get seen better, after i almost kissed pavement for about 4 times in a month...

I added 2 LED-bars to my front-Fork... I do get seen now! Its just tie-wrapt, for testing... Dont know how the police likes it here... Its not beautiful, but its better than the hospital...

Greetings

Those look bright, but in the pic, they also look blue, and around here that would get immediate attention from the police. I may look into a modified version of something like that though, there are some LED strips available from hobby sources that would be practically invisible when powered down, I just don't know how weatherproof theyd be.

I would bet the sequential KnightRider things are illegal, anyway. One out of fourteen drivers has alcohol in their system and those that are impaired tend to "home in" on lights and wind up hitting you. I just try and stay away from everybody. Oncoming traffic and left turners. Those are my major concerns.

I don't think my local PD would say anything about it, its red and in the back, but I wouldn't use the sequential version, they offer it as a brake / running lamp too. I'm still pondering how to approach rear lighting, my concern is sitting at stop lights, I think Im equally concerned about getting rear ended as I am left turners and oncoming traffic.

I recall reading that pairs of running lights or spaced head lights are better than the typical single head light. Doubling up does not make you brighter, but the pair of lights gives the oncoming driver a better sense of your speed than a single point of light. So he/she may not turn across your path.

Split that light into two (or put some running lights on the sides) and the driver has a lot more information to work with.

HTH

and this-

Kind of what I did to my bike. The 80-81 750 and 1100Es did not have any front running lights. I changed out the plug in the front turn signals and installed a dual filament plug in. Now I have running lights in front along with the blinkers. There is a power wire in the harness already that is just right for them.

This is one of the things I've decided to do. I want to swap the 1156 sockets in the back with 1157s, or I want to add some type of LED running light to the turn signal housings. I'm considering a pair of red bikevis pods, they are tiny and could conceivably be mounted under the turn signals, and be wired through the housing / stalk, so theyd be nearly invisible on the bike, and highly visible while riding..

It's just risk management.. the drunk bonehead or serial texter will still be oblivious to my presence, and people that don't give a crap about others on the road still wont be considerate.. but if even one time someone that woulda turned left on me doesn't do it because they spotted the LED lighting or modulator or whatever, it's all totally worth it.

 

[Gorminrider]

I got interested in this and so I bought an led flashlight at a local Canadian Tire Store for 5$,, cut out the center so turn-signal bulb goes through, hooked up the leds to a 5volt regulator stePped down with a diode to 4.5 volts and supplied the regulator from the headlight circuit and voila...
The turn signal flashing is added brightness. whether or not I need to tone down the leds a bit by cutting out the inner ones? but I'm loath to do that.

Not my original idea- I saw a kit for rear lights very similar linked up-thread but it's the fronts that I want to enlighten those left-turning Road-Warts that there IS a motorcycle much closer than the Pickup truck behind me they are probably focussing on..

the picture above is a little deceptive- you can see reflections of leds in this picture, but they are only on the ring of circuit board you see...

 

[eil]

Nice job, I'll have to look into doing something similar.

 

[Call Me Ahab]

Kind of what I did to my bike. The 80-81 750 and 1100Es did not have any front running lights. I changed out the plug in the front turn signals and installed a dual filament plug in. Now I have running lights in front along with the blinkers. There is a power wire in the harness already that is just right for them.

Will this require any special re-wiring? I was wanting to install something like this on my own.

 

[Guest]

Will this require any special re-wiring? I was wanting to install something like this on my own.

Nope, there will be 3 wires on each signal stalk...One to ground, one to the turn signal connections and one to a switch power wire for the running lights. Plug and play. Just use a circuit tester and find the switched power connection and plug into that. Took me about 2 minutes to locate the switched power lead.

 

[Gorminrider]

my turn-signal stalks ('81 GSX400 -no running lights til now!) only had 1 "+" wire for the single bulb. The bulb socket is grounded inside the light case to the stem, and then another wire on a lug attaches to the stalk's mounting bolt to continue the negative gnd connection across the rubber mounts insulating the stems..into the headlight....
I had to pass another wire down the stalk tube to power my running light and it was a tight fit!

added I have the running lights go on with the headlight but I may change this, to allow them to operate independently..."parking lights" sort of

 

[Call Me Ahab]

Nope, there will be 3 wires on each signal stalk...One to ground, one to the turn signal connections and one to a switch power wire for the running lights. Plug and play. Just use a circuit tester and find the switched power connection and plug into that. Took me about 2 minutes to locate the switched power lead.

Cool, thanks =]

My lights are routed with one positive wire as well, I'll just have to chop and splice. Not a big deal, thanks very much!

 

[Guest]

Cool, thanks =]

My lights are routed with one positive wire as well, I'll just have to chop and splice. Not a big deal, thanks very much!

I'm not sure you understand...all the connections are in the headlight bucket. All you gotta do is locate the individual connections, unless your system had been chopped up, then I can see the cutting and splicing. If you have or can get a wiring diagram of your bike, you can trace out those connections.