Headlight pulse

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I see bikes all the time with the pulsing headlight and have a few specific questions:

1) What is the best unit/system to accomplish this on my GS450?

2) Will using such a setup place a higher load on my electrical system to the point of shortening component life or impacting reliability?

3) Will the stock bulb configuration work, and how much does this shorten bulb life?

4) most importantly, do you have this feature and do you feel it is worth having?

[Steve]

1) What is the best unit/system to accomplish this on my GS450?
There are several units on the market. If you want cheap (but legal), consider the unit from Comagination. I have read their reports, but not used that model. The one that I use is from Kisantech. They have several models, some are bike-specific.

2) Will using such a setup place a higher load on my electrical system to the point of shortening component life or impacting reliability?
There is no additional load, in fact, the load is reduced a bit, because the headlight is not at full power all the time.

3) Will the stock bulb configuration work, and how much does this shorten bulb life?
The stock configuration is perfectly fine. It does not shortan the bulb life AT ALL, in fact, it might even lengthen it, because the headlight is not at full power all the time.

4) most importantly, do you have this feature and do you feel it is worth having?
Yes, I have this on three of our bikes. I have brake light modulators, too, but that is another topic.

Like any other safety gear, though, you can not rely on it to make you invincible. You can not (OK, should not) simply turn it on and ride, there is a bit of courtesy involved. It is meant to attract attention, not to irritate, so I turn mine off when following anybody closely or for a long time. I also turn it off when approaching a controlled intersection where I will have to stop. I don't want any other traffic at the intersection thinking that I am an "emergency vehicle" that is going to blast on through.

It is rather amazing how much good it does, but I have also seen a couple of cases where it almost did some "bad", so it is definitely NOT a "cure-all".

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[ThrottleBack]

Thanks that pretty much answers it all and then some

[Steve]

Feel free to ask for more details, if you wish.

Did you notice the two links to the manufacturers?

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[ThrottleBack]

Yea I'm going to order one from Comagination soon, i like the price

[ThrottleBack]

Steve, do you reccomend buying the brake flasher also? They offer a combo for about $85

[Steve]

We have brake flashers on four of the bikes here.

Does that answer your question?

It sounds like you are looking at the Comagination site for that combo deal. While they do have the best prices, I have never actually seen or used any of their products. The headlight modulator has to be made to meet Federal specifications in order to be sold, so that is not much of a problem. Where I do have a problem, though, is what it looks like. There is VERY little room available inside a GS headlight bucket, especiall a small one like your 450's. I can't tell from the small pictures, but it does appear that the two pieces of the connector are separate, which is good. I have seen some models that had all the connectors together, which added about 1/2" to the depth of the bulb, which is not possible in your small bucket.

The brake light flasher is available in two models. One will flash four times, then go steady, the other will flash 9 times, then go steady. I don't know which of them I would prefer, because I really don't care for the way they flash. They just have a steady flash that is a little quicker than a turn signal, then go steady. Not really much to grab your attention. My Wing has a Kisan TailBlazer model specifically for the 1500 Wing. Their gimmick in the brake light modulation world is a variable flash rate that starts very quick to grab your attention, then slows down until it is steady, and does it in about 5 seconds. On my wife's bike, we have two separate systems (it's a real light show). One system is the small Hyperlites brake light. The other is a combo tail/brake/turn light by Admore Lighting. On my 850, I have a license frame from Signal Dynamics. It has a universal flasher from Kisan powering the brake LEDs. You may notice that none of these is exactly inexpensive. That does not bother us, when safety is concerned. The fourth bike actually has the cheapest flashing lights on it. They are from Auto Zone. They are bullet lights that mount to the license plate and have multiple functions, but we only have one connected. They have a white LED, not sure where that would apply. They also have tail and brake intensities, but the difference between them is not as dramatic as simply having them come ON, instead of being dim/bright. The brake light has a flasher built in that flashes very quickly for a few seconds, then goes steady. I think it was about $17 for the pair of lights. You can see a short video of them HERE. The flashing is not captured well with a digital camera, it's much better in-person. Not nearly as bright as some of the other products, but they are much cheaper.

Here is the license frame on my 850:


Click HERE to see it in action:


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Interesting, that gives me some things to study on. I'm not TOO concerned about room in the bucket with it being two peices and with all the wire cleanup i did in there.