I had installed the Skene Design Photon Blaster conspicuity lights on the R100RT and believe that they really do increase your visibility. The LED lights flicker but if you are looking straight at them, your eyes don't see the flicker. But if you aren't looking straight at them, then there is a very noticable flicker. I had picked up another set for the Ural at the Salt Lake City MOA rally last July and I finally got around to installing them. With the BMW, they included mounting hardware but no mounting hardware was available for the Ural (big surprise there). They did give me a couple of sets of fender mounts. A trip to the hardware store for some aluminum spacers, some ss allen head screws, ss washers and locknuts was all that was needed to mount them to the fender. The wiring was run into the headlight bucket where I located the appropriate wiring trying to use the Ural wiring diagram. Unfortunately, things weren't labled properly and the colors were off but it was pretty easy to identify the right wires. It's nice that these things are so simple.
I ended up using the slow motion feature on the iPhone for the first time. I filmed a short clip at 120 frames per second to capture the flickering. The 12 second YouTube video was actually only 3 seconds. The flicker rate is really pretty fast and doesn't show up at all without the high frame rate.
BTW, Google finally enabled HTTPS for custom domains. I just enabled it in the settings. We'll see if this causes any problems.
Those lights should really help attract the attention of the usual unwary cagers....but still, you know not to count on it. Sidecar rigs "tend to" be seen as they're an unusual sight to most cagers....
Can't really count on some drivers to see anything. I'm still surprised at the number of drivers that run into things like busses and tractor trailer rigs...
More lights are always a good thing. With he flickering, does that mean when you are riding you notice it out your lower peripheral, since you aren't looking directly at them?
I can’t see them while riding the Ural. On the BMW, they are mounted to the brake calipers and I could see them through an opening in the fairing and they did flicker. I had a different model that would blink very brightly if you double tap the brake. And, I also replaced the stock turn signals with LEDs and tied them in so they would flicker as well.
I also wired them into the turn signals so the flash accordingly. I still might swap LEDs into the turn signals so they will have the same flicker but would need to switch out the blinker as well to an electronic version. Not really sure which one works with the Ural.
Those lights should really help attract the attention of the usual unwary cagers....but still, you know not to count on it. Sidecar rigs "tend to" be seen as they're an unusual sight to most cagers....
ReplyDeleteCan't really count on some drivers to see anything. I'm still surprised at the number of drivers that run into things like busses and tractor trailer rigs...
DeleteMore lights are always a good thing. With he flickering, does that mean when you are riding you notice it out your lower peripheral, since you aren't looking directly at them?
ReplyDeleteI can’t see them while riding the Ural. On the BMW, they are mounted to the brake calipers and I could see them through an opening in the fairing and they did flicker. I had a different model that would blink very brightly if you double tap the brake. And, I also replaced the stock turn signals with LEDs and tied them in so they would flicker as well.
DeleteLooks cool, and more light is always better!
ReplyDeleteMore light is almost always better, especially if helps your visibility. Even a little!
DeleteOne more thing to make riding safer, Richard. And good looking, too.
ReplyDeleteI also wired them into the turn signals so the flash accordingly. I still might swap LEDs into the turn signals so they will have the same flicker but would need to switch out the blinker as well to an electronic version. Not really sure which one works with the Ural.
Delete