You wouldn't know it - 20 mins later I find myself heading in to the setting sun towards the Wide Bay / South Burnett Region of Queensland.
For me - that means a ripper burn up the Mary Valley Way which includes the lovely boroughs of Kenilworth, Amamoor, Kandanga and Gympie. All this after a great run up to Maleny, and dropping down the range out the back door.
A quick check of the outside temperature at 6pm whilst riding, to see if I'll die of frost bite...
30*C - should be OK! :rofl
Anyways - the miles rolled on and the sun disappeared and it was time to see what the HIDs and Halogens were capable of....
WOW! - Like everyone will tell you, the pics don't quite do justice to the actual scene - and they are a little blurry...
Here are the full lights on.... dual 55W HID headlights on high beam; 55W Halogen spotlights; and 55W HID spot lights...notice the glare back from the HID covers to the rider's eyes. I'll have to put black tape over them, and I'll have to raise that RHS HID spottie a gnat's knacker....
And here is the same with no HID spotlights...
With this setup, I am able to set an aggressive angle on the 55W under-mirror halogen spotties (to light up the tabledrains) to an angle of around 30* from straight. This also helps see "around" corners as you tip in.....
The frontal and side illumination is impressive and reassuring. Flotsam, jetsum, potholes, and other organic matter (read mammal carcasses) on the road in front of the bike are extremely well lit up and plenty of notice of their position in my lane is given for avoidance. It does not reduce the amount of wildlife - nor stop them firing out of the ground cover at you, but the amount of warning when approaching stationary or slow moving ones is greatly increased.
They say you can NEVER have enough light and this is true, as most OEM headlight arrays are found 'wanting' when night riding out in the great black yonder.
One unexpected result was a slight ache to my left thumb from being too sh*t-scared to move it away from the dip-switch for oncoming traffic! I couldn't always see the oncoming glare letting me know that a car was coming, so I had to be quick on the trigger so as not to turn them to organic dust!
ALL my light arrays are switched to different circuits (but work in unison) so that I can have all sorts of lighting combos to suit different conditions.
See the independent switches on my LHS glove box panel here....
Here is a pic of what Stella Treacherous (my FarWeapon) looks like now....
These were taken at the big traveller service centre just south of Gympie whilst having a nice warm moccha after a heavy session of research!
332kms for the evening. Smile measured around 150mm (ear to ear).
Hope this helps.
Cheers, Diesel
No comments:
Post a Comment