1olbull
Riding Motor Since 1950
I offer this only in hope of perhaps helping my fellow Rocket riders gain an improved understanding of the tremendous dangers of night riding.
Fred's recent deer crash hit me pretty hard and I have also had a coupe real close near disasters at speed similar to Fred's incident. I am sure youse have experienced similar brown streak events.
Motor riders are WAY more likely to over ride their headlights than are cage drivers because they have INFERIOR headlights compared to cages!
Once detecting an object in your path at night you will need about 2 seconds or longer to react and start to apply your brakes or swerve. 2 seconds at 60 mph is 176 feet you continue toward a hazard in front of you BEFORE you can even apply your brakes of swerve. Then there is an additional 200 feet and 5 seconds or more (depending on your braking skill level) before you can stop and avoid a crash.
This is a minimum of 376 feet for you to stop! There are NO headlights that will sufficiently allow you to see and recognize a hazard in the roadway that far away!!!
Some additional information:
Watt is a measurement of power and/or how much drain there will be on the battery. Watt has nothing to do with the quantity or measurement of light and more to do with the design of the light source.
Lumen measurements are somewhat misleading and are frequently used to make a commercial light source seem to be more than it is in actuality. Lumen is a technical measurement of the luminous flux within a specific sized sphere used in a controlled environment that is spread over 1 square meter. 1,000 lumen per square meter equals 1,000 lux.
Lux is the real world nitty-gritty measurement of luminous flux from a light source falling upon an object. The published lux amount for a light source is usually measured at just a 1 meter distance. The lux at other various distances are then calculated from that measurement by utilizing the inverse square formula.
OEM motorcycle headlights are ONLY about half as effective as car headlights!
Real world human factors is what drives my interest in headlights and not how light sources are designed or built. I shall leave that to the head-throbbers like our GrayBeard @ Barbagris.
Measurements of the actual light emitted from a source necessary to illuminate a person, animal or object enough to be recognized by a motorist (3.2 lux) is what I pursue. Many headlights of cars (mostly) and some of motorcycles have been measured. From these perimeter measurements a scale graph can be produced that depicts the actual area ahead of a vehicle that a driver can see well enough to detect, identify, decide and respond to the hazard in the roadway.
This is a very basic explanation as there are many other factors to be considered as well, such as contrast, movement, direction, ambient light and location within the beam.
I offer this only to assist others in improving their understanding of lights regarding a driver’s very limited ability to perceive and then successfully react to a hazard in the roadway while riding at night.
Fred's recent deer crash hit me pretty hard and I have also had a coupe real close near disasters at speed similar to Fred's incident. I am sure youse have experienced similar brown streak events.
Motor riders are WAY more likely to over ride their headlights than are cage drivers because they have INFERIOR headlights compared to cages!
Once detecting an object in your path at night you will need about 2 seconds or longer to react and start to apply your brakes or swerve. 2 seconds at 60 mph is 176 feet you continue toward a hazard in front of you BEFORE you can even apply your brakes of swerve. Then there is an additional 200 feet and 5 seconds or more (depending on your braking skill level) before you can stop and avoid a crash.
This is a minimum of 376 feet for you to stop! There are NO headlights that will sufficiently allow you to see and recognize a hazard in the roadway that far away!!!
Some additional information:
Watt is a measurement of power and/or how much drain there will be on the battery. Watt has nothing to do with the quantity or measurement of light and more to do with the design of the light source.
Lumen measurements are somewhat misleading and are frequently used to make a commercial light source seem to be more than it is in actuality. Lumen is a technical measurement of the luminous flux within a specific sized sphere used in a controlled environment that is spread over 1 square meter. 1,000 lumen per square meter equals 1,000 lux.
Lux is the real world nitty-gritty measurement of luminous flux from a light source falling upon an object. The published lux amount for a light source is usually measured at just a 1 meter distance. The lux at other various distances are then calculated from that measurement by utilizing the inverse square formula.
OEM motorcycle headlights are ONLY about half as effective as car headlights!
Real world human factors is what drives my interest in headlights and not how light sources are designed or built. I shall leave that to the head-throbbers like our GrayBeard @ Barbagris.
Measurements of the actual light emitted from a source necessary to illuminate a person, animal or object enough to be recognized by a motorist (3.2 lux) is what I pursue. Many headlights of cars (mostly) and some of motorcycles have been measured. From these perimeter measurements a scale graph can be produced that depicts the actual area ahead of a vehicle that a driver can see well enough to detect, identify, decide and respond to the hazard in the roadway.
This is a very basic explanation as there are many other factors to be considered as well, such as contrast, movement, direction, ambient light and location within the beam.
I offer this only to assist others in improving their understanding of lights regarding a driver’s very limited ability to perceive and then successfully react to a hazard in the roadway while riding at night.
) but I am sure you can find better out there.
