Night Riding

[akcooper9 0]

I was wonder who here does any "serious" night riding...

Im not talking about jumping on the DS and just riding down the street or to the next camp. Im talking full on adventures.

Im in the final steps of setting up my bike with HID and so far, there are only a few guys that have non stock setups.

Any body interested in this...I know some go all out on HID and others simply convert the stock head light for under 100 bucks

[Crawdaddy 96]

Any body interested in this...

I have HID helmet lights and I'd be game for a night ride sometime......Grapevine/Jasper/Culp would be a fun string of trails to ride at night (not difficult and suitable for any/all bikes)..........the main thing with night riding is you really need to space yourselves out on the trail.......if you ride too close the HIDS illuminate the dust and you're in a totally blind/dirty fog.......so the only guy having any fun is the guy out front....that said, I'll be happy to LEAD a ride

Think about entering the BBTR night ride in August.......it's the only organized "night" dualsport ride that I know of (I won't be riding in it because I'll either be at WestFest in CO. (doubtful) or Mammoth for the Blusapalooza and Festival of Beers - quite probable)

Here's the link for the BBTR ride: http://bigbeartrailriders.com/content.aspx...p;item_id=87464

[Joliet 0]

I was wonder who here does any "serious" night riding...

Im not talking about jumping on the DS and just riding down the street or to the next camp. Im talking full on adventures.

Im in the final steps of setting up my bike with HID and so far, there are only a few guys that have non stock setups.

Any body interested in this...I know some go all out on HID and others simply convert the stock head light for under 100 bucks

I installed a 7" hid on my Husky, It was very bright but I had no way to dim the light when I was connecting on the roads and it was not dot legal. Now I run the dot legal "almost" stock headlight but I have added the dual HID Hellfire system from Niterider and I also run one of their HeadHunter lights on my helmet. I just shut the helmet light and the hellfire's off when I get on the road. This system works pretty well for me. Ken

[akcooper9 0]

I have HID helmet lights and I'd be game for a night ride sometime......Grapevine/Jasper/Culp would be a fun string of trails to ride at night (not difficult and suitable for any/all bikes).........

This would be a great area because its street legal only so we could do a great loop with no whoops!

Joliet do you have any pictures of your setup?

[Joliet 0]

Here is a picture of the Dual HID's. They are hardwired to the battery with a on/off switch on my handlebars. They only draw like 12 watts each, but are pretty bright.

Here is what my hid light looks like. If I were just going off road I would use this.

The helmet light is great for technical riding because where ever your head looks that is where the light is.

Last year I purchased some of the HeadHunter lights at a discount and I still have a few left is anyone is interested.

[akcooper9 0]

Here is what my hid light looks like. If I were just going off road I would use this.

Is that the Kragen HID light? BTW how much for the HeadHunter

[paulmbowers 236]

The disadvantage of helmet light setups is that on-axis lighting tends to reflect straight back into one's eyes off dust, rain, smoke snow, etc. I've not used one extensively though, so your mileage may vary.

The "Mr Bill" is amazing. I ride a couple night rides in a year, so that probably does not qualify as "serious". But it is an amazing lightsource up to about 50 mph. It's not designed for screaming across Baja (and neither am I) but for trail riding it works quite well. The last time I rode, my buddy returned his halogen TrailTech light for an HID- the difference was that remarkable.

The lower, larger light is the low beam, and if properly aimed does not glare into oncoming traffic on the street. No it's not DOT, but appears close enough. The high beams will be offensive.

It's stupidly expensive, and I probably would not buy another one. Trail Tech has been excellent about warranty repairs- it's been back to the factory at least three times.

Yes, I know this post is disjointed- I'm juggling posting with third-grade homework assisting.

p

[jbw 0]

I made these using High power LED's the two lights are 17 watts total and the LED's are more effecient Than HIDs. They also can be dimmed and also have a modulation mode for on the road. Now I have to figure out a good mounting method. One on the bike and one on my helmet. I may make a different set as the ones shown were made specifically for my mountain bike and that helmet.

only using the one light with three diodes. no other lights on.

Josh

I just noticed that smoke detector. Going to fix now.

[dirt dame 559]

Those lights are certainly small enough....affordable?

[jbw 0]

Those lights are certainly small enough....affordable?

They came out to about a hundred dollars each. They are DIY, I coded up a micro controller to have different modes like brightness, modulation and strobe, and SOS just for fun. The casing is made from 1 inch aluminum square tube by using a hacksaw and dremel tool. But now with the lower cost of LED's and optics they would be around 50$ each. Even less if you are willing to give up some efficiency(no loss in brightness) as I used a special driver that is very efficient as these were for a mountain bike setup running off batteries.

Jbw

[akcooper9 0]

Great info guys...

So lets plan a ride...when and where?

[KIP 0]

Great info guys...

So lets plan a ride...when and where?

Yeah, I will show up with a spare fuse for my stock headlight! I would hate to ride Pinion Mountain with no lights

[jbw 0]

How do people usually attach lights to the helmets. Industrial Velcro? strap through the chin guard? both

Josh

[ShocknAwe 0]

Great info guys...

So lets plan a ride...when and where?

Yeah, I will show up with a spare fuse for my stock headlight! I would hate to ride Pinion Mountain with no lights

Cooper, a little background may be in order here. KIP showed up last year on a night ride in the AB Desert wearing jeans, a polo shirt, and tennis shoes. He rode half the way with no headlight. He put the "A" in adventure. I still can't believe it actually happened. I was scared on his behalf (still am). Yet, the bootless, gearless, and "light-less" KIP ripped through that terrain using the full moon and others lights for guidance. KIP = desert ninja with or without lights

[Joliet 0]

How do people usually attach lights to the helmets. Industrial Velcro? strap through the chin guard? both

Josh

The HeadHunter attaches to the chin guard with a strap/adjustable bracket.

[Crawdaddy 96]

How do people usually attach lights to the helmets. Industrial Velcro? strap through the chin guard? both

I have a flood and a spot that mount on top of my helmet.....they slide into plastic tracks that are affixed to the top of my helmet with some SERIOUS double sided tape.......photos are in this thread:

http://www.dualsport-sd.com/forums/index.p...ost&p=24773

The upside is these bulbs are really bright and it's nice to be able to rotate my head and illuminate what I'm looking at......the downside is as Fakey stated - attaching them to the helmet really illuminates the dust right in front of your face ........so it's best to space out on the trail......

[akcooper9 0]

UPDATE:

After many conversations with OUTERLIMITS, I decided that I was going to convert my stock head light to HID so I could do some night riding in the local desert as well as some night dual sport rides.

The conversion was rather easy. Price wise, I am only into it 30 bucks (thanks to OUTERLIMITS) as the slim 35w ballast was given to me. That meant I only need to pick the correct bulb to fit the stock housing. I went with the 5000K oem white bulb. I was able to buy a pair off eBay for 25 bucks shipped.

Here is a picture of the stock head light in the garage before the conversion (low beam)

Stock head light on high beam before the conversion

Here is how I mounted the slim ballast. I used industrial type velcro from Home Depot

After I wired everything up, I flip'd the light on and snapped a quick picture before I let it warm up (notice the difference?)

After a few laps around the block (gotta love being plated :smirk: ) I had the light aimed pretty well.

Here is the light off

About 15 seconds

And fully warmed up

Let the night riding season begin :ride:

I think this setup and a helmet light will work just fine for me (for now )

Whos up for a hixon night ride?

[jbw 0]

Wow those look nice, and a great price also.

[TrophyHunter 15]

Great improvement Aaron!

[Dan Diego 40]

Old thread, I know, but I want to do the HID converson on my GS (low-beam only).

Anyone care to split a package (they normally come in 2-packs) and hook them up in the near future?

I'm looking to buy this configuration:

* 35 or 55w;

* the 500K bulb;

* digital slim ballast;

* plug and play if at all possible.

There are some good sellers out there, but I see that DDM has some good feedback from recent buyers.

http://www.ddmtuning.com/Products/DDM-HID-Kit-Slim-Ballast-35W-or-55W

Any interest or other ideas from local riders?

Thanks,

Dan

[SteelRain 0]

Dan, send me a PM with your number and I will call you for some GS HID discussion and to share my setup info.

[AATA 0]

I realize this is an old post as well, but with Summer coming up, I thought I would add my experience. We mostly ride at night in the summer. Temps are cooler and you know if someone is coming around the corner. I highly recommend the Big Bear Night Ride for anyone that hasn't done it. It was one of my first real night rides and we liked it so much we started riding on a regular basis at night. As Chris mentioned, the dust can be difficult with the lights if you ride too close. If it's real dusty, less light works better like riding in fog.

We use this helmet light. http://www.magicshine.com/home.asp

They're about half the cost of the Baja Design, Nightriders, etc. and work great. I have over 10 rides on mine and it works flawlessly. Battery lasts about 3 hours on high, so we carry a spare battery, which are pretty inexpensive.

Right now I just use the PMTEX headlight on my KTM, which works find with the helmet light for trails, but I'm upgrading before this summer. For the KTM riders, that new light from Baja Designs with the Squadron LED mounted in the stock mask looks awesome. I'm just waiting to hear more about it from users before I pull the trigger.

I heard the Big Bear ride had a low number of entries last year, but I highly suggest it. Great event!

[Drabnor 0]

Here's my setup, approximately 10,100 lumens total:

LED's: two 30 series spots(1500 lumens each) and a 60 series flood(3600 lumens) from advmonster.com

http://stores.intuitwebsites.com/hstrial-QualiRegResou/-strse-8/Model-30-LED-off/Detail.bok

http://stores.intuitwebsites.com/hstrial-QualiRegResou/-strse-41/Model-60-LED-off/Detail.bok

Running their dimmer module also, it has a nice feature, a high beam bypass. So when I'm on low beam, they are dimmed, but when I hit the high beam they go full bright. With this feature I run the LEDS on the road as DRLs

Also converted the stock headlight to 5000k 35w hi/lo HID(3500 lumens)

pics were taken before the HID conversion

stock low beam-no LED's:

stock hibeam, full bright LED's:

[KTMrad 508]

My stock 950 headlight works just fine....and I have done a lot of night riding on it.

[Guest Crusty]

New Baja Designs Squadron LED Motorcycle Light

The faster the bike, the faster the light!!!!!