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BMW Motorcycle Lighting
The one area that we find BMW to be poor in is lighting. This includes both lights for you to see by and lights that let you be seen.
Lights and reflectors to be seen by:
We still have many models with a single bulb taillight of only 10 watts, the airheads had only a single 5 watt bulb. They look similar to a red candle, not too confidence inspiring on a rainy foggy night that the cars behind you will see you. Most models still have only one brake light which is still very small. When you are stopping you want a brake light to scream at the cars behind you.
There are no rearward facing reflectors. Hindsight stuff. Hit the custom hindsight stuff. Should we invite Andy as a guest speaker Saturday????
Flashing LED brake tail light propaganda. Safe for IABS. Warn about any other items being installed in the brake or taillight circuits causing possible IABS failures.
Kissan signal minders—emphasize the features about the turn signals being on and hugely increasing the visibility to the rear and the front signals being on tell the oncoming traffic that you are a motorcycle, not a car with one headlight burned out. Also about the fact that the lights can be turned dimmer or off if needed for riding in groups or in states where that are illegal. And the dangers in forgetting to cancel your turn signals and having cars pull out in front of you because they think you are going to turn.
Mention flashing headlight modulators like Kissan path blazer.
Mention clothing reflectors if you see fit or maybe that is an entire different subject.
Lights to see with:
The best headlight BMW ever had was the old round unit on the RXX/6 and later airheads, and R1150R models because they had decent sized reflectors.. Since the stylists have decided that we need lights that look good rather than light up the roads we have been subjected to odd shaped lights that just do not work well. Best models to stock headlight are Piaa bright White bulbs or similar. On R1150GS and R1150 Rockckster models we have the ability to modify the reflector on the low beam to make it much better.
Talk about the difference between watts (the current needed to operate a light) and candlepower (the amount of light that is actually produced). Candlepower is related to both the intensity of the bulb and the reflector area and lens cut and quality. Warn that a hi wattage light does not mean it has more usable light, just takes more energy and develops more heat. Discuss the concerns about melting the wiring with high watt bulbs used to replace the stock bulbs. Discuss the PIAA bulbs with higher output per watt, explain how their 55=100 is just to make the consumer understand that the light is brighter or different color spec—it is still just a 55w bulb as far as heat and current needs. Make note of how you must make sure your alternator output will need to be high enough to handle the extra loads thus the F650s and airheads are not going to be able to support much. Battery size has nothing to do with the needed alternator output!
Small lights, even projector beams and the small HID lights will not work as well as larger lights because of the reflector area. Talk about the quality of the light force lights. The fact they can be focused and have interchangeable lenses.. Mention we are a dealer also for PIAA and Hella for the small lights like the PIAA 1100x and Hella FF100 etc for those who want better lights but do not like the look of big lights. Mention the expense of the HID units and that they are putting out much more light for every watt consumed but that if they are too small the additional intensity has minimized affect.
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