Triumphrat

H2Orat · 05-09-2007

When riding my Sprint at night, I've experienced several instances where drivers in front of me slow down or pull over. Maybe they thought I was tailgating or being intentionally obnoxious. My car has HID headlights and I sometimes get flashed even though I'm only using the low beams: I think the abrupt cut-off may be more of an irritant than the gradual intensity of a conventional halogen headlight. Recognizing a similarity with the Sprint's projector beam and the HID pattern, I assumed it might be their way of expressing their irritation. I thought maybe my beams were too high or too bright, or somehow irritating the drivers to the point where they'd rather pull over and let me pass (even on single lane country roads), just to be rid of me. To be honest, I kind of liked the "courtesy" I was getting, but I didn't think there was much I could do.

Yesterday, my wife and I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and take the Sprint out for an evening ride and dinner. We were on the highway on our way home, with our upcoming right-hand turn-off about half a mile ahead, and traffic was running about 75 (speed limit there is 55), which is not unusual. Getting ready to turn off the highway, I get into the right lane behind a car, which then slows down to about 60. With the turn coming up, I remain behind him and put on my right blinker: the car slows down to about 40, then puts on his blinker, and pulls into breakdown lane (right before the turnoff lane), slows down to a crawl and enters the right turnoff lane. At this point, I'm thinking he's just extremely cautious and also turning, so I stay behind him. Just short of the actual turnoff, he stops. I'm not sure what to do, so there are a few awkward moments while we sit behind him, stopped, blinker flashing, and waiting for him to turn, before I realize that he thinks I'm a cop who's pulling him over! After a few seconds, and after my wife tells me to just go around him, I slowly pass him on the driver's side, and he rolls down his window. I was feeling a little guilty and embarrassed: I didn't want the guy to think he was the butt of a mean-spirited joke and not wanting to embarrass him, I slowly continued around the car and made the turn, leaving him just sitting there!

I can't remember which review (or which bike mag) it was on the Sprint 1050, but the writer mentioned how when riding it at night, people would slow down or get out of his way. He theorized that the projector beam-reflector combination created a unique red/blue halo effect, so drivers in front of him thought he was a cop. Are there any other Sprint 1050 riders out there with similar experiences? Just curious...

chiefsr · 05-09-2007

I have had Sprints behind me and noticed that there is a color effect from the headlights depending on the angle of the road.

Aske · 05-09-2007

I've pulled up to my off-white garage door at night a few times and noticed a narrow blue-red light effect along the cutoff edge.

My thought on the phenomenon you noticed, though, was that road imperfections bounced your lights up and down. Coupled with the hard horizontal cutoff, cars ahead may have experienced an abrupt illumination/no-illumination from you and misinterpreted it as flashing headlights.

Ravensr · 05-09-2007

Last week some time I was riding behind a couple buddies, and they said that my left light was changing colors, although I have ridden at night I have never noticed the change in colors while riding. When standing in front I can notice the different colors while looking at the bulb at different angles. So it makes me feel better that its not only my 06 sprint that does this

oldndumb · 05-09-2007

You will get that effect if the lights are marginally high. It manifests itself relative to the pillon weight or fork oscillation. Consider the projector lens and a prism.

kubbie · 05-09-2007

Man I love it, people in front of me think I'm a cop and pull over, clearing the road for me.

Whats really fun is pulling up behind somebody (going too slow of course) and start bouncing up & down on the handlebars. They turn on their turn signals, get over and slow down. When they do just roll on by (just don't do it to unmarked cop cars,no sense of humor)

On a side note I just got my master cylinder changed today. I highly recommend the up grade. My brakes now feel more like a Ducati's(pressure as soon as you touch the lever, not half way through its stroke).

Have fun w/ the light show!

kubbie

DJRenton · 05-09-2007

I experienced this immediately after adjusting my beams up a bit so that I could see farther ahead at night.

Unfortunately, I didn't feel right "pulling over" 3 cars in a 5-mile stretch - I was afraid that I might be putting myself in a bad situation if the person that pulled over didn't take too kindly to the settings (too many raging cagers out there).

I also received feedback from my wife to the effect of "why were you flashing your headlights at me for the last 3 miles?".

So I dropped them a bit - it gives up some night vision distance, but i'm looking to compensate by adding motolights in the near future. For now, I just slow down a bit.

It really is something that should be redesigned in my opinion.

duckie · 05-09-2007

LOL! H2Orat that is so funny! :roflmoa2:

I've noticed mine doing something similar when following minivans and other vehicles with a large reflective rear end... I added a modulator to my sv650s headlights and boy what a difference that made when lane splitting and I can only assume the effect your talking about has been having a similar effect as a lot of people have been moving over for me even though I haven't fitted a modulator to the sprint yet...

airrider03 · 05-09-2007

Quote:

On 2007-05-09 16:59, DJRenton wrote:

...So I dropped them a bit - it gives up some night vision distance, but i'm looking to compensate by adding motolights in the near future. For now, I just slow down a bit.

It really is something that should be redesigned in my opinion.

I copied this from my other post...
A possible solution that hasn't been mentioned...but it works for me!
Just recently I think I cracked the headlight code. To read on, you must to agree with items 'a' and 'c' first ....

a) The beams are shaped like a 'soup bowl'.
b) The horizontal cutoff is the rim of the soup bowl...
c) Your beams are way too low and equal, so that when you corner, there is nothing illuminating your path.

Here's how I fixed mine:
Don't worry about the sharp cutoff line, the ends are your cornering beams.
Adjust the cutoffs so their equally high above the oncoming car and will not blind them. Even with a pillion, this beam will not blind others.
The 'edges' of the soup bowl rim have a slightly higher intensity, these are your cornering beams that touch down as you lean into a corner.
The bottom of the soup bowl should be at road level, this is not an intense beam, but enough to see in front without the main beam on. Now the center main beam becomes more effective and you have cornering lights.
I think Silver Star bulbs or similiar adjusted this way will increase forward illumination yet still not blind others.
Waddaya dink?

[ This message was edited by: airrider03 on 2007-05-09 20:16 ]

oldndumb · 05-09-2007

I think airrider03 is onto something. I caused a car to pull over on the interstate the day after re-aiming my headlights. Very embarrassing and scary. I've been dicking around with them since. I just haven't been motivated to study them as well as airrider has. Probably because I've always done it at night, while most of the Florida mosquito population feeds on my scrawny ass. Anyway, I've bought his theory and am going to try it after I buy some more Off.