Do you travel on highways/poorly illuminated roads during night time?
Here is a review of available aftermarket bulbs
Well
I dont recomment the bright white light HID which are commonly seen these days on bikes.The reason is that these bulbs are useless in rainy conditions and on wet surfaces
White color is absorbed by water on wet surface and hence you are not able to see anything on road in-spite of so called powerful light
Also due to bright white light, there is lot of strain, glare of road itself. The black tar road appears whitish and hence it is difficult to locate potholes and it is very very irritating to oncoming traffic
Also whitish tint of lights on new bikes and gearless scooters are totally useless
Headlights of Old Activa and Unicorn are always better than the new Activa/Pleasure/Aviator/Shine/CD Delux
All the above bikes have white tint which is again useless on wet surface road during rainy season
The alternative to this is
Bulb with yellow tint light which are available in all TVS, Mahindra, HH Karizma, Bullet and Bajaj bikes(except pulsar 220)
The reason why I say that yellow tint bulbs are better .I have done an experiment and I can demonstrate you.
You need two torches 1 LED white light torch and one ordinary bulb torch giving yellowish light
In a dark room, you try to see a black object in those torches one by one
Result:
1) in bright white light LED torch, the black object also appears whitish and there is lot of strain on your eyes to visualize that object(So imagine a condition where you are riding a bike at night time with HID white light bulb on a dark highway, the black colored tar road also will appear white and you will not be able to view potholes or any object on road during night plus too much strain on your eyes due to glare of your own powerful white beam)
2) When you try to visualize a black object in yellowish white light, there is no absolute strain on your eye and the black object appears original black color.
Hence I can make a conclusion that yellow tinted light is the best for night time riding because as per laws of physics white light is composed of seven colors and yellow color propogates to the maximum hence yellow light travels greater distances and hence it provides visibility upto a greater distance.
Here are some good bulbs for bikes according to their light and visibility tested on bike
1) Bosch/Mico bulbs(The best when purchased from authorised outlet of Bosch)
2) Osram Bilux(Suits good for Honda and some TVS Models like Star City, Star Sport, Jive etc)
3) Philips(Dont go for Philips Premium bulbs giving 30% extra light.Your plastic lens reflectors will fade out and turn dull due to extra heat.Also remember that bulbs giving extra power are not durable.Their life is shortened).Currently Philips is OEM for Hero Honda
4) Halonix(It is only good for TVS Apache, Flame, Victor GLX and Pulsar).Halonix is OEM for TVS, Bajaj and Suzuki models.
But Bosch bulbs suits every model and is the best of all.You have to go to Bosch outlet and tell your bike model.Bosch has bulbs for each and every model.If you go to any other aftermarket shop, you are sure to get fakes.
Some white light bulbs available from Design auto system are good but in rainy conditions, there bulbs are useless hence driving during rainy night with white light bulbs is just like driving blindly
According to RTO
Bulbs upto 60 watts(Normal Halogen bulbs only) are permitted to Car and bikes(Avenger and Bullet Classic 350 and 500 cc)
upto 80 watts to truck, bus and heavy vehicles
Remember that anything above 80 watts to any vehicle is illegal and liable for punishment under motor vehicle act
My suggestion is that irrespective of powerful/dim headlights, please use lower beam in city and if you are driving in upper beam and someone flashes his/her upper dipper switch to request you to lower down your beam, switch to lower beam without any ego.
Drive in Lower beam in City limits(Especially to those driving Activa, Pleasure, Shine, CD delux because I have observed in Pune that these idiots drive in upper beam in city limits and inspite of flashing upper-dipper, they dont lower down their beam.May be due to some ego/ignorance)
For other bikes/scooters there is no problem even if they drive in upper beam because there lights are having yellow tint which are not irritating to oncoming traffic whereas activa, pleasure, shine, cd delux have useless irritating white light and their beam is focussed directly on the eyes of oncoming traffic
I dont know why such lights needed for vehicles which are driven in city limits only when municipal corporation has provided good lighting in city.
Always remember that driving in upper beam in city is a punishable offence under motor vehicle act so more and more people needs to complain about such illiterate idiots to the police.Currently traffic cops are not doing anything on this issue.I think that Bangalore cops are doing something about this issue.They are imposing fine on people driving in upper beam.
Oh God please save our eyes from such idiots.When will cops in other cities wake up?
General etiquette of Headlight beam usage
if a oncoming vehicle is in high beam, flash your upper dipper switch so that the idiot will lower down his/her beam.
Drive in upper beam at places which have no traffic and no street lights(places like highway outside city or road in village) but always remember that if there is any oncoming vehicle, you have to immidiately lower down your beam and again you can switch to high beam once that vehicles passes by.
But regarding headlight beam usage I have seen that illiterate/less educated truck drivers are far better than the educated and sophisticated urban people driving bikes/gearless scooters/cars
Please drive in lower beam and adjust your headlight position and educate yourself regarding headlight beam usage.
My appeal to Honda and Hero Honda
Please educate your customers regarding headlight beam usage instead on just concentrating on sales.Your upper beam of new models launched is useless for the rider and injurious for the eyes of other riders(I experience this while riding my friend's aviator on a wet road.In lower beam, I was not able to see anything on road due to white tint light whereas with my Victor GLX with Bosch Halogen bulb, I can see upto 250 meters in high beam and about 100 meters in low beam irrespective of rainy conditions)
Be responsible and show some respect for others(Traffic rules teach people to respect each other after all we are citizens of one country and remember that to earn respect, you should also show respect to others).Dont behave like illiterates(sorry I dont want to insult illiterates because regarding this topic of beam usage, these people are better than you who drive in upper beam)
Thanks
Pankaj
