Question on brights / high beams

[wyso]

Having your brights on can also distort how far away you are from someone. It can make you look farther away and moving at a different speed than you actually are so it would have the opposite effect of what you're trying to achieve. This becomes very dangerous when approaching intersections or passing people. There are people out there that already hate bikers for a variety of reasons. To those people anyone on a bike is an A hole no matter what type of bike you're on. There's no reason to piss them off even more. You never know what might push someone over the edge and into a full on road rage incident.

Do you have evidence to support what you're saying in regards to high beams distorting actual over perceived distances? Just curious

Have some one drive at you at the same speed from the same distance with their brights on and brights off you'll see whay I'm saying.

Yes, with the low beam on the bike is barely visible, turn on high beam and you are seen easily. Its amazing how the low beam disappears during the daytime.

[wyso]

Saying high beams make bike look farther away is just a stupid statement. Really dumb thinking.

[Vex]

Generally it's not illegal, and I'm not gonna chuck a marble at someone running with their HB on, but I do not like it when it's coming my way in daylight hours. The regular headlight is enough, especially if the bike has DRLs of some type.

If you're in the middle of some boring-ass, flat, country road with nothing for miles and the sun overhead, then it'll likely be less of an issue. But I've been riding through twisties under the shade of trees only to lean through a corner and gotten a face full of blinding high beam coming from the opposite direction.

It's similar when riding in that exact scenario, but the shade is punctuated by patches of bright sunlight. Adjusting from darkness, to light, and back, can be dangerous as fuck. Hwy 20 out of Fort Bragg is like that at certain points. Fun ride, but gat damn...

[stanger1]

Running high beams in the sunlight is like a needle in a Haystack.
Just don't make much difference .
On the bright sunny day, have your high beams on just don't amount to much as it is drowned out by the Sun.
Glare from the Sun off of windshields, buildings, objects, you name it, these high beams just don't amount to anything in the bright sun.
But I have always ran High beams, till nighttime in traffic. Once out away from traffic, the highs come back on.
Anything to make people see you better is a advantage in my books.
Plus these H2SXSE's don't have the brightest head lights to start with.

[black-k1]

Running high beams in the sunlight is like a needle in a Haystack.
Just don't make much difference .
On the bright sunny day, have your high beams on just don't amount to much as it is drowned out by the Sun.
Glare from the Sun off of windshields, buildings, objects, you name it, these high beams just don't amount to anything in the bright sun.
But I have always ran High beams, till nighttime in traffic. Once out away from traffic, the highs come back on.
Anything to make people see you better is a advantage in my books.
Plus these H2SXSE's don't have the brightest head lights to start with.

I'm sorry but having been both travelling in the opposite direction with an on coming bikes high beam pointing directly at me, and travelling with a bike behind me "filling my mirrors", I can assure you that the glare of the sun does not drown out the glare from the bike light.

Unlike the glare of sunlight relections off things like winscreens or buildings, high beams are specifically focused to point directly where other road users will be and the glare from high beams are the result of a selfish, inconsiderate, conscious decision.

[stanger1]

Not to argue the point, just google and you see that many States and State Troopers say to run High Beams in the Day time and
in my many many years of driving and riding in the daytime, never been blinded by high beams from a bike or cars in the bright day light.
Done posting on this topic.

[prettybirdSE]

If I'm directly behind someone either at a stop or rolling and the beam can somehow blind em(mirrors),then I go to low beams.They have a kind of narrow light pattern that doesn't do too well looking at it from any other angle.Straight on...it's BRIGHT.Off center...not so much(except of course at night).

[danham]

The low beam on this bike is not at all useful as a DRL, so yes, I keep my high beam on in the daytime unless it is clearly going to annoy someone. I also have Skene LEDs mounted on the fender to give me a triangle of lights, which studies show help others judge your speed and has so far noticeably reduced the number of people pulling out in front of me or cutting me off when changing lanes.

-dan