FLASH FLASH FLASH Headlight strobes

[tri5ron]

Well I finally took a a little time to install a cheap set of strobes into the headlight assembly.

The idea here is Collision Avoidance, to add a little more saftey to riding in congested riding area's.

I have had a few near-misses with riders coming head-on over the years,
I have had 2 different friends helicoptered out due to head-ons, and I personally know of 2 people (friends of friends)who have been killed in head-ons.

Some of you may remember the strobes I mounted at my upper shock mounts.
They do OK I suppose, but they didn't really project as far forward as I was hoping for, and they didn't really do as well for Daytime riding, as what I wanted.
For those who may not have seen those, here's a link to that old thread...

http://www.exriders.com/vbb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=409535&highlight=strobes


So now, I figured if I mounted them INSIDE the headlights, the reflectors would concentrate, and project them forward better, and hopefully they will be more visable during daytime riding in the deserts, dunes, and woods.

anyway, here's what I got done today...


These are from Pepboys for about $20 bucks

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n148/tri5ron/03%20400ex/IMG_2920.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n148/tri5ron/03%20400ex/IMG_2921.jpg



Drill 2 holes in the headlight housing...

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n148/tri5ron/03%20400ex/IMG_2927.jpg



Remove the nuts from strobes, and then feed the wires into the bulb holes in the back of the headlight assembly, then feed wires through the drilled holes...

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n148/tri5ron/03%20400ex/IMG_2930.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n148/tri5ron/03%20400ex/IMG_2932.jpg



Lightly tug the strobe bases through the holes, and secure with the nuts...

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n148/tri5ron/03%20400ex/IMG_2936.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n148/tri5ron/03%20400ex/IMG_2933.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n148/tri5ron/03%20400ex/IMG_2935.jpg

[01boneless]

thats pretty cool bud

[hocman123]

wow this could be a real live saver on the trails i might do this on mine before i go to hatfeld trails this year

i am voteing to make a sticky of this thread

[CJM]

Very cool idea Ron!

[jake"08"400]

Now you just need to buy you a red and blue strobe to replace them white ones and then you'd be pullin folks over lol. Looks good tho very clean if ya don't mind me saying. Most people just throw crap together and don't take the time to clean up wires and stuff.

[bigbad400]

i just got to do that for my ltr now!!! 2 way trails and congested areas would help alot!!! awesome job:D

[tri5ron]

Well lets not get too far ahead of ourselfs here, It has not passed the final test of approval yet.

I have not reinstalled them on the bike yet, and I have not tried the regular headlights, with the strobes mounted inside of them.
I don't know if the presence of the strobes are going to adversely effect the regular headlight beams projection.
I hope not.

I may also be doing the HID conversion, if I can squeeze the piggybank a little more, (but after getting the new Clarke Fuel Tank, my wife is about ready to kill me), LOL.
The HID's may need to wait a while, lol.

It will be a few more days before it goes back together, due to I am in the process of making a few other changes to the bike, and some regular maintaince stuff. I may have it apart for a week or so.
We'll see how it works then.

[greencow]

Once you have it all on please make a video or pics of were you have everything running and where its connected to i have been wanting to do this since my 350 warrior days but i was waiting for a test subject and here you are haha. Thanks in advance.

[witech]

If your blasting people in the eyes with a strobe light are you not going to be temporary blinding them inviting an accident/lawsuits?
Are you saying people cant see your headlight when your riding?
What type of riding are you doing?

[tri5ron]

Originally posted by witech
If your blasting people in the eyes with a strobe light are you not going to be temporary blinding them inviting an accident/lawsuits?
Are you saying people cant see your headlight when your riding?
What type of riding are you doing? The strobes are no more blinding than a headlight, during daytime riding.
it's not about driving directly at somebody for an extended period of time. If that was the case, you would already have plenty of time, to see an "oncoming " rider, to avoid a collision.

The flashing action of the strobes, will, (and DOES), attract a oncoming riders attention, much better and earlier, than a regular headlight that is not pointing directly in his eyes.

What you have to realize is that when both people are moving, it's not too often that the headlights are pointed directly in your eyes.

Try this,
Ask your self how many times you have been blinded by a on coming riders headlights.
Then go out and turn on you headlights, and try to look directly into them. I bet you can't do it, yet many times a oncoming rider has his light on, and it never bothers you.

I'm betting you will be unable to look directly into them to be blinded by them.
you will look away quickly first.

I ride mostly deserts, lots of whoops, hills, and rocky terrain with 6' to 8' tall Creosote and Manzanita everywhere.

I currently use a bicycle LED headlight, mounted to my handlebars.
It has a flashing function that works very well, an I have had a few riders comment on it, that they saw it before they realized I was coming, and they liked it. They have asked me where I got it, and wanted to do the same with their bikes.

That's convincing enough for me.

[witech]

So it would be more like a daytime running light .
One thing I always wanted to do is get a red strobe on the tailight of my quad to aviod rear end collisions when its snowing bad or to help following riders keep up whne snow dust gets intense.

[CJM]

Those arent blinding at all, trust me.

You want blinding, mount one of these bad boys somehow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InMQXZxM4Rc&feature=related

I had one on a work truck, lemme tell you what 4 rotators with 100w bulbs, front and back flashers and side lights...everything was 100w.. That sucker you couldnt look at day or night and not be blinded..

[yellow02400ex]

Something im going to have to do once I get a little nice weather. I got hit in sept. wasn't my fault and my "buddy" never gave me his spare parts to fix it. Not cool when your a broke college.

[finsteratv]

ooooh shinnnnnnyyyyy :D

[jake"08"400]

You think those are bright you should see are new police cars with the l.e.d. light bars......that's blinding!:D

[honda400ex2003]

looks great ron! very good idea for sure. steve

[yellow02400ex]

bump what was the out come of these? Do they work good with the lights on or affect the head lights?

[tri5ron]

Sorry for the late reply.
I have not re-installed the headlights yet, due to the quad/and mod, has taken a bit of a back-burner priority for a few weeks.
Also dealing with a fit-issue on a Clarke 5.5 gal fuel tank, and I am trying to decide on a possible HID set-up as well.
I will post more pics, and results of tests when I get it mounted back up.
Thanks,
Ron

[yellow02400ex]

alright cool if you go with the hids too let me know what kit you used and how it works out too

[tri5ron]

OK,... I FINALLY got around to finishing the HID / Strobe mod.
The strobes ARE better in the headlights, than they were where I first mounted them under the fenders,... But, I have to be honest and say I was hoping for a little more from them.

They do OK,... and certainly do grab a little more attention than not having them at all, so what the heck, I suppose it was worth doing. Keep in mind, that it is not intended for the strobes to light up anything in front of you.
It is purely to better grab the attention of an oncoming rider,... to hopefully assist in avoiding a collision. That is their sole function, and are going to be used as Daytime Running Lights only.

I was able to utilize the Hi/Lo function of the switch, by connecting the Strobes to the "Lo" side, then connecting the HID's to the "High" side.

I'm pretty impressed with the HID's, and for $36 bucks with free shipping on Ebay,... I certainly can't complain.

These are the 35w H6M HID's @ 5000K

Here's a vid that is waaay too long showing them,... but sitting around with a buddy, having a few cold suds, and waiting for it to get dark,... what can I say, LOL!

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[Stickman400]

What kit did you buy off eBay again? And did you put it in with relays or just plug them in? Nice video btw, stick legs. lol

[tri5ron]

Here's the kit I bought...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp3984Q2em1439Q2el2649QQ itemZ400235643975QQsspagenameZSTRKQ3aMEWNXQ3aIT

I don't really think it matters too much what you decide to buy,
As long as,...
It's a 35watt, H6M kit.
After that it's just a matter of prefference on the Kelvin temp/color of the lights,... (I chose the 5000k's because I wanted them to be as bright as possible, with no or minimum blue tint).

No I did not use a relay,
but I probably will go back and install one.

I like the idea of completely isolating the ballast's from the rest of the quads electrical system, having the ability of putting a separate fuse in that circuit, as well as having a heavier gauge power lead, directly from the battery to the ballast's.

I could still switch it from the Hi/Lo switch, between the HID's and the Strobes.

[DirtyBirdRacing]

Nice vid, im def doing some type of HID kit in the up coming months,
I was about to click off the vid and ask why it was smokeing but you answered my question just before I clicked off. haha,

[tri5ron]

Yeah, the smoking is due to a stripped valve cover bolt.
Damn thing stripped when I was taking it OUT,.... LOOSENING IT !

I had removed it to put in the stage 1 cam.
Actually, every freakin' one of them was so tight, I thought they were going to snap during removal.
Now I've got a striped bolt, and it's one of the LONG suckers that go all the way to the cases.

pissed me off.
So now I'm going to have to take the whole thing apart just to repair one lousy bolt hole !

[DirtyBirdRacing]

Ouch that sucks sorry to hear.

[Stickman400]

Sorry to hear about your bad luck, things like that always happen to me aswell. But I will probably be doing the HID upgrade also this winter when I tear mine down to look it over and clean everything. Even though I don't use my headlights that much, it'll be nice knowing I have them.

[jake"08"400]

Come on Ron everybody knows you only did this because you was thinking it'd make your quad faster.

How many hp did it give you? Bout 3 are 4....:devil:

[tri5ron]

Originally posted by jake"08"400
Come on Ron everybody knows you only did this because you was thinking it'd make your quad faster.

How many hp did it give you? Bout 3 are 4....:devil:

hahaha,
nah,... I was kind of hoping it might be the same as having a reverse gear when I clicked them on, so I wouldn't need to yank on the grab bar any more...:devil:
Would have been kinda cool for getting it out of the trailer.
Just drop the tailgate, click on the lights, and have it roll itself right out of the trailer. :blah: ;) :D

[jake"08"400]

That would be freaking sweet.....but the strobes are sweet you should make one blue tho and the other red. Pull over some kids in your neighbor hood.