Lights Set

Lights Set

Motorcycle Headlights: Why It's Time To Upgrade Your Ride's Light Set-Up

Where would we be without our motorcycle headlights? In trouble most likely!

We need headlights on any vehicle to ride or drive safely at night, but headlights take on an especially important role for bikers as they contribute an awful lot to safety allowing you to not only see, but also to be seen by other motorists.

Why is that important? Bikes are a small vehicle and it's easy for other drivers to miss you, or for you to be in their blind spot, and so it's usually safer to leave on your lights at all times in order to be as visible as possible on the road.

But are your standard lights as good as they can be? Could they look cooler? Could they be more efficient?

The answer to all of these questions is absolutely yes, but there are many options, so let's have a look at them:

•    Motorcycle Headlights – These are your ‘night-eyes' and we all know how important they are, but you may not know that there are much better options than the standard halogen motorcycle headlights bulbs fitted by the manufacturer.

Both HID and LED motorcycle headlights are much brighter and therefore give you more safety. They also use less energy and last a lot longer than halogen bulbs, so all round they are a better option.

You might also consider custom surrounds for your headlight to give your bike a cool and unique look. These surrounds might be chrome in the case of cruisers like Harleys or Goldwings, or may shape your headlight like a bug eye or similar in the case of sports bikes.

•    Motorcycle Indicator Lights – Don't forget these little guys. If you're upgrading your bike's lights then you can change the ugly orange pods into sweet, crystal indicators. These look clear and will fit in with your new light scheme much better. You can also use LED bulbs which will be brighter and last longer than standard bulbs.

•    Motorcycle Brake Lights – There are actually quite a lot of options here. The lights can be changed from halogen bulb to a very fashionable and cool strip of LEDs. These are becoming more common on high-end cars, but why let them have all of the fun? They are again bright, cool and green. LED light strips also have one last benefit which is that they can be positioned into any shape thanks to their ‘strip' nature.

You can also find all kinds of rear light surrounds and mods. From the humble plastic clip which divides one light into two, to full-on chrome surrounds. Some bikers even choose to have flashing or different colour brake lights, although these are possibly frowned upon by police and blue is certainly a no-no as it is used by emergency services.

As you can see upgrading your lights involves more than just new motorcycle headlight bulbs. You can change your headlights, brake lights and indicators to fit in with your colour scheme by getting new surrounds and bulb colours.
All of these parts are available from garages, but you'll pay a lot extra if you're buying over the counter. The best way to grab the bulbs and parts you need at prices that won't put you off is to shop online, so just search for the item you need and the model of your bike and you'll be good to go!

About the Author

For wicked motorcycle headlights and many other cool custom motorcycle parts, give Virtual village.co.uk a try. You can also paste this link into your browser: http://www.virtualvillage.co.uk/motorcycle-headlights

How to set up EQ lights?

I want to make my own row of led lights set up in an EQ fashion that will flash to the music through input, not sound activated. I want to have each row of lights represent the proper frequency of an EQ. Now how would I go to do this?

There's very little difference between "sound activated" and input. Just the source of the signal. But what you're looking for is probably a color organ. There's a circuit and some LED layout examples at the link below. You can arrange the LEDs in any fashion you want. There are other circuits that can provide more individual frequency selection.

How to Make a Music Video: Lighting Set Up, Light Streaks - Filmmaking Tutorial 2