Spot lights instead of flood lights

[Shawn K]

On my last coast-to-coast ride, I used my LED Rider LX5 lights quite a bit in the southwest desert. They certainly lit up the road, but not in the way I wanted.

The LX5s "turn night into day", but only in the area immediately in front of me. I can see super well 5 seconds in front of me, and a good 50 feet off each shoulder. But the distance downrange isn't really any greater than the Pathfinder LED high beams on my GL1800.

What I want is a super narrow beam spotlight, something that really lights the way ahead of me. My headlights do a good enough job of lighting the area in front of me.

I was looking at a narrow-beam spotlight like a set of Denali DR1's, but I've not seen their beam pattern, so I don't know if it'll meet my desires.

Can anyone make a recommendation?

 

[Marc11]

Denali D7. They throw far and wide. I angle my right one just a tiny bit to get a little more light on the newer side critter staging areas.

 

[Shawn K]

I'm trying to avoid the "wide" part if possible. Honestly, my LX5's put out so much light so close to me that the contrast was borderline uncomfortable. And then, when I'd turn them off, there was a significant delay in my eyes reacclimating to the difference.

I've actually taken off the LX5's for a while to see if I miss them. Their pattern is so wide that they're not really usable when I'm around oncoming traffic. Even on a 4-lane divided highway in the western Texas desert, I'd have people on the other side of the Interstate high-beaming me if I had the LX5's running (even in sections with over 100 feet of median separating). I'm not one of those guys who believes that blinding other people is a good idea, even if it means that I can see better.

 

[Marc11]

I'm trying to avoid the "wide" part if possible. Honestly, my LX5's put out so much light so close to me that the contrast was borderline uncomfortable. And then, when I'd turn them off, there was a significant delay in my eyes reacclimating to the difference.

I've actually taken off the LX5's for a while to see if I miss them. Their pattern is so wide that they're not really usable when I'm around oncoming traffic. Even on a 4-lane divided highway in the western Texas desert, I'd have people on the other side of the Interstate high-beaming me if I had the LX5's running (even in sections with over 100 feet of median separating). I'm not one of those guys who believes that blinding other people is a good idea, even if it means that I can see better.

The D7 are wide AND far. I've had trucks flash their high beams at me from a mile a way. True story.

Note I only run my D7 s with high beams, else they are off on favor of fork mounted amber running lights.

 

[kerrizor]

I've got D4s and OEM aux lights.. I'm thinking of adding in D7s as my high-beam only and swapping the OEM lights for the D4s... being able to pre-program the light levels for hi/low, _and_ being able to control light levels on the fly makes me pretty happy with that setup.

Shawn, what bike are you running again?

 

[Shawn K]

The D7 are wide AND far.

I saw that the first time you mentioned it. I don't want the "wide" (I already have that with my LX5's). I just want the "far", hence the original point of the thread. I'm seeking input about possible spotlights instead of floodlights.

 

[Shawn K]

Shawn, what bike are you running again?

2016 GL1800

 

[Marc11]

I saw that the first time you mentioned it. I don't want the "wide" (I already have that with my LX5's). I just want the "far", hence the original point of the thread.

You're missing my point but your decision. Good luck in your search.

 

[Shawn K]

You're missing my point but your decision. Good luck in your search.

Maybe I am missing your point, since it seems that you're suggesting that I use something similar to what I already have. Can you rephrase it?

 

[Marc11]

Maybe I am missing your point, since it seems that you're suggesting that I use something similar to what I already have. Can you rephrase it?

The D7s throw so much light, well a mile down the road or more that they also throw a fair amount of light side to side. They give you exactly what you want, a far spot type beam far down the road that you'll never out ride while giving you the added benefit and safety of lighting up the sides of the road for critter spotting. They are the best of both a spot and a flood which is why I only run them with high beam, they are too bright, too far and too wide for any other use.

You can easily mount and aim them in a way to focus the beam even more as a spot with less side to side.

Like I mentioned on a dead straight road in Oregon at night trucks I could barely see in the distance were flashing me because the light was so bright way way down the road.

There are YouTube videos comparing the light throw to Clearwater. You'll not find a bright, further throwing light with the quality of Denali for the price...or any price IMHO.

Clearwater and cyclops would be alternatives to consider.

Search "a bike thing" on YouTube for his comparison. It's impressive.

 

[Jerry L. Stevens]

I run the D4s on my Yamaha Royal Star Venture. Yes, as the D7s (just not as many lumens/current draw) the D4s throw a beam long and wide. The D4 have four LEDs per pod with lenses that have a mix of spot and flood. My RSV barely has enough wattage to run those along with the Truck Lite driving lights & HID headlight. At night I have to turn off my fork mounted LED Moto Lights or the D4s flicker. I did switch to all LEDs for the stock lighting.

The GL1800 has much more output so I would not hesitate to install the D7s if $ did not stop me. LOL

I really think they will give you what you want. There are also long distance spots available. If you already have floods maybe that is where you need to look.

 

[Russ Black]

The Cyclops Long Range driving lights are available with 10° narrow angle beams and claim a range of nearly 900 feet.

 

[Ed.]

Rigid do a 4x5W LED "hyperspot" pod with a claimed 5deg spread and 570m/1500+ft (claimed) beam distance.
I run one of these in a combination with a 10"bar and a driving pattern pod. It is ok but I am considering replacing the other pod with another hyperspot to try and achieve exactly what you are wanting. At ~300 of our south seas pesos, it is not exactly cheap. But it is cheaper (both in $$ and watts/amps) than the Clearwaters or D7....but then you gets whats ya pays for (both in $$ and W, A).

 

[EricV]

My bike budget has never included anything by Clearwater or Denali. For the stated problem, for the '13 IBR, I ran a DOT legal low beam HID with a wide, ditch to ditch beam and a low beam legal cut off that was excellent for the midrange fill and wider than the headlights pattern. For the long range spot I ran a pair of Cyclops Long Range square 10º spots. They pushed light out far better and well beyond my high beams, and far better than one would think a 10 watt light would. A 10' circle of light right were I needed it. In combo with the OEM headlights and the DOT legal low beam, (Sylvania Xenarc 1010, (sadly no longer available and 1st gen HID) ), it game me enough light to ride as fast as I wanted in the NV test range or anywhere else you could actually use your high beams. Bonus, you could run the DOT legal low beam HID in traffic w/o getting flashed by oncoming. The Spots were wired to the high beams, so any time I could use high beam, I could use the spots and both came on together. There was a small switch inline, just in case I wanted to turn off the spots.

If I was doing this now, I might spring for one of the PIAA reverse aimed LED light bars to replace the DOT legal HID, because they too have a sharp cut off and are a mid range, wide light. I'd buy the Cyclops again in a hot second.

Since you already have wide, consider the Cyclops 10º spots.

Nostalgia flashback, the PIAA 910s converted to HID were THE ticket for long range pencil spots back in the early days of LD riding.

 

[HACKLE]

As Eric stated, the HID's were the go in early days. Problem was the delay, easily overcome with added LED lights.

 

[danklyrides]

I am a big fan of the Baja Designs lights. I have mounted them to 3 different bikes and have been very impressed with their quality. Their Racer Edition lights have a very narrow beam and should fill any long distance lighting need. They are anywhere from $270 to $650 per light.

Baja Designs

 

[Shawn K]

As Eric stated, the HID's were the go in early days. Problem was the delay, easily overcome with added LED lights.

The one big drawback to LED lighting is that you lose the 360 degree light output that a glowing filament provides. As such, the lenses in an incandescent headlight don't focus the beam correctly when you switch over.

What I noticed with my Pathfinders is that the light color is good, the overall amount is good, but the focus suffers. There's no longer a clearly defined cutoff, so every once in a while I still get high-beamed by incoming traffic, even when I'm on low beam.

I sometimes wonder if switching to HID would restore the focus, but HID headlight replacements are becoming scarce and I don't feel like spending the money on an experiment.

Back to the original topic, has anyone here ever used Denali DR1's?

 

[Marc11]

Yes I ran the DR1s on my K16 under the mirrors. Very bright and long narrow throw, they did seem to scatter a bit of light up high, like in the trees and if aimed down then they didn't throw as far down the road, not as bright as the D7s but may meet your needs.

 

[EricV]

Lighting has many factors that impact performance. Reflector size and design being a couple of big ones. Halogen reflectors simply are not designed for LED and don't perform as well in focusing the light when you mix them together. And with Halogen, the bigger the reflector, the more light you could throw. Reflector size is not as significant with HID and LED, in terms of getting the usable light down range.

HID was not as much of a problem when converting a Halogen light, but still sometimes suffered because the capsule was farther out than the Halogen bulb, in some cases. Current Gen HID has very little delay. The old Gen I aux light I wrote of earlier had a huge delay, but since it was low beam and left on all the time, that wasn't an issue for my set up. I converted the FJR to HID Hi/Low around '08 and had no issues with delay, though you could notice it sometimes. In '10 I had to replace that system thanks to the dealer pressure washing my bike two days before I left for the MERA 10-n-10 rally and that kit had no noticeable delay when switching from low to high beams. It was also a 50 watt kit, where I had previously been running a 35 watt kit.

I converted both S10s over to fanless LED headlights since there were dust caps on the headlights and I didn't want to deal with a cable coming out of the dust cap. Better than stock and still a pretty good cut off, not as sharp as Halogen, but a better quality of light overall. The Cyclops moved to the second S10, but I sold the Xenarc to someone that needed a replacement for their auto application and never did replace that since I wasn't rally riding any more.

Side note, I did a quick search and there are still tons of slim ballast HID conversion kits on the market. They hold up well and toss tons of light. Down side is heat, (sometimes impacts the headlight reflector coating and lens coatings over time), and depending on the comparisons, power draw. If I had a fairing to tuck ballasts behind, I'd go for HID headlights instead of LED, solely based on my own limited experience running both types. Just one example of many - LINK Cheap experiment, imho. I'm sure there are other options at different price points. This example just offered a variety of kit types and bulb bases, plus several color temps.

My current bike has a single factory LED headlight, so no converting that if I want more light.

 

[HDConvert]

I'm thinking of adding in D7s as my high-beam only...

Pay very close attention to how much power you're drawing. The GS/A does not produce enough power for me to run my set of Ericas and Sevinas. This is why you saw the single Sevina set up on my GSA. I didn't realize it 'till I killed my battery... in Maine... at night... in the middle of nowhere! That combo and some extra farkles pulls too much power to run it all.