The Personal Blog Of
Boston Motorcycle Lawyer

Motorcycle Lighting Doesn’t Have to Be Inadequate
August 19, 2009

Motorcycle headlight design and output has traditionally left much to be desired, especially when riding at night.

If you have an older bike, as I do, then your options to increase the quality of your lighting is to upgrade your bulb, install auxiliary lighting, or install aftermarket High Intensity Discharge (HID) lighting.

Solutions to Inadequate Motorcycle Lighting

A typical solution is to upgrade the standard H-4 bulb with a high-quality bulb or with a higher-wattage bulb. Be careful, however, that your bike can handle the extra amps drawn on the electrical system and the extra heat generated in the housing.

The Iron Butt Association suggests upgrading the wire harness if the wattage of the new bulb is significantly higher that of the stock bulb.

Installing auxiliary lights takes even more care because more factors come into play: mounting, obviously, wiring and looming, and lamp selection.

Installing HID lighting is by far the best option because it offers a vast improvement over standard H-4 bulbs and even halogen lamps. It it can also be expensive, although prices have begun to come down.

The advantages of HID lighting include:

• Increased safety;
• Greater efficacy and output;
• Longer service life.

You can read more about these HID and auxiliary lighting options on the Web site for the Iron Butt Association.

Motorcycle HID Lighting

While motorcycle manufacturers have been slower than automobile manufacturers in adopting HID lighting, it has begun to appear as an option on some models. Victory Motorcycles, to note but one example, includes HID lighting on premium models of its Vision touring bike.

There are several reasons for the slower adoption of HID lighting on motorcycles.

One is that an HID light bulb uses xenon gas whereas a traditional light bulb uses a filament. A motorcycle cannot easily supply the extra amps needed to ignite the gas. After ignition, however, an HID headlight needs far fewer amps and is comparable to that of normal or halogen headlights.

To ignite the HID headlight on a motorcycle, you need a ballast and igniter. Finding a place on a motorcycle to mount these additional components only complicates the issue.

Another reason is that HID bulbs do not offer both a high and low beam. For this, you need two bulbs. Also, HID lighting is more expensive than halogen lamps.

Finally, HID lighting is not legal in every state.

For more on HID lighting, see Wikipedia.