Hi all,
sorry for not getting back to you before.
I've been away on a trip, and then away on work.
The lights. Well, what can I say.
Get your ST out in the evening and flip on the low beam in an unlit area. Make a note of how far you can see, and how wide the beam is (i.e. how much of the road sides you can see). Now flip on the high beam and note it again.
I have my lights set to suit for two up touring, as this is how it is almost exclusively used. I state this so you know my lights are correctly adjusted and not pointing skyward. With the two of us on the bike I would liken the distance I can see (amount of road lit) to that of the standard high beam, but with far better definition.
On high beam, you can see as much as you need to.
As an example, I was on a piece of unlit autobahn south of Munich, and on low beam I could happily cruise at 95mph seeing all I needed to. On high beam 120 was no problem (couldn't go faster - the pillion speed controller kicked in
)
On the A25 & A29 I could ride to the conditions without being restricted by the previosly poor vision.
To compare them to other bikes, we went with a VFR750, a VFR800, and a FJ1300, and my lights lit the road the best, with the possible exception of the FJ.
When you flip on the high beam it comes on at one colour and changes colour over about 5 seconds as it warms up. You don't really notice just how much more you can see on high beam until you turn it off again.
Now for the prices.
I have details of the various kits, with special prices for DSC members.
These are to be submitted to Paul James for inclusion in the next newsletter.
They will do low, high or both beam kits, and do kits for pretty much anything.
I took photos of my install and will do a fitting instruction sheet to make life easier for others. The job involves removing the side panels,top fairing and taking the headlight out helps too. Apart from that, its all pretty simple.
As a rough guide, expect to pay in the order of 275GBP for the low & high beam kit (H1/H3), including vat & delivery.
If anyone wants to see the lights or the install for themselves and is local, send me a mail and I'll try to sort out a free evening.
I will post some pics but have not suckedthem out of the camera yet.
Apologies if it sounds like I'm raving about them, but I honestly feel the lights now do the bike justice. No more having to sit behind a car as I can't see enough to overtake it !