Daylight bike

[Okeydokey]

My Honda H100 headlamp is so crap that I wont ride it in the dark, no point can't see anything at all, I have now exhausted the '6V/55 Watt bulb... what can be done about it', avenue to no avail.

Question: Is there a provision for taxing a bike for daytime use only? I have seen track and trial bikes advertised as such... any ideas how this works?
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Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruitsalad!
YB100 v. Ford Sierra (1982 I came 2nd place) Honda H100S (Currently 0 - 0) CX500 Cafe project (me 1 - wife 0.... maybe!)

[IanAl]

My mate built a bobber last year for daylight use only and had to get an MOT on it for daylight use ie no lights or flashers etc, not sure about the insurance tho

[garth]

MOT'd my monster with a numberplate, a rear reflector and a horn. That's it.
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You ain't a has been if you never was

[garth]

<--- Looked just like that.

No speedo, no stand, no ignition, no fuel tap / gauge / light, brakes that didnt work until they were hot.

Good laugh!
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You ain't a has been if you never was

[soforene]

Daylight MOT's !!

Fancy that !
What a great source of info this place is.
Never heard of 'em before.

[andyscooter]

great but pretty much usless at this time of year

about 6 hours of daylight at the moment

most people work 8 hour shifts
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gilera runner vxr200 (chavped)
if its spelt wrong its my fat fingers and daft auto correct on my tablet

[Okeydokey]

but to be honest Andy a bike with shite lights you cant ride on is only good for the six hours a day this time of year anyway
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Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruitsalad!
YB100 v. Ford Sierra (1982 I came 2nd place) Honda H100S (Currently 0 - 0) CX500 Cafe project (me 1 - wife 0.... maybe!)

[Blau Zedong]

[colin1]

The light is there to show people you are there, not necessarily to light up the road.

I've got a big bike and on street lit roads, you cant always tell if the headlight is on or not.
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colin1 is officially faster than god

[Pernig]

[Im-a-Ridah]

Just put another bulb in and MOT it

[Teflon-Mike]

The 'Day-Light Hours Only' MOT or Daylight MOT has not existed for probably twenty years.

It was a regular MOT; cost the same price; but was endorsed "Daylight Use Only"

Was intended for older bikes built in the days when Construction & Use regulations didn't 'require' lights to be fitted.

My 1981 registered Montesa Comp-Trials bike, when I bought it in 1985, came with the only 'Daylight Use Only' MOT certificate I have ever seen... it was the bikes first and only ever MOT and had 'just' expired!

Bike actually came with the full factory 'lighting kit', which original bill of sale described as an 'optional accessory pack'!

Gave a conundrum of law; IF I had fitted the lighting kit, and been caught riding it in the dark.... I was technically riding 'without a valid MOT'.

The 'Old' "Daylight Use Only" MOT dissapeared for a while, in the late 80's, but returned in the mid 90's as an MOT 'Note' "Tested without Lights"

Possible to submit a bike for MOT and get a pass under certain historical exemptions, if the bike has no lights, or, under a caveot for 'machines capable of carrying only the rider, and adapted primarily for off-road use' qualified with 'by dint of ground clerance tyres etc'.

So, if your bike has ONLY a solo seat, no duel-seat, no grab-rail, no pillion footpegs; and has been 'adapted' for off-road use, by dint of ground clerance or tyres, or other arguable non-original design feature, you MIGHT be able to submit it for modern test, without lights.

Depending on its age; you likewise may be able to remove lights and submit for test; but on a H100, I dont think it would be quite old enough; unless you used the modded for off-road clause.

If you got such an MOT; and then fitted lights, and used it in teh dark, I think that the MOT is still valid; BUT, your responsibility to ensure that you have adequete lighting and its in accordance with the RTA & C&U regs....

You dont get any reduced taxation rate, and FFS you are only paying 16 ruddy quid a year on a H100 ANYWAY!

As a declared modification from standard, effect on insurance would probably be to increase it!

[Okeydokey]

I live in the most rural of provinces, no street lights, no road markings and telling where the road edge is against the hedge is nearly impossible.
Riding with the visor open, its not tinted but I wear glasses so don't really need it, I can honestly not see a bloody thing, bare in mind my eyesight is regularly tested and rectified when needed.
Where there are road markings no problem, a bit like Scalectrix, or follow the yellow brick road thing but with out the markings might as well head across the field for what its worth... now there's a thought

Add no houses, to the no street lights, etc.
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Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruitsalad!
YB100 v. Ford Sierra (1982 I came 2nd place) Honda H100S (Currently 0 - 0) CX500 Cafe project (me 1 - wife 0.... maybe!)

[Teflon-Mike]

Ah! DARK-EST Daw-seT then, izet?
Seriousely; lamps ought not be SO dull you cant see on an unlit rural road.
(Oym, leyfey, War-IK-sheer, inoiy.. OK, I'll stop typing in dialect. I'm 'old' Stratford, and natural is a soft Gloucester; which was a lot more previlent and stonger in my youth, especially growing up on a farm. Was drilled out of me when I started school, aparently, along with a stutter, but since nervouse break down, both have returned!)
Most of my early riding was down the lanes of leafy Warwickshire, which even in daylight are often pretty dim, tunnels of trees, on 6v lit dirt-bikes.
Not wonderful, but 'adequete'.
One tip though is to keep the engine revs up; if you are labouring in top, and then slowing down becousae you cant see so far, then the mag struggles to make enough amps for the genny.
Cog down, let the motor rev out, lights get brighter.
But I would suspect that main problem, is likely to be twenty or thirty year old wires.
If you strip the insulation back on one, the usually bright pink copper will probably be black with oxide.
This increases teh resistance of the wire, and crates a voltage drop down its length.
Less volts you have to start with, more voltage drop will be, and the less you will have to light the bulbs.
If you have corroded terminals or connectors as well, you can struggle to get much juice to the bulbs at all.
6v systems tend to only be nominaly 6v; the may may only be making 3v at tick over and going up to around 9v at high revs, so again, high resistance wiring can be very big at low revs, and make the dimmer switch on the engine revs a lot more promounced.

May be worth spiking a few wires with a volt-meter and seeing how much voltage drop you get, from whats at the magneto end to whats at the bulb.

I'm attempting a 12v conversion on my 6c Dt at the moment, using a C50/pit-bike regulator, becouse aparently the DT's mag to get 6v at close to tick-over, chucks out well over 12v at pretty low revs; just dumps it through a balast resistor and zenner diode. So using a 12v regulator, possible to convert to 12v on the original Magneto.

Might be possible to do similar with the H100 Mag, if it makes enough volts at low enough revs.

Main reason I'm 12v-ing the DT though is to be able to use more widely available 12v components, which tend to be cheaper, more reliable, and usually a bit 'better'.. plus I'd like a fag lighter socket to power a GPS for green-laning... but would also mean I could use an H4 bulb lense & reflector in the DT headlamp shell and use off the shelf 35w PIR bulb, same wattage as the 6v tungsten but about five times as bright...

NOT that brightness is all.. found time and time again, that bright lights are not always as much of an advantage as you'd hope. Particularly if there is a big difference between main-beam brightness and dip.

If the difference between Main & dip is too big, flipping between the two, can be hard to adjust to the difference in brightness.

Other thing is that if you have a brighter Main, but dont adjust it further up the road, you get a very much brighter pool of light on the road infront, but cant actually see any further up the road with it.

Adjust it so that it lights further ahead, and gives less of a contrast difference, though, when you flip to dip, the event horizon shortens so much, its like some-one has nicked the road from under you!

Getting a 'good' light set up, tends to be about finding optimums between brightness and contrast, aim and coverage.

Colour also has influence and the more orange hue of a tungsten bulb often 'feels' dimmer than it is, against the starker white of blue of a halogen, but the 'softer' glow, while not providing so much detail can actually give less contrast and be easier to see by.

It's certainly more 'conspiciouse' in day-time.

Improvements could be sound fairly easily, just by using more engine revs to get more bulb volts; adjusting the lamp angle to get better coverage, and getting 'used' to the softer colour.
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My Webby'Tef's-tQ, loads of stuff about my bikes, my Land-Rovers, and the stuff I do with them!
Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?'

[1cyl]

This is what you need..........

https://p1.bikepics.com/2004/02/02/bikepics-103967-800.jpg
wife worked for a summer theatre company when we first met in 03

did me fine all winter, just need a good bulb
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Chase my Witch up, Catch my Snitch up.
The SMC | The Pit | Stable

[truslack]

H100s aren't THAT bad for lighting, not brilliant, but definitely usable - I wouldn't entertain the idea of using a 55w bulb in it though.
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Current: Suzuki RG 125 Gamma, Honda H100, Triumph Tiger 800XC, Suzuki SV650 (minitwin)