Beware car headlight clusters

[Davidc]

You're right generally, and those VW Golf ones (above) are invisible when the headlights are on.

At the moment it's being made worse by the filthy roads and drivers who don't clean their lights.

I never rely on indicators (whether using car or bike or walking) but they sometimes help, on the rare occasions they're used.

 

[Black Sheep]

Yup, washing our car is high on the to do list

 

[XmisterIS]

Yup, washing our car is high on the to do list

Lol! It's interesting you say that - I think (although I could be wrong) that the highway code says your lights and numberplate need to be clean, or not obscured, or something like that.

Anyway, I always make sure my motorbike lights are clean, but I never bother with the car, not even when it's filthy! (it's usually filthy).

 

[longers]

Good thread this, is it Freelanders that have their rear indicators mounted unfeasibly low for a highish vehicle?

 

[fossyant]

Good thread this, is it Freelanders that have their rear indicators mounted unfeasibly low for a highish vehicle?

Yeh and the older 'disco' - many like that where the indicators are in the bumper, and main rear lights high up.

 

[fossyant]

Whether VW realised it, but the latest Golf has gone back to more conventional rear lights ! (slight facelift model)

 

[yumpy]

Be interesting to see what ROSPA or whoever have to say. It feels like one of those instances where all the safety boxes on the sheet have been ticked, so everyone is happy, except that the some of the boxes are looking at the wrong things in the first place.

 

[Norm]

I commented about the 2005 Golf rear light cluster a few months ago. They are shockingly bad but I think even VW realised this as they changed them for the following model year.

On a similar theme, I would never ride a motorbike with two headlights (or a bicycle with two halogens side-by-side) because at night the two lights close together can look like two car headlights much further away than the bike really is!

I was thinking about putting double headlights on my motoribike, but I've scrapped that idea now - one headlight, coming down the middle of the road and people definitely know what it is.

I'm going to disagree on that one, XM, although most manufacturers (and possibly legislators) are running scared of the safety misconceptions so you'll not find any modern bikes which light both bulbs at the same time.

The reason that I call it a misconception is that, if you look at the front of a bike with twin lights, such as the Fireblade, each light is significantly larger than the gap between them. Not only do they appear as one long light, there are no car designs around which have that sort of set up.

My Fazer has two large headlights with a very narrow strip between them. I'm delighted that, back in 2001, they still sold them with both lights working together as it is considerably more noticeable, and brighter, than a bike which only uses one light.

Lol! Down the middle of the road? Perhaps in Khazakstan, yes, but in blighty, less often!

If there's enough light to see that you are travelling down the middle of the road, there's probably also enough to see that you are a motorbike.