Pjcliffo Posted November 9, 2016 Share Posted November 9, 2016 Has any one else noticed that although the headlights seem nice and bright, if you ride a dark road with tight corners going up or down, the corner disappears into darkness as soon as you tilt the bike. The light beam is bright and broad but when you lean there is no light on the corner. I found it very scary if you are going into the corner fairly fast. Anyone else found this? Any solutions? I am thinking of fitting additional driving lights angled diagonally to eah side. Anyone fitted driving lights? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatshoutybloke Posted November 9, 2016 Share Posted November 9, 2016 Yeah, lots of people have found this, it's a design flaw. My solution is to adjust the dip beam up as far as possible without blinding whoever's in front of you, so when it's on full beam you get as much as possible leading around the corner. Still not great but better. There have been suggestions about auxiliary lamps but I've not seen any posts about anyone who has done it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer fink Posted November 9, 2016 Member Contributer Share Posted November 9, 2016 Yup it feckin annoying especially as I live on a high speed twisty road. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Mohawk Posted November 9, 2016 Member Contributer Share Posted November 9, 2016 LED high beams are not the greatest, good old incandescent bulbs do better. Does the 8th gen keep both low & high beams on when high is selected ? That would help, plus complain to Honda, if enough do it, then they should fix it. It could be worse, I had a top of the range Mercedes hire car as a free upgrade a couple of years back, it had great HID lamps with corner tracking which was awesome until you hit a fast unlit road & discovered that it also had auto dip main beam, but they were HIDS as well, so when a car came the other way say round a sharp corner, they dipped fine & the lows came on, but as the car passed lows go off instanstly but the HID ballast takes a second to bring the highs back on & you are hurtling towards a corner with NO lights at all. Very scary ! :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pjcliffo Posted November 9, 2016 Author Share Posted November 9, 2016 The Leds are great, much better than my uprated incandescent on my street triple, except for this cornering problem. I am amazed that this was not picked up in testing. i was following a vfr 1200 through the twisties at nite and when he disappeared around a corner I couldn't see where the road was going! Very scary. Also at first because they are so good you go in quite fast and then the road disappears as you lean in! Not nice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Skids Posted November 9, 2016 Member Contributer Share Posted November 9, 2016 I think the lights on the 8th Gen are the same as my 800X and whilst they are superb in the day for attracting the attention of drivers, at night they cannot compare to my 6th Gen with HiD-Xenon low beam bulbs. Awesome in daylight & equally so at night. With incandescents fitted to the high beam, twisty roads at night at some speed were quite easy whereas the new 800s have such a narrow swathe with noting beyond and nothing short. High beam, is ok, but no real power behind it. A definite step-backwards for the new VFR800's I'm afraid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DriverDave Posted November 9, 2016 Share Posted November 9, 2016 2 hours ago, Mohawk said: LED high beams are not the greatest, good old incandescent bulbs do better. Does the 8th gen keep both low & high beams on when high is selected ? That would help, plus complain to Honda, if enough do it, then they should fix it. It could be worse, I had a top of the range Mercedes hire car as a free upgrade a couple of years back, it had great HID lamps with corner tracking which was awesome until you hit a fast unlit road & discovered that it also had auto dip main beam, but they were HIDS as well, so when a car came the other way say round a sharp corner, they dipped fine & the lows came on, but as the car passed lows go off instanstly but the HID ballast takes a second to bring the highs back on & you are hurtling towards a corner with NO lights at all. Very scary ! :( Yes, the 8th gen keeps the lows on when highs come on (all four LEDs on together). There must have been a fault with that Mercedes. There's no way a factory vehicle would kill the low beams with HID high beams. The vast majority of modern vehicles that have separate low and high elements, keep the low beams on with the high beams. My Jeep has bi-xenon lights, which has a single HID bulb, per side, that uses a mechanical shutter to block some of the light output when using low beams, and moves out of the way when you choose high beams. My brother has a new 2016 Mercedes C450 AMG with "intelligent LED headlights". They can move in all directions, and he says they're the best headlights he's ever had on any vehicle. Also, back on topic, I agree that Honda really messed up on the 8th gen headlights. Absolutely worthless on a dark twisty road...but they look great to oncoming traffic!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer GatorGreg Posted November 9, 2016 Member Contributer Share Posted November 9, 2016 19 hours ago, Pjcliffo said: Has any one else noticed that although the headlights seem nice and bright, if you ride a dark road with tight corners going up or down, the corner disappears into darkness as soon as you tilt the bike. The light beam is bright and broad but when you lean there is no light on the corner. I found it very scary if you are going into the corner fairly fast. Anyone else found this? Any solutions? I am thinking of fitting additional driving lights angled diagonally to eah side. Anyone fitted driving lights? Unfortunately I think your problem is "normal" for 8th gens - I love the LEDs overall but it's the weirdest light pattern I've ever had on any vehicle whether it be the 2 or 4 wheeled variety. In addition to the cornering issue, there's also a big dead spot in the midrange area. I shot this video a while back where you can really see the lack of light in the midrange - turning on the high beams helps a little with the dead spot: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhenley17 Posted November 9, 2016 Share Posted November 9, 2016 Holy Jesus, mine is nothing like that. There's a dead spot, but it's too close to the bike to matter. I don't think mine are aimed particularly low, either, as I'm pretty happy with the distance my high beams light up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer GatorGreg Posted November 9, 2016 Member Contributer Share Posted November 9, 2016 Hmmm...jhenley do you think mine are set higher or lower than yours? I'm thinking maybe mine might be set too high? I'll have to break out the owner's manual tonight and figure out how to adjust it and experiment with some different adjustments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhenley17 Posted November 9, 2016 Share Posted November 9, 2016 I think yours are higher than mine. I just cleared my GoPro, but I'll grab a shot tomorrow. I may actually adjust mine higher after reading this thread. With the end of DST, I ride almost entirely in the dark and I can't see a damn thing in a turn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pjcliffo Posted November 10, 2016 Author Share Posted November 10, 2016 14 hours ago, jhenley17 said: I think yours are higher than mine. I just cleared my GoPro, but I'll grab a shot tomorrow. I may actually adjust mine higher after reading this thread. With the end of DST, I ride almost entirely in the dark and I can't see a damn thing in a turn. Exactly! i must make a video of mine on the really dark twisties here that have no streetlights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Bent Posted November 10, 2016 Member Contributer Share Posted November 10, 2016 Same issue as headlights on the 5th gens. Not good going up a curvy mountain at night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rambler358 Posted November 10, 2016 Share Posted November 10, 2016 Exactly! i must make a video of mine on the really dark twisties here that have no streetlights. Have you posted the video yet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Mohawk Posted November 10, 2016 Member Contributer Share Posted November 10, 2016 3 hours ago, Bent said: Same issue as headlights on the 5th gens. Not good going up a curvy mountain at night. I have LED replacements in my 5th Gen & as both low & high stay on in high, the light output is excellent, compared to the original upgraded incandescent bulbs it had when I got it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Jochem Posted November 11, 2016 Member Contributer Share Posted November 11, 2016 On 9-11-2016 at 10:14 PM, jhenley17 said: Holy Jesus, mine is nothing like that. There's a dead spot, but it's too close to the bike to matter. I don't think mine are aimed particularly low, either, as I'm pretty happy with the distance my high beams light up. That is the way to set them up. Lower than you'd expect. The 'dead spot' stops at about 5-10 meters in front of my bike. And I still have plenty light ahead. In the video, the lights are too high. Notice in the image below, that the signs still light up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhenley17 Posted November 13, 2016 Share Posted November 13, 2016 Hmmm...jhenley do you think mine are set higher or lower than yours? I'm thinking maybe mine might be set too high? I'll have to break out the owner's manual tonight and figure out how to adjust it and experiment with some different adjustments. I think maybe the wide angle and exposure made it seem more exaggerated to me because mine looks pretty similar from the GoPro's view. My camera is at a lower angle, but there probably isn't much difference in what our lights are doing.And to attempt to show what it looks like in a turn. Not a great picture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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