Night Riding

From BikeNomads

Article by Dr Arnob

Surviving the night on 2 wheels

Feel his cold breath in my ears,
Didn't know that he was here,
Back seat rider cloak and bones,
Yes he's come to take me home

(The biker - La Bionda)

This guy is especially close to us when we ride at night. So take care.....

Better lights

What would be the market reaction if a manufacturer introduced a car with a single 35/35W headlamp? All bikes are adorned with such a miserably useless thing, except for one or two exceptions.

Better lights are the first thing that one needs to upgrade to, for any serious night riding. Sadly, the AC electricals and anemic rectifiers pretty much rule out using a more powerful bulb, unless a knowledgeable electrician can rewind the coils and alter the rectifier or replace it to charge the battery faster.

Unmodified electricals (35W AC lighting)

The only option is to use a spot lamp on the pass switch connected directly to the battery for “emergency” lighting. A 65 watt H3 (rather than the more powerful 100W) in a spot lamp is the best choice, given the pathetic rate at which the battery usually recharges. Do NOT use a spread lamp for this – it would be totally useless.

For best effect mount the lamp as high as possible (making a bracket which fits where the mirror is mounted on the handle bar) on the right hand side, aimed diagonally towards the road 50 m away. Even in the glare of oncoming traffic, it should illuminate the junction between the road and the shoulder, and any stones in your path/ vehicles parked on the road. A spread beam, as mentioned, would be ineffective. Nothing you can do as regards the guy in front hosing you with his lights – you don't have sufficient juice for it. Seeing the road is enough.

Best (and most expensive) option – fit a HID 35W bulb, can be removed and refitted onto a new bike when you sell your current one. Light = 100W halogen, can be used on a continuous basis. Be prepared to cough up 9K.

And yes, while you are about it, you may consider upgrading your battery to the largest size that will fit on your bike. Your 65W lamp will run for more time.

Mods you can do for such bikes

Go to somebody experienced (somebody who has done this before) and get the coil rewound with thicker wire, more coils if possible and have a rectifier which recharges your battery faster. Bonus – you can fit a brighter bulb, and have the spot assembly mentioned above at the same time.

Bikes running DC lighting, with more electrical power

The Karizma, Comet and Eliminator fall into this category. Modern bullets do generate a lot of power too (but I do not know about the lighting part). First change the bulb to 100/90W, then run for at least 6-8 hrs at night to see if there are any problems. There should not be any. Please note, BOTH filaments should be on separate relays and fuses, and the wiring must be separate from the stock wiring.

It would be a good idea to buy a Maruti van fusebox for this purpose as it is a good idea to have your horn/s, and extra lighting on fuses as well.

Fit a 100 W H4 (or whatever your bike takes) that is 4000 – 6000 K – blue and purple lights throw less usable light.

Now you can fit spots on on your machine, but for a different purpose. The 100W main beam will illuminate the periphery of the road to some extent even in the glare of oncoming traffic – you can now use your spots (better to have two of them) to persuade traffic in front to dip their lights. Again, these are to be operated off the pass switch, to conserve battery.

Mount the bulbs such that the filaments are vertical and aim them slightly up and to the right so that they illuminate the face of the oncoming bus/truck driver. If you have done this properly you should see his face in spite of the glare of his high beam. Remember, his beam which is bothering you so much is a spread beam – and he is looking at your retina melting concentrated spots. When doing this, slow down so that you can take evasive action easily if need be, but DO NOT leave the center of the road encouraging the oncoming guy to do silly things.

It's all very well to be politically correct, but it will NOT keep you alive. Thats nobody's responsibility but yours. Almost 75% of oncoming vehicles do dip their lights when flashed, but the beasts with 4 headlamps never do.

The only way to make crossing them less dangerous is to blind them. While no truck actually wants to kill you, they are least bothered as to how you sort out your vision problems. However, they do have this huge worry of leaving the road, its the sort of thing that makes them lose control of their bowels. When blinded, they :
A: slow down
b: abort whatever moronic overtaking procedure they were about to perform on your side of the road.
And you get to ride on, on the road, instead of picking your way through the stones on the shoulder. At night.

As I said this is not only politically incorrect or even legal, but remember that the the very important and clever gubmin people who frame the rules (and whose fat bottoms have never sat on anything other than the rear seat of their chauffeured cages) also think that 35W AC is sufficient for night riding....remember also that the gubmin will be nowhere to be seen if you are blinded and go off the road as a consequence. Also remember that the *upholders of the law* are conspicuous by their absence at night.....

RVM tricks

Aim the rvms down, at the road 100 m behind you. As a faster veicle approaches, the road behind will glow, as opposed to glare. So you will not be surprised. You'll see the headlights only when the other guy is within 50m - time to move aside and let him go. As such, you'll be aware of following traffic, and also the approximate distance once they get close, all without getting blinded.

Maro the line

Where should you ride on the road? The extreme left is a bad choice – stones placed there by truckers are sometimes not removed, and vehicles parked there (or, without functioning tali lights) may not be picked up in time esp if the traffic in approaching you has not dipped the lights. The extreme right is a bad choice too as there may be unmarked slabs of concrete that spring up sporadically in the center of the road supposedly to act as a median ( our thoughtful gubmin at work again), with the sole purpose of destroying any vehicle that cannot take the necessary evasive action. I've narrowly missed a 5 foot ditch in the center of the road as well.

In addition, on dual carriageways a lot of things hop out from the bushes on the median right into the center of the lane and then look around with a “who am I and what am I doing here” expression on their faces. However much they deserve to have something large and solid slam into them at 120 kph, remember, you are neither, and better off riding on the right hand side of the left lane. The road sometimes widens out and sticking to the right lane can have you facing a median, or worse, oncoming traffic.

The lane marking is a very useful guide as to where you should be – two feet to the left of it – use it!

Skip the land of nod!

You can still ride if tired, but it is stupid to ride when you are sleepy. So how do you differentiate?

Several things happen when you are sleepy. You have difficulty focusing. You cannot hold your line on the road precisely. And you tend to avoid braking/slowing down in situations where you should. Most dangerous of all, you blink, and the traffic/road seems to be different. Any of these – go off road (where the bike cannot be seen from the road - try and avoid a spot with thorns unless repairing punctures at night is the sort of thing that makes you feel warm and fuzzy) and snatch a power nap. 20 min of that is usually enough, stop at the first dhaba you see and have some tea. To keep awake while you are hunting for a spot to sleep you could try singing loudly, or even shouting. Nobody will pay attention to your beastly yells, and till date, nobody fell asleep while shouting. Nap + tea will keep you going for the next 6-8 hrs at least. The nap is the important bit! Stopping without a spot of sleep is COMPLETELY USELESS.

Dry eyes do not mean that you are sleepy - maybe you should use eye drops, or simply stop the wind from hitting your eyes, with a handkerchief within your visor.

Blind man's buff

Okay , so you have lost your lights and cannot rectify the situation with what you have at hand. How do you move on, on the unlighted highway at night?

Actually there is a technique for this, if the road does not have potholes (and even if it does!)

Tail another vehicle, not dead astern (he may be straddling potholes) but on the right wheel track. This gives some visibility up ahead too (his lights). If the guy is driving too slow, you'll have to wait until somebody overtakes him - and then latch onto that guy. Perhaps the only thing that can go wrong – that guy may start to cruise at 110 kph (either unknowingly, or having spotted something unlighted and unwanted in his rvm) – you'll have to let him go.

However, you'll have to take care to tail close enough to avoid getting surprised by potholes, and stay sharp enough to avoid things placed deliberately in the centre of the road.

The hunt for the fast rabbit

Even if all your lights are working, it makes sense to follow a fast car. They have much better lights than you. And essentially clear the road for you and give an early warning of obstacles. Makes life much easier for you. And, if you are astride a P180 or ZMA, they usually do not have the grunt to shake you off either. I've had some who have tried their best to shake me off for half an hour (with dangerous driving to boot) finally giving up and gesturing me to move past. Not that I did – I mean, why should I? Most of these have subsequently pulled over to a dhaba to lose this dangerous guy on two wheels, but heck, nobody will stay your rabbit forever. Good while it lasts as your avg speed can go up as much as 20 kph.

Raising others living standards - avoid it

Some places do have law and order situations, and pootling along blissfully unaware of this can put you in a real soup. You don't want to get anywhere near such a situation.

Ask. Ask the dhaba owner/ petrol pump owner for info on the road ahead. These people have info which is totally upto date, and they will even be able to advise you about what course of action would be best for you. This should give you very accurate info within a radius of 100km. If you do not see traffic for more than 10 min it's not a good sign. Pull over to the side, and latch onto another vehicle travelling in the same direction and tail it. Stop at the first dhaba/pump you see, and ASK. Try and travel with other vehicles, in a convoy.

Avoid side roads as far as possible. Stick to the main roads, preferably ones with truck traffic.

If you have to nap, park at a spot where you cannot be seen from the road. Don't worry about dacoits finding you in the field. Any such gang specialising in this form of predation would have died of starvation long back. With dhabas, see that you nap in a spot that is as visible as possible, with your bike next to you, not 200m away. No dhaba owner wants his place to have an unsafe rep – bad for business. Trust your nose!