Quote:

Its not illegal to run a bike without a headlight



I've just spent an hour trying to find anything official about the mandatory running of headlights on bikes in Australia. What I've found is that Australian Design Rule (ADR) 19/01 was introduced in 1992 making hard-wired headlights compulsory, but the MCC convinced the federal government to introduce ADR 19/02 in 1996 which does not demand they be hard wired. Apparently Dept of Transport (DOTARS) is examining the idea of mandatory daytime running lights (which would probably be the front turn signals on bikes, same as everywhere else). I can't find any law that says bikes that aren't hard-wired have to have their lights on during the day, but I can find lots of studies that show it reduces multi-vehicle accidents.

Either way, Jenks Bolts apparently used to sell the switches, but rumour has it that they have since sold out and can't get any more.

My dealer claims that all the wiring exists in the handgrip to just plug a switch in, but I've had mine apart and it's not there, so I assume the connector in the headlight just has a few wire links in place instead. From what I've seen you could probably steal the switch out of a Triumph Thunderbird - it wouldn't match exactly but it looks like it'd probably fit.

I guess you could use the driving light switch, but you'd have to replace the existing one with a double poled switch to kill the headlight relay as well as the driving lights, and then you couldn't turn the driving lights off seperatley which'd make it illegal (again... which is beside the point since technically the driving lights're illegal in Australia anyway.)

If all you want is to start the bike without the lights on, they already turn off while you've got the starter engaged, but if you want to warm up the bike without the lights I've seen an add-on device that keeps the headlights off until the first time you put the bike in gear, then leaves them on till you turn the bike off. Think I can find the link for it now though? You could also wire up the relay to the kickstand switch so that the lights don't come on when the stand's down. (The bike won't run in gear when it's down, so it's impossible to ride it with the lights off, however it means you can't have it on it's stand with the lights on). I also found this little beast which plugs onto the back of your headlight bulb and delays it turning on for 30 seconds, and if you hit high beam it overrides it - nifty, and I could probably copy the idea and work out a circuit.

However, if it's just coz you're a badass, well there's not a lot I can do about that, is there?

Matt

Matt Electronic mods for TBA/SM!