See and Be Seen

I HAD BEEN CHASING AS MANY LUMENS AS I COULD GET, WHAT I SHOULD HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR WAS WHERE THOSE LUMENS WERE PLACED

Pick through pretty much any online motorcycle forum – like the stromtrooper.com that serves my much loved 2018 Suzuki DL1000 – and other than “when is this damned COVID-19 thing going to end” and the ever-dreaded oil thread, the next most popular subject is almost always the search for the perfect LED headlight replacement bulb.

There are a bunch of reasons for this. A cynic might postulate it’s because of the simplicity of the experiment. Replacing a bulb is a damned sight easier than installing a new camshaft and the results of the change are immediately – and visually – apparent. An optimist, on the other hand, would say that it’s because so many of us care about safety, both during the day (when a brighter bulb means a motorcyclist will have a better chance of being seen) and during the night (when that same brighter light will alert us to the hazards of the road). The cheapskates amongst us might counter that it’s because headlights cost but a pittance compared with an aftermarket pipe or a new Öhlins shock absorber and, referring back to the cynic’s argument, the results are more readily apparent. Whatever the case, LED light missives go on for as long as the aforementioned oil threads, only with a lot more pictures.

Not nearly as immune to obsession and/or compulsion as I’d like to think, I quickly found myself hooked. So much so that not only is my beloved V-Strom now decked out with LED replacement bulbs (both high