What Do You Think of These As Auxiliary Lights on a Motorcycle?

Supur-Lyte

Newly Enlightened
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Jul 22, 2012
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ABL 2505 H4 Information

ABL 2505 H4 Datasheet


It has a 5" x 5" lens in a 6" x 6" housing, uses an H4 bulb, has an ECE approval and is designed to be used on heavy equipment. There's also a snowplow version, the 3505 H4.

Given its size, it will probably look too big on anything other than a large motorcycle, but if you are familiar with adventure-style motorcycles, then you've probably seen a wide variety of auxiliary light setups - legal and illegal - being used.

Would selective yellow auxiliary lights be better in order to improve conspicuity? If so, would tinting the lens or using one of those yellow balloons over the bulb be more effective?
 

-Virgil-

Flashaholic
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Mar 26, 2004
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7,802
That's a very old lamp originally made by a French company called Auteroche decades and decades ago. Either ABL bought out Auteroche or they ended up with the tooling for some of Auteroche's lamps. Whether they would be adequate, performancewise, really depends on how much you ask of them. They'd be more useful on high beam than on low beam, but obviously high beam can't be used in traffic, only on empty roads.

Selective yellow might be better for conspicuity, but those yellow snap-on glass globes are no good. The mounting clamp/band blocks light from the high beam filament from reaching the reflector, and puts optically distorted glass around the low beam filament, screwing up the beam focus. There used to be a better design available, without these problems (slimmer clamp/band), but I haven't seen one of those in 10 or 15 years now.
 

Hamilton Felix

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Jan 2, 2010
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Marblemount, WA, USA
I know what you're talking about. Flashback time: Around 1979 and the early 80's, I patronized a lighting & rally accessories shop in Seattle. I ran across some of those H4's with yellow globes on the "discounts and oddities" table. Turns out Kenworth Northwest had sold a batch of trucks for delivery to French Guiana, and the shop had supplied them with Cibie headlights. The yellow bulbs were leftovers from that order. Now I wish I had bought a few, just for fun.
 
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