The use of headlight modulators seems surprisingly rare among the motorcyclists in this (East San Francisco Bay) area. Having ridden both with and without them (mostly with) for about 55k miles, I write this little missive in hopes of making a few converts.

I started riding seriously on a little 200 cc dualsport with a 35 watt headlight that provided near-complete blindness after dusk. An upgrade to tungsten halogen light (in a few flavors) helped the night blindness a little, but the lighting system was AC, so even though I knew about modulators their use was not feasible. Cars violating my right of way were not a major problem, and I simply didn't think about it apart from the standard wariness taught in rider classes.

My second serious motorcycle was a '98 vfr800. The previous owner equipped it with both headlight and taillight modulators. The leap from a 220 pound dualsport to a quarter-ton sport tourer instilled a great deal of caution, and something else happened besides: People waited for me. Puttering along the 35 mph parts of Bear Creek Road, where all the driveways are, cross traffic would wait, wait, and wait some more for me to pass. It became embarrasing to ride at the speed limit.

After a couple of years there was one incident, in which a right-turning driver tried to beat me (going straight) through a four-way stop. I yielded right of way, he claimed the modulated left headlight looked like a turn signal. But he admitted seeing it! No harm, no foul, somewhat lame excuse. Never a case of left turn in my right of way [sound of knuckles on forehead!].

Eventually I got over the embarrasment of folks waiting for me (ok, maybe I picked up the pace slightly) and got on with my practicing. That led to an sv650s, which didn't have any modulators at all.

Within 50 miles I got the left turn treatment. Southbound Skyline at Snake, in the Oakland hills. Close enough to discover that an sv650s has a _really_ grabby rear brake. Again I was slow, no harm, no foul. But that set me to thinking. Both bikes had dual headlights. One red bike, one blue. Black leathers and white helmet always. Both were under the speed limit at the time. Daylight. Above all, I'd been through that intersection hundreds of times on the vfr with the modulated headlight, never a problem in all sorts of traffic even when going slightly faster.

The statistically-inclined among the readership will observe "One datapoint is useless, keep riding the sv without a modulator and count the number of events. Compare that to the number of events on the vfr and we'll have some credible data". Alas they're right. One personal experience does not a trend make.

Know what? There's a headlight modulator on the sv now. It's staying. My hide is worth more than the data.

bob