Hello and welcome to Simplified on PowerDrift, where we take complicated automotive ideas and
break them down into something simple that you can use in your life with motorcycles.
Today we are talking about high beam and low beam on your headlight and in this video,
you will discover that you should be using a high beam quite a bit more than you do.
Did I just say that? I did, but before I explain that, four buttons, subscribe and bell
notification icon so that when the next Simplified comes out, you get notified automatically.
Thumbs up if you lik the video, and please share this with your friends because if they're
running on low beam, they're missing out. Okay, now I know that you're fully confused,
because everybody tells you that you should not be using your high beam and you should be using
the low beam and here I am telling you to do the exact opposite, so let me set some context. Your
headlight has two beams, low and high and the low usually is designed as a spread beam, which means
it falls close to the motorcycle but in a very wide pattern, whereas the high is supposed to be
a long distance beam which is narrower in nature, it illuminates less of the world around you, but
it goes quite far from the motorcycle. The reason why everybody tells you that you shouldn't be on
high beam primarily is the idea that if there is traffic coming at you, you're on high beam,
they can't see anything because you're dazzling them with your headlight and in that context,
me telling you that you should be using your high beam quite a bit more sounds strange, doesn't it?
I remember that at PowerDrift we were riding together, Varun, me and a couple of our other
colleagues and we were out on the highway together, there was nobody around it was
deserted, I think 3am or something like that and we discovered that the rider in the front,
the chap who was taking us to the location we were supposed to film at was using low beam
throughout and therefore we were going quite slowly. Now we reached the venue on time and I
asked him saying bro, why don't you just use your high beam? And he said no, no, no high beams are
bad news, you should be using your low beam all the time and to me,
that's where the problem is and if you're thinking like that, here's perspective,
the high beam's job as a beam of light that goes farther away from your motorcycle is to illuminate
a world that is still very, very far from your motorcycle, so you can see those hazards earlier,
recognise what they represent, take evasive action, make a plan and execute that action.
So in that sense, high beams are great and if you have a LED setup, many of us do, which means
increasingly, when you switch to high beam on an LED set up, they don't turn off the low beam,
which means now on your motorcycle, you have illumination that starts literally at the front
of the motorcycle and goes quite a long way into the distance. The only reason and the only only
only reason to not use your high beam constantly is that if you use it constantly, you're going
to dazzle somebody oncoming. But, that means when there is nobody oncoming, there is no reason for
you to be using your low beam, okay, this is where it gets a little bit complicated because now what
we are talking about is not illuminating this or that, we're talking about courtesy and etiquette.
This and that are absolutes, courtesy and etiquette isn't. Let me give you an example
of Varun Painter, Varun is one of the most conscientious motorcyclists I've ridden with,
and he will actively dip his headlamps for literally everybody who's coming the other way,
including pedestrians. So when we are going out on the highway at night, you can constantly see
Varun's headlights come to high beam, there's nobody in front, he'll stay on high beam, as soon
as there's a car coming, he'll dip his headlights, and he will do this 3 million times in the night
if it's needed, but I know that Varun is taking care to ensure he can see as much as he can by
using the high beam as often as he can, but every single time there is a chance that he'll dazzle
someone, he dips his headlights. I do the same thing when I'm running auxillary lights on any of
my motorcycles and the reason why auxiliary lamps are so heavily prosecuted by police everywhere
is because the chances that you will not dip them and then you will end up dazzling somebody.
So the point I'm making is simple, you need to make two changes to the way you ride in the night.
One, use your high beam as much as possible, whenever there is a chance when there's nobody
in front of you who could possibly be disturbed by this light and remember,
if a car is ahead of you, they've got three rearview mirrors, one in the centre and two on the
sides and if you stay on your high beam and you're behind them, you are dazzling them a little bit,
it's a good time to dip your headlight. In fact, when I'm following a car,
I will use their headlights instead of my high beam to see the distance and as I pass them,
I will switch back to high beams if there's nothing else in the front.
Second, use your low beam when there's pedestrians, cyclists, scooters, motorcycles or cars
coming at you because if you're dazzling them, they are blind, if they are blind,
they can't see where they're going and one of the areas that they might go into is into
you because chances are they're looking at your headlight and say, you ass, dip your headlight,
in the process they're target fixating on you and that means if they're not good drivers, many
of them aren't, they're slowly veering towards the source of the light which is your headlight.
So it is in your interest to not use the highbeam in these situations. But the point I'm making is,
the high beam is there for a reason, use it as often as you can, don't misuse it,
all of the legend of why we shouldn't use high beams is all surrounded by the fact that we misuse
them quite a bit. But I'm saying, if you learn how to use them correctly, you will end up using them
a lot more. When you use them a lot more, you will see a lot more of the world in the night, it will
make you safer and faster, both without really causing problems for anyone. All it requires is
courtesy and etiquette and you can't change your headlight's brightness, it's very difficult to
change the light, you may not want to spend money on auxiliary lights, but courtesy and etiquette,
they're free. Thank you so much for watching. This is Simplified on PowerDrift,
if you like this video, give us a thumbs up. If you want to discuss this further,
leave us a comment. I know this is a slightly controversial topic, but again, I reiterate,
I'm not saying use your highbeam all the time, I'm saying just because high beams dazzle people
doesn't mean you have to be on the low beam all the time. You have to be on low beam when there
are people who you could possibly dazzle at all other times, it's okay to use your high beams.
Thank you so much for watching. If there's anything else you'd like to see on Simplified,
all you have to do literally is leave us a comment and we'll get right on it
because I remind you, even this topic, high beam versus low beam come from comments that you've
left on previous Simplifieds. And if you're seeing Simplified for the first time and you
want to see the older episodes, the playlist is on YouTube.com/PowerDrift please go do see it,
and please do leave us a comment there, we are monitoring these comments and if you
have questions, you will see them as episodes here as soon as we can do it. Thank you.