Chris, great graphic and points, thanks! Another point to consider, (besides the proportions of vehicle sizes being incorrect in the diagram - but a good diagram nonetheless), is that any light is virtually bright when stared directly at - and most people aren't in fact blinded, merely annoyed enough to flash, and I imagine very few into a ditch or obstacle from being blinded. If it gets their attention (even in some slight annoyance), that means they see me and the effect is working properly. It might be also better to err on the side of a slight annoyance than chance being not seen enough. The bikes I've seen with bright LED's are a fraction of the annoyance (and blinding) that modern cars, trucks and SUV's have with their halogens, super-LEDs and other piercing blue or fancy shmancy new sun-tan lights. And if drivers can handle those, I figure they can certainly handle a motorcycle with an order of magnitude less brightness. Of course it won't be that way in all situations and it depends on surrounding lighting, vehicles, 1 lane or 4 lanes and other conditions and the former of which will look more blinding in almost any vehicle come to think of it - oncoming traffic always is, but I digress. Regardless, thanks for the graphic and for "illuminating" the possibilities. ;-)
One reason I opted to for the D2's is a lower-power light setting can be used for night/daytime. I would personally favor a mid-to-higher mounting point with the ability to aim them down at the road. My first biggest concern is being seen at night and my second is poor illumination from the main headlamp. Thus I would have absolutely NO problem redirecting 75% of the light towards the road surface to find debris, illuminate corners, spot potholes, tar snakes, road lines, squirrels, cats and dogs, small children, gremlins, etc. Based on the mount points in the photos on the tip-over wings (thank you Brad) I wonder if there might be less chance of damaging the lights by mounting them atop of the tip-over wings. I have no problem getting a new mount or even metal bracket, it's the light I don't want totally destroyed if at all possible. If you draw an imaginary line from wheel out to the tip over wing, there seems to be less space underneath than there would be atop, so I might "hazard" a guess that the top of the tip-over wing might result in less damage to any light when/if the bike hits them. Then again if I have a sad hard enough to "knock my lights out", there might be bigger concerns to think about than a pair of LED headlamps. (pun intended.) ;-)