The 'hardware store hardware' comment was just that, a comment. If I say that the side cases on the old Kawasaki Concours look like Samsonite luggage......it's because.....well....... they look like Samsonite luggage.
I'm just saying it doesn't look like vehicle quality, or like it 'belongs', looks-wise, on the bike. It's not giving anyone a hard time about anything. I was just looking for latches, too, and though I liked the low profile of the hardware store ones, I just couldn't get myself to do it......
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The thread you quoted is the one place where I will admit to being obtuse on this site. While I didn't specifically criticize your application, because I don't know how excessively bright it may or may not have been, I used the occasion to rant about a pet peeve -- blinding others. So since you invited me to continue the rant on THIS thread.....
When someone modifies their vehicle so that it puts out
much more light that it was legally allowed to do -- and often the owner has an attitude of "I don't care if you don't like it, my right to be seen is more important than your right to not be blinded by oncoming traffic" -- that's just selfishness. There are some folks who put HID bulbs into standard halogen-reflector headlights; HID reflectors are tuned to match the bulb, and if you put HID bulbs into halogen reflectors, it is brighter on the eyes of oncoming traffic. They project a different pattern.
The old 80's practice of leaving your headlights on high all the time for visibility was somewhat OK when it was the old technology with a weak single bulb (35/55w?). But have you ever had a Harley come at you with 3 headlights.....on high? "I don't care about you, you gotta see me, m-f'er!" Car headlights are targeted so that they point down the road, not into oncoming traffic, and your right headlight will actually be pointed a bit towards the shoulder. Some of the new pickups have fog lights that are brighter than their headlights and have a broader scatter than headlights. If no one else is around, and one of those vehicles comes toward me with both headlights AND fogs on -- more than double the light -- and it's clearly not anywhere near foggy or snowy -- I will give them my brights. Hey, if they think they have the right to blind oncoming traffic, I'll give them a dose back. But not if there are others around who would be annoyed. If the fogs are brighter than the headlights, and you've got all 4 of them on, that's considered 'high beams' to me. So occasionally I will give a dose of my high beams. Same with the newer Cherokees that have SIX lights on the front, if they've got the daytime running lamps AND the headlights AND the foglights on......when it's no where near foggy.
For my bike, I am actually considering putting a couple of small 'driving lights' on the fender, the kind that are just marker lights and not lights for illuminating the road ahead. Only because with a single headlight, it's difficult to judge the speed of an oncoming motorcycle in the dark. As the little pea-shooter 'fog' lights/driving lights on an 80's Pontiac, for example, don't contribute much to overall light output, I would only add lighting that wouldn't be offensive to oncoming traffic.
I personally wish that there were more regulations on vehicle lighting, and that law enforcement were given means to ticket those using excessive lighting (add-on lights, use of fogs when it's clearly not needed, etc.) Right now, I think about all you can be pulled over for would be those off-road light bars on trucks. I've seen idiots that think those are OK to use in public, too. Those LEDs are made for billboards, they scatter light in all directions indiscriminately. A turd running one of those on the street will get some high-beams from me, too (if no one else is around to offend.)
And I have good vision. The dazzle of bright headlights is worse for older folks with weaker eyes, though.
My GTI has foglights, and I never use them. Only once have I had someone give me the brights, and my car has stock (and well-tuned) HIDs. My car has 'cornering lights' that come on at slow speed when you're turning a sharp corner, like at an intersection. One elderly guy gave me the brights for that at an intersection, but the cornering light it's something I can't shut off. He probably thought I'd turned my brights on on him, but it was just this cornering light.
End rant.
I'll give you something else for context..... I like going for late-night walks around town. I get tired of cars that don't turn their brights off for pedestrians, as if blinding pedestrians is more OK than blinding oncoming cars. No, the retinas are the same. Pedestrians often can't repay the favor, however. So recently I went to Cabelas and got a small high-powered LED flashlight. If I'm in visible colors and reflective bits on shoes and jacket and a car doesn't turn its brights off, I'll give 'em a shot of 280 lumens (and that's actually kind of midrange for these flashlights). If I'm all dressed in black, I don't blame the oncoming traffic for not seeing me. If I see a pedestrian, I always turn my brights down. 'Common' courtesy.
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