The new touring motorcycle is probably equipped with modern lighting features and self-cancelling turn signals. That's a good start. But your new motorcycle might be better equipped than a touring motorcycle made one year ago with basic features. New motorcycles are often full of LED lights and other basic lighting features. ShinyWing But with these features, upgrading lights shouldn't be a bigger-is-better mentality. It's about coverage, contrast, and communication, and not blinding people and adding unnecessary electrical issues with upgrades. Poor upgrading can even add unnecessary complexity and provide no real-world benefit.
What Increased Visibility Actually Means When Riding at Night
When riders are saying they want ‘brighter’ they are usually referring to four things:
More Distance Without Glare
You want a light that can shine further down the road while still having a controlled cutoff so that you don’t blind oncoming traffic.
More Width at the Edges
Touring bikes do big miles, and at the edges of your beam are animals, debris, and broken pavement. Wider illumination means you see more.
Better Performance in Rain and Fog
Bad weather can highlight mis-aimed lights. A beam pattern specifically designed for fog and poor conditions can be more useful than just having more output.
Stronger Being Seen Signals
Especially in city riding, the clarity of your brakes and turn signals can matter more than the intensity of your headlight. A big part of basic rider-safety is just being seen, so riding with your headlight and using clear brakes to show that you are slowing matters.
Upgrades for Your Forward Lighting: Driving Lights vs Fog Lights
The most useful upgrades for LED lighting fall into these two categories for forward lights. Knowing the difference saves you from wasting money.
Highway Driving Lights
Driving lights are intended to help you see further in the distance. They are a good choice for dark highways and rural roads when there are no cars coming toward you. The only problem is that driving lights must be used legally and ethically. They should be used like a high beam supplement. You shouldn't just leave them on all the time.
The law regarding driving lights and fog lights is all over the place and tends to focus on how sturdy the lights are mounted, if they can be adjusted, and if they are aimed correctly.
Fog Lights for Weather and Traffic
While driving lights help you see further, lights that are designed to help you see when there is fog are great for seeing when it is raining, snowing, or when there are a lot of cars, as they are designed to help see under and around the fog. Because of this, they can be used on regular roads when it is not foggy. They can make edges easier to see and make the bike more visible in the dark while not shining a ton of light in other people's faces.
Rear Visibility: The Upgrades That Prevent Close Calls
When riding a touring motorcycle, rear lighting does not serve a decorative purpose. It serves a communicative purpose. Although a touring motorcycle may not appear visually large to other drivers, they can be large, especially at night and in the rain.
As a result, customers frequently invest in LED lighting for the rear, enhanced visibility of turning lights, and brake lights that attract attention.
The rationale for this is simple: if a driver is looking at something, they should be looking at a brake light that provides ample opportunity to react to the situation.
Wiring and Reliability: Make Upgrades Behave Like OEM
Upgrades in visibility fail when the electrical blueprints are not thoroughly developed. Loose connections, over-tapped circuits, and messy grounding cause flickers and create inconsistent behavior, causing major troubleshooting headaches.
Touring cyclists often add multiple electrical accessories over time. A centralized, protected distribution makes the installation easier and cleaner and makes it easier to service it, especially as the number of accessories increases.
Even if you pick a different solution, the principle holds: weatherproof connectors, generous strain relief, solid mounting, and insulated circuits matter just as much as the LEDs.
Aiming and Etiquette: The Fastest Way to Improve Night Riding
Surprisingly high amounts of poor lighting is simply poorly aimed lighting.
Numerous explanations and guides concerning supplemental lamps mention the words aimable and aiming repeatedly as well as the need for stable mounting. In real riding situations, this translates to three habits.
- Keep your main low beam correctly aligned so the cutoff is where you expect it to be.
- Aim auxiliary lights to support your low beam, not to overpower it.
- Recheck the aim after you load the bike for touring. The weight of the passenger and luggage can change your angle and affect your lights.
These upgrades also become socially acceptable when you obey the law. A well-aimed setup gives you more confidence without being a pain to other road users.
A Simple Upgrade Path That Works for Most Touring Riders
Some riders want a simple to understand plan to follow when upgrading their lights.
When upgrading your lights, be practical and think about the type of riding you do the most.
If you do most of your riding on quiet, rural roads, you need to be able to see a controlled forward distance and not blind other road users.
If you ride mainly in gridlocked traffic, you need to be able to see and be seen, and the rear of your bike needs to be more visible.
If your riding conditions are mixed, you need to be able to see modest forward.
All of these can be outlined and improved based on a rider's lighting and electrical needs. Thought can be given to model specific lighting that fits well and works with other products.
Conclusion: Brighter Is Not Always Better
Rider safety is of utmost importance, and adjusting your setup is key to making sure your upgrades are simple: making the road more legible to read, while making your riders intentions easy to misinterpret. Most modern day touring motorcycles are equipped with standard LEDs, Goldwing LED lighting upgrades, so focus your upgrades on adding coverage, variably stable/bank adjustable, and electrically reliable lighting. A touring bike that feels safe to operate after dark is equipped with truly contrasting lighting!
FAQ
Are all modern touring motorcycles equipped with LEDs from the factory?
Most touring motorcycles are coming out with complete packages of LEDs, but your exact features will change based on the year and trim. Before making your upgrades, you should check what your bikes equipped with.
What is the safest type of auxiliary light to use when riding in high traffic at night?
Fog lights are more easy to use in traffic as they are designed to sit low while staying controlled and not blinding the guy in front of you. Driving lights are usually more high beam than anything.
Why do some LED upgrades feel worse in rain?
Usually it is aiming and beam pattern. Mis-aimed lights create glare and reflections, which reduce contrast. A controlled beam and correct aim typically improve comfort more than sheer brightness.
Is flashing the brake light a good idea for safety?
Many rider-safety recommendations emphasize making your braking intention obvious. A brief attention cue when slowing can help in some situations, but it should be predictable and not distracting.
What is the biggest mistake people make with lighting upgrades?
Stacking powerful lights without a wiring plan and without aiming. If the lights are not stable, aimable, and correctly adjusted, you can end up with more glare and less usable vision, plus reliability issues over time.
