[pengaru]

> 3) ride with your high beam on at all times

This is incredibly anti-social, and I personally had a terrible life-threatening experience when a drunk asshole driving an AWD turbo v8 audi perceived my 04 R1's low beams as high beams (that model has two lights illuminated on low, four on high), and proceeded to ride my ass in the corners of a wet and twisty dark canyon road at enough elevation for my R1 to be significantly down on power and my tires bald having just ridden cross-country.

I had been following him for a while at a safe distance, and overtook him in a wide open straight. Little did I know he was becoming agitated the entire time I was behind him. In his own words "I know bikes, you've had your high beams on this entire time following me, blinding me!", shouted at me in a fury after I had pulled over to confront him over why he was all but running me off the road. He drove off in a rage after showing him the real high beams, but this is an example of what can happen when a driver believes you're blinding them with your high beams (which he accused me of having modified). I consider myself lucky this guy didn't either plow me off the road, or have a gun in hand when I confronted him. The whole experience was unbelievably nerve-wracking.

[YZF]

Not the OP but I'm guessing he meant in the day time. Yeah, having your high beam on at night is pretty anti-social...

[rudedogg]

That was my guess too.

Anecdotal, but I've noticed when I had someone not see me riding, the majority of the time I forgot to turn on my high beams. It's a huge win and I don't think it's bothersome to others before the sun sets.

Also, the OPs advice is great. If you want to get technical the "Twist of the Wrist" books and videos are really great. Here's a clip on counter-steering: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWuTcJcqAng

[vladvasiliu]

> It's a huge win and I don't think it's bothersome to others before the sun sets.

I don't know how much of a win it is, but it can be a pain even during daytime.

Older bikes have useless headlights, so they may be able to get away with it, but newer, LED-based ones, can be blinding. Happened yesterday to me around noon on an overcast day.

I also mostly get around by bike, and I've always found it very anti-social when others are riding behind me with their high-beam on. I ride a larger motorcycle, so I can actually see things other than my elbows in the rear-view mirrors.

[pengaru]

Newer bikes like my 04 R1 had such effective projection beam headlights (which is already 17 years old, eek!) it was completely unnecessary to ever use the high beams unless you wanted to illuminate a forest canopy. Riding with the high beams on constantly on that bike would have been a dickhead move, no LEDs required.

[speedgeek]

I did mean daytime, I'm not quite that anti-social to ride at night with high beams :)

[simonebrunozzi]

I also guess that the OP meant in the day time. But that's also the only thing I disagree with, every other tip is spot on (me: biker for 30 years, since I was 14).

The problem with angry car drivers is that they have the power to kill you, and most don't even realize it. (my only motorcycle accident involves an a*hole driving a BMW car).

It will never happen, but I think the only viable solution is to force driving cameras (front and back) on all bikes - car drivers would know that every bike has these, and that if they do something stupid and run, even if they kill the biker, the camera would have recorded something.

As said, it will never happen, and there's tons of problems with implementing such a solution.

[fastball]

Eh, you get drivers like that without or without your high-beams on. I've had that happen to me and definitely didn't have my high beams on and there is absolutely no way the other driver thought they were. Some people are just assholes, esp. when you overtake them.

[pengaru]

No, this was absolutely over the headlights, we had a rather drawn out argument about it. But his being obviously drunk and a road rager certainly contributed to his uncharitable interpretation of the R1's bright ass dual factory low beams. This guy was livid and absolutely convinced my headlights were modified. He repeatedly asserted that bikes are required to have a single light on for low beams, claiming that's why sportbikes (at the time) often had asymmetric low beams.

Sure there are assholes everywhere, but riding with your high beams on constantly is obviously affecting the probability you'll enrage someone who will do more than just curse and squint. You're the vulnerable one on a bike, never forget that as a rider.