ALLight Self-Leveling Projector Headlight

[WJS]

I'm not a Kickstarter fan especially when it comes to unproven, complex mechanical ideas that my safety would depend on. This, however, is one of those things that I can't believe hasn't been thought of by the major OEMs. I'd be interested in buying it only after they went into full production for a year and worked out the bugs.


https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/955088174/always-level-projector-light/description

 

[Lee Dodge]

It has been thought of. BMW K1600 has a head light that swivels the beam to look around corners and JW Speaker makes adaptive beam 5 1/2 and 7" round motorcycle headlights. The biggest issue with the ALLight is that its basic design means it is never going to be legal for use on the road.

 

[TheIronWarrior]

IThe biggest issue with the ALLight is that its basic design means it is never going to be legal for use on the road.

Can you explain this statement? I'm not seeing anything that I can pick out that would keep it from being legal, aside from the fact I doubt they will go through the appropriate testing to actually have it DOT (or other) certified, by which most aftermarket parts aren't strictly legal either. But I'm certainly no legal expert.

 

[Lee Dodge]

Short answer is anytime you modify a headlight or its light source in any way you have created a non compliant headlight.
Long answer is here:
What's wrong with projector retrofits?

 

[TheIronWarrior]

Short answer is anytime you modify a headlight or its light source in any way you have created a non compliant headlight.

Oh absolutely, any time any part of the machine is changed you would need to have that particular make/model/year with that particular modification assessed to become certified. All I'm saying is I don't see anything inherent in the design that would prevent it from being certified for specific applications if they decided to test it in those particular machines and, at worst, would have to provide a differently shaped plastic light cover for the bike in question to make it legal.

Any time you modify any part of your bike using a non-certified part (I'm thinking the most common being aftermarket slip-ons or full exhaust systems, where they all tend to have some variation of "FOR CLOSED COURSE COMPETITION ONLY; NOT INTENDED FOR STREET USE" statements) you have a non compliant motorcycle.
There are slip-ons on the market that are definitely not only not certified (proven legal) but also definitely illegal once installed due to emissions, both noise and chemical. The manufacturer is legally okay because the unit for sale makes no noise or emissions in its "as sold" state. Installing it on your motorcycle is illegal, their manufacture and sale of is not.

Basic design means it is never going to be legal for use on the road? Surely not.
Certifying the design for use in even a small handful of machines? Definitely cost prohibitive (and therefore will never happen), and much much cheaper to add the boilerplate "NOT INTENDED FOR STREET USE" statement to legally cover asses, leaving the responsibility on the purchaser to ensure no laws are broken (exactly like literally every exhaust mod I can think of).

 

[Lee Dodge]

I agree that there is nothing inherent in the design that prevents it from being certified. I actually think it brilliant. You just can't do it with a pre-existing headlight and have the result be legal. Not possible the way the law is written. Lighting is different from exhausts in that lighting is life safety equipment. Its just not the same type of comparison.

Looking at the pictures it there is a lot of weight cantilevered forward off the bulb mounting point. I could see a lot of vibration of the light source on bumpy roads. Throw in some washboard road and you might a failure of the mounting point. The original bulb is much lighter and the center gravity is near the mounting point.

The other thing that worries about this design is the failure mode of the leveling component. Since itsmechanical it may eventually fail. Say you lean over for a left corner and it sticks there. When you come back upright you are not going to have much light to see by and oncoming traffic is going to get a face full of high intensity light. If you have a right hand corner after this you are going to be pretty much in the dark.

What I would like to see them do is create a stand alone auxiliary high low light. Something with this form factor:
Led auxiliary driving lights motorcycle led projector headlights, View projector headlights, Yongjin Product Details from Danyang Yongjin Auto Lamp Factory on Alibaba.com

I would love something like that for my NC to mount on the light bar. The advantage is that auxiliary lighting is not federally regulated. Local and state laws apply in that instance.