Motorcycles

ALLight replaces your motorcycle headlight bulb with a self-leveling projector beam

ALLight replaces your motorcycle headlight bulb with a self-leveling projector beam
This tiny aftermarket headlight globe replacement turns your motorcycle headlight into a self-leveling projector beam
This tiny aftermarket headlight globe replacement turns your motorcycle headlight into a self-leveling projector beam
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What happens when you tilt a motorcycle over with and without self-leveling projectors. It'd be fine, except the high side of the beam is on the side you're not turning towards, and you can't see where you're going
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What happens when you tilt a motorcycle over with and without self-leveling projectors. It'd be fine, except the high side of the beam is on the side you're not turning towards, and you can't see where you're going
This tiny aftermarket headlight globe replacement turns your motorcycle headlight into a self-leveling projector beam
2/2
This tiny aftermarket headlight globe replacement turns your motorcycle headlight into a self-leveling projector beam

Motorcycle headlights are generally pretty flaccid, sorry things to start with, but when you lean a bike over into a corner, things get a lot worse. Unless you're riding something like the BMW K1600GT – still one of the only bikes on the market to rock self-leveling headlights – the second you tip into a corner, the headlight dives downward on the side you're heading toward, plunging it into darkness and leaving you to feel the road by violent braille. Or slow down, I guess, if you're into that sort of thing.

There are few aftermarket fixes for this; we tested J.W. Speaker's aftermarket cornering headlight a couple of years ago, which avoided mechanical self-leveling by having an array of extra LED lights up each side that fire off sequentially as you lean the bike further over. Not a bad solution, if you're riding something with a 7-inch headlight bucket.

Most of us aren't, which is why this gadget is so exciting. The ALLight (Always Level Light) is a super-simple headlight bulb replacement for H4, H7 or H11 type bulbs that transforms any headlight into a self-leveling, super bright projector beam.

It's a simple enough device; a projector beam headlight mounted to a small electric motor that's able to stabilize the headlight on the roll axis, much like the kind of arrangement you'd find in a camera stabilizing gimbal, except without the necessity to stabilize along three axes. As it's a projector beam and throws the light forward and not backwards, it doesn't matter what headlight reflector you put it into.

What happens when you tilt a motorcycle over with and without self-leveling projectors. It'd be fine, except the high side of the beam is on the side you're not turning towards, and you can't see where you're going
What happens when you tilt a motorcycle over with and without self-leveling projectors. It'd be fine, except the high side of the beam is on the side you're not turning towards, and you can't see where you're going

Since it's never going to flick up and blind oncoming motorists, the ALLight team says it's possible to run super-bright LEDs that are the same brightness for low beam as high beam, dramatically improving visibility even in a straight line, while obviously making an even bigger difference in corners.

On an H4 bulb, which would cover a lot of bikes, installation is as simple as replacing a bulb. For H7 and H11 bulbs, you'll likely have to pull the headlight off and take off the headlight cover.

At US$150 a pop, they ain't a cheap thing to throw on your motorcycle – unless you compare them to any other self-leveling headlight solution out there, in which case they're very, very cheap.

We wonder how the simple gimbal system will handle the vibrations, bumps and rigors of daily motorcycle use. Mind you, if the motor breaks down, the worst that's going to happen is you'll have headlights as bad as your current ones but brighter.

I think this is a brilliant idea, if you'll excuse the pun. There's no excuse for the patently rubbish, borderline dangerous headlights manufacturers ship bikes with these days. Motorcycles have been around for just about bang on 150 years at this point and the fact that this is still an issue should be an embarrassment to the industry.

At this stage there's 25 days to go on the Kickstarter campaign, and it's had just about zero publicity from the looks of things, but we sincerely hope it gets up. If it does, and everything goes to plan, deliveries are slated for February 2019.

Check out the pitch video below.

Source: ALLight Kickstarter

Always Level Projector Light

4 comments
4 comments
guzmanchinky
VERY cool, but what if it gets stuck leaning one way, and then you try to turn the other way and have zero light on the ground in front of you?
ALLight Corp
We are using a brushless gimbal motor that will not get "stuck". Our top concern is safety so having the motor not work correctly is not a option. Thank you for sharing your concern, we will make sure this will not happen to your ALLight retrofit. Regards
MarcJackson
Don't know why bike vendors don't use the 16 channel LED driver module for all bikes lights, indicators, brake, using 5 channels for headlight centre, wide and extreme side lighting at high lean. Each channel supports 256 levels brightness, bikes IMU 10 Axis sensor gives lean angle and detecting initial turn by riders counter steering not that tricky, self cancelling indicators, brake light triggered by negative acceleration. Easy but motorbike riders seem to be the only consumers not to push vendors into innovation. Just had someone insist bikes should lift rear wheel and have front suspension bottomed out on corner entry else it's not a real bike built for small man syndrome
Alfa Lima India
I like the idea of this bulb, but why have a leveling motor? Wouldn't it be easier to let it spin freely, put a weight at the bottom, and let gravity do the rest? Seems like the motor, gyros, and whatever other electronics are over engineered, too complicated, the acronym K.I.S.S. comes to mind. The BMW headlight mentioned in this article works by down-firing the led beam onto a mirror on a pivot, and gravity does the rest when the motorcycle leans.