Want adaptive cornering headlights, but don’t have them as an option on your motorcycle? ALLight might be able to help, with newly-designed drop-in cornering headlights
One of motorcycling’s lesser-sung but very useful safety developments of the past 10 years has been cornering headlights, which overcome a major problem with traditional fixed motorcycle headlights. Instead of pointing straight ahead as you pitch your bike into the corner, cornering headlights sense the bike’s lean angle and point in the direction you’re going. The safety advantage is obvious, and it’s surprising it’s taking so long for this tech to become standard to the auto industry in general, and motorcycles in particular. For now, only a few high-end touring bikes have (BMW K1600GT, GTL models, for example) have the technology.
There is an aftermarket solution; J.W. Speaker offers replacements for your bike’s headlight, either as drop-in model-specific kits, or universal kits that require some fidgeting to fit. However, those headlights are expensive, and may not be able to be fitted to certain motorcycle models.
ALLight has another solution: a headlight bulb which uses internal sensors to always stay level in the corners. It’s designed for universal fit into common headlight bulb sockets, including H4, H7 and others. Some fitments are just plug-and-play, others will need a bit of tinkering, but overall, it should fit most motorcycles.
The bulb itself is an LED, with 30 watts of draw on your charging system; that’s far less than most halogen motorcycle bulbs. That’s a pretty beefy LED bulb, though, and should throw out a lot more light than your bike’s standard bulb—but without blinding oncoming motorists, thanks to the adaptive technology.
Right now, ALLight is raising funds on Kickstarter; it’s planning to actually ship the bulbs next winter, and wants a $175 US pledge now for a purchase of one of the first run. Whether you like the sound of that or not, it’s worth remembering the Skully fiasco—Kickstarter projects are not without danger.
However, caution aside, this is still a very cool idea, and one that probably points to a future model with even better cornering illumination, and hopefully more widespread adoption by the motorcycle industry as a whole.
Something tells me your internet name will soon be “YouMotorcycled”
They asked me to write about it too, but I declined. With how well the current gen of LED projectors throw light, I really couldn’t find a need for this. And I often speed home at night on winding backroads with no light.