Headlights have been a hot topic for Reliability Trials in the last couple of years, what lights can be used and how many can I run? are some of the questions continually being raised before the start of every season.
Reliability Trials have been brought into the spotlight of police and other Government Departments, and continuing to run the trials is only going to become more difficult. High powered headlights have been one obvious modification to machines over the years and can easily attract attention to authorities when not used courteously on public roads. There is also a misconception that new rules have been introduced making life hard for competitors. The ruling on headlights has not changed! they are just being enforced. For these events to continue into the future, the existing rules are formulated so machines closely comply the South Australian Road Traffic Act and ADR’s, but they are being abused due to incorrect configurations mounted to machines and a lack of rider courteousness on public roads, by not dipping lights when approaching traffic.
Reliability Trials incorporate the use of public roads as a part of the course riders must follow, and riders must still comply with the road rules when riding. We have been lucky to have exemptions to some of the Road Traffic Act requirements for the purpose of competition, which include the removal of indicators, pillion foot pegs, chain guards and the seating of sidecar passengers, but nothing for headlights.
High/Low Combination (Example only)
The ruling for Reliability Trials is that a headlight must contain the high beam, and an effective short-range low beam behind the one lens. It must be a minimum of 25 watts and can only be fitted to the Motorcycle, (in the case of a sidecar).
Halogen, HID or or Light Emitting Diode (LED) with an (E) standard, which can be switched from high to low beam is acceptable. Lights that dim only, as a method of switching to low beam, or simply having a headlight pointing at a lower angle as low beam is not acceptable.
Where a combination of headlights are fitted (Maximum 2), Halogen, High-Intensity Discharge (HID) or LED with an (E) standard is acceptable for either headlight as the illumination. At least one headlight must contain the high beam, and an effective short-range low beam behind the one lens.
If two headlights are fitted and only one of the two headlights has the low beam, the second light is considered to be an auxiliary light, and therefore must be simultaneously switched off by means of the main headlight high/low-beam switch only, when lights are dipped to low-beam.
AUXILIARY LIGHT (second light) – NON (E) STANDARD Light Emitting Diode (LED) lights will be accepted only for the auxiliary driving second headlight. Only one auxiliary light is allowed along with the main light, and any amount of individual LED’s can be used in the LED array, as long as they are in the one housing.
LED array (Example only)
Auxiliary driving light maybe isolated by a separate switch, but the high-beam or auxiliary driving light must not be operating when lights are switched to low-beam, and must be simultaneously switched off by means of the main headlight high/low-beam switch only, when lights are dipped to low-beam.
More information about bike setup and ruling can be found in the South Australian reliability Trials Supplementary Rule Book. Further inquiries can be directed to the Reliability Trials Sports Manager.
