Two schools of thought here…
1/ Daytime headlights make you more visible
2/ Under acceleration it looks like you are flashing cagers to let them out
What do you think?
My take on this is that headlights generally make you more visible but in certain situations, including having the sun behind you, won’t help, and as you point out cagers sometimes think you are inviting them to come out of a side road, so I would always ride with them on (not that I have any choice with my current bike, like most modern bikes they’re hardwired on) but always ride with the assumption that I am wearing my cloak of invisibility and therefore no one else can see me.
Yep same here Johnse1 … No choice on my bike but I always ride with caution, as when others ride behind me and I take a quick glance to see if they’re still there, I’ve often thought they were flashing me.
Don’t ride with high beam on (day or night) as it just blinds car drivers (yes me when im in it too) and gives a false sense of distance between vehicles.
Agreed !
up til now I’ve had no chioce, but happy they are on all the time because that’s what I’ll be doing with my other one (unless I’m struggling to start it! 
)
Don’t really agree with the sun argument so I don’t think there’s ever a time when it will not help your visibility (not that I rely on them alone for that anyway)
And don’t leave any doubt in the minds of car drives that I’m NOT letting them out as i’m usually barrelling down on them at a great rate of knots!
(plus I keep as big a distance from them as I can)
i only use main beam when filtering as it does seem to make cagers pull aside (well the nice ones anyhoos) but ive always ridden with lights on, i do agree that under slow acceleration it does look like you are flashing to someone.
Lights on for me, all the time and ride as if everyone is out to kill me!!
I agree wiv you busa
I always ride sensible just in case some silly twat decides its my turn for a trip to hospital!!! And i only ride fast when no other traffic about
Agree with Busa. Also, High Beam on when filtering.
Lights on all the time for me, but I’m with Stu on the not giving them the false impression it’s an invite to pull out (due to certain velocity factors).
Speaking as a car driver, high beam just pisses everybody off and doesn’t help, it makes it impossible to see how far away you are because the light is blinding and it does have a hint of arrogance about it so if you come across one of the idiots who think it’s fun to block you then you’re probably the one he’ll pick.
IMHO the best way for a biker to be seen when filtering is to use some coloured headlight covers, they are brilliant, you can see them coming a mile off and they don’t blind like high beam, from a cars perspective they are great. Have seen green ones and yellow ones, the bike may have even used high beam with them too but they didn’t look too bright.
I wish they were legal
Lights on all the time. Assume eveyone else is blind nonetheless…
R
Yellow is. Should be let off with a warning for anything but red.
or blue
Ditto…
The guidance for Police doesn’t say blue covers are a problem.
When have you ever seen a Police car showing a solid Blue light?
I’m impressed to see I have come to a place where people are obnoxious enough to use full beam in traffic. I can’t work out whether that is better or worse than being naive enough to think having a light on makes you safe.
I don’t think anybody has said a light makes you safe, easier to be seen perhaps by those who are looking.
And why would you want to be seen by someone? Hoping to pull?
Well its not a case of people being obnoxious, thats rubbish. Its a case of doing all you can to make yourself as visible as possible. And i was told that by placing your headlights on main beam does help, but then each of us have our own ways…