So last week I was commuting, which is always an adventure on a bike.

As you know sometimes happens, I got that distracted blonde in a BMW behind me in bumper to bumper stop and go.

So I back way off the car in front of me, and I'm doing the pump my brakes 3 or 4 times to flash my light and hope she looks up from her cell phone to stop before I HAVE TO without munching the car in front of me

I'm favoring the right shoulder, doing the whole nine yards, and here comes a stop light. 4 cars in front of me run the yellow and I KNOW for a fact the light isn't long enough and cars there push it all the time on both the green and red side. To make matters worse, the truck in front of me is huge, so it's less likely my little bike is going to be noticed.

I move further right, stop and she BLOWS by my left leg through the completely red light. I take a few deep breaths, and give her a very polite professional piece of my mind a few lights later when I pass 5 cars on the shoulder to roll up on her window.

So I've been wanting a flashing brake light for a long time, I used to keep my front brake switch disconnected so I could pump the foot pedal to flash but I really want something piercing noticeable and bright, even distracting. I also don't want to have to choose between full brakes and noticability.

I also want accessory lights to mount on my forks to widen my appearance and get more noticeability and light up front. I live in PA and there are almost ALWAYS deer on the roads around my house, they live on my farm and you know how narrow the KLX visibility is. I know we have about 70 watt's of headroom (thanks all you awesome KLX forum tech nerds!) for accessories, I want to see some set-ups and prices for front and rear extra lighting. pics of them on your bike would be great, links would help. I did search and saw a few threads about front lights but nothing recent and nothing at all on flashing rear.

As an aside, I have removed the black under fender and mounted my license plate just below my taillight. Thanks in advance. Nothing bad happened that day but the 5 miles of riding and having to pump my brakes for that lady to bother not wiping me out and plowing into the car in front was just too much. (for the record, all I said was "I should never have to choose between running a red light and getting run over by you" I figured having the huge bearded biker rap on her window and say that should be memorable enough and I didn't want her having any excuses to pass blame at me after the fact by swearing and getting her focused on my rudeness instead of her incredibly irresponsible behavior

 

Here is one on Amazon that claims to work for motorcycles.

 

When I get a chance ill post my front lighting set up with pics. People at work who I have followed in have said its very bright.

 

I have seen the blinking brake light system on some Harleys. I does get your attention. Not a bad idea.

 

They don't list anything for our KLX but should be able to match something up. Installed both on front & rear of my Valkyrie and let me tell you the flashing high beam gets people's attention! Glad you survived to tell us about it. Learned long ago to be aware of things ALL around including the following drivers when riding.

 

Part of rider skill is realizing where to be and why. This is a classic case of realizing how people will do everything to get through a light and being aware of what was behind the rider.

If I'm braking abruptly for a light, I have or am glancing to see what is behind. If a car is in front braking hard too I am working to the side to not become a sandwich. Heard squealing tires a car or two back the other day. I was ready to launch up beside the car in front of me, being off to one side and aiming to that side. That's what it takes. Not been rear ended and no close call from behind... but I did have a guy back up over my front wheel when they were over the cross walk and I was a shade too close - not quite a car length behind. My attention to the situation would have avoided it, but I was 24 and only on the street for about 3 years consistently. Seems you don't deal with that stuff off road.

 

I run the U32 Hyperlight brake & running light module on my KTM. Each module has 16 leds and I have one on either side of my license plate holder. Hyperlights are borderline painful to look at for more than a few seconds standing up close. Extremely bright. You can mount them basically anywhere on the back of the bike, they wire in to work with the existing brake light.

The kit including mount plate is around $110. Worth the extra peace of mind IMO.
Hyperlites Flashing led motorcycle brake lights, runing lights, and turn signals, Standard Dual Function

 

Thanks for the responses so far, I definitely want to ADD to the rear brake light, not just get it to flash, I'd like to have my regular brake light brighter and steady on, and then have a flashing accessory light. MY buddy has one on his KLR but it's old and I couldn't seem to source it.

I've noticed the pulsing headlights on bikes before, I wondered if it makes it weird riding at night and if it burns out bulbs faster? I could see having that if I had bright steady accessory lights in front as well.

 

Yep then check out the Hyperlights linked right above. These work in conjunction with the existing brake light. They don't replace or otherwise change the way the stock brake light works.

 

The pulsing headlight is a headlight modulator. It has a photo cell that turns the modulation of at night. I use to use one on my street bikes but it was a pain. Even though they are legal I was usually stopped every couple of months by the police and had to educate them how it was legal. Also had cars pull over because they thought i was the police. It just became to much of a hassle so I took it off.