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TECHNICAL MOTOBRICK WRENCHING In Remembrance of Inge K. => The Motobrick Workshop => Topic started by: GasStation on August 19, 2012, 12:38:30 PM
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Any ideas on how to reduce or deflect the sun's reflection coming off the plastic lenses of the instrument cluster?
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I suppose you could experiment with:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/11-6-Anti-glare-LCD-Screen-Protector-Gateway-Netbook-/370529022122?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item56454030aa#ht_4903wt_1055 (http://www.ebay.com/itm/11-6-Anti-glare-LCD-Screen-Protector-Gateway-Netbook-/370529022122?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item56454030aa#ht_4903wt_1055)
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Only ride in countries with little to no sun (like here in Finland).
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Maybe take some thin black plastic and make a visor for over the top of it?
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Wearing polarized glasses should help. They do not have to be sunglasses. Go see an optician and get a pair with "plano" lens.
I would recommend a pair that use a good quality anti-reflective coating.
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JMHO but polarized glasses suck for riding. They create all sorts of distracting weird effects on car windshields and rear windows. And on my K75RT they'd make rainbows on my windscreen, again an unnecessary distraction I don't need while riding.
Not to mention that they make gas pump digital displays harder to read as well.
And these were not cheap polarized sunglasses either. They were very good ones - probably too good.
And a direct reflection off of a flat surface will be bright whether you're wearing polarized sunglasses or not.
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I always liked the instrument shade on my Honda Silverwing. I wonder if one of those would fit a BMW? The BMW gauges look a lot more square than round. Could probably find one on ebay?
(http://i.imgur.com/TP0cc.jpg)
(this isn't a pic of my silverwing, but shows what I'm talking about.)
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i made a small bracket that tilted the instruments up a bit more (about 20 deg) it helped a bit but didnt solve the problem completely.
plexcuse the lacl of upper case, i had a fall with an arm load of firewood and broke my left arm just below the elbow so i am a bit imobilised and one armed.
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I have never had problems with my glasses. I wonder if the lens material makes a difference.
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I have never had problems with my glasses. I wonder if the lens material makes a difference.
Perhaps, I also have had problems with wearing cheap polarized sun glasses on my bike. It seems to do with looking through layers of plastic. This includes the helmet face shield, the windshield, the instrument panel and gas pump screens. They all have goofy streaks and colors that are very annoying. I will admit that I am very cheap and the sun glasses are no where near "top of the line".
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Polarizing on optics is directional. If you have two polarized items that the direction is in conflict, you will have big problems.
I have learned to buy the best glasses that I can get. For me, it seems to make a huge difference. When it comes to Rx eyewear,
you really do get what you pay for.
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I have been riding my almost daily for two months, and never noticed an issue. On Sunday, I gave the bike a quick washing after two hours of chasing electrical gremlins. Now...the cluster is blinding between 10:00 and 3:00. Should have left it dirty.
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some interesting info on polarization.
normal sunlight has no direction (incoherent). once it reflects off of something it becomes polarized, hence why polarized sunglasses works so well at cutting down road glare, (or light off snow, or lets you see through the surface of water more easily.)
another interesting point of note (which i have to worry about in my job as a mechanical engineer) is that when you mold plastic any molded in stresses will come out as polarized. this happens especially when the molten plastic needs to move around some features or when it goes from thin to thick or vice versa. you can't normally tell the difference, but if you wear polarized sunglasses then they show up as these rainbows (or the crazy check pattern in pre-stressed/tempered auto glass.)
now to put the two together, cheap sunglasses aren't very well consistently polarized (look at one pair with another pair). more expensive lenses will have less "stress" markers and will behave more consistently at cutting down glare.
one annoying attribute that some have mentioned is that when dealing with two polarized lenses (or glasses and lcds) if they are 90 degrees off from one another then the view blacks out. like when i can't see my gear indicator with my glasses on, but if i put my visor down, it messes the alignment up enough to make it visible again.
the more you know. .
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... two polarized lenses (or glasses and lcds) if they are 90 degrees off from one another then the view blacks out....
FYI - That's how some 3D glasses work at the movies. Each lens is 90° different.