Idle stop vs headlight, who will win?

[chicaboo]

Hey all,

I don't use idle stop, but I tried it out last weekend to see whether it would turn the headlight off - it didn't...
Now, I don't know if this is an Australian thing since our bikes have the headlight hardwired to the ignition (stupid), or if they do that in all markets?
On the older OWL model it kind of makes idle stop useless. Maybe not so bad on the LED since it draws less power to run the lights, but still...
What are your experiences with idle stop in the UK, Europe and Asia? Does the headlight stay on and tax your battery, do you use it at all?


Gav.

[triaxor]

I use it and when it kills the the engine the LED headlight stays on, I'm rather glad it does, means I'm still seen at the lights.

[kramnala58]

I am pretty sure that it needs to stay on for night riding. You don't want to be unseen at an intersection, chancing that someone will drive right through you.

[chicaboo]

Obviously for bikes that have an actual headlight switch, I would expect it to maintain the setting it was on for night riding, etc...
I've noticed a British guy on YouTube riding an MSX125, and there is footage of him being told off for not having his light on through the day.
So I guess my question is for those who can control the headlight, does idle stop maintain the headlight setting, or are all PCX headlights hardwired on?

[Alibally]

There always on. There's no light switch.


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[Mel46]

Unfortunately, what I found on my 2013 model is that when the engine is not running....and this is the American version I am commenting on...the headlight is off. We do not have the idle/stop switch. Ours is start/stop. When you press the rocker to STOP it kills the engine, which also kills the lights. Most of the time this is fine. However, if your engine dies on the road or you have some other problem, you have no lights to make you visible to anyone on the road. That is why I have connected another set of LED lights that run directly off of the battery, plus I have a set of Battery Tender leads tucked under the seat for other purposes.

[chicaboo]

That's interesting, the Australian model is wired to the ignition, so you only need to turn the key and the headlight comes on.
So at least on my OWL model the idle stop will drain the battery quickly.

[gn2]

Battery drain from idle stop on theolder models is only a problem if you're in heavy traffic congestion spending a lot of time stationary.

[chicaboo]

I only ride for recreation and I don't commute on the scooter, but at least where I live you can filter between 2 lanes traveling in the same direction or on the shoulder of a highway up to 30kph. None of this aggressive stuff you see RJ or the Californian motovloggers doing on YouTube, but it's something... Having said that, some of the more rural roads I fang on don't meet these requirements, and have had traffic jams due to accidents.

There are some other provisos, but unless you're on a single lane road with no safe area to pass on the left, idle stop really has no use on the older model as I see it. Damn, even being stuck at traffic lights for 3 minutes at a time regularly would have me worried about a flat battery.