Im the second owner of my bike. The original owner installed an electronic animal avoidance system that was touted to scare off most animals to prevent vehicles from running them over. It included a control box that fed a small weatherproof speaker mounted to the left front fork tube and was said to produce sound in the ultrasonic frequency range. While the LED indicator did light up when powered on, I had no way of really testing its effectiveness. I did note the darn thing drew close to 40 watts, which is crazy for such a gadget. So I assumed that it must be extremely loud in the ultrasonic frequencies, thus it must be extremely effective. I had 2 close calls of impacting deer crossing directly in front of me, which never happened to me before in such a way. After the second close call, I began to wonder if the gadget was scaring animals into running out in front of me. After several attempts to google information about my particular model, I finally came across a US military report testing around 40 such deterrent gadgets. They tested everything from flashing light systems to passive whistles mounted in the front bumper to active systems (including mine). Also included were high powered lighting systems…. everything from LED to mega powered xenon strobes. Conclusion: everything tested was completely USELESS and did absolutely nothing to help dissuade animals from crossing in front of moving vehicles. I was more than happy to rip that thing off my bike and get rid of the parasitic drain in placed on my alternator! I’ve watched several massive roos on youtube jumping head-first through car windshields at the night. North American large game can do the same thing, and its a terrifying thought striking any animal on a cycle.
I started a 40 x XML2 light bar project about 5 years ago, but gave up when I discovered the need for a complex reflector retention system to hold it all together. To further hinder my plans, I realized 40 reflectors pointing in the same direction would produce one blinding hot spot with no wide angle lighting, thus destroying any peripheral vision. At least with elliptical optics and independent sinks, you could mount them in an arc to simulate a curved light bar.
Im looking forward to your mini-running light set up. 