Headlamp Alignment

[snowprick]

Can anyone tell me how to align my headlight. In the Philippines there are NO alignment facilities.

[frbank6]

I think the manual has some convoluted arcane ritual you are supposed to use. My dealer told me to take a ride a night, see if the light is hitting too high or too low, pull over, and simply grab the light and move it up or down until it 'looks right'. That has actually worked well for me. Obviously, the amount you move the light is very small, and if the toothed washers that hold the lamp in tension are too tight, you might need to slightly loosen them.

Hope this helps.

[allanj255]

Hi Rod.
You adjust the headlight by loosening the 2 screws each side of the headlight and mounting brackets.
1. First use a flat wall and place the bike headlight 17 feet from the wall
With the bike off the stand and you astride, have someone measure the distance from the floor to the centre of the headlight.

2. Place a horizontal mark on the wall two inches lower than the height of the centre of the headlight.

3. On low beam the beam should be relatively flat on the top, and may rise rather sharply at the right edge. Still on low (dipped) beam and with you sitting on the bike adjust the headlight vertically so that the flat top of the beam is just up to the line you put on the wall
4. Horizontal adjustment should centre the beam ahead of the line of the bike.
5. If you adjust the suspension height or carry a heavy load, you should re-check the height of the beam and adjust as / if appropriate.
Hope you find this of use
Allan

[R4R&R]

Can anyone tell me how to align my headlight. In the Philippines there are NO alignment facilities.

If the light is aiming low, then I make a fist and hit the top of the headlight a few times. If it's aiming high, then I make a fist and hit the bottom. I like mine to be a little high so cars notice me a little better, and so shine out a little more in front of me at night.

[snowprick]

Thanks guys, I will go to the Mall parking lot and give it a try.

[Beemer1150]

Having just moved from ride-on-the-left UK to ride-on-the-right France can anyone tellme whether it's possible to adjust the light to adapt?

I have a stick on converter at the moment.

[boxermania]

Beemer 1150

I'm assuming that you have taken your UK bought ride to France. If that is correct there isn't much you can do but swap your drive on the left lens for one of the drive on the right ones. The thing is that the lenses are manufactured with special "light cutoff" paterns in line where the country where the equipment will be in use. This is very much applicable to cars and I assume the same goes for bikes but I'm not sure.

So for instance, in a right driven country the majority of the light is on the right side of the road and the light that falls on the left side is cutoff on projection and elevation to insure that you don't blind the oncoming traffic (certainly it assumes that the beam is adjusted correctly).

You might be able to find a complete assembly of a wrecked bike or on ebay if they have it there. In any event save the old one for when you return to the UK.

[Boxer]

No! No! Al. All you have to do is take apart the headlamp housing. Turn the lens around and put it back together. But then you have to ride upside down and backwards to keep it from shining back into your eyes while riding.

[tor1150r]

If I recall my manual, you can tape off the wedge-shaped pattern on the face of the headlight lens. This (I'm going from memory here!!) allows you to ride on the other side of the road without blinding on-coming traffic. It does not serve as a permanent conversion.