Headlight Beam query?

[snerkler]

Now before I get shot down I have searched and can't find my specific question.
Riding home last night on country roads with no street lights it made me remember how poor the headlight is on the GS. What I noticed was that it was pretty bright directly infront of my bike, but the beam only lit the road about 5m or so infront of me. Could it be that my beam is angled wrong or is this purely due to the brightness of the bulb?
If it's the latter is there anyway of improving this without having to do a full HID conversion, ie are there any much brighter bulbs that you can just swap straight over?

 

[Myke Rocks]

headlight beam setting

When I bought my 1200rt, (2 years old, 3 dealer services) I rode it home to Northern Ireland for Isle of Wight.
I found it to be unrideable on unlit roads. The headlight beam on dip was illuminating the front wheel, and on main beam it was where dip shoud have been. (bike has adjustable suspension & flap on rear of headlight was set for no load conditions)
I had dip beam set with a beamsetter & lights were transformed.

First, I would check if the load setting on the rear of headlight is in the light load setting. Having done so, get dip beam set on a beamsetter with you sitting on bike.

After that, start thinking of what to change or add.

Myke

 

[NAB]

http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?t=257366&highlight=Adjustment

Might be worth a read.

 

[snerkler]

http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?t=257366&highlight=Adjustment

Might be worth a read.

Thanks, from that thread I found this which is very useful http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?t=253025&highlight=headlamp+adjustment

 

[snerkler]

When I bought my 1200rt, (2 years old, 3 dealer services) I rode it home to Northern Ireland for Isle of Wight.
I found it to be unrideable on unlit roads. The headlight beam on dip was illuminating the front wheel, and on main beam it was where dip shoud have been. (bike has adjustable suspension & flap on rear of headlight was set for no load conditions)
I had dip beam set with a beamsetter & lights were transformed.

First, I would check if the load setting on the rear of headlight is in the light load setting. Having done so, get dip beam set on a beamsetter with you sitting on bike.

After that, start thinking of what to change or add.

Myke

Thanks for your help. I've no idea what a beamsetter is though (although I can obviously work out what it's used for) so I need to do a bit more research on this

 

[(RIP) Miff]

The little "Load adjuster" lever should be in the UP position (ie, sticking out backwards". If it's pointing down, then that's your problem.

The BM lights aren't the best though.

 

[snerkler]

The little "Load adjuster" lever should be in the UP position (ie, sticking out backwards". If it's pointing down, then that's your problem.

The BM lights aren't the best though.

Thanks, I'm going have a look later. I remember it being bad, but not that bad. I'd go as far to say it's dangerous, I had to ride really slow as couldn't see corners until they were on top of me

 

[ianp5uk]

They are rubbish lights considering they look funny. Until I got a GS I always thought efficient Germans the lights look odd because they have been engineered for function not style. Seems I was wrong!
I mean it's a tourer not a fashion bike. Best lights I've had were on my 1100 Pan and they looked pretty non descript. Anyways, I've put some of those Phillips Extreme 80% brighter bulbs in but haven't had a chance to try them yet - well haven't wanted to as every evening I have spare time it's been raining and I couldn't be arsed.

 

[snerkler]

The load adjuster was in right position but there was a lot of upward adjustment in the 'knob'. Just need it to go dark now

 

[DING-DONG]

yep id like to set the beam up on my 2010 as ive put 17'' wheels on it so the headlight will be way out.

Does anyone have a method ie point headlight at wall!! and the height the beam should be .

THX

 

[snerkler]

yep id like to set the beam up on my 2010 as ive put 17'' wheels on it so the headlight will be way out.

Does anyone have a method ie point headlight at wall!! and the height the beam should be .

THX

According to another thread there's something called a beamsetter?????
Also your beam is apparantly supposed to drop 15cm in 10m, if you can be arsed to do lots of measuring

 

[Myke Rocks]

Beamsetter

According to another thread there's something called a beamsetter?????
Also your beam is apparantly supposed to drop 15cm in 10m, if you can be arsed to do lots of measuring

Any garage/Mot centre has one. When dip is set with one, it is far superior to a "home" setting, and oncoming drivers are not blinded.

Myke.

 

[snerkler]

Any garage/Mot centre has one. When dip is set with one, it is far superior to a "home" setting, and oncoming drivers are not blinded.

Myke.

Any idea how much they charge to use it?

 

[Wapping]

There is a thread somewhere that gives the the heights to chalk lines on a wall and the distance back the bike should stand. Or go into any half decent dealer's / MOT station with a tape measure and ask nicely if you can take two minutes to measure the scale. Give the monkey a fiver to buy a pint for allowing you to do so.

Failing that, try Google

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=e...nt&aq=4&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=motorcycle+headlight+

Or, in case something different comes up

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=e...ght+adjustment&btnG=Search&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=



As to how much it might cost to have someone do the job for you? Let's try to imagine that it is not going to be less than a fiver and not more than a score. Get them to install your quick action throttle at the same time, perhaps?

 

[snerkler]

There is a thread somewhere that gives the the heights to chalk lines on a wall and the distance back the bike should stand. Or go into any half decent dealer's / MOT station with a tape measure and ask nicely if you can take two minutes to measure the scale. Give the monkey a fiver to buy a pint for allowing you to do so.

Failing that, try Google

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=e...nt&aq=4&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=motorcycle+headlight+

Or, in case something different comes up

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=e...ght+adjustment&btnG=Search&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=

Great links thanks

As to how much it might cost to have someone do the job for you? Let's try to imagine that it is not going to be less than a fiver and not more than a score. Get them to install your quick action throttle at the same time, perhaps?

Well the reason for me posting these trivial/novice threads is I'm trying to improve my knowledge and skills and so I'd like to at least try them myself first

 

[VAL. H.]

Now before I get shot down I have searched and can't find my specific question.
Riding home last night on country roads with no street lights it made me remember how poor the headlight is on the GS. What I noticed was that it was pretty bright directly infront of my bike, but the beam only lit the road about 5m or so infront of me. Could it be that my beam is angled wrong or is this purely due to the brightness of the bulb?
If it's the latter is there anyway of improving this without having to do a full HID conversion, ie are there any much brighter bulbs that you can just swap straight over?

First thing you need to understand about the BMW headlight fitted to the 1200 Gs's and K's, is that it doesn't matter how long you spend or what specialist equipment you use setting them up. You will never get the Hi and Lo beams pointing where they should be at the same time.

If you set the light up so hi beam is pointing down the road (as one would expect) you will find lo beam is very low and to the right. If you set it so lo beam is pointing down the road (as one would expect) you will find hi bean in the trees to the left.

The reason for this is that the reflectors are poorly (or possibly deliberately) designed and are effectively out of sink with each other and not adjustable independently of each other (Ie they are a one piece molding).

The best thing to do is set the low beam pointing where you are happy with it and don't bother with the hi beam as it will just annoy you. The exception to this rule is when you are going round left hand bends. Then you get to see hi beams actually quite good. Until you stand the bike up again or try a right hander.

Basically (though you may already have worked this out) the light as a whole is piss useless.

So what's to do about it?

You can add spot/driving/fog lights, and point them where your hi beam should be pointing.

You can a fit Hid kit to low beam. Hi too if you want to spend good money looking at the trees.

You could try fitting a completely different headlight/s. Though I've never seen this done. Finding something to fit might be difficult.

You could try modernising the internals of the 1200 light unit, though I understand they are a sealed unit, so this option could be a bit of a big job.


There is a theory that BMW didn't were concerned about night time accidents and deliberately made the headlight very poor to prevent riders from riding too fast at night.
Ether that or they only tested it on a perfectly circular anti clockwise track.


Val.

 

[snerkler]

First thing you need to understand about the BMW headlight fitted to the 1200 Gs's and K's, is that it doesn't matter how long you spend or what specialist equipment you use setting them up. You will never get the Hi and Lo beams pointing where they should be at the same time.

If you set the light up so hi beam is pointing down the road (as one would expect) you will find lo beam is very low and to the right. If you set it so lo beam is pointing down the road (as one would expect) you will find hi bean in the trees to the left.

The reason for this is that the reflectors are poorly (or possibly deliberately) designed and are effectively out of sink with each other and not adjustable independently of each other (Ie they are a one piece molding).

The best thing to do is set the low beam pointing where you are happy with it and don't bother with the hi beam as it will just annoy you. The exception to this rule is when you are going round left hand bends. Then you get to see hi beams actually quite good. Until you stand the bike up again or try a right hander.

Basically (though you may already have worked this out) the light as a whole is piss useless.

So what's to do about it?

You can add spot/driving/fog lights, and point them where your hi beam should be pointing.

You can a fit Hid kit to low beam. Hi too if you want to spend good money looking at the trees.

You could try fitting a completely different headlight/s. Though I've never seen this done. Finding something to fit might be difficult.

You could try modernising the internals of the 1200 light unit, though I understand they are a sealed unit, so this option could be a bit of a big job.


There is a theory that BMW didn't were concerned about night time accidents and deliberately made the headlight very poor to prevent riders from riding too fast at night.
Ether that or they only tested it on a perfectly circular anti clockwise track.


Val.

Thanks very much for your insight. I'm going to fiddle until I find something that suits me

 

[snerkler]

Well i've twiddled and my god what a difference. No it's still not the brightest in the world (but better than my Tiger 1050 was imo) but it's 50 times better than it was. I don't feel as though I'm riding blindfolded now.
I don't know who they were expecting to ride my bike when they set it up, maybe king kong with 200kg of bananas, but I must have twisted the light adjustment knob at least 30 times to raise it to a decent level. Not one car flashed me on the way home so I'd guess it's not too high either