Headlight conversion?

[Andy Michael]

I'm off to France in May and will need to sort out the headlight for driving over there,the manual says to contact a dealer to set up the lights so the question is do I need to go to the dealer or is it an easy home diy job?
Thanks.

 

[richie]

I'm off to France in May and will need to sort out the headlight for driving over there,the manual says to contact a dealer to set up the lights so the question is do I need to go to the dealer or is it an easy home diy job?
Thanks.

Don't bother would be my advice, never change mine in the car or on the bike...

Never been flashed in fifteen years of moving between belgium france and the UK and Ireland

On top of that youll be on holiday so rarely riding at night...

 

[Searanger]

Same here - I want to have the beam changed so asked my dealer to do it at first service - Not done when I picked up the bike and he said he couldn't find any adjuster & didn't do it cos he was afraid he would break it - This in a big BMW bike dealer in Spain where admittedly it says nothing in the spanish manual about the ability to change dipped beam - will do it myself if someone comes up with the info..

 

[richie]

Black sticky palstic...

If you insist

 

[Searanger]

Hmmm! - says in the manual not to use BSP - but more importantly if it says it adjusts .. it should adj.....

 

[richie]

Hmmm! - says in the manual not to use BSP - but more importantly if it says it adjusts .. it should adj.....

I wonder why that is, people have been doing it for years...

 

[Mouse]

The adjusters on the back of the headlight won't change the beam shape from "UK spec" to "Europe spec". The shape of the beam is determined by the refector. If you peer into your headlight (turn it off first ) you will see a triangular shaped part of the reflector that provides the extra light on the left hand side of the beam (for UK bikes).

The adjusters on the back of the lamp unit will MOVE the beam, which might be enough to lessen the effect of the beam shape. To move the beam up or down, use the hexagonal knob that's in the centre of the bottom edge of the headlamp unit. To move the beam left/right use the adjuster that's at the top right hand side of the unit.

The trouble is, if you ride at night on the continent, you might find that the adjusment required to compensate for the beam shape means that your main beam is in totally the wrong place and you can't see anything. And if you don't ride at night while you're over there, there's not really a problem anyway.

So all in all I agree with the previous "don't bother" comments

 

[Mouse]

By the way, on the subject of black sticky plastic. This will only work for lamps whose beam shape is controlled by the lens. Many older cars and bikes had this type of lamp but the fashion these days seems to be for a shaped reflector and a plain lens (like on the 1200).

You'd normally stick your bit of black plastic over the particular part of the lens that provided the unwanted light. To do something similar on the 1200, you'd have to take the lamp apart and black out part of the reflector, which I don't think is such a good idea