Help on headlight adjustment

[Stu-13]

Headlight adjustment, all the manual gives it the bit about the neutral or heavy load setting with the lever behind the main light.

The neutral setting was great but it did light up the insides of cars when in traffic which must have hacked folk off as they were already in there own personal congested hell. The other setting lights up there bumper instead, is there anything for finer adjustment? Other than the rear preload.

Cheers

 

[Mouse]

You turn the hexagonal knob that is "inside" the lever.

Clockwise for down.

 

[Stu-13]

You turn the hexagonal knob that is "inside" the lever.

Clockwise for down.

Why don't they put that in the manual , I was feeling guilty so had it on the bumper only setting.

Or is it the fact that the headlight is that much higher anyway, so when your in close trafic you can't help but dazzle a bit? Am I being too nice?

Cheers Mouse.

 

[Mouse]

I adjust my headlight so that, if I am following a car at a safe distance, the top of the beam is on the bottom of the car's rear window. This seems to be a good setting, and you won't be dazzling anyone significantly.

 

[North]

Hi Stu-13,

I just changed my low-beem bulb and my light with the new bulb was blinding the cars infront of me.

I read the manual too, and there was nothing about the adjustment knob. I tryed turning it and thats how I found out it.

The manual does say to bring your bike to your BMW dealer to adjust the aiming of the light (well, it says something like that). They must be on drugs.

 

[Mouse]

I think the manual was written by lawyers. Like those little stickers that a lot of bikes have on the petrol tank saying stupid things like "Never ride under the influence of alcohol or drugs" - like DUR I was going to drink and ride but there's a sticker telling me not to, better give it a miss then! I bet some yank crashed his bike while pissed out of his brains and then sued the manufacturers.

We're only a few years from the point where the bike will have a sticker on it saying "WARNING under no circumstances ride this motorcycle - DANGER OF INJURY".

 

[Mouse]

Oh by the way, just for reference, there's another adjuster knob at the right hand side of the headlamp unit. This one moves the beam from left to right, although I've never needed to alter mine

 

[North]

Thanks, I was wondering were the sideways adjustment was.

 

[Deleted account 210609001]

Oh by the way, just for reference, there's another adjuster knob at the right hand side of the headlamp unit. This one moves the beam from left to right, although I've never needed to alter mine

Is that the right hand side as you sit on the bike? I need to have a play with my lateral adjustment but couldn't see anything to adjust this. I blame my poor looking skills. Dipped beam seems fine, but full beam seems too far over to the left. Shame you can't adjust them individually as you could on the 1150GS.

Robin.

 

[Stu-13]

I adjust my headlight so that, if I am following a car at a safe distance, the top of the beam is on the bottom of the car's rear window. This seems to be a good setting, and you won't be dazzling anyone significantly.

I'll have a play over the weekend, I think that the some of the problem is the actual height of the bike, in close traffic you can't help dazzling a bit. But you can't turn the thing off anymore.

Thanks again.

 

[Rob1200]

Personally I will choose safety over nicety, anytime. I can't seem to get the 12GS lights to point high enough, so in daytime I just switch on the high beam whenever I need to filter at relatively high speeds (jammed motorways for example). And yet, even that - and the bike's conspicuous size - doesn't seem to be enough to prevent some brain damaged, mobile calling, radio fidgeting car drivers from cutting into my path!

My previous bike had lights pointing very high and in that case I couldn't fix them the other way... 35K miles in three years, a few irritated car drivers flashed me at night, but I never got to hear the traditional "Sorry mate didn't see you"...

Better being an annoyance than a casualty ...

 

[Magwych]

Is that the right hand side as you sit on the bike? I need to have a play with my lateral adjustment but couldn't see anything to adjust this. I blame my poor looking skills. Dipped beam seems fine, but full beam seems too far over to the left. Shame you can't adjust them individually as you could on the 1150GS.

Robin.

Hi, I suffered from this too and resorted to a neanderthal solution to the problem.
Both main and dipped reflectors are one moulding so you cannot adjust them independently. I suffered form the main beam being for too far to the left and a tad too high.
The solution was to gently deform the base of the lamp, causing it to point more to the nearside ( left in our currency) in the reflector. This moves the beam to the right, ( i.e. offside in the UK ), and also moved it down a bit too, filling the gap between dipped and high beams. I did experiment first by just pushing on the back of the lamp to see te efect before getting out the pliers.

I started a thread on this called "Let me shed some light...", but cannot work out how to paste a link to it ...

 

[Deleted account 210609001]

Hi, I suffered from this too and resorted to a neanderthal solution to the problem.
Both main and dipped reflectors are one moulding so you cannot adjust them independently. I suffered form the main beam being for too far to the left and a tad too high.
The solution was to gently deform the base of the lamp, causing it to point more to the nearside ( left in our currency) in the reflector. This moves the beam to the right, ( i.e. offside in the UK ), and also moved it down a bit too, filling the gap between dipped and high beams. I did experiment first by just pushing on the back of the lamp to see te efect before getting out the pliers.

I started a thread on this called "Let me shed some light...", but cannot work out how to paste a link to it ...

Thanks, I'll do a search to find your previous post. I think I'll try adjsutment of them both together to see if I can find something more acceptable before I get my pliers out, though...