R1200GS Light Adjustment for Europe

[Islander]

I'm off to the Nurgurgring for a birthday treat later this month. Does anyone know how to blank off a 1200GS headlight for riding on the other side of the road? There are no guide marks on the cover and my friendly dealer has not been much help.

Any help much appreciated, thanks.

Islander :helmet

 

[MikeO]

Shine the light on the garage wall and see if it 'kicks up' to the left. If it doesn't, then you don't need to change anything.

My mate's VFR VTEC's headlamp is symmetrical, the dipped beam is completely flat - the design of the 1200's lens (ie, with no large prisms in the glass/plastic/whatever) makes me think it may be the same...

Mike

 

[Mouse]

The shape of the 1200's headlamp beam is dtermined by the reflector rather than the lens (which as MikeO says is just plain glass).

There is a part of the reflector designed to make the beam go up a bit on the left, but in practice it doesn't seem to have much effect. The beam pattern on the road looks pretty rectangular to me.

I think it'll be ok for continental use.

See this pic, look on the right hand side (bike's right) of the dipped beam reflector.

 

[Deleted account 211025001]

I'm off abroad next week and asked the same question to my dealer.

They confirmed what Mouse says, that is, that the beam pattern is rectangular and as such works on either l/h drive or r/h drive.

Andres

 

[Islander]

Thanks to all. The handbook suggests that the beam is asymmetric (ie need for the dealer to adjust) and there does seem to be a (small) kick up to the left - that said, light seems to leak out all around the cover.

I'll just go with the flow and see what happens.

Islander

 

[andy1200]

I bought my bike in Poland before we moved back to the UK (good deal on the KRS and CS, including loads of extras).

I rode it here as sold for about 8 months, not least cos Polish plates help keep your licence clean.

This was during winter so mostly riding at night. The LHD light did not seem to bother other drivers that much and if you are just going for hols abroad with a UK bike I wouldn't bother doing anything.

However, it would not get me through the SVA test.

Since I researched this thoroughly, I can add to the above:

- it is asymetric

- it cannot be adjusted by the dealer, daft I know for an adventure, globe-trotting bike

- you have to buy the whole unit. Costs about 200 quid. I sold the LHD one on e-bay and recouped about half of that

FWIW, the only other thing you have to do on import is change the speedo. Basically there are 4 choices:

1. Change the whole instrument unit, costing about £300 or so plus fitting. Also daft for an adventure, globe-trotting bike

2. Change just the speedo, I think about £100, but the computer thingy will still be in km

3. Buy a gizmo to put on the speedo cable (there are several on the market in the region of £30) to convert the speedo to read mph where it is printed as kph. You need to ensure that the "k" at the start of "kmh" printed on the dial is blacked out

4. Black out the "k" on the dial and just carry on as before in the knowledge that they the SVA does not involve calibrating the speedo. The cost is a small blob of black paint

Guess which one I chose.

Other than that, you only have to pay for the SVA test, about £70.

Given the significant savings you can make by buying on the continent, the tiny inconvenience of having dials in km and spending a few quid and an hour or so on the SVA seems worthwhile.

The warranty is the same, the system logs you for any recalls and BMW is happy to provide insurance (for me, within a few quid of ebikeinsurance and a huge saving on CN)

Just a thought.

Hope this is helpful.

Cheers

Andy

 

[vogsta]

Just what I was looking for

Hope this is helpful.

Cheers

Andy

You bet it was helpful. I'm just planning to export a Brit GS to Finland, where bikes cost arms & legs, or rather they are taxed in limbs. Reversing your info on headlights & speedos should get me a long way.


Cheers
vogsta

 

[Professional Boxer]

err........according to BMW it's done by sticking tape over a section of headlamp ask your dealer to look in MIC for bulletin as to how to do it

 

[nedflanders]

Yep the repair manual does show you exactly where to put tape to prevent the kick up, in practice though I just wouldn't bother.
Can anyone confirm though if the dealer can with his computer change the clocks to read in miles on the odometer, just a case of getting a custom dial made up then.

 

[PaulW]

Headlight Adjustment

According to the AA, published Apr 2007 . . .

"this adjustment is not required for two wheeled vehicles as the beam pattern is more symmetrical, but check that any extra loading has not affected the beam height."

quoted from Notes (11)

http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/touring_tips/AA_compulsory_equipment_april2007.doc

Nice to know

oops look at http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/overseas/compulsory_equipment.html and click on the word document

 

[John Armstrong]

Can anyone confirm though if the dealer can with his computer change the clocks to read in miles on the odometer, just a case of getting a custom dial made up then.

Don't know sorry, I change the GPS units over to kph

 

[Jon P]

Don't know sorry, I change the GPS units over to kph

Yes the dealer can change the units of measurement. I live here in the US and wanted my ambient temp gauge to read degrees C and not degrees F - they let me watch - it seems that they can adjsut all of the parameters to read metric or imperial

 

[Hunda]

On the subject of the clocks and kmh and mph:

I bought my GSA in Germany and requested my local dealer here in UK to change the clocks for a UK set I bought in Germany. They said no problem but got the bike back today and they charged me £200! The speedo reads MPH (no hassle for the dealer as its just a different scale on the face), the fuel consumption now reads mpg (I suspect the mpg calculation is done in the clocks unit), but everything else reads in km's (i.e. odometer, trip meters, range, average speed).
£140 of the £200 bill was for re-programming which obviously did not work. They told me they were in touch with BMW UK and it seems that no one knows how to reprogram thinks so everything is in miles. I'm guessing from some of the above posts others have had this done successfully so what do I need to tell the dealer to do to fix this?

 

[MadJock]

On the subject of the clocks and kmh and mph:

Hunda - I bought my GSA in Kuwait and last month had it into the dealer there for a few things prior to my plan to ride it back home to UK. They did a 'software update' at the same time. Took ages as their computer kept crashing and they had to get a new file sent by email from Germany. However, in the process they re-set all my digital read-outs from metric to imperial (i.e. kilometres to miles and litres to gallons). They can be switched back again, but only via a dealers' computer. Of course the (analogue) speedo still reads in kph.

 

[MadJock]

I bought my bike in Poland before we moved back to the UK (good deal on the KRS and CS, including loads of extras).

I rode it here as sold for about 8 months, not least cos Polish plates help keep your licence clean.

This was during winter so mostly riding at night. The LHD light did not seem to bother other drivers that much and if you are just going for hols abroad with a UK bike I wouldn't bother doing anything.

However, it would not get me through the SVA test.

Since I researched this thoroughly, I can add to the above:

- it is asymetric

- it cannot be adjusted by the dealer, daft I know for an adventure, globe-trotting bike

- you have to buy the whole unit. Costs about 200 quid. I sold the LHD one on e-bay and recouped about half of that

FWIW, the only other thing you have to do on import is change the speedo. Basically there are 4 choices:

1. Change the whole instrument unit, costing about £300 or so plus fitting. Also daft for an adventure, globe-trotting bike

2. Change just the speedo, I think about £100, but the computer thingy will still be in km

3. Buy a gizmo to put on the speedo cable (there are several on the market in the region of £30) to convert the speedo to read mph where it is printed as kph. You need to ensure that the "k" at the start of "kmh" printed on the dial is blacked out

4. Black out the "k" on the dial and just carry on as before in the knowledge that they the SVA does not involve calibrating the speedo. The cost is a small blob of black paint

Guess which one I chose.

Other than that, you only have to pay for the SVA test, about £70.

Given the significant savings you can make by buying on the continent, the tiny inconvenience of having dials in km and spending a few quid and an hour or so on the SVA seems worthwhile.

The warranty is the same, the system logs you for any recalls and BMW is happy to provide insurance (for me, within a few quid of ebikeinsurance and a huge saving on CN)

Just a thought.

Hope this is helpful.

Cheers

Andy

Andy, this is amazingly helpful as I'm aiming to bring my Kuwait bought 1200GSA into the UK and re-register it here. I've already had the dealer in Kuwait change my digital read-outs from metric to imperial, but I'm intrigued by the speedo 'gizmo' you mention to get around the kmh reading analogue speedo. Can you advise any names? I'd also appreciate any guidance on how you arranged the SVA test. Thanks in anticipation.

 

[Smudge]

I think Andy 12000 is long gone Jock .. the post was 2005

 

[the moz]

Looking for GB headlight

Hello everybody,
I have bought my 09' 1200 GS in England last summer. I live in France and I have now to switch my whole headlight to an european one. In the BMW motorrad, it costs about 400 €!!!!! May be someone who has got an european bike would want to exchange its or he accepts to sell it to me?

Sorry if I make grammar mistakes, I hope you will understand...