Up until today I possessed a reasonable amount of self-esteem as a mechanic, until I went to adjust my headlights.

I had fitted some more powerful halogens and I also fitted the relay to put both beams on (a couple of years ago). I do very little night riding but the other night I realised the beam(s) were a bit low and appeared really odd when swinging around bends. On checking them I discovered the headlights were miles out of lateral alignment, so bad that the beams crossed; not noticeable when riding in a straight line but weird when cranked over.

Its a real hassle taking off the fairing, fiddling with those little nuts (made myself a little twizzling tool), sitting on it to compress the suspension, assembling everything only to find it’s not right when back on the open road.

I’ve never had lights that have been such a hassle to adjust. I love the way Haynes award just one “difficulty spanner” for headlight adjustment. And, haven’t Haynes also got it wrong with there “top screw for vertical adjustment, bottom screw for lateral adjustment”?

Now that nighttime has arrived I’m going out to give ‘em another go. Can’t believe I’m only doing the headlight adjustment.

There was a time when a headlight only needed a good thump. Any handy hints will, once again be very gratefully received.

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Be careful with higher wattage halogens. If they're normal halogens and putting out 110watts or so, they could be melting the innards of the headlight mounting, or the plastic three pin connector, hence the "out of adjustment"

At least, that's what happened to my Speed Triple, resulting in me having to put new connectors in, as well as lower wattage halogens.

Of course if you have the higher output lower wattage Halogens, ingnore everything I said.....

Mick

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My Album

"We may not be able to change the direction or strength of the wind, but we can always trim our sails"

Tiger lights are a pain in the ass. A remote method of vertical adjustment would be lovely since every change in load requires an adjustment. Seems as if the designer lived in an area lit by streetlights and never left it. Poor lad never saw the stars.

Tone, your right Haynes got the adjustment knobs mixed up and when you figure that out it's still a real pain, I still haven't got mine adjusted as well as I would like them to be and I've had the front off at least four times.

Jeez, I didn't know they were such a pain. I have been needing to do mine for some time. I was wondering if the guy before me didn't adjust them correctly or what, but I have been lighting the sky alot with my low beams, but now I realize that I put a givi trunk on and added a bit of weight in the rear, that's probably why. Any mods to correct the headlight adjustment knobs?

Originally Posted by rainycoastguy

A remote method of vertical adjustment would be lovely since every change in load requires an adjustment.

Wrong.
When you load the bike you should be adjusting the rear spring pre-load to restore the ride height to what it was before you loaded it. That's why there's a remote pre-load adjuster on the shock. Doh!

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H
'02 Tiger955i in black.

You are absolutely correct Blacktiger. Still.........it would be nice to be able to adjust remotely. Sometimes the change in load isn't for a long enough period or the change in road is for only a short time. Actually, there is no remote adjuster on my shock.

I have been fiddling with my headlight adjustments lately, they were crossed as well. I am using a 10mm ratcheting box wrench, a Park tools bicycle tool. It is very fast and convenient; well, convenient after the screen and nose are off... what a pain. When covering one (USA, both are on) to adjust the other, it is apparent that the patterns are very different and I may resort to unplugging one, getting it right then unplugging the other. As it is now, there is a dark hole right in front of me.

Low beam performance and reach really sucks, the narrower high beam is a little better. Bike had PIAA lights on it when purchased used, they help a bunch.

Don't unplug the lights, just throw a towel over one, then the other. You can go back and forth more quickly, which you will need to do! My low beam is OK, my high beam is OK, but when I turn on the PIAA 910 HID conversions, life's really GOOD!

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William Fee
Iron Butt #26777
Tucson, Arizona