Put a screen on the bike today which meant fitting some brackets to the headlight mounting point. Headlight aim is way out (scary when I went to main beam and everything went dark ... cos I was no longer lighting up the road but scanning the skies for German bombers). Anyway being the eminently resourceful and intelligent chap I am I thought 'I'll Google and find out how to set the headlight properly'. Can't find piss all apart from the Vehicle Inspection Agency site which only tells me that if the aim is out the bike fails the MOT (oh! really?) and some site about MOT which implies I need about twenty grands worth of the right test equipment and has some diagrams on which will take me months to decipher (that's after finding the magnifiying glass so I can read the buggers). All I want to do is see where I'm going, stop oncoming cages veering of the road and not disturb plod. How do I set the headlight aim correctly? -- Martin -Yamaha XVS650A (Im a Norfolk boy ... nearest thing I could afford to a tractor) Norfolk n' good www.rockdoctors.org.uk Norfolk n' good www.rockdoctors.org.uk
in message Cheers for that. I knew I had seen something by a UKRM'er before but couldn't find it. Right' I'm of to the garage noW. -- Martin -Yamaha XVS650A (Im a Norfolk boy ... nearest thing I could afford to a tractor) Norfolk n' good www.rockdoctors.org.uk
TBH, I reckon the only way to do it is to go out to a nice dark road with the appropriate tools (and a torch) and set it so that you can see with it. A good rule of thumb is to find yourself a level bit of concrete facing a wall, or a garage door perhaps. Set the bike perpendicular to the wall and measure from the headlight centre to the ground. Chalk a horizontal line on the wall (or door) at this height and set dipped beam so that the horizontal cutoff line runs parallel to and just below the line. I'd still tweak it on the road, though. As long as you don't get flashed too often - and can see where you're going - is about right.
Using the patented Mavis Bacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Martin Watts <> typed (Of adjusting headlamp aim) Find out what Nidge does. That's exactly wrong, so do the opposite. Sorted. -- Nigel WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 ZZR1100 and Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner" (No , I'm not sure how that happened either).
Well bike headlights are really only appropriate for mood lighting anyway so just set it up for a gentle wash with maybe a pearlescent bulb and you'll be fine.
Below is the result of a google search on the ukrm group. There is more to the internet than that bloody Johnny come lately www stuff. Originally posted by Alan Gower of this parish. <begin quoting> Position the bike in a straight line at a right angle to a wall. The bike must be off its stand and the rider seated on the bike. Measure the height from the ground to the centre of the headlight. Mark a horizontal line on the wall with this height. Position the bike 3.8 metres from the wall (measure from the front of the headlight to the wall). Draw a vertical line up the wall central to the centre line of the bike. Switched to dipped beam and check that the pattern falls slightly lower than the horizontal line and to the left of the vertical on the wall <end quoting>
I think a blow lamp and some infra red goggles might do the trick. Seriously though, I took the gixxer out at twilight the other day and found that I was looking at least 20% further ahead than the cutoff point of the (dipped) headlight when cornering. And I was going much slower than I would normally go on that particular stretch of road. And the lights are set as high as I dare. Main beam is fine for 90+mph but cornering on dipped is a test of faith.
As well as Alan's text version there is also a diagram from my ever handy MZ factory manual. "..The vehicle is placed according to the scheme, loaded with the driver. The suspension units are set to 'soft'. The light/dark boundary must not lie above the 'Z'-line, the angular deflection of the asymmetric passing beam starts in the centre between the lines 'V' and 'W'. For check-test, the suspension units are set to hard and the motorcycle additionally loaded with a pillion rider. The 'Z'-line complies with the road illumination of 25m for the passing beam as stipulated by the lighting regulations of this country [GDR].." http://www.sweller.co.uk/sob/lamp.htm HTH
do what they do in thailand here in thailand they wear a head lamp on there head, you know the ones for caving, or take the bulb out so the police cant see you, heeeee, it gets scary driving at night when ppl drive on the wrong side with no lights, no helmet and flip-flops, in 7 yrs ive been first on the scene giving first aid 5 times, saved 2 lives and lost 1, 18yo when the nurses at the hospital just pulled metal fragments out of his chest,but i have better medical qualifications than they do, i have my 5yr first aid from uk.
