Headlight aiming help

[george_park]

Hello all,

I was riding tonight when some &$%!!## stopped dead in front of me and the person I was riding with and pulled slightly to the side of the road. At a stop light a half mile ahead we were turning left, the putz in the car pulled up beside me to go right and said "your high beams are on". When I told him they were not (showed him) he said they were too bright and in his eyes.

Yeah, he stopped in front of me because he does not know how to flip up his mirrors and no, I wasn't really happy about that and kindly let him know it. Even though I felt bad that I may be blinding someone with my Silverstar bulb it wasn’t worthy of a possible death sentence. And no, I didn’t do the typical freak out thing, while he might not like bikers I didn’t want to fuel the fire.

When I got home I checked to see what the official "correct" headlight height was for where I live (SE PA). I can't find it. Fog lights yeah, the big shiny light – nah. So I looked on line.

Ooookay… 17’, 20’, 25’ – the only thing people seemed to agree on was “measure to the center of your headlight and then down two inches” for where the low beams are supposed to be.

It seems pretty elementary to have a measurement for the headlight – can anyone help me here with the “official” way to aim a headlight?

Thanks,

gp

[Bob Myers]

Thats what my Kawasaki manual says for aiming the headlight on my Vulcan. Ky also says the same thing, 2" down measured at the center of the beam at 25'

[timgray]

Being on a motorcycle, I am glad if my headlight is too bright. if I annoy them then I know they can see me.

 

too many blind cagers will gladly plow into you and use the "I did not see them" excuse.

 

I prefer blinded cagers to dead riders any day.

[BOO]

I prefer not to have cages coming at me blinded.

 

gp

 

Here is an article about headlights.

 

Jerry

[flb_78]

Put some air in the rear shock and it'll lift the rear end of the bike and lower the headlight.

 

I highly doubt your headlight is that far out of aim. It's most likely the Silverstar bulb is just that bright. I had a Silverstar and it was bright. It could really be seen. But it only lasted 6 months.

[Marcarl]

For me, I think that the most important part of headlight use is to be able to see in the dark, and see as well as possible. So I do the 25' thing to get to a standard and then I go for a ride in the dark and adjust it so that I get all the benefit I can from that wee little bulb. Too high and you loose in the highbeam section and too low you can't see anything when the high beam is off, so somewhere nicely inbetween. I also use driving lights and aim them the same way, using the low beam only, again, too high is no good and too low is a waste as well.

I always have my driving lights on, always,, daytime or night and the only time I use low beam is when I'm meeting someone at night, the rest of the time it's driving lights and high beam. As I meet other riders I look at their scoots and if they are only using the low beam,,,it doesn't stand out, but if they have their high beam on,,, there is no question that there is something there.

My Point>>>>>BE SEEN AS BEST AS POSSIBLE

[N3FOL]

Hello george_park. I have a buddy who owns a BMW and his headlight is also very blinding at any angle. It may really be your headlight aimed too high, but sometimes I doubt it if you have not made any adjustments previously. The best thing is to check it.

 

I do like the aiming of my headlight as it is and it does light up the road + the light bar even on low beams.

 

Wonder where you are in SE Pa. We live in Stewartstown near the MD/PA line.

[jrcain32]

MARCARL, you stated you run your driving lights on high and low beam. Mine is a second gen and my driving lights only come on with low beam. Yours being a first gen may be different. My question is, do I have to re-wire mine to come on with high beam or am I missing something? I have thought about this several times but have never asked or seen anyone posting about it. Any thought, anyone???

[george_park]

Thanks all, since my headlight caused someone to take an action that could have caused serious injury or death it caught my attention but as we all know cagers seem to run hot/cold with cycles.

 

My garage is only about 18' long so 25' is going to be a problem as I've a sloping downhill driveway - I'll have to find a place I can take care of it. At 17' it's only slightly above the center line.

 

I'm not too far away from Valley Forge Park and ride with (and maintain the web site for), among others, the Valley Forge Chapter of STAR Touring #326. We get to MD quite a bit - nice roads, nice people and real good eating.

 

Any talk of a Venture Rider meetup in this area?

 

Regards,

gp

[Bob Myers]

 

My garage is only about 18' long so 25' is going to be a problem as I've a sloping downhill driveway - I'll have to find a place I can take care of it. At 17' it's only slightly above the center line.

Regards,

gp

 

It should be below center, not above

[V7Goose]

Some very interesting attitudes exhibited in some of these posts. We all know that a vehicle, ANY type of vehicle, can be dangerous. This is true whether we are riding it, riding next to it or it is being driven toward us. Making a point to impair the vision of another driver, day or night, doesn't seem to be the wisest choice we could make. I also can't fathom how someone can honestly tell themselves that they are SAFER by irritating or blinding the other drivers on the road with them? Unfortunately, an awful lot of bikers seem to make the decision to ride with their high beams on all the time just for that purpose. Dangerous.

 

A motorcycle's headlight changes the point of aim a lot just by changing the weight on the bike (how much the rear squats), that is why Yamaha made it so easy to adjust the headlight height just by turning a knob. Someone who normally rides solo can quickly find themselves blinding other drivers just by riding with a passenger and not changing the air pressure in the rear shock. Set it correctly by the book with the bike loaded like you ride most often, then go out at night and stop 40 or 50 feet from a stop sign and look at where the edge of the light hits the sign. Now you have a decent estimate on where to adjust the light if you find yourself out at night with the bike loaded considerably more or less than normal or if you have significantly changed the air in the rear shocks.

Goose

[N3FOL]

MARCARL, you stated you run your driving lights on high and low beam. Mine is a second gen and my driving lights only come on with low beam. Yours being a first gen may be different. My question is, do I have to re-wire mine to come on with high beam or am I missing something? I have thought about this several times but have never asked or seen anyone posting about it. Any thought, anyone???

 

My Venture is an '07 and I had it wired to stay 'ON' all the time on low or high beam. Not sure at this point how to re-wire to keep your aux light on all the time on high beam.

[george_park]

To be clear I want my headlight to be properly angled so that I don't blind anyone and so that I can see at night. I'm not going to try and irritate anyone (especially those driving a 2 ton block of iron at me), although I may do that by default..

 

I've been riding with my light at its current setting for 2 years without complaint, it's recently passed inspection, has a full charge of air, is not lowered, etc.

 

If I'm 10-12' from the distance used to calibrate the light I would expect it to be high so I'm not saying it is ok - although it might be.

 

For instance mine is at the 36.5" height from the ground to the center of the lamp @ 15' with me sitting on the bike while at low beam from 25' it should hit at 34.5" (and according to PA State code no more than 4" off center).

 

Once I can get it to 25' (and out at night) I'll know for sure if it's OK and that cager was nuts / a general grump or if I was blinding him thorough the rear view. In any case I can't remember ever slamming on the brakes when there were a set of maladjusted low beams sitting behind me...

[Guest tx2sturgis]

You didnt ever say what kind of car it was. If its a normal little econo-cage, they sit pretty low and his rear view mirror probably had a bulls-eye view of your main burner. Is it possible you may have just pulled up a bit too close to his bumper? If you see the driver squinting in his mirror at your headlight, you can always turn the bars slightly to help him or her see ahead ok. Its just being considerate.

 

I'd check your aiming, if you think its not right, but otherwise, like you said...the guy may just be a 'putz'.

 

One way to deal with these guys is to say, 'yes its on low, and as soon as I get home, I'll check it'. You never know these days when some idiot is just looking for an excuse to pull a gun. The guy could be on drugs, pissed at his wife, or just homicidal or suicidal. No reason to argue on the side of the road about it.

 

When it comes to headlite aiming, I dont use the 'wall method'. I head out to a dark, straight, lonely road, and with the bike parked and running, and held level, I check the pattern on the road ahead, on both HIGH and LOW beams. You can step off and adjust it easily on the Ventures, (1st gen while seated) but on some bikes, you may need to have a scewdriver handy. I set the pattern so that the top of the low beam cutoff is around 100-200 feet ahead. If you have driving lites those need to be turned off to do it right. Let your eyes adjust to the light level after you set the angle. If you normally ride with a passenger, and she is not on the bike that nite, just set the beam a tad lower.

 

Once it is set correctly, when you switch from LOW to HIGH, the main HIGH beam pattern should 'fill in' the area just above the LOW beam cutoff, and illuminate 500-1000 ft down the road.

 

Older bikes with sealed beams have less of a defined 'cut-off' on the low beam, so those just have to be set for decent lighting on either beam.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[V7Goose]

To be clear I want my headlight to be properly angled so that I don't blind anyone and so that I can see at night. I'm not going to try and irritate anyone (especially those driving a 2 ton block of iron at me), although I may do that by default..

 

I've been riding with my light at its current setting for 2 years without complaint, it's recently passed inspection, has a full charge of air, is not lowered, etc.

 

If I'm 10-12' from the distance used to calibrate the light I would expect it to be high so I'm not saying it is ok - although it might be.

 

I am not sure I understand your statement, so let me put it this way - The correct measurement for your light at any distance is somewhat lower than the actual height of the bulb. Without using any actual numbers ('cause I'm not gonna look them up right now), that means that at 12' in front of your bike, the light beam should ALWAYS be a little lower than the center of the bulb on the bike (but not quite as low as it would be at 25'). Hope that helps - and I realize that you might have been trying to say the same thing!

Goose

[Marcarl]

MARCARL, you stated you run your driving lights on high and low beam. Mine is a second gen and my driving lights only come on with low beam. Yours being a first gen may be different. My question is, do I have to re-wire mine to come on with high beam or am I missing something? I have thought about this several times but have never asked or seen anyone posting about it. Any thought, anyone???

I have my driving lights wired separately from my head light, on a separate switch and all.

On the issue of having the high beam during daylight hours, I would like to know if this is found to be offensive. I personally don't find the high beam bothersome during the day, in fact when I see a scooter with the high beam on, I say: thankyou, you are riding saver than most, because I have no problem seeing you.

[V7Goose]

On the issue of having the high beam during daylight hours, I would like to know if this is found to be offensive. I personally don't find the high beam bothersome during the day, in fact when I see a scooter with the high beam on, I say: thankyou, you are riding saver than most, because I have no problem seeing you.

Absolutely - VERY offensive. The bright light aimed in my eyes is irritating, alters my normal focus and behavior, and knowing that it is being done deliberately (admittedly an assumption, but usually true) makes it Very Very offensive. Just my opinion, but you asked ... I suspect that if you asked 100 cage-only drivers, the VAST majority of them would tell you how offensive they find it, especially since many of them are already predisposed to dislike motorcycles due to inconsiderate noise, dangerous riding, etc. We are often our own worse enemies.

Goose

[eagleeye]

I'm with Goose 100% on this one. I find it very offesive, because I know that they are doing it on purpose.

Once the headlight is adjusted correctly, then where would you set the driving lights? Off to the side, (ditch) to watch for deer? In between the high and low?

 

What really catches my attention is a motorcycle "WITHOUT" his headlight on.

 

Steve

Edited October 15, 2008 by eagleeye

[george_park]

No prob Goose.

 

If the light is angled down and I have the bike flat against the wall the beam is going to be almost dead center on a mark from the ground to the center of the light.

 

Based on the angle and distance from the wall the farther away the more the light will fall lower on the wall - if it didn't do that the light and the ground would never intersect and I'd be UFO hunting instead of looking for squirrels...

 

My point was that my garage is not long enough to get 25' away so my low beam falls somewhere between the 36.5" centerpoint of my headlight and the 34.5" "two inches lower" mark on the wall as expected since I can't get the bike far enough from the wall to allow the angle to max out at 25'.

 

Once I can get 25' away from something I can take a look to see if it hits the 34.5" mark - in any case my headlight hits the ground (so it's not pointing up), I don't tail gate, didn't have a passenger, have lost 95lbs (so the bike should be higher in the back), was going down hill and didn't have the high beams on so I have come to the conclusion that while my headlight may be a little off the cager in front of me was being a total knob.

 

Regards,

gp

[awsmsrv]

George, wouldn't this work? Place your bike 12.5 feet from the wall & adjust the headlight to just 1 inch below center. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm not thinking straight.

[Flyinfool]

George, wouldn't this work? Place your bike 12.5 feet from the wall & adjust the headlight to just 1 inch below center. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm not thinking straight.

 

That is exactly what I was going to suggest.

Aiming a light is not like aiming a bullet. Light travels in a straight line and has no "drop" so you do not have to aim high to get the light there.

[Shipper]

Absolutely - VERY offensive. The bright light aimed in my eyes is irritating, alters my normal focus and behavior, and knowing that it is being done deliberately (admittedly an assumption, but usually true) makes it Very Very offensive. Just my opinion, but you asked ... I suspect that if you asked 100 cage-only drivers, the VAST majority of them would tell you how offensive they find it, especially since many of them are already predisposed to dislike motorcycles due to inconsiderate noise, dangerous riding, etc. We are often our own worse enemies.

Goose

Well here goes being flamed! I'm too new on the forum to question Goose, but after seeing a cager staring at me in the eye and then pulling out directly in front of me made me realize that he really didn't see me-so went to high beams in traffic. That wasn't good enough for the next sweet little old lady so I modulated the high beam (legal in all 50 states). Most modulators only work on high beam, and the cagers react like its an emergency vehicle at least for that split second that I need.

I'm the one at risk out there so if I p**s off some jerk then so be it. Haven't gotten any finger waves so far and I've had them on high beam for more than a year. I'm now looking at modulating my tail light. If it ain't polite or cool then so be it too. Just my humble opinion.

[Kirby]

Well here goes being flamed! I'm too new on the forum to question Goose, but after seeing a cager staring at me in the eye and then pulling out directly in front of me made me realize that he really didn't see me-so went to high beams in traffic. That wasn't good enough for the next sweet little old lady so I modulated the high beam (legal in all 50 states). Most modulators only work on high beam, and the cagers react like its an emergency vehicle at least for that split second that I need.

I'm the one at risk out there so if I p**s off some jerk then so be it. Haven't gotten any finger waves so far and I've had them on high beam for more than a year. I'm now looking at modulating my tail light. If it ain't polite or cool then so be it too. Just my humble opinion.

 

 

After hitting a deer not too long ago one night while riding home, I threw out the "correct" procedure and started adjusting for maximum light on high beams with running lights the same way. May not be too friendly to others, but I can certainly see better!!

[GaryZ]

Attached is a very good DIY for aiming headlights

[N3FOL]

After reading your pdf attachment, adjusting the headlight beam is not so bad. The instruction shows a car and I will assume it is similar to motorcycles.