Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Headlight neglect - GUILTY

This will probably get sent over to things related to rider safety, but I thought I'd post it here, since most people probably don't stop in too often at that forum. At least I don't - maybe I should...

Anyway, to make a long post even longer...

My brother came to visit a couple months back, and I let him ride my Speedmaster, and I was loaned my neighbor's bike to go riding in the backroads here in LIT. My brother was behind me, since he didn't know the area, and I noticed that I had a hard time seeing him in my mirror. This was because the headlight had 'migrated' down, so that it wasn't as visible as it should be. Well, I put 'adjust headlight' on my 'to-do' list and promptly forgot all about it. Today was such a FINE day here (finally) that I spent most of it outside in the yard and in the garage puttering with my guy toys. I remebered that 'adjust headlight' was on the list, and I did so. It occured to me that this item is probably one of the more neglected items we do when puttering, preening, and cleaning our bikes, yet the lowly, forgotten headlight is probably what most motorists see or don't see when checking traffic at an intersection. The point (Yeah! Just what IS your point??? ) here is that I am suggesting that everyone take a close look at your headlight adjustment and move it so as to be as visible as possible (without blinding) to motorists. I think sometimes accidents are caused not by negligence, but because the driver of the car actually and honestly did NOT see the motorcyclist, and maybe it was because the headlight was pointed too low. NOTE: I'm not saying that there aren't some drivers who aren't just plain idiots, but anything I can do to be more visible is perhaps one more day I won't spend in pain and/or in a hospital bed - or WORSE.

Fact is that I don't think the headlight on my speedy was ever adjusted since the guy at the shop uncrated the bike.

Please put 'adjust headlights' on your own list.

We have headlights?

Good point!

Correct headlight aiming link is in Tech Vault under the How To's thread

Here's the direct link:
http://webmaster10.com/ldr/headlight_aiming.html

And here's the (abbreviated) text:

With the bike on its wheels and you astride, have a helper measure the distance from the floor to the center of the headlight lens.

Pick a flat wall where you can locate the bike so the headlight is 17 feet from the wall. Place a horizontal mark on the wall two (2) inches lower than the height of the center of the headlight.

The headlight beam (on low beam) should be relatively flat on the top, and may rise rather sharply at the right edge. Adjust the headlight vertically so that the flat top of the beam is just up to that line (marked two inches down at 17 feet).

Horizontal adjustment should center the beam ahead of the line of the bike.

We have our headlight alignment checked every year when we have to have it MOT'd, do you guy not have a safety check every year then????

dont you ride at night?

might be scared of the dark

Shouldn't it be adjusted with you ON the bike instead of astride?

It was written by Paul Glaves

"Paul is the Technical Editor of the BMW Owners News, the monthly magazine of the BMW Motorcycle Owners of America. Paul can be contacted at PGlaves@aol.com"

You got a beef with the way it is written, perhaps you should re-write it and send it to him. I mean, you guys are such masters of the English language.

While you're at that, bash him for riding a BMW too.

U got it brother. Sorry I couldn't resist