General topics » Headlight adjustment

Hello all. It might seem obvious but was not to me. Having ridden my RS at night I found that both dipped and main beam illuminated the ground about 20 feet in front of the bike and not much further. This made for an "interesting" ride on Scottish B roads (read very twisty with limited signing) at night.

To adjust main beam and dipped locate the hexagonal plastic bolt head found on the left for main beam and on the right (as you sit on the bike) for dipped. Turning the hexagonal adjuster clockwise increases the elevation for both main and dipped. I did not need to use tools the adjusters are a little stiff to turn.

I focussed the lights with the engine running on my garage door and so adjusted the arc to where I believe they should be. I am yet to test and confirm the improvement.

Thought this might be useful to know as I could not find a single reference to this adjustment process on the inter web. (Picture attached is the LHS adjustor for main beam.)

Hope the post helps for those that find the same issue.

Safe riding.

Zitat von Tzindo im Beitrag #1

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I found that both dipped and main beam illuminated the ground about 20 feet in front of the bike and not much further

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Zitat von swedkg im Beitrag #2

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but in theory, it should fine right out of the factory.

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A 1/4 inch drive with a 13 mm socket, a short extension and stubby ratchet is more efficient than fingers! Also a screwdriver extension with a universal joint is fine. I have no idea how to adjust for left hand drive, but in Oz, it is not an issue.

I was tempted to just say RTFM, but will concede that the basic handbook is a bit light on headlamp adjustment.

Meanwhile, the Haynes manual is crystal clear on the matter.

I chuckled at the guidance for the naked R1200R - I’ll paraphrase it - “slacken the 2 big fuckin’ obvious headlamp mounting bolts, 1 each side, and pivot the headlamp to your preferred position”.

The RS isn’t much more difficult, with a nice big (fairly obvious) adjuster for each lamp.

Zitat von Boxerboy55 im Beitrag #6

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I was tempted to just say RTFM, but will concede that the basic handbook is a bit light on headlamp adjustment.

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