ricochetrider
Out There Somewhere
I recently bought an 89 R100RS.
CLEARLY, the PO never once drove it at night.
I say this because one evening as I was riding home in semi darkness, I found the headlight was aimed -quite literally- at the treetops!
Night riding is in my future of course. It's part of what I do, either commuting, traveling, or for fun.
I thought I'd park my car on a flat (ish) road, put my girlfriend in the driver's seat, park the bike maybe 75-100 feet away and aim it at low beam, to just below annoyance level for her.... while sitting on the bike with neither side stand nor center stand deployed.
All this seems somewhat complicated, however. Aiming the headlamp seems like a sort of inexact science. One thing I do not like is a low beam that is aimed too low! My -ahem- *cough cough* K1200, for example, was aimed from the factory to hit WAY below other drivers' eyes- to the point of being quite nearly useless at full dark. I put a modern headlamp kit in my Norton Commando. The lens has similar refractions as the lens on the R bike. I had to really dial it in to get it aimed properly- a much more difficult task than I anticipated to get the low beam aimed far enough out to be as effective as possible but not blinding, and then for the high beam to still light up the road and not the tree tops...
Anyone got a "formula" or method for aiming a headlamp?
CLEARLY, the PO never once drove it at night.
I say this because one evening as I was riding home in semi darkness, I found the headlight was aimed -quite literally- at the treetops!
Night riding is in my future of course. It's part of what I do, either commuting, traveling, or for fun.
I thought I'd park my car on a flat (ish) road, put my girlfriend in the driver's seat, park the bike maybe 75-100 feet away and aim it at low beam, to just below annoyance level for her.... while sitting on the bike with neither side stand nor center stand deployed.
All this seems somewhat complicated, however. Aiming the headlamp seems like a sort of inexact science. One thing I do not like is a low beam that is aimed too low! My -ahem- *cough cough* K1200, for example, was aimed from the factory to hit WAY below other drivers' eyes- to the point of being quite nearly useless at full dark. I put a modern headlamp kit in my Norton Commando. The lens has similar refractions as the lens on the R bike. I had to really dial it in to get it aimed properly- a much more difficult task than I anticipated to get the low beam aimed far enough out to be as effective as possible but not blinding, and then for the high beam to still light up the road and not the tree tops...
Anyone got a "formula" or method for aiming a headlamp?