Headlight adjusters: do they do anything?

[Mad German]

Do the headlight adjusters really do anything? I’ve fiddled with mine, giving them several turns each way, and I can’t seem to tell a difference. There’s some “resistance” when I’m turning the knobs, so I’m sure the cable isn’t broken (I only at 21,000 miles).
This is the first bike I’ve had that had adjusters. I’m just curious if they make a difference. Other than making the removal of the dash pieces a bit more of a pain…

 

[C&C]

Yes they do, but they are very fine tunable. Put your bike on the center stand, aim it at a fixed wall in front of you and twist away!

 

[rbentnail]

If at night you pull up on level ground to the dark side of a building and adjust the knobs, you should see the sharp cutoff of the headlight beam move up or down. If you don't either something is wrong mechanically or the headlight may already be so far out of adjustment high that it looks like there's no change. The latter is how my '13 headlights were aimed when I picked it up.

 

[RossKean]

Yes they do, but they are very fine tunable. Put your bike on the center stand, aim it at a fixed wall in front of you and twist away!

Better still, adjust while sitting on the bike (not on center stand) so forks and shock are near to normal compression and rear wheel is on the ground. Balance with minimal weight on your feet.

 

[BigOgre]

And also make sure to keep the tranny in neutral while in front of that wall.

(Sorry. Wanted to contribute. Couldn't think of anything else.)

 

[MotoMike]

Know that however you set them for 1-up, the aim will change if you add luggage or add a pillion rider or add both. The setting will also have to be changed if you aimed the headlights while you had the rear shock in the "soft" position and you change to riding in the "hard" position. Have fun with all that!
Personally, I set them up for how I ride the majority of the time (alone, ATGATT, topcase with some gear in it, no side cases, "soft" setting on the rear shock) using the method described by RossKean and just leave it at that.

 

['Sheg]

I realize how the adjustment is done, my question is what is the height from the ground to the cutoff line and at what distance from the wall?

 

[rbentnail]

At 25 ft from the wall I adjusted my cutoff a 2" below the height of the bulb when I was sitting on the bike holding it level with my feet as lightly as I could. It was really helpful to use a brick or block wall so I could see the cutoff moving against the lines. I later tweaked the cutoff up a little while riding at night but just a little. All this was with halogen bulbs and had to be done again with LED replacements.

 

[torch]

In Ontario. I believe this mirrors the CMVSS and FMVSS, and in fact the odd metric dimensions are due to conversion from the US standard. I added the conversions back to feet and inches in square brackets after the metric values:

"2. (1) Subject to section 3, the headlamps on a motor vehicle shall be capable of projecting at least two beams, so controlled that only one beam can be selected for use by the driver of the motor vehicle at any one time according to the requirements of traffic. R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 596, s. 2 (1).

(2) One beam shall be a lower or passing beam so aimed that none of the high intensity portion of the beam that is directed,

(a) to the left of the vehicle, is higher than 127 millimetres [5"] below; or

(b) to the right of the vehicle, is higher than,


the horizontal line through the centre of the headlamp from which it comes, at a distance of 7.6 metres [25'] ahead of the headlamp, when the vehicle is not loaded, and the high intensity portion of the lower or passing beam shall not rise higher than 1.07 metres [3.5'] above the level on which the vehicle stands at a distance of 22.9 metres [75'] ahead of the vehicle. R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 596, s. 2 (2)."

So there you go: With rider and gear aboard at 25' set the left low-beam no higher than 5" below centre and the right no higher than equal to centre. Yamaha's design should take care of the high beam aim if the low beam is correct.

 

[rbentnail]

So there you go: With rider and gear aboard at 25' set the left low-beam no higher than 5" below centre and the right no higher than equal to centre. Yamaha's design should take care of the high beam aim if the low beam is correct.

My personal experience is the 5" below puts the cutoff to close. YYMV.