iirc, you can only adjust the lows horizontally and the highs vertically...

 

I read in the manual to turn the top screw for vertical adjustment. I like to have it a little lower to light up the road and not the road signs.

But I keep turning and turning and it doesn't do anything. Do I need to turn it alot or what.

And you have to have the bike on in order to see the light. Pretty bright light.

There are two adjustments, vertical and horizontal. The adjusters move the entire headlight assembly, both high and low lights at the same time.

I put my bike up on it's sidestand about 10 feet from a wall so I can see the light pattern. I also stick a small 2x4 under the stand so the bike sits more vertical. Start the bike and watch the low beam pattern only. The adjuster for the vertical is on the left side of the assembly, if I'm remembering correctly. The horizontal adjuster is on the right side of the headlight assembly. Adjust up or down accordingly. It takes a lot of turns (10-20) to make a significant difference on the wall. I put a small piece of tape on the wall before I start adjusting so I have a reference mark to compare against. Just keep turning the adjuster till you can see the pattern moving relative to your piece of tape.

Once I get the headlight pattern to where I think I want it, I take the bike out for a test ride. I gauge the proper aiming by how high the light pattern shines on a typical passenger car in front of me. I never want my low beam pattern to shine over the top edge of their trunk so it would blind them from inside the car. Adjust your low beam up or down after your test ride. The high beam is already a fixed height above the low beam, so no adjustment is need for it.

 

Didn't know that. I thought the whole headlight was 1 peice so adjusting one would adjust the other.

 

it does...each adjustment adjusts both the low and high at the same time...whether vertical or horizontal

 

Yeah, that's why I have to adjust mine. When I'm behind a car it shines right at their heads. Little too high. I didn't know it would take that many turns. I'm going to try it again.

 

Mine too...Im adjusting mine tomorrow at work

rode mine tonight and people kept flashing their high beams at me lol

 

I tried to adjust my light down last night. At first it moved and then it seemed that I was turning and it wasn't moving any further. I can push on the bottom of the headlight and see that it moves down further but it won't stay there. It's still too high where it is it's not hardly lighting up the ground and the high beam could be the bat signal. Let me know if you get your to go low enough.

 

Mine is that way too. I thought maybe it was just my weight (I weigh 250) causing the tail to sag a bit aiming the nose up.

It was a pain in the ass to get my big hands in there to adjust it. They are all scuffed and scratched, next time I just take off the side fairing.

 

I'm going to tell my dealer to fix it up for me so I don't have to have "EMO" hands haha

 

Emo hands? LOL!

Well I have short moderately wide fingers and a huge meaty palm. When I try to reach down in the fairing its like trying to shove a watermelon in your ass. Eventually you'll get it in there, but not without mashing it up a bit.

 

1 guy 1 watermelon cup?

 

OMG LOL NOOOOOOOOOOEZ!

 

LOL, When I heard watermelon puree, that came to mind. I swear to god it was chocolate ice cream

 

I swear to god it was chocolate ice cream

Well to each their own, but I don't much enjoy the pain of "butt freeze."

 

does anyone have a picture of the screw location? My headlight is pointing about 10 feet into the air. EVERYONE is flashing there lights at me, and I can't see the road very well. I only have my M1 so I'm not supposed to be riding at night, but had to the other night to get home. I started riding and was like WTF? why is the low beam shinning up the trees on the side of the road? I'm only 150lbs so I know it's not my skinny ass weighing down the back of the bike.

 

HRmm this didn't come out as clear as I would've liked. Oh well I'll get some more batteries from my camera and go take a picture on my bike...

Edit: Yeah I'm going to wait until I get more batteries and take pics on my bike for you

 

Looking forward to the pics.

 

:thumbup:

 

cool, VeX.

 

Have you checked your owners manual? I believe there are pictures in there of the adjusters.

 

Why didn't I think of that? Getting old/lazy I guess. lol

 

Yeah, but the pics aren't all that clear and neither are the instructions, if I remember correctly.

 

I found it myself.

First I started adjusting the horizontal adjustment thinking it was the vertical. There's a little hole that you can stick a philips screwdriver into under the headlight. Then had to re-adjust that because I eventually screwed it all the way. Then I found the big plastic nob at the top left of the headlight housing. Then started with a clockwise rotation, but that moved it up. So you must turn it counter clockwise to adjust it down.

 

So I have a question for you guys who have either adjusted their lights lower or installed HIDs. I ride pretty frequently at night and most of the roads by me are not lit at all, so I usually have to depend on my own lighting and am starting to feel the stock low beam is not enough.

I was thinking of either purchasing some HIDs for the bike, or lowering the headlights so that I could use the high beam constantly without blinding/annoying the other drivers. I have not experimented with the adjustments yet, but from you guys that have had experience with it, do you think that you are able to adjust the lights low enough that the high beam can always be used? Or do you run into the problem where when the high beam is low enough to be used safely, that the low beam is too low that it isn't even worth it anymore? If that makes sense...

Or should I just not worry about it and invest in some HIDs?

Thanks for the help, Jeff

 

So I have a question for you guys who have either adjusted their lights lower or installed HIDs. I ride pretty frequently at night and most of the roads by me are not lit at all, so I usually have to depend on my own lighting and am starting to feel the stock low beam is not enough.

I was thinking of either purchasing some HIDs for the bike, or lowering the headlights so that I could use the high beam constantly without blinding/annoying the other drivers. I have not experimented with the adjustments yet, but from you guys that have had experience with it, do you think that you are able to adjust the lights low enough that the high beam can always be used? Or do you run into the problem where when the high beam is low enough to be used safely, that the low beam is too low that it isn't even worth it anymore? If that makes sense...

Or should I just not worry about it and invest in some HIDs?

Thanks for the help, Jeff

Jeff,

I ride a curvy mountain two lane road at night which has zero street lights.... I NEED upgraded lighting.

With that said, good lighting from any vehicle comes from proper aiming of the lights you have. If what you say is true about the roads in your area, you do not want to compromise your ability to see by lowering your hi lights low enough that it does not bother people when they are on. You need to aim them properly so you can see as far down the road as possible.

The trick is to aim the low beams high enough to get good coverage, but not so high that you blind people. My rough test is to pull up behind an average car and see if my cutoff line from my low light is just below their trunk line. You do not want your cutoff light above that as it would be shining directly into their car at night...that is aimed too high.

Because the hi and low lights are tied together in one housing on this bike, your hi lights should be aimed properly at that time too. See if that does not improve your night time ability to see farther down the road.

If at that point you need more light, put in HIDs. I did and they are by far the best solution to increased light output. Just be sure to check your headlight aiming as to not blind oncoming traffic. This is the #1 complaint of HIDs that people have... don't be a part of the problem.... aim your headlight properly.

 

Sorry about the delay! (It's been a BUSY week and I just now picked up some batteries). Hell it's been so long 250ballsoffury no longer OWNS a Ninja 250! LOL

Anywho...

With the passenger side (Hehehe) fairing removed you can access the horizontal beam adjustment...

It's the (screw) on the right (confusing as the manual shows a knob).

As for the Vertical beam...

On the other side of the bike with the fairing removed it's UP there

Wayyy up there!

 

Wow, those are money shot right there.. I guess with the last pic, turning that knob counterclockwise will aim the light down...helps from blinding others...a good thing if you don't want a head-on collision with a car.. LOL.

 

Vex: Thanks for the pics. Kind of a pain to have to take the fairings off just to adjust the beams, but it is what it is. Thanks again.

 

I do believe the adjusters can be reached from underneath without taking off any fairings. Yes, they are hard to reach, but with the pictures VeX provided, at least you know what to look for. I'm not positive on reaching them w/o fairing removal, but do remember someone posting of changing bulbs by just reaching them from underneath.

 

While NORMALLY I'm against doing a bunch of different things at once (As if one chore gets screwed up later on it's difficult to diagnose) plan on adjusting the headlights IN conjunction with other stuffs... Say you're going to shim your carb needles, plan on leaving the fairings off and that night adjusting the lights. Hell I shot those pictures (and had to adjust my lights SLIGHTLY) without intentions of doing so. I literally had the fairings off for something else.

Getting to the adjustment screws is a kagillion times easier without the fairings there. Fiddling with the screws otherwise would probably take longer than just taking the fairings off and back on in the first place. Just my .02

 

Getting to the adjustment screws is a kagillion times easier without the fairings there. Fiddling with the screws otherwise would probably take longer than just taking the fairings off and back on in the first place. Just my .02

I totally agree, though maybe not everyone is comfortable taking off the bodywork. I think it must be some sort of disease to want to see your bike naked so often.

 

Sorry,I should have updated this thread sooner. If you have small hands/arms, the adjusters can be reached w/o taking off the fairings. The vertical(up/down) knob is the tough one that will take some contortions to get to. I got to it by sticking my arm up from underneath the right side even tho the damned thing is on the left side. Turn it counter-clockwise to lower the beam.

Follow the pics/info posted here because the service manual sucks. It says to use a screwdriver on the knob! Obviously you need to turn it with your fingers. Use a screwdriver for the horiz. screw adjuster. Overall it only took me about 10 minutes to complete the adjustment.

Before they were adjusted, my lights(low beams)were so out of line they lit up the overhead signs and treetops. However, it didn't bother other drivers because they were so high, it went over their heads.

 

Sorry,I should have updated this thread sooner. If you have small hands/arms, the adjusters can be reached w/o taking off the fairings. The vertical(up/down) knob is the tough one that will take some contortions to get to. I got to it by sticking my arm up from underneath the right side even tho the damned thing is on the left side. Turn it counter-clockwise to lower the beam.

Follow the pics/info posted here because the service manual sucks. It says to use a screwdriver on the knob! Obviously you need to turn it with your fingers. Use a screwdriver for the horiz. screw adjuster. Overall it only took me about 10 minutes to complete the adjustment.

Before they were adjusted, my lights(low beams)were so out of line they lit up the overhead signs and treetops. However, it didn't bother other drivers because they were so high, it went over their heads.

Ichiro.. thanks for the follow up and for taking the time to write up the information so it can be shared with others when/if they search for this topic. I wish more members would do follow ups as you did.

mahalo,

 

kkim: More than happy to follow up the thread. I too wish people would do so not only to help others, but out of respect for people like you who take so much time to offer helpful advice.

 

:cheers-004: