Bad headlight adjustment
Thread Starter
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Club Member
Joined: Dec 2014
Posts: 10,734
Likes: 3,755
From: SWFL
Bad headlight adjustment
Now that its getting dark early Ive noticed that my headlight doesnt illuminate the road pretty much at all beyond about 50-60 ahead of the bike. We all know at speed, 50 is gone in an instant.
I checked the adjustment following the service manual and its spot on - the book says high beam hotspot cutoff should be 2 below the lens center height.
The wierd thing is when riding, if I switch to high beam, it provides what I would expect low to look like. But low beam sucks. Im questioning if the manual is incorrect saying the alignment should be done with the high beam. Ive never heard that, always done low beam in the past.
The lens is an actual JW Speaker adaptive LED, not a knock-off, and it damn bright. The aim is just completely off following the factory manual procedure.
Anyone else experienced this?
I may just try and find an unlit Road and eyeball it.
I checked the adjustment following the service manual and its spot on - the book says high beam hotspot cutoff should be 2 below the lens center height.
The wierd thing is when riding, if I switch to high beam, it provides what I would expect low to look like. But low beam sucks. Im questioning if the manual is incorrect saying the alignment should be done with the high beam. Ive never heard that, always done low beam in the past.
The lens is an actual JW Speaker adaptive LED, not a knock-off, and it damn bright. The aim is just completely off following the factory manual procedure.
Anyone else experienced this?
I may just try and find an unlit Road and eyeball it.
Thread Starter
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Club Member
Joined: Dec 2014
Posts: 10,734
Likes: 3,755
From: SWFL
Interesting. Just found the JW Speaker aiming procedure on their site. They say the (also) high beam hot spot should be centered over the center line mark. This is interesting. HD says it should be 2.1” lower. I’m going to try the JW method and see how it looks.
Grand HDF Member
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 3,949
Likes: 150
From: South of Mordor
I have a nice dark road, with no source of light anywhere, near where I live. I usually head down there and adjust my light to where I like it. It takes a few attempts sometimes because I sit on the bike to get the aim where it would be with the added body weight on the bike to achieve the same point while riding.
I fiddled. With mine a bit but, mine are always angled up higher than need be. And miuch like stronghawk says above, id ride around with tools and adjust on canopy roads.
no long range issues here. The trubeam had better long range though. The jw just does more.
no long range issues here. The trubeam had better long range though. The jw just does more.
Last edited by cvaria; Oct 13, 2017 at 08:41 AM.
Road Master
Joined: Dec 2016
Posts: 777
Likes: 357
From: St. Louis, MO
I have the same light on my LRS. My brother has a 50k sq/ft machine shop. I pulled the bike in there and set everything up per the JW instructions. Killed the shop lights and made the necessary adjustments. Works awesome!
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Outstanding HDF Member
Joined: Dec 2012
Posts: 2,557
Likes: 235
From: Texas
I'm no expert on this, but I would think your headlight adjustment would be something that would also depend on your height as well...a shorter person might be good with the factory setting but that would be too low for a taller person...
Anytime I have the headlight bucket off, I use the factory setting for a starting point and then I adjust the headlight beams to where it is good for me and ride on...
Anytime I have the headlight bucket off, I use the factory setting for a starting point and then I adjust the headlight beams to where it is good for me and ride on...
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Road Captain
Joined: Apr 2013
Posts: 583
Likes: 4
From: australia
setting a headlight comes underpersonal preference, the factory setting is just a universal guidline, too many variables.. easy too do on a dyna loosen the light so it can move with slight pressure , dark road/area adjust it then lock it, if its a car type adjustment as above but youll need help holding the bike while adjusting the screw..
Road Captain
Joined: May 2016
Posts: 506
Likes: 82
From: Southern NH
After you eyeball it, make sure you use the side mirrors on a car for final adjustment. Sit on the bike 30ft behind the car. If your headlight beam shines into the side mirrors from that distance, your headlight is too high. Your lights should NEVER be shining into car side mirrors. Same Goes for adjusting car and truck headlights