Little screw on the headlight housing: what is it for?
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I was gonna suggest .."take it apart"... and see what it looks like it "does"..
I am discovering more and more the engineering that went into these bikes, no matter what model, is a step above.. and hard to believe. But as we discover time and time again.. these 40-50 year old bikes are still running and on the road due to the attention to detail from the manufacture...
Even down to the small screw on the side of the headlight....
I am discovering more and more the engineering that went into these bikes, no matter what model, is a step above.. and hard to believe. But as we discover time and time again.. these 40-50 year old bikes are still running and on the road due to the attention to detail from the manufacture...
Even down to the small screw on the side of the headlight....
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Even if you don't have that screw, and I don't, my headlight remains fixed in position. Still looking for the adjustment hardware.
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Depends on what LED you get, some are pretty bright some are not.
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^^^and some are more flood than spot as well, with a lot of lost light spilling over to the sides. My "road warrior" LED light goes all over and not all that far ahead, but I'm not riding the bike at night either, it's on there for legal purposes since Florida requires headlight on full time
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It will, by a long shot. I got a very nice LED headlight from Speedmotoco, and I can honestly say that the light output and beam coverage from my low beam is better than both of the halogen headlights on high beam in my '84 Mercedes
Off, low, and high beam. Kinda hard to get any kind of decent pictures in my currently cluttered and messy garage, sorry. (Also kind of pointless to try and take a picture from the front looking back into the glare!)
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk
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:-D So you changed the entire headlight assembly then? I leave early in the mornings and I often come back after dark from work. I can see fine most of the way, but especially in my neighborhood where we have no public lighting it can get hard to see, especially when a car is coming so I need to switch to the low beam...
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I can see the need to change to an LED on a bike if you ride at might these days. Cars have brighter headlights now from the factory, and then there are those who buy those Godforsaken bright white bulbs that practically blind you when coming toward you. At the price they charge for them - not to mention the annoyance they are on an oncoming car - I'm not inclined to spend the money, so I'm driving around with my old conventional headlight bulbs on high beam a lot at night and with the yellowed lenses on my old car (cleaned up twice already, returns quickly, also way too expensive to replace) it's still hard to see my side of the road when the bright white beams are right in your eyes. At least with an LED on a bike properly adjusted (read: high beam level with the road to use as a deterrent to impolite oncoming traffic), you'd have some defense
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Yeah I had to clean the lenses on my car too, they were getting a little foggy and they cost an arm and a leg to replace, so at less than $20 that seemed like the reasonable option. They look amazing now! I just did it in September, they made the car look new! :-O My problem on the car is that the lens inside the assembly is getting cloudy, so it cuts down on the HID light output, I definitely feel like it's not putting out as much light as it should when I'm driving at night (Saab's nightpanel mode helps). But I'd need to heat up the assembly in the oven to take it apart and change the lenses, so I'm kind of reluctant to try that... I may have to.
Anyway, back to the motorcycle: I'll see how it goes with the rear LED light for now as far as LEDs go. I may also try a brighter halogen in the front, after all they have varying intensities, or at least the manufacturers like Philips claim they do (but maybe they'll cost as much as an LED :-D). At least I think mine is set so that the low beam should not bother anybody...
Anyway, back to the motorcycle: I'll see how it goes with the rear LED light for now as far as LEDs go. I may also try a brighter halogen in the front, after all they have varying intensities, or at least the manufacturers like Philips claim they do (but maybe they'll cost as much as an LED :-D). At least I think mine is set so that the low beam should not bother anybody...
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A Halogen bulb might be more draw than the system can tolerate and still keep the battery fully charged, not sure, which is why many have gone to an LED. The lenses on my car are too far gone to revive, it's been done twice and the yellow reappeared more quickly the second time. At 16 years old, they're done and a pair of replacements would probably be worth close to half of the current value of the car (which is worth far more to me than anyone else with 245,000 miles on it).
Unless the lens is yellowing on the inside surface, if there is plastic, it can be sanded and polished.. i suggest using a quality "UV" protectant clear once completed ....the ones on my minivan (180,000 miles) were so bad, you cold scrape the flaking plastic with a razor blade.. I think I started with 320 grit and worked upto 1500 wet..
And yes,,you CAN polish a turd!
If u don't want to work that hard, 320, then 400..once all the oxidation is removed.. shoot it with multiple coats of high solid (2k) clear...
And yes,,you CAN polish a turd!
If u don't want to work that hard, 320, then 400..once all the oxidation is removed.. shoot it with multiple coats of high solid (2k) clear...
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"ain't nobody got time for that!" :lol: :lol:
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Oh yeah good point... I may get an LED just to limit the battery draw then, at least that's what I'll tell my wife when she asks why I bought another thing for the bike! :-D
For the headlights I used this and I was very happy with it. Mine is 'only' 14 years old.
Here are before and after shots (I think the 'after' is not the completely after though, it's before the application of the last coat (anti UV), something happened and don't think I've uploaded the pics to photobucket yet, but there is still what seems like a little bit of haze which disappeared when I applied the last coat):
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:-D I think mine took less than an hour, maybe closer to 30 minutes, it wasn't that bad...
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I was talking about all that sanding and sanding and sanding
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