[Paris]

I have a 2018 Battle Green Classic 500.  It came with a 5.5 inch headlight, which  I replaced it with a 7 inch headlight and rim, but now the headlight beam is too high, and  I don't see any obvious way to adjust the beam downward.  How can I do that?

[heloego]

[EDIT] A few suggestions here:   https://forum.classicmotorworks.com/index.php/topic,25794.msg307536.html#new


DOT regulations regarding newly manufactured motorcycles have for several years required an adjustable headlight. That's why your bike came with the 5.25" lamp to allow for the adjusting mechanism.Replacing the stock headlight with a 7" eliminates the adjusting mechanism, and AFAIK there is no adjustable 7" headlight available for the stock Bullet.
You could mod it further by getting rid of the stock casquette and replacing everything up front with a different arrangement that includes an adjustable headlight bucket, but the expense involved would not justify it.

There are a few suggestions in another thread here that would save you some $$$ and maybe fix your problem:

[Bilgemaster]

When I first got her I put a 7" conversion kit into my old 2005 "Iron Cylinder", and it went in without a hitch, or at least its adjustment is such that it has never struck me as "off" the few times I've had her out in the darkness over the past year or so I've had her. So, I'm wondering if maybe you have the bulb or the big lens bit (or the whole sealed beam affair, if that's what your later Bullet has) somehow turned 180 degrees (upside-down). That might explain it seeming "high", especially on low beams.

If you look at this YouTube film, about 23 seconds in you'll see the two different length headlight fixing plates used for 5 3/4" and 7" headlamp rings. Could you have somehow swapped these? (Though I would have thought using the longer 5 3/4" one on a 7 incher would make the lamp point low).

Lastly, is the headlamp lens seated properly in the metal retaining ring? Those little "W-shaped" sprung retaining clips can be squirrely (and please DO wear some sort of eye protection if you're messing with them!). If you added one of those natty little "visors" like I did, make sure it isn't the culprit, pushing the top half of the lens back. If all else is as it should be, and it is seated squarely all around, and the maladjustment is just a few degrees higher than you'd like, you might try just sticking a little strip of firm self-adhesive foam, rubber or whatnot between the lens' bezel (outer ridge) and the inner retaining ring down around the bottom third or so to space it out just a bit and point the lens slightly downward. If satisfied, a little squidge of clear silicon goo around the outside, between the retaining ring and the lamp, should then help keep the weather out of any resulting gap.

Just remember: it doesn't have to be perfect. As far as I'm concerned, the chief purpose of my headlamp is to alert other motorists to my presence with the sun high in the sky as they hurtle down the road playing Candy Crush. If the beam's right in their glazed eyeballs, so much the better. In fact, when I first cobbled together my old Norton "Desert Sled" from random bits, lacking any of those "W-clips", I just drove around for a couple of years with old socks jammed into the headlamp shell. And you know what? It was fine.

[Chasfield]

Oh yes, beware of those W clips - they go trans-sonic when pinged and will pass straight thru your torso, never mind your eyeball, without slowing down.

As well as doing some shimming, I got some additional adjustment by filing the three tang halogen bulb holder to tilt the bulb slightly. I seem to remember that tilting it slightly upwards lowers the beam. It's worth a try if all else fails but experiment first to see which way it works.

The other thing I had to do was remove an accessory headlamp peak fitted by the previous owner because it was displacing the top of the headlamp back by its own thickness and lifting the beam even more.