[Deswelham]

No light switch on handlebars. Lights are permanently on with engine running. Is this normal and if so can I switch them off if needed

[gizzo]

If you live in a place where lights on when running is the rule, your bike won't have the switch.

Or it'll have the switch but it won't work.

[Bilgemaster]

Gizzo beat me to a response. No surprise really, as he's "down under" and already up wrestling his 3rd wallaby or teaching dingos to waltz while my lazy ass is still in the sack. But anyhow, here's a belated welcome to the Forum!

It sounds like you have one of the later model bikes where they just blanked off and removed the light switchery. With slightly earlier models like mine, an '05 Bullet, they just used a bit of electrickery to bypass it with an easily removed clump of wiring commonly known as a "dogbone connector" (plenty on this in the Forum Archive). A scofflaw like me could just remove it, flaunting Department of Transportation regulations and the laws of man, click the remaining connections together, and presto! Switch functionality would be fully restored.

Sadly, it sounds like your path to full lighting control may be a more troublesome and rockier one. If it were me, I'd just leave it as-is and run with the light forever ablaze. But if you're at all talented in electrickery this old thread may help: https://forum.classicmotorworks.com/index.php?topic=28453.msg325816#msg325816, especially the link therein to the section on lighting switchery of James Smith's 'Classic Motorcycle Electrics Manual'.

[AzCal Retred]

Headlight load is a minimal issue and an illuminated lamp increases your visibility to cage drivers. An LED bulb will reduce system load and have a longer service life.

[Deswelham]

Thanks guys. Mine is a 2018 so one of the last. Don’t have problems running with lights on but was interested if a design thing or someone modified it. Thanks for all your help.

[Bilgemaster]

That's a sharp looking bike in the black--traditional yet sort of "modern" in that livery.