Has anyone managed to do this? I've read the owners manual but for one, I cannot for the life of me figure out how to access those screws with the headlight on the bike. Secondly, I don't really have a good place to perform the proper method with the tape marks on a wall as my garage is small and the floor is not level, any hacks for that, maybe sitting behind a parked car and aiming it until the cutoff looks to be below the point of blinding the driver?
Headline aiming
- Thread starter N4teTheGreat
- Start date
Makes sense, I really just want to see if I can aim it in a way where it's throwing more like on the road. As much as I like cars getting out of my way, I prefer not to be the super bright headlight person 
Is that why you are running 6000-lumen auxiliary lights? LOL...I prefer not to be the super bright headlight person
haha, well, I rarely use the brights in populated areas except an occasional blip to see into blind corners, various highway onramps being prime offenders :-D last time I had them on was a sunrise ride and am pretty sure I was illuminating the road in front of riders ahead of me from around a bend through the trees!
After a road trip that resulted in me actually riding at night I realized I am 100% a jerk, that bulb throws light everywhere. I had the bike at the dealership to have some sensors replaced, those being a consumable part on modern Ducatis and asked them to take a look at the headlight aiming. I don't know what I was expecting, but the tech's response was that I have the wrong bulb (I have the fancy Cyclops H4 LED bulb so definitely not just some cheap incorrect bulb) installed and they can replace it with the right one. Guess I'll work on aiming this myself and I suspect I probably need to shim it, which, if anyone has pictures to illustrate how that works I'd appreciate it as I prefer to remove and reinstall the headlight as few times as possible.
So what exactly did the tech say? Simply that the LED bulb was wrong and you should have a halogen H4 in there? That wouldn't surprise me.
As it happens, I've just gone back to an Osram Nightbreaker halogen, because the decent Auxito LED I fitted had begun to flicker on low beam, even though it was OK on start-up and on high beam. The beam pattern was quite reasonable too, at least in daylight. I don't know whether the problem lay with the bulb or the controller, or the CANBUS aspect of the wiring, but I have two very good DRL LED arrays that make the bike more visible, so a candle-power headlight is not so bad if it's going to be more reliable.. I've not tried aiming the headlight as yet...
As it happens, I've just gone back to an Osram Nightbreaker halogen, because the decent Auxito LED I fitted had begun to flicker on low beam, even though it was OK on start-up and on high beam. The beam pattern was quite reasonable too, at least in daylight. I don't know whether the problem lay with the bulb or the controller, or the CANBUS aspect of the wiring, but I have two very good DRL LED arrays that make the bike more visible, so a candle-power headlight is not so bad if it's going to be more reliable.. I've not tried aiming the headlight as yet...
Joined Mar 2013
3K Posts | 161+
Naples, IT
If by wrong bulb, they were insinuating that they would drop the OEM back in, that's garbage. The headlight housing is designed to hold any H4 style bulb. That's why it has the grooves for the 3 prongs. For shims, you would just shim those grooves but it would be tedious and it's not a very easy process to adjust and test.
I just went with a good halogen off the shelf. Aux driving lamps do the heavy lifting. I could maybe get by on a good HID single projector but those are too expensive and difficult to mount. I basically just wanted a "don't hit me" device that can do OK when I have my driving lamps on low power.
I just went with a good halogen off the shelf. Aux driving lamps do the heavy lifting. I could maybe get by on a good HID single projector but those are too expensive and difficult to mount. I basically just wanted a "don't hit me" device that can do OK when I have my driving lamps on low power.
I think that is where they were going. I think we have the same bulb Cyclops. I need to work on shimming or aiming as I've noticed it throws light pretty high and scattered. I can see it lighting up the tops of street signs on the highway 4 or more cars in front of me. Drivers can definitely see me but I'm sure it's a matter of time before I flip someone's road rage switch who thinks I'm riding them with my high beams on. I'll just have to spend a night futzing with it when I get it back from the dealer. It's in for some of those consumable Ducati sensors to be replaced.
Joined Mar 2013
3K Posts | 161+
Naples, IT
My Cyclops died. But it threw light everywhere. It was bright if you were on the receiving end but not very effective on it's own. I saw they have a better model but probably wouldn't solve the refraction issue. I'm fine with a decent halogen for being seen and my driving lamps for seeing.
I think the newer model just powers more diodes for the high beam. I'm going to try aiming and shiming to see if I can at least get it out of drivers eyes at which point it'll be good enough, or as good as it gets for the hyper headlight anyway.
Joined Dec 2019
69 Posts | 11+
Brasília - DF - Brazil
Joined Mar 2013
3K Posts | 161+
Naples, IT
I busted the bulb mount up from all the tinkering and swapping. I have to hot glue it in place. Kinda hate the entire lamp setup, to be honest. Those 2 top securing bolts always sucked, too. Shimmying the wiring loom in and out of place always has me on edge that I'm going to pinch a wire. Could have been done better. It feels like it was designed with the philosophy, "Well, they'll never need to mess with this, anyway..."
Yeah, the bike is clearly designed around being a hooligan machine versus anything easy to run as a daily. I was on a road trip once and realized my low beam had burned out sometime that day, it became obvious once dusk hit. I had to go find an auto parts store buy and bulb and tools to remove the fairing and headlight. Despite this, I still never carry those tools on rides as there's no where to put them. Good thing that everything about riding this bike makes me smile or I'd be bent out of shape over the serviceability of it.
Also, I have a headlight housing with intact internals (both mount points are broken off for the two top bolts however). If you have any interest in taking the time to get it apart and remove the internal bits I'm happy to figure out how to ship it to you.
Last time I did the job of changing a headlamp bulb (a week ago), it only took one ?4mm Allen key and a torx socket for the upper lamp mount. It wouldn't be hard to find a non-torx screw for the lamp mount, maybe even one with a 4/5mm hex socket. Pretty easy to space for them, if they aren't in the tool kit already!
Nick
Nick
Joined Mar 2013
3K Posts | 161+
Naples, IT
N4te, thanks. I'll think about it. The cap enclosure holds it pretty secure and I just don't have any more spare parts room. I carry way too many tools but I can't count on roadside service. I've plugged half a dozen tires and was able to get my bike home after a spill that bashed up a lot of the controls on one side.
Nick, it's quite a bit more involved than just a couple hex keys. You have to take off the nose cowl, which those 2 bolts under the front fender are difficult on a nice sunny day. Dash bolts require long key and love to fall to the deck. Those odd torque screws nearly stripped the first time I attempted removing them and I feel like they were designed with adjustment in mind but really don't. Finally, the wire loom to the lamp has never had enough clearance on my bike. I always have to put extreme pressure on it to seat/ unseat the housing. I stand with N4te that this is not an easy roadside service and quite difficult on the side of the road at night.
Then I look at something like a V-Strom, that has dual bulb housing access ports sitting in the open - no tools required. I just don't see why the headlight housing couldn't have been designed with a quick release latch. Even if you still had to remove the cowl to get to it, this would have emergency serviceability in mind.
Nick, it's quite a bit more involved than just a couple hex keys. You have to take off the nose cowl, which those 2 bolts under the front fender are difficult on a nice sunny day. Dash bolts require long key and love to fall to the deck. Those odd torque screws nearly stripped the first time I attempted removing them and I feel like they were designed with adjustment in mind but really don't. Finally, the wire loom to the lamp has never had enough clearance on my bike. I always have to put extreme pressure on it to seat/ unseat the housing. I stand with N4te that this is not an easy roadside service and quite difficult on the side of the road at night.
Then I look at something like a V-Strom, that has dual bulb housing access ports sitting in the open - no tools required. I just don't see why the headlight housing couldn't have been designed with a quick release latch. Even if you still had to remove the cowl to get to it, this would have emergency serviceability in mind.
Joined Dec 2019
69 Posts | 11+
Brasília - DF - Brazil
Did you guys try to loosen the two allen under the beak and release the headlight assembly as per the owners manual? The nose assembly will hang with the dashboard cables but maybe there’s enough room for lamp replacement.
Joined Sep 2017
595 Posts | 121+
Lansing Mi
I'm not following on what is hard about the beak/headlight removal. On mine(which is the same for all 821/939) you remove the 2 Allen bolts at the bottom of the triple tree, pivot the whole assembly slightly and pull up to release the top from the rubber mounted grommets. This now puts the whole beak in your hands and completely removed (aside from the wiring harness) and full access to the back of the bulb housing. Are we talking about something different? The top of the whole beak assembly is rubber mounted on push pin type bracket.
