A Little Respect

The next time you see a motorcycle with those little visors on the headlight, passing lights, or turn signals give the rider a little respect. If he or she installed them it was not an easy task. (Click photo for close up) The little lights aren't too bad. Just remove the turn signal lens and bevel, add the visor, reassemble and tighten up. 10 minutes per side is lots of time. The passing lights are more challenging. Not only are they hard to work around, but there's a rubber seal in there that can make the challenge even more cumbersome. One lesson you can learn here before you try it on your own is to do the turn signals last. This leaves more room to get at the screws for the passing lights. Finally, the headlight presents a task of hidden parts you never imagined were in there. Removing the light from the bike was easy enough with the two side screws. I took it inside to the table to dissect the rest of the way. Next, you remove the two adjustment screws which are spring mounted. You're going to have to readjust your headlight when you reassemble the light on the bike. There's another side spring (wire type) that also has to come out. Then, there are three more screws holding the bevel to the light. Once you remove those it's time to attach the visor (make sure it's straight because you don't get a second chance to adjust this) and put those three screws back in. This gives you the illusion that the hard part is over because the visor is now securely fastened to the light. Now, you have to re-attach the wire spring and thread the adjustment screws through springs that no longer easily fit the space they fell out of. This is the hard part. After several minutes I finally got everything aligned and ready to put back on the bike. The light has to line up perfectly to fit back in and add the last two screws. Hopefully, you marked the light level on the wall before you started so you can adjust it back to the original settings. Once the headlight is adjusted, take it for a ride to make sure it's focused correctly. I didn't get to do that yet due to rain. Those little visors consumed a couple hours tonight. So, give those bikers that pay attention to little details some respect. The motorcycle looks better, too.