I normally commute on the 14, and as the days have grown shorter in this hemisphere the dark generally becomes an issue. I have never really ridden at night on the 14, well not outside the usual trudge to and from work and most days the roads I ride are well lit and other traffic helps to light the way.
When touring we generally start early and arrive at a destination either in daylight or just as the dark takes over the day. Well this past Wednesday after work I needed to go to a visitation for the brother of one of my staff members. This is a journey of about 50 miles one way. I rode down with commuter traffic leaving the city around 5pm, and the closer I got to the small town the thinner the traffic got. It was dark when I arrived at the funeral home right as the doors opened for the visitation. I parked the beast and headed inside to say my condolences and shake hands etc.
I left around 6:30pm and I decided to take a different route back. Some country highways (two lane) then hit the interstate for the last 20 miles or so.
I left the small town and quickly was alone on a dark unfamiliar rosdway. This would not normally be a problem, the 14 has all 4 lights setup with HID, so with the brights on I could see into the future. However, when oncoming traffic approached I switched off the high beam and immediately realized the limitations of the low beam. 35 feet out in front I could see every detail of the road, beyond that.....nothing.
It was suddenly quite disconcerting and I immediately slowed dramatically until the lone car passed. Then on with the high beams and off I go. This happened several times until I finally reached the interstate and had help lighting from the other vehicles on the road.
So my long ass question is, Has anyone had to deal with this? Are my low beams pointed way to low, they are perfectly symmetrical.

Just let some air out of your back tire!

Seriously though, my low beams point straight to the ground too and
are not much help either.

Haven't thought much about it though, I'll be following this thread.

Hi.
I also have to act like you, alas.
When I'm on my way to work I experienced exactly the same things like you.
Always wanted to manage the bulbs a bit higher, you can adjust them really easy, but still didn't do it.

Okay...you need to raise your low beams.The high beams will raise also.But since you're switching to lows anyway for oncomers...it won't matter about the high beam position.You want the lows(the center beam area) to sit slightly above the rear trunk on a cage in front of you.SLIGHTLY above...not blasting their rearview mirror.IF you get cagers flashing you with low beams on...you can slightly dial the beam pattern towards the right(the left side lens assembly ONLY)(sitting on the bike).NOT MUCH...just a tiny bit.It won't affect the frontal pattern noticeably...but the concentrated beam won't be hitting cages in the eyes while rounding a right hand curve.These are projector beams...so they have ONE spot that is extremely intense...this is what you want to offset for oncoming cars.With this deal,the 'spot' will be angled away from em as you pass by or approach.It won't hit em directly on the approach either.If you're illuminating on the approach to point that you clearly have lit up the driver's area...they're TOO high.

Drive and see where the lows are hitting the cages in front(of you) while stopped.You can gauge the amount of drop fairly easily...then pull up against a wall somewhere with that same distance,and adjust.You can tell how much to dial down seeing that(if it's one inch on the cage's rearend,then you illuminate the wall...and lower that amount).You don't need to measure anything.I think the dialing in 'offset' will work well for ya.I did.I had HID's on mine as well...so they're even MORE intense.There's ALWAYS someone though that'll flash at ya no matter what you do...just watch what oncomers are doing...lots of flashing?Lows need to come down(if driving in lows).

I know what you're talking about with the abrupt loss of illumination switching.It can be adjusted successfully.

* Last updated by: Grn14 on 12/11/2015 @ 2:39 PM *

I adjusted mine so they were useful at night for illuminatig the road but then they were shining in the cars rear window in front of me. I lowered them a bit and they were better but not what I would call good.

Thanks GRN. The manual shows that there are adjusters, but they seem to be in a very awkward location. Does it require a tool of some sort?

I got better distance out of my Sylvania silver star ultras. your gonna need a stuby screwdriver to make the adjustment

GP...you pull the inner upper fairings off..the 'duct cover' fairings that is.The bolts for adjustment are at the housing there..you see em in the manual?Right at the inside corners.Flanking the meter bracket.They're black.Two for up down(one each side)and a right left screw also...can't remember just now where that one is at...but it's in there.Two of those.

You either have your lows aimed too low or too high. Remember what we see is reflected light. So having them aimed too high can have the same, but opposite effect of aimed too low. I'd say you want the top of the beam about 50-60 foot out front, that seems about optimal. Also, aim them out a little more than factor recommendations. This really helps cornering as you can see more ground instead of the headlights beaming into nothing (like too high).

* Last updated by: VicThing on 12/12/2015 @ 8:29 AM *

You need a 10mm short socket with a swivel. I took a marker at put a dot at the 12 oclock postion on the adjuster to count the full turns. I needed 2 full turns to get them high enough to see safely at highway speeds. There are 2 adjusters on each light assembly. The vertical ones you see when you take the panels off. Unfortunately I don't remember which way is up.

Thanks everyone, I am going to give this a try today. Nothing but rain predicted here so it will be a good day to dig into it.
I will report on my findings. suzy thanks for the marker idea.

"You need a 10mm short socket with a swivel".EXCELLENT!

Yes definitely 10mm. I do not a swivel, but i was able to turn the stud incrementally with a wrench. I did one full turn on the left side (sitting on bike). I then looked at the headlight (off) and compared left to right. The projectors are noticeably set at different positions. It rained relentlessly yesterday so I did not take the bike outside to check the result yet. Hopefully this evening or tomorrow evening.
I will update.

You'll need to get it against a wall and illuminated.No other way.

So,yesterday evening I took the bike outside and across the street to the neighbors driveway. His driveway is flat compared to my own and I aimed the bike at his garage door. I was able to sit back 23 feet from the doors. I started the bike and let the HID get nice and warmed up. My trusty assistant (wife) then marked the bright point of light and then the demarcation line between light and dark.
Much twiddling of headlight adjuster 10mm stub began. After several clockwise and counter clockwise adjustments I was disappointed to see almost no significant change in the results. The bright point moved minimally and the dark/light line dropped less than an inch for every two complete turns of the stub.
I was low on gas so I took the bike to a gas station to fill up then we went out for a quick ride into the country. I honestly didn't notice an appreciable improvement in visibilty.

You're doing something wrong.

Vertical adjustment paid huge dividends for me.

I had the exact same results on my '14 14R, turned the 10mm hex post that the manual shows adjusts the beam position and nothing happened. Is this such a fine thread adjustment that a large number of rotations (5-10) is required to slightly move the beam?

It will take SEVERAL(SEVERAL) turns to get the beam to move.Just keep turning it.I definitely didn't park 23 feet out.Nope...parked about 5 feet out.Maybe 10.Best to use that 10mm with a knuckle(swivel) and extension.And wratchet wrench handle.Much easier.Extension long enough(or a couple together)to clear the meter bracket and inner parts right there by the steering head).

The manual shows the distance and inch measurement of the beam to ground.I didn't do that at all.I noted the height of the lowbeam on the car in front of me(say,10 feet back of it)...then adjusted accordingly against a wall in a parking lot,using the same distance.Got the height of the right or left one first,then aligned the 'dark line' with the other.Then I rode in traffic.If I was getting flashed,I went back to another wall and dropped it a bit more.Took a few tries to get it at the right level.The 'side' adjustment helped well.To keep it from nailing the cockpits.

* Last updated by: Grn14 on 12/15/2015 @ 6:46 PM *

Ok, I will try again lol

When I converted my ZX14 to HID bulbs, I set the headlights according to the shop manual. So with the bike sitting in the garage, I put a step ladder at the prescribed distance out on the driveway, and put a cardboard "target" on it with cross marks at the correct aim point.

Adjusted the lamps until they were aimed correctly.

Seemed to be just right. On low beam I could see the road and signs and off to the side quite well. With the high beams on I could see details of trees/signs/guardrails in a corner 1/2 mile away :)

I just put LED lamps in my truck. They throw a different beam than the factory HIDs, but I like it. The side illumination is slightly better, and the scatter is good, but they aren't quite as bright straight ahead. Good enough to well illuminate road signs and markings and such, though, so not loosing much at all. Plus they look a lot better. Going to put the LED fog lamp bulbs in, but probably not until Spring.

* Last updated by: privateer on 12/17/2015 @ 12:16 AM *

Bought my '07 brand new. I could see the low beams were too low straight from the factory. I adjusted them. All I remember is I turned each adjusting screw several turns but I got them the way I thought they should be. Never tried to measure how far out the usable light goes but it's much more than the 35 feet you estimated. Biggest problem I have is I'm in denial I need full time glasses.

Ok here is a before pic at 25 feet. Which is the distance noted in the manual.

Now after 7 clockwise turns on the adjuster

I still need to test it out on a ride and make sure I am not blinding anyone.

Street view

yep that's a lot better and you won't be blasting out other drivers either. Mine are about like that I'd say, never been flashed to turn my high beams off.

Is it possible and does anyone know if the CA bikes do not have the vertical adjustment??
IN the service manual it shows the two adjustment bolts as per below:

I have the covers off and only can find and adjust the horizontal adjuster, I can't find the vertical adjuster marked A in the lower pic shown in the pic from the service manual.

* Last updated by: cruderudy on 12/19/2015 @ 11:38 PM *