We’ll get the inspection prep underway. Let’s adjust the headlight ★
Without a headlight tester, you really can’t get the job done. The number of bikes coming through has been increasing year-round, so proper preparation from the start is truly essential.
There are tester shops near the inspection station, but they only help with up-and-down and left-and-right adjustments and selling headlight bulbs—they won’t get involved beyond that, of course.
If adjustment alone would fix it, you wouldn’t need a tester, but the reality is the world isn’t that kind.
Cheap HID, cheap multi-reflector, and coated bulbs are especially troublesome.
In bad cases . . .
At first glance they look white and feel bright. But the light focus is extremely poor, it scatters, and the light intensity doesn’t increase. Coated bulbs might seem fine at first, but the surface gets cloudy and often ends up disappointing.
Beyond that, even stock headlight lenses get hot and fog up, making them dim. Harness degradation makes them dim. Bulb degradation makes them dim—there are so many things on the job site you just can’t do anything about . . .
With HID there’s really nothing you can do, and we often end up going back to regular bulbs.
Raising the RPM a bit higher is of course brighter, but the sweet spot is just a little above idle, and for bikes where the light intensity still isn’t quite enough, we can measure what RPM it needs—so a tester is an extremely important tool.
A CO/HC tester is also really handy. We’ll talk about that another time.
