So after 31,500 miles the headlight bulb dip filament gave up on my 650 the first thing that's ever gone wrong with the bike I found out when I switched on the ignition thirty five miles away from home in the pitch black and so the beam adjuster came in really handy as it let me lower the main beam down to dip level.
Knowing all along bulb replacement would be a pig to do I did try a year or two ago to practice pull the bulb and replace it without removing any fairing parts it can be done but its almost impossible, and to do it without touching the bulb glass I would say is impossible so for more than one reason I wasn't even going to try it again.
So here's what I did -- remove screen, remove clocks cowl by flexing the right side out then wiggling the other side out ( if the plastics had been very cold I think I would have warmed them first so as not to crack anything ( yeah I know should have slackened all the side fairing to do it but was determined to do the minimum ) then unbolt the clocks and hold gently out of the way then you can get to the rear of the headlight but even then with my bloody great fingers the fairing bracket is still a bit in the way but it was worth the time to get proper access and it gave me the ability to replace the bulb with a totally clean glass thereby avoiding hot spots on it and early bulb failure.
Knowing all along bulb replacement would be a pig to do I did try a year or two ago to practice pull the bulb and replace it without removing any fairing parts it can be done but its almost impossible, and to do it without touching the bulb glass I would say is impossible so for more than one reason I wasn't even going to try it again.
So here's what I did -- remove screen, remove clocks cowl by flexing the right side out then wiggling the other side out ( if the plastics had been very cold I think I would have warmed them first so as not to crack anything ( yeah I know should have slackened all the side fairing to do it but was determined to do the minimum ) then unbolt the clocks and hold gently out of the way then you can get to the rear of the headlight but even then with my bloody great fingers the fairing bracket is still a bit in the way but it was worth the time to get proper access and it gave me the ability to replace the bulb with a totally clean glass thereby avoiding hot spots on it and early bulb failure.