Headlight Modulator/Silverstar Ultra

Observing the cagers over the past few months, I have become more attuned to the "invisible" concept. My latest mod is an effort to improve my visibility.

Last night I installed a Comagination headlight modulator combined with a Sylvania Silverstar Ultra bulb. Only took about 30 minutes The headlight modulator is plug and play - pull off female connector on back of bulb, plug that connector into male plug on modulator, plug female connector from modulator into bulb.

The final step is routing the electric eye (very tiny) cable through the hole in the back of the headlight and up to the clutch cable. The eye is tie wrapped to the clutch cable with the eye pointed up. The purpose of the electric eye is to turn the modulator off at night so that the high beam works normally. Gave it a test using a bright flashlight - worked as advertised. Modulator worked nice too - about one cycle per second.

Caught up all the spare wire with the existing wire tie in the headlight and Gorilla taped the encapsulated electronics module in the back of the headlight. Buttoned everything up and took her for a run.

The Ultra bulb is awesome on high beam - very bright white with a long reach. Low beam was also very bright but aimed somewhat down so not much reach - which leads to the rest of the story. I decided to reaim the headlight.

I did a Google on motorcycle headlight aim and got a number of hits - virtually all the same instructions ( I will leave out the details.).

I took all of the required measurements, laid out the appropriate target on the back wall of my garage, positioned the bike and turned on the low beam light. Yep, about 3 inches low at 17 feet away from the wall. (I have a large garage and the floor is perfectly level.)

Pulled out my handy small Phillips screwdriver and began adjusting the vertical adjustment screw - in and out. The beam never moved. Tried the horizontal adjustment screw just for the heck of it. The beam never moved.

Decided it was time for a Woodford/rocks. I will disassemble the headlight again one night this week to see what the heck is going on. I did notice a rather complicated assembly on the back of the lens/bulb holder. Something is clearly hung up back there. I'll post some pictures when I figure out what is going on. Any suggestions from the Forum are certainly appreciated.

Bottom line modulator (Comagination, $77 including shipping) works great and was an easy install. The Ultra bulb (Advance Auto, $45 for a pair) is a vast improvement. Proper aiming will take some further study.