Beam Pattern on HD Daymaker for Road Glide

[PC_Hater]

I am using the RG a lot more since I got rid of my car. I am riding at night a lot and the lights are very poor even with good Osram bulbs in there. The lights are as bad as the BSA 250 I had 45 years ago. THAT bad!

I quite fancy fitting the HD Daymaker, does anybody know what the dip beam pattern is?
The part numbers for the UK version look to be the same as those for the USA so that leads me to think the dip beam pattern is vertical.
Is that true?
For international touring I hope they are vertical dip.
HD insist the Daymaker won't fit the Road Glide before about 2004 but the part numbers for the outer fairing etc imply otherwise.
Does anybody know for sure what the difference is that stops the Daymaker being fitted to earlier bikes?

Meanwhile I bought 2 supposedly very good LED H4 replacements, but despite looking like a quality product they are not to H4 specification. They rotate in the mounting so you never quite know exactly where they are pointing! The Osram will be going back in.

Oh, and the 21 year old plastics are getting tired so I will have to drill the headlight mounting plate to fit bolts through so I can clamp the adjusting screws in properly.
The 3 plastic clips that hold the screws are very tired too, replacements ordered, due in 4 or 5 weeks.

[Rusticwater]

Harley's USA 2020 GMA catalog (pages 690-693) lists several different styles of 7" Daymaker lamps (adaptive, projector and reflector) so you might want to specify which Daymaker you're asking about...

[kd]

Road Glides a double head lamps and not the 7" size.

[Rusticwater]

Road Glides a double head lamps and not the 7" size.

As a Dyna owner, goes to show what I know! 

[kd]

   No worries.  I just got caught giving Twin Cam advice to an Evo question.

[rageglide]

For international touring I hope they are vertical dip.
HD insist the Daymaker won't fit the Road Glide before about 2004 but the part numbers for the outer fairing etc imply otherwise.
Does anybody know for sure what the difference is that stops the Daymaker being fitted to earlier bikes?

The daymaker fits.  The fairing is identical from '98-'13.  The Daymaker mounts up like the bezel style lights, vs the fishbowl setup.  Old style lights mount on the back of the mounting bracket and have long adjuster screws, the newer arrangement moves the lights to the front of the mount and uses shorter adjusters. 

So, to fit the Daymakers to your '04 you remove your existing light 'pods' and drill through the existing screw holes of your existing mounting bracket, screw the daymakers on the front.  (or you order the '09+ parts, shorter adjusters, updated mount and bezel)  Your longer adjusters will work, but will protrude through the inner fairing and make installing the outer fairing a bit more challenging, but it works.  I ran like that on my '05 when I swapped out the fishbowl for the CVO bezel.   I run daymakers on my '12 RG with the '07(?) CVO bezel which looks better than the later style blow mold bezel, but it is a realllly tight fit and does limit the light adjustments a bit. 

I can't answer about the 'dip', I don't really see the pattern dip to one side or the other, it's got a fairly significant horizontal cutoff.

[PC_Hater]

For international touring I hope they are vertical dip.
HD insist the Daymaker won't fit the Road Glide before about 2004 but the part numbers for the outer fairing etc imply otherwise.
Does anybody know for sure what the difference is that stops the Daymaker being fitted to earlier bikes?

The daymaker fits.  The fairing is identical from '98-'13.  The Daymaker mounts up like the bezel style lights, vs the fishbowl setup.  Old style lights mount on the back of the mounting bracket and have long adjuster screws, the newer arrangement moves the lights to the front of the mount and uses shorter adjusters. 

So, to fit the Daymakers to your '04 you remove your existing light 'pods' and drill through the existing screw holes of your existing mounting bracket, screw the daymakers on the front.  (or you order the '09+ parts, shorter adjusters, updated mount and bezel)  Your longer adjusters will work, but will protrude through the inner fairing and make installing the outer fairing a bit more challenging, but it works.  I ran like that on my '05 when I swapped out the fishbowl for the CVO bezel.   I run daymakers on my '12 RG with the '07(?) CVO bezel which looks better than the later style blow mold bezel, but it is a realllly tight fit and does limit the light adjustments a bit. 

I can't answer about the 'dip', I don't really see the pattern dip to one side or the other, it's got a fairly significant horizontal cutoff.

Excellent! I'll check on the 09+ parts. I'll visit my local HD dealer and see what they say about the dip pattern in the UK.
They may well be horizontal vertical dip, BMWs are horizontal vertical dip too. I asked.

[Boe Cole]

I'm on my second Road Glide (2006 & 2011).  Both had lights that were fantastic - never saw any need to upgrade.  You have a 2004 as i saw your post.  Perhap's the cover over the lights has clouded reducing the beam??  If so, try taking it off and see if that works better for you.  It just pops off - no need to remove the front fairing.

[PC_Hater]

The UK dealer has confirmed the dip pattern on the Daymaker is vertical.
That is good for my yearly European tours.

Boe, my bike is 1999, 21 years of muck and filth and UV have been affecting the plastics. The lights were never good, ditto my Sportsters.
That could be because the headlight design wasn't as good for those of us that ride on the left.
Add to that I'm 20 years older and the optician has noticed the first signs of cataracts in my eyes!

[Boe Cole]

The UK dealer has confirmed the dip pattern on the Daymaker is vertical.
That is good for my yearly European tours.

Boe, my bike is 1999, 21 years of muck and filth and UV have been affecting the plastics. The lights were never good, ditto my Sportsters.
That could be because the headlight design wasn't as good for those of us that ride on the left.
Add to that I'm 20 years older and the optician has noticed the first signs of cataracts in my eyes!

Just thinking of your wallet here....  I don't want to discourage you from the daymakers but the light pattern is adjustable (right-left, up-down).  I know what you are referring to regarding old plastics and i call them tired eyes (I'm 72 and have the same issues!!).  They tend to 'fog' (my term..) but I've had good luck in the past taking out the assembly, removing the bulb and putting cotton in with a very mild abrasive (bar keeper's friend, something the wife uses in the sinks (white with a very mild abrasive) and water.  Swishing that around on the inside of the lens really cleans up and polishes the reflectors and the front of the lens restoring things they way they were originally.

If you haven't tried that and it seems like it might work in your case, let us know if it works for you.  I'm sure you'll be happy with the daymakers but i've found the rg's lights to be more than adequate - way better than any other harleys.  At night, other people that i ride with like to have me upfront to 'light the way' and my lights are stock......

[PoorUB]

What is this vertical/horizontal beam dip pattern???

[PC_Hater]

What is this vertical/horizontal beam dip pattern???

horizontal is my typo.

'Proper' headlights dip to the right so you can see the side of the road clearly.
In the UK they dip to the left.

Many modern LED equipped bikes eg BMW use a vertical dip.
Dip IS dipped, but not much light goes to the right in the USA or to the left in the UK.
For me that is handy because it means I don't have to block off part of the headlight beam so I don't blind oncoming French or German drivers.
Equally, the lights are so bad on the RG I don't bother doing it! Not that I do much riding in the evenings - we are usually in a nice restaurant drinking wine by the time it goes dark.

[PoorUB]

Ok, never heard it as dip" before. I realize the pattern goes off road to the right here in the USA. The terminology just lost me.

[Boe Cole]

Ok, never heard it as dip" before. I realize the pattern goes off road to the right here in the USA. The terminology just lost me.

Here in East Tennessee, dip has to do with chewing tobacco

[smoserx1]

I don't know if motorcycle headlights have ever had anything but a vertical dip.  The first time I ever "upgraded" a headlight was on a 1976 Goldwing I bought back in 1979 and it had a 7 inch round stock headlight.  I replaced it with one of the 7 inch sealed beam halogen car headlights that had just become available in auto parts stores and immediately noticed the shift to the right on low beam that had not been there before with the MC headlight.

[rageglide]

Pretty much every Hella lens I've seen has crazy hard cut offs, especially on the smaller lens (like a sporty or wide glide head light).

Not sure if it's ok to link to a pic...
But you can see the dip/flare in the fluting quite clearly.  Even sealed beams have this. 



I should add, because PC_Hater thinks the RG lights are bad.   IMO the Daymaker has a very clear horizontal cut off.  If you adjust it like the service manual suggests you will not like how dark the world is beyond about 30 ft... You have to run it aimed a bit higher in my experience.   I've seen some guys run them very high, which is definitely quite blinding...   And one last comment, Trucklite may sell roughly the same light pods as the Daymakers but without the "bat signal" HD logo parking light.  They mount same on either a modified original mount, or the later version.

[PC_Hater]

It is all a bit of a problem isn't it?
I can get various high-power bulb options for a lot less than the Daymaker.
I bought a pair of supposedly very good LED bulbs but despite looking as though they are very well made the dimensions are wrong!
There is a significant amount of rotation when you fit it in the headlamp. The Osram H4 bulb is perfect, no waggle or rotation at all. They go back on Monday.

[rageglide]

IMO the biggest issue with the retrofits, LED or HID is that the OEM reflector housing is not designed for them and they tend to scatter light. 

Removing the fishbowl and going to newer style set up, ie oem light pods fully exposed with a set of decent and reasonable halogen bulbs should be an improvement.  Messing with your adjustments will help.  Aiming them so YOU can see on a dark street but not quite high enough to get flashed by all the cagers works well as well.  Vastly cheaper than the Daymakers too.  But as I mentioned you are going to have to aim the Daymakers higher than the service manual suggests.    When I aimed them to factory specs, my buddy John said my headlight was really dim... And contrary to that I have seen a couple guys with the original RG Daymakers in oncoming traffic on a multilane highway in the middle of the day that were BRIGHT.  Guarantee that dude gets flashed every night.

[PC_Hater]

OK, the decision is made, here's the plan:
Youtube turned up a video converting older Road Glides to the 2010-on headlight mounting system.
It confirmed it is a cheap and easy conversion that uses my existing light units. Good, I thought I would have to buy new ones!

With that done swapping bulbs is easy because it can be done without taking the outer fairing off.
For riding in Europe I can swap the 2010 headlight bezel with my old bezel with a stripe of black paint to block the left-hand low beam pattern to prevent dazzling oncoming drives at night.

One of the accessory switches can be used to turn on a right-pointing lamp to give a fake right-hand low beam.

Last question, probably one for FSG...
Is the beam pattern and light output from the 73376-10 headlamp for Australia etc noticeably better than the old one?
(saves about USD150 if it is no better!)