I rode my friends Ducati 696 the other night down some poorly lit A/B roads and I was surprised at how poor the stock headlight is.... the light output was dreadful (my push bike has brighter lights). On full beam it was much better (almost what I would expect the low beam output to look like) but the light seemed to be concentrated about 0-6m from the front of the bike.... I would have expected it to light up the road ahead (10-15m plus). Also it creates a very strange light pattern. All bulbs 'appeared' to be working.. Now I may be spoilt (I have a Multistrada and a Vstrom - both of which have excellent headlights). But I also have Guzzi and even that kicks out much more light. Is this a common complaint / comment about the 696 headlight, or does it need adjusting? Would a brighter bulb help? I doubt she would want to go to the expense of a HID. Any comments gratefully recieved. Cheers.
Lights on my 696 work fine, it's no multistrada but more than adequate, I've had problem with my rectifier causing my lights to go dim when accelerating on old jap bikes but I'm useless when it comes to electrics !!
On the 821 stock it uses an H4 philips bluevision and it has a nice light coverage. Check how many years does the bulb have and check if reflective coat from headlight case is ok, sometimes humidity degrades the light reflection.
