Lousy headlights

kramdrallim · May 20, 2018

Has anyone else ridden the V4 at night out in the country where it is actually truly dark? The first time I did , I was following some other traffic for a short while until they all eventually turned off. I was then travelling along a straight section on my own so had a chance to use the throttle a bit. Tipping into the turn at the end of the straight I found myself utterly blind as the fairing allows no peripheral light above the nose point and therefore cutting off the light beam at a roughly 45 degree angle from about 4-8 metres (or more or less depending how much lean angle used) directly in front of the bike. I could not see through the turn at all. It's a lucky thing I was on a road I know as I could only follow the white lines appearing out of the darkness about 3 metres away from the front tyre. The headlights are crap.

Dingo · May 20, 2018

form before function... I think we all know this about Italian products

BSR1 · May 20, 2018

Agreed, the lights are worthless.

MotoX183 · May 20, 2018

Why would anyone ride at night? How are they going to tell what you're riding while parked @ Starbucks at night?? Seems counter-intuitive..

MaverickiB · May 20, 2018

I dunno, I rode a Supersport as a loaner while my V4 had its radiator fan replaced and those headlights were true garbage. I was absolutely blind one night in the rain and there was no difference when turning on the "brights".

With the V4, the normal high setting seems to do well enough for me, and I pull the trigger for the brights when dipping into corners. Of course, I don't go bombing hard into corners at night so I haven't found the limits of the brights, they do well enough at illuminating the peripheral at modest cornering speeds.

kramdrallim · May 20, 2018

MotoX183 said:
Why would anyone ride at night? How are they going to tell what you're riding while parked @ Starbucks at night?? Seems counter-intuitive..

I know, I know,... What was I thinking? How dare i think that I shouldn't have to follow an XV650 Yamaharley with a learner on board on my Ducati superbike at night so that I can use his/her headlights to see...

Veteran · May 21, 2018

Fwiw, I have hardly ever found a motorbike with truly good headlights. Ducati is just more of the same. I see them more as an emergency measure.

kramdrallim · May 22, 2018

Veteran said:
Fwiw, I have hardly ever found a motorbike with truly good headlights. Ducati is just more of the same. I see them more as an emergency measure.

Seems you weren't riding bikes in the '80s or '90s then . You could do all your favourite rides even harder at night using race lines through turns because oncoming traffic could be seen by the approaching glow. Nearly all the two strokes and big bore Gixxers , Fizzers , Cebers , Gepexxers had great headlights!

NG01 · May 22, 2018

never ridden the v4 at night but i did find my monster head light is awesome at night but again, it's not countryside, just went to CBD and some night cruise.....

Ther1kid · May 23, 2018

Ran into this last night. Is there a way to turn on the high beams and leave them on?? I hit every button last night I ended up just holding the flash to pass button when I needed it... Terrible headlights but that's why it looks so good, I'm not mad.

MaverickiB · May 23, 2018

Ther1kid said:
Ran into this last night. Is there a way to turn on the high beams and leave them on?? I hit every button last night I ended up just holding the flash to pass button when I needed it... Terrible headlights but that's why it looks so good, I'm not mad.

You can set the brights to always on by pushing the brights trigger out instead of pulling it in.

Nitrouz · May 23, 2018

Ther1kid said:
Ran into this last night. Is there a way to turn on the high beams and leave them on?? I hit every button last night I ended up just holding the flash to pass button when I needed it... Terrible headlights but that's why it looks so good, I'm not mad.

Push the flash button "down" as in towards the ground, not pull towards you. And do that again to return to low beam.

kramdrallim · May 24, 2018

Ther1kid said:
Ran into this last night. Is there a way to turn on the high beams and leave them on?? I hit every button last night I ended up just holding the flash to pass button when I needed it... Terrible headlights but that's why it looks so good, I'm not mad.

The passing flasher is a two way switch , you put your finger behind it and push it forward to switch the high beam on.

Ther1kid · May 25, 2018

Ha Thanks gents!

Nickatapolis · May 26, 2018

The v4 headlights are terrible. I adjusted my high beams up a good bit. I wish there was a way to have high and low on at the same time. The lows provide good perephial and the highs provide ok spot when traveling straight. In any tight turning situation neither lights work well.

Sergiomala · May 28, 2018

kramdrallim said:
Has anyone else ridden the V4 at night out in the country where it is actually truly dark? The first time I did , I was following some other traffic for a short while until they all eventually turned off. I was then travelling along a straight section on my own so had a chance to use the throttle a bit. Tipping into the turn at the end of the straight I found myself utterly blind as the fairing allows no peripheral light above the nose point and therefore cutting off the light beam at a roughly 45 degree angle from about 4-8 metres (or more or less depending how much lean angle used) directly in front of the bike. I could not see through the turn at all. It's a lucky thing I was on a road I know as I could only follow the white lines appearing out of the darkness about 3 metres away from the front tyre. The headlights are crap.

Pani V4 is a bad choice to drive in dark nights. Much better a MTS Enduro with cornering light and fog lights, or a GS Adventure.

carlpretzel · May 28, 2018

I've adjust both beams up to account for their lack of night vision hopefully that will help. My Tuono wasn't much better to be honest.

kramdrallim · May 29, 2018

Sergiomala said:
Pani V4 is a bad choice to drive in dark nights. Much better a MTS Enduro with cornering light and fog lights, or a GS Adventure.

It would seem so, and I am getting old but I'm not a geriatric yet, so a Pan is what I want, and I want a good headlight with it for blasting through the mountains at night.

kramdrallim · Jun 4, 2018

Ok , the official line from Ducati seems to be that I am the only one who has made a complaint about the headlights so they aren't going to look into it any further. I wish some of the others who ride at night would go through the official site and voice their concerns also.

BSR1 · Jun 4, 2018

kramdrallim said:
Ok , the official line from Ducati seems to be that I am the only one who has made a complaint about the headlights so they aren't going to look into it any further. I wish some of the others who ride at night would go through the official site and voice their concerns also.

Even if they had thousands of complaints they are not going to provide new headlights and or headlight design. The bike is what the bike is.

Lousy headlights

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