Driving on continent - headlamps?

[spd]

I'm taking my 500 over to France and Belgium at the end of August.

Now I know that the traditional method of adjusting the headlamp beam so as not to dazzle is to stick on the deflector things...anecdotally I've heard that they're a bugger to remove.

My old man swears by just using his automatic leveller to dial in some downward direction - thus avoiding the dazzle but losing some distance.

The 500 manual just says that you should contact your dealer.

Any opinions? I'm leaning towards the fatherly advice I've been given.

Si.

[Paul]

I'd rather have to spend a little time washing off any residue from the official deflectors/blanks than shorten my beam and therefore reduce visibility, which could be pretty dangerous.

Have you tried driving around at night with them dialled right down? There's not much reaction time in seriously short beams if something bad or unexpected happens ahead of you.

I wouldn't risk anything other than the advised/regular method of the stick on thingys (technical term) on the lights.

[simmo]

lighter fluid is good at getting most types of glue residue off, and is also cheap and readily available..

[spd]

Anyone else able to comment on this one - Scrogg, any chance of chatting to one of your mechanics - see what the advice is?

There's no indication of where I'd stick the deflectors anyway...

Si.