Both the high beams on my '11 blew. I don't know if they blew together since I just noticed it yesterday but they were both in fact blown. I have a feeling their early demise might just be related to my regulator failing when the bike was new which raised the line voltage to over 16V. I've read all the old posts about changing them out and really wasn't too pumped to do it but I can't see having the dealer do something I should be able to do myself over-sized hands or not.

I accomplished it yesterday and yes, it is a sonofabitch and yes, it does tear your hands up. I did learn a few things so I thought I would pass them along for the next victim.

1. be sure to study this post so you'll have an idea what it looks like back there.

2. re-aim the headlight so it points up as much as you can in order to give you a bit more room. This was suggested by Cap'n Nemo and does marginally help.

3. remove the upper cowl cover and raise the windshield all the way up. This helps a lot! It allows you to use two hands and gives a better view of what's going on.

One thing that really made it harder than it needed to be was the fact that I could not get the electrical connectors off. No how, no way. If you can get yours off life will be much easier. Here's the procedure I used based on the plugs staying put:

1. pull the rubber seals loose. There are a couple of wire harnesses in the way as well as the adjusting wheel but its not too bad. The seals fit around the base of the bulb as well. Once you get them loose slide them back on the wire as far as you can. BTW, in the pictures it shows the tabs on the rubber seals fitting into a cutout in the housing. On my '11 bike the tabs are now on the rear surface of the rubber seals and just hang loose.

2. after studying the aforementioned pictures, unhook the spring clamp by pushing the curved end to the right (while sitting on the bike). Both clamps release in the same direction. Once you get the clamp unhooked which is not easy to do, rotate the clamps all the way up and off of the bulb. This is important since they need to be out of the way to allow the bulb to come out easily. Since my plugs were still attached it was a tight fit for the clamps to get by the plugs. I laid on my back with a long thin screwdriver and pushed them up from the bottom.

3. now I was able to snake the bulbs out with the plugs still attached. Once they were accessible I used a flat screwdriver between the base of the bulb and the plug and levered the plugs off a little bit at a time.

4. In order to keep the clamps up and out of the way I hooked a small bungy cord to the curved end and secured it through the upper cowl opening. Having that cowl off is great!

5. I dabbed some dielectric grease on the bulb contacts and slid the bulbs into position. Don't touch the glass! While holding the bulb in place from the back with my finger, I released the bungy and snapped the clamp in place. Piece of cake :-)

6. I next reinstalled the rubber seals making sure I could feel all three contacts where the bulb comes through the seal. Also a piece of cake.

7. now its a simple matter of reinstalling the plugs and making sure everything is back where it belongs and that the headlights work. Another interesting little tidbit on my bike and I think the '09 and '10 models as well is that if you turn the ignition on and just touch the starter without starting the engine the headlights go on. No need to let the engine idle to have the headlights on.

8. I rode over to the local shopping center once the sun went down and re-aimed my headlights. The book tells you to make a line on a wall at the same height as the center of your two headlight bulbs with the bike upright and you sitting on it. Mine was 32.250". Then position the bike 25' back from the wall and adjust the headlight beam in the high position so it is slightly below the line. I did this but it seemed a bit low in the normal position so I raised it a bit. BTW, you can adjust the headlight without removing the upper fairing cowl. Once you know where the adjusting wheel is located you can easily get at it with a finger from underneath.

So, its a lousy job but I know I can do it with much less grief the next time and hopefully so can you.

Marc