Had some flickering from my headlight, & the high beam indicator began doing it as-well, even-though the switch was on "low." I took-off the bezel to check for a shorting wire, or a connection to the 3-connector headlight bulb being bad, & opened the left handlebar switch, to determine if there was any arcing, shorting, or other problem (I used Ninjaneer's "how-to, thanks!). Nothing needed repair. I went out for a ride this evening & saw the high-beam indicator come-on w/the switch on "low," & stay-on. I then saw that my bulb had permanently "signed-off-duty," so I made my way home carefully, and sure-enough, blown on both high & low.
It was a 55/100 watt bulb, I had a spare replacement on-hand, a 55/60 watt, which I installed. Now i have lights again. I didn't get a chance to test it on the hiway, but i saw the high-beam indicator isn't flickering on any more, so I hope it was just a failing bulb.
The charging system is in good shape, replaced the stator, R/R, battery, & re-wired the stator plug during this riding season, so hopefully, I can use the headlight w/o worries.
Ayone know if having the high-beam indicator coming-on & staying-on in the switch "low-beam" position is a factory indicator of a blown bulb? I don't recall seeing anything like that in the manual. I am guessing that the resistance of the intact & functional headlight filament must present a specific load on the circuit, and that w/o it, the high-beam indicator stays-on?
I recall reading how on old Ducatis, the headlight indicator bulb had to be intact, & w/o it, the ignition system would not work! That was a topic of one of Gordon Jenning's columns for "Cycle," many years ago.
12-3-12: Update! The new bulb put "ev'rything right in the world," at least the world according to my headlight! That problem solved.
I have a different design for the headlight that I have gotten most of the parts for, I want to try it sometime soon. I already slipped-on the 'ears' for the fork tubes, rubber-insulated, to accept the new headlight I have planned, & have acquired. I just have to decide, "do I just want to rely on the method of attachment of the headlight to the "ears" to hold the up-down adjustment or do I want to fabricate some adjustible bracket for the headlight tilt?" I have also acquired additional lighting capacity but haven't finalized the method of mounting...