I'm thinking of buying a 999s.I've had jap and germans uptil now but I need a bike with an underseat exhaust,I'm 6,4 so the new jap stuff is to small, but am a bit worried the lights and the reliability of the 999,I like the handling of the 999 it's like my XZ12R, please give me so feed back
OK ... I'll comit myself to giving an opinion this one. I only just tried them myself on the 749 after having the bike for 18 months and never riding after dark. Takes a bit of getting used to the high beam which is circular (roughly). My low beam is set a bit low but I always forget to adjust it until I am using it and it's not convenient to get ot the adjuster knob when riding with gloves on and in the dark. THe low beam is still a projector type affair but the top of the beam is flattened off to prevent glare for oncoming traffic. It's very on/off outside the beam area.
Verdict: acceptable. I don't worry about having to ride at night, even if I don't really enjoy it much.
Can't really ride safely beyond about 60MPH in unlit areas such as the countryside. The beam doesn't give a good spread of light and I don't fell happy riding at night.
The 749/999 is apparently better that the 748/9** in this respect so they must really be crap
My previous Mille was brill. Like driving a car. The Duc is as described above. Very on/off outside the circular light and it does make fast riding in the dark difficult. But only in the countryside.
Would not be enough to prevent me buying a 999 though. There may be other reasons but the lights would not be one of them.