Thursday, February 28, 2008

Doubling the Size of my Rear Running Light

Another gorgeous winter riding day here in Colorado. The temperatures almost hit the mid-60s and it was sunny most of the day.

While I did ride to/from work today, this posting is about a new farkle for Maria, my R1150RT motorcycle.

I'd put off installing the "R-Tail Enhancement" kit from Run-N-Lites for a long time thinking it would somehow interfere with my Hyperlites Brake LED lights. I was worried about nothing!

Took me less than fifteen minutes of experimenting with connector configurations since the instructions that came with the kit were a bit confusing to me.

So now, I've doubled the surface area of red light that shines behind me when I am just riding along with no brakes applied.

Before installing the enhancement kit, stock riding light

Tail Lights now, with enhancement kit installed (new bulb seems brighter don't it?)

This is how I believe the rear of my motorcycle looks ,
when a cage approaches it at night with their lights on

This is what someone behind me now sees with brakes applied

I've always been paranoid about being struck from behind by some innattentive or stupid cager. Not only does my brake light flash several times before staying on while brakes are applied, and the hyperlites LEDs keep blinking but with the enhancement kit, the brake light seems brighter. It's all good! Quite happy with this purchase, very inexpensive way to increase rearward lighting in my opinion.

3 comments:

irondad said...

Being visible is certainly critical. I might also offer that one reason motorcyclists are getting rear ended is because they're using engine braking. Brake lights never illuminate. I encourage riders to tap the rear pedal even if they don't need the brakes.

redlegsrides said...

dan, couldn't agree more....I try to always lightly press on the brake pedal when slowing down to ensure the cager behind me knows I am slowing.....not using brakes, just engine braking when doing this.....

Conchscooter said...

I never thought of it until that post. I'm tap tap tapping away these days. I wonder who decides what when it comes to lamp intensity at the factory.