Brakelight Farkle

I'd been thinking about getting the "stopper" light strip from Motorrad Elektrik to supplement the amount of red light the cagers see on my bike when I come to stop and am sitting at a stoplight.

On a whim, I stopped at the local AutoZone store to see what kind of LED lighting they had and found something made by Pilot, model# CZ-153R LED Grill Lights. They were meant to be mounted on a car's grille and either scan back and forth or glow steady red for lighting effect.

Being that they were only $30, I decided to buy them and see how they'd work out for enhancing the brake light and grabbing an oncoming cager's attention when I am at a stop.

Attached with two-sided foam tape for now.

Since I wanted it to "scan", I hooked up the red wire to the hot lead on the brake light and the black wire to the ground on the brake light. Nothing fancy for now, if I stick with this setup, will redo the wiring to something more durable.

They came out pretty good in terms of a clean install, and they do seem to catch one's eye while the bike's brakes are engaged at a light. The most inward LEDs light up and blink bright red first when applying first the brakes and then the whole set of LEDs scans/blinks back and forth.

The LEDs keep scanning back and forth after the main brake light has ceased blinking and is now glowing steady on. I used to release the brakes and engage them again to cause the blinking action on the brake light to grab nearing cager's attention, now the LEDs will hopefully do that for me. I still have the blinking brake light the first few seconds I engage the brakes of course.

Here's a movie on youtube.com, showing the lights in action.

Errands and a shot of "The Golfballs"

Spent part of the morning cruising about the east side of town running errands on the motorcycle. Nice weather, mid to high 30s and sunny.

Primary goal was to get some hitch pins for the snow-thrower's auger's shear pins. Went through three of them yesterday while clearing snow and found the cotter pins that come with them we're not as easy to use when one's fingers are wet and cold!

Since I was out, decided to swing by the south side of Buckley Air Force Base to get these shots of the "golfballs"; as they're called by people around here.

The "Golf Balls" at Buckley AFB

Snow-covered in the morning, riding in the afternoon!

Temps in low to mid 30s and SUNNY.

Now this is the kind of snow storm I was used to seeing here in Colorado. We woke to about 3" of snow on the ground, the wet kind heavy with moisture. I spent the morning snow-throwing and shoveling to ensure cleared sidewalks out and good drainage because I expected the day to be warm and sunny enough to do some serious melting of this snow.

Sure enough, once the sun came out at mid-morning there was lots of snow melting to be had and water rushing in streams to the sewers. Good stuff, the neighborhood streets were basically dry by noon and I was on the road by almost 1400hrs.

The roads were mostly dry though there were spots in my ride where the roads were wet but not slick or icy. Though it was slightly windy and gusty at the beginning of the ride, by 1500 the winds from the North had picked up and it was blowing snow across the roads at times. Not good so I headed home after taking these pics at a nearby high school. Still, a good short ride, about 30 miles maybe.

Metal Moon Rising

The Metal Moon Revealed

A Two Ride Day today

Temps in the mid 20s to low 30s and sunny.

Though it snowed on us briefly yesterday evening, it did not stick and it was if it had not snowed when I looked out the window this morning. I geared up and headed to the weekly breakfast meeting with the Colorado Beemers Motorcycle Club in Morrison. I elected to take E-470 to C-470 since I did not leave the house till a bit after 0800 and the gathering starts at 0830.

The roads looked icy on the expressway but they were just wet apparently. It did make me a bit nervous and I followed the wheel tracks of the cars in front of me carefully. I also did not go faster than the speed limit and sometimes even slower at the wetter sections of road. Things got messier and wetter the closer I got to the foothills and the road into Morrison was definitely wet. I will admit I was questioning my sanity at times while on the road, even thought about aborting a couple of times.

But I made it to the Red Rocks Grill Restaurant with no problems, there were two bikes there ahead of me so I was not the only fool out on the road that early. The club's Ride Captain, Ziggy, had ridden down from Evergreen on his Beemer with a Sidecar and he reported large stretches of icy road on the way down. Now he's a hardcore biker! In hindsight, I think next time I wait a couple of hours before heading out again the day after a snow storm.

Had breakfast consisting of French Toast and Bacon, some conversation with Gary and Terry who are regulars at these events. Afterwards, all three of us headed towards the BMW of Denver dealership. Gary was leading and he took us through a rather involved route that had us going through parts of downtown I think. We even went past the Cherry Creek Mall as we headed East. Gary left us to go home once we got on Leetsdale Rd just before it turns into Parker Road.

Terry and I continued on for a short bit and arrived at the dealership where we perused their wares and shot the breeze with Matt from the parts department. Matt showed me a couple of mirrors that would fit on Maria. I was tempted since the stock mirrors are lacking sometimes in terms of visibility towards the rear. However, I must wait a bit I think.

Terry then headed out and I went home for lunch. The roads had dried out completely by now, at least on the East side of town where we were. The ride home was less nerve wracking. : )

My second ride started around 1528hrs, there was nothing going at the house, and the road called to me. I headed out to the plains on Quincy Road, past the Reservoir, and found they'd paved the road further East. It was paved all the way to Highway 137 which I followed south until the turnoff for Kiowa. I turned around and retraced my steps instead. I took the following pics on the way back.

As you can see, the snow is melting everywhere.