Motorcycle LED Headlight, Tail light, & Brake Installation

The videos in this series that have been uploaded over the last month cover the process
of upgrading your motorcycles traditional bulb lighting to LED. There will be varying
processes you may have to take if you ride a Harley earlier than 2014 to deal with voltage
regulation that can cause the ECM to throw codes. There are signal stabilizer modules, load
equalizers, controllers, and/ or turn signal conversion kits that allow your turn signals to
flash properly when replacing incandescent bulbs with LED bulbs. A lot of LED headlights will
come with a flux capacitor or load equalizer that you will install between the headlight wire
harness and the headlight to regulate the voltage return signal to the ECM module. You’ll
need to do research to determine if your motorcycle will need any of these devices before
purchasing your LED’s. I do not have the answers to every make, model, and year of bike
so please do the research for your specific motorcycle on your own.

Motorcycle safety has to be on the top of the priority list for riding. The 3 senses, sight,
sound, and smell are the basis of what riders can try to enhance to be more readily noticed
while on their motorcycles. Enhancing the smell aspect of the senses can probably be left
out unless you don’t shower for a month, have an oil leak and are spewing smoke from
your bike, or smoking a cigar while riding. Sound is easily enhanced through full
exhaust change-outs or slip-ons which can greatly enhance a riders presence.
Hence the saying “Loud Pipes Save Lives”. Motorists that don’t ride will often curl their
lips into a snarl of disgust when talking about the obnoxiously invasive sound of a loud
bike without even the slightest understanding that whatever bike inconvenienced their ear
for that few seconds did exactly as it was intended to do, made them aware that a
motorcycle was present. I have a couple videos on installing slip-ons on my maintenance
page as a reference if you need to get more sound out of your bike. They are inexpensive
and easy to install way to get more sound for safety out of your bike.

Another effective way to become noticed through one of the 3 senses is through lighting.
Visibility is the most important aspect you can enhance for safety. LED lighting can be as
much as 10x brighter than traditional incandescent bulbs. LED headlights can throw
light at night over 150 yards ahead giving you more visibility on dark roads helping to
increase safety at night. When a driver is about to change lanes and glances in their
mirrors that additional brightness can be lifesaving. That is if the cager even bothers to
glance in a mirror before changing lanes. Cager stupidity is, unfortunately, a trait that
cannot be repaired. The brighter brake lights of LED’s can be of extreme value when
the sun is shining from behind you which can sometimes drown out the visibility of
bulb lights. LED brake lights will often shine through that sun blindness allowing a
driver to see that you have applied your brakes. The same applies to turn signals, and
headlights when riding into the sun.

Below are the 3 videos of this series that can help you with your conversion to LED lights.

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Iron Butt Association SaddleSore 1000 Ride

Four of us left at 2:30 AM on a Friday morning for an unforgettable challenge and
adventure. The Iron Butt Association SaddleSore 1000 is the first level of long-distance
riding challenges they offer. The goal is to ride 1000 miles within 24 hours. You make the
route, keep records, and have a great time.

Our path would take us on a circular route from central to west Texas, south to the
US and Mexico border, and finally back north east to Fort Worth, TX. Total route was
right at 1050 miles.

The ride took us 20 hours to complete. Great weather and roads rounded out the
challenge perfectly. It was a bit chilly for the first 300 miles but soon after we had to
strip down to T-shirts because of the heat. We were all sore in some part of our body.
Our butts took the brunt of the pain, some lower backaches and shoulder pain were present
for some of us. Overall though it wasn’t too bad and we persevered through it unto
completion. Because its spring there were a lot of bugs, BIG bugs to be exact, and more
than once their bodies were splatted and chopped in half on my glasses, leaving burning
bug acid in my eyes to deal with. Deer were plentiful towards the end of the ride along
with wild hogs, turtles, and swooping birds. The flowers through portions of the route
were vivid with color during their peak spring bloom.

So it all went well until the next day when I was compiling receipts and filling out the
necessary paperwork to send to the IBA for verification. That’s when a slight but
detrimental detail became evident. The ride section from Sanderson, Tx to Ozona, TX
went through a tiny little place named Comstock, TX. It’s so small you have to zoom in
real close on google maps for it to even show up with its name. The problem is that we
didn’t stop to get a receipt in Comstock, TX before changing direction to head north to
Ozona, TX. That probably wouldn’t be a problem except for the fact that there is a shorter
route from Sanderson, TX that could have been taken. IBA rules are that any directional
change must be accompanied by a receipt to prove you were there and didn’t take a shortcut.

Nothing we can do, it was a simple oversight that all of us overlooked. Good learning
experience though and it still doesn’t take from the fact that we did go through
Comstock, TX and rode over 1000 miles in 24 hours. Verification is the problem to have
our names added to the IBA completion list. I was so upset by it that Margaret and
I planned on doing it a few days later together. We checked the weather and all seemed
good. We headed out towards Abilene, TX on the first leg of the route and it just kept
getting colder down to 39 degrees in Abilene. That was simply too cold to continue so
we turned around and limped our way home riding in sub-freezing temperatures when the
wind chill was taken into account. It just wasn’t meant to happen.

Bill, Steve, and Jeff are going to submit their ride documentation with an explanation of
what occurred in Comstock, TX in hopes the IBA will consider it. They have phone GPS
records that show we were in Comstock, TX which might be of satisfactory verification.
I personally am not going to submit the ride. Margaret wants to try it so we’ll give it a go
together once the weather warms up a bit more.

If you're wanting to try this ride there are some things to take into consideration.
These are my 10 main points to consider before doing the IBA SaddleSore 1000.

1- Take water, don’t rely on buying bottles along the way. A well-insulated container
of ice-cold water will help immensely.

2- Be sure you're not due for an oil change during the route. I changed mine before the
trip so I wouldn’t go over my oil change mileage limit.

3- Plan route details, then check the route, then check again. Plan your route from gas
station to gas station to get accurate mileage from those points where you’ll be getting a
receipt. This will ensure you won’t be short on mileage for the challenge.

4- Get gas receipts if you even suspect a change in direction might be questionable by the
IBA. This will ensure you are able to verify you were in all the places you say you were.

5- If you're going to eat, do it before your first gas stop time and dated verification receipt.
You don’t want a breakfast stop to cut into your time. It’s hard to make up lost time.

6- Check the weather forecast for each city and town that will be gas stops and direction
changes along the route. The weather can be very different at points along the route and
you will want the appropriate gear.

7- Read and re-read the IBA regulations. Especially the information for verification. It’s
easy to miss a step like we did that could cause you grief when trying to get verified.

8- If your riding as a group, keep the group as small as possible. Having to wait for lots of
bikes to be re-fueled at each stop costs time which is difficult to make up.

9- Don’t plan too many small back roads with low-speed limits. You need to be moving,
not sightseeing while puttering through the county side. Interstates and US roads can
have speed limits of up to 80 mph! You can really make good time on these roads.

10- Make sure your bike is set up ergonomically for you as the rider. The correct
handlebar reach, backrest, highway pegs, proper windshield height, etc, will help your
comfort level during the challenge. 18 or so hours nearly continuous in the saddle is a
challenge for most riders.

Iron Butt Association SaddleSore 1000 Video

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