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.

Ride Strong Wrench Proud

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

Ride Strong Wrench Proud

Riding Fizzle and Burn

Today is an unusually cold day where we live. A cold front moved in overnight and
dropped the temperatures into the mid 40’s. It got so cold our bees even holed up in the
hive to stay warm with no indication they even want to attempt flying out to gather pollen.
That also means no riding for us. And, actually, I don’t even have the desire to ride.

I make it habit to plan rides far in advance, researching interesting destinations for day
trips, weekend trips, 3-day trips, and even week-long and longer trips. Doing the research
far in advance allows me to plan some great rides that take us on exciting roads, great
views, a purposeful destination, local eateries, etc. Some rides can take weeks to put
together before I am ready to head out on the bikes and experience them. It’s enjoyable
to spend the time and effort into putting the routes together. I can get as excited putting
together a ride as riding it. At present, I have about 30 rides planned and ready to go to
choose from. All I have to do is decide how many days we have free, pick a ride, and take
off.

However, for quite a few months I haven’t had the desire to do much riding.
That initial excitement you get when an upcoming weekend is looking perfect for riding
is no longer present. I haven’t planned a ride in weeks and haven’t had any ambition to
do so. We have ridden a couple times in the last few months which I posted about and
had a great time while we were out. For the most part though when the weekend nears,
the antsy anticipation of taking off on the bikes is absent. I don’t know why. Even trying
to get psyched up only lasts for moments. What's even worse is Margaret is feeling the
same. So the bikes sit idly in the garage plugged into their battery tenders quietly
complaining that we're not taking them out.

I had planned on doing the Iron Butt Association 1K ride this upcoming weekend with
some friends. Now the forecast is showing rain so it might be a no go. I had requested
the time off from work and if we don’t go due to weather it may be quite some time
before I can get the time off from work to try again. I was hoping the IBA challenge
would spark an interest in taking the bike out again but now the rain forecast might just
fizzle my spark out. We could ride it in the rain but I simply have no desire to be miserable
on that long of a ride in such a short time just to say, “I did it”. Getting caught in the rain
while your already out is fine, starting out when it's already raining is not. We’ll see what
happens in the upcoming few days.

So what happened? Quite a few things possibly. We are trying hard to save so we can
purchase land and riding takes a lot of money. Even a short 2-300 mile day trip can run
you a $100 by the time you fill the tanks on both bikes, eat, and use a bit for whatever it is
we rode to see. Do that just once a week for a month and we could have saved $400
towards the land we want. Spring also takes up a lot of our time. We keep an herb garden,
vegetable garden, worm bin, compost, beehive, rainwater system, etc. and springtime is
action time for us to prepare and plant. So when you only have Saturday and Sunday
available to work at the house, it cuts into the riding time. We also live in an older home
that we are renovating in preparation to sell when and if we get to the point where we can
buy land. Throw in time to do home improvements and now you are almost down to no
time for riding. For us it comes down to a life priority decision and unfortunately having
fun riding isn’t going to get us where we want to be and actually sets us back from our
goals. Maybe that reality is affecting our feelings on riding.

Riding related events could be another reason for the fizzle. Taking a realistic look at
bike-related events, it's the same old rerun of all the others. Rallies have the same bike
shows, cleanest bike, bike with most chrome, dirtiest bike, most custom bike, loudest bike,
blah blah blah. They have the same vendors selling the same stuff, vests, gloves, pouches,
bandannas, patches, jewelry, etc, etc, etc. I like to drink a beer or two but the overwhelming
stench of spilled beer cooking in the sun, belching, and sweat just doesn’t sit well with
me. The same run of the mill food, sausage on a stick, nachos, burgers, corn, funnel
cakes, and such never changes. This applies to Harley Davidson dealer events as well,
its just the same old replay. We are wanting to see and experience new sights when we go
out, not a photocopy of an event with a new name attached. If you like people watching
it can be all right until you start seeing the same people making their second, third, fourth,
or more tour of the vendor stalls. Raffles are fine, but I would rather just purchase exactly
what I’m wanting than spend money on a ticket in hopes of winning a prize I probably
don’t need or won't use, just to say “YAY, I WON!”. So when a bike event is coming up
I look at it and say to myself, “do I really want to ride a bit to get there, park the bike for
the day, and experience the same copy-paste as the last 20+ events”? Maybe the way I’m
feeling about riding right now is contributing to my attitude towards bike events…

Tour riding actually fulfills our riding desires. When you head out for a few weeks on the
bikes, the sights and experiences are ever-changing. When you return its very difficult to
do day rides and experience the same feelings and emotions that the long trips invoke.
You can chase that high with day rides but it falls short. The problem with taking longer
trips though comes back to most people's basic struggles, work, and money. So once a year
we can do something like that but for the rest of the year it's pretty much one or two-day
rides. Eventually, you begin to see the bulk of what your area offers in terms of how far
you can ride out and get back in a day or two.

I assume this feeling happens to all riders at one point or another? I’ve heard of it
happening and seen it occur to the point they even sold their bikes. I would hope it
wouldn’t go that far. So what's the answer? I have none. I suppose we just keep on doing
what we're doing and hope the excitement to ride returns.

Ride Strong Wrench Proud

Fill Your Tank at Red Hot & Blue

Margaret from This Lady Rides and I have teamed up to begin a new series called Fill Your Tank of our favorite eateries that we like to take rides to. We will be writing independently on our blogs about the experience and making videos to accompany the posts. For some of the day long or over night stays we will begin offering ride maps to get you off the interstates and onto scenic back roads for an exciting ride along the way. Some of these are going to include places of interest that will make for some great stops not only to rest for a bit but to spend some time seeing local sights of interest along the ride.

This first restaurant of our series was Red Hot & Blue. We have been eating at the location on the corner of Bellaire Dr. South and Hulen in Fort Worth, TX for over 15 years and never had a bad experience. We always sit in the bar area and the service has always been superb. I almost always order the dry rub ribs. Red Hot & Blue is the only place we have found so far that offers true Memphis style dry rub ribs in our local area. We have been to Memphis and experienced incredible dry rub ribs and Red Hot & Blue comes close to what you would expect from that particular style of smoking.

We chose Red Hot & Blue this time because in our area its over 100 degrees everyday and taking an extended bike ride, especially in the afternoon, is extremely hot. The restaurant is only about 8 miles from where we live and allows us to take nice shady neighborhood roads to get to the location. It makes for a good ride to get out on the bikes without physically draining us by the time we get home.

Neither of us are big meat eaters and both of us mostly eat more on the vegetarian and closer to vegan side of food. About once a week though we will have a meal with meat and when we do we want it to be good. I have written on Healthy Living for Healthy Riding in the past and we stay quite true to what was written in that post. Well usually make the one or two meals a week which include meat part of one of our bike rides. That makes it somewhat special for us and we decided it would be nice to start the series Fill Your Tank to share those destinations for others to experience if their around the area or passing through.

Fill Your Tank at Red Hot & Blue

New Mexico, Utah, Colorado: Part II

Moab, Utah was a great experience on this trip.There are many roads around the area that make for a great ride and the scenery is phenomenal. We stayed here for 2 full days after arriving so we could visit Arches National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park which is known to have some of the most stunning sunset vistas  in America.

We paid for a guided tour by a Park Ranger in Arches National Park called the Fiery Furnace. The hike is considered one of the most extreme guided tours the park offers and along with that came some great scenery, history, and science. We also made sure to ride out to Dead Horse Point to capture a sunset.

We spent some time in Moab on Main Street during the heat of the afternoon visiting local shops, eating at the local restaurants, and seeing the museum. This gave us some down time to relax while the heat was at its highest to keep us cool yet active.

We left Moab, Utah to begin our journey home. This would take us through Grand Junction, Co and to the Grand Mesa Scenic Byway which would take us to an elevation of over 11k feet above sea level. As we neared the highest elevations snow covered the ground and the temperature plunged. It was quite a day of riding to think we left Moab with the temperature at over 100 to ride into the mountains and have snow. We stopped in Cedar Edge, Co where we had reservations at a lodge for the night. This would be the last day of our trip where we were taking our time on back roads and spending extended time at various sites along the way.

There were still great roads along the way home though. US-92 and US-50 took us through some fantastic mountain scenery, lakes, and winding roads. CO-114 followed a river through a valley with tall walls on both sides and then out to some incredible high plains views and cool air at higher elevations. We also stopped at the Great Continental Divide at over 10K foot above sea level on CO-114 to take pictures since we don't have a Continental Divide where we live. During this part of the ride Margaret was suffering from a touch of food poisoning from a place we ate at in Cedar Edge. We would pull over at every road side stopping area so she could empty out. At one quiet place in the river valley while she was in the restroom I was wandering around looking at the scenery and saw a small paper bag on the ground. I figured I would be a good Samaritan and pick it up to throw it away to keep the place clean. To my amazement the bag was filled with rolling papers and a green medicine bottle that contained half an ounce of prescription marijauna! Funny to think we were in Colorado where its legal and just happen to find that. I'm sure whoever lost it wasn't happy about it though. I emptied the herb into some bushes and threw the rest of the stuff away. I didn't want it to possibly fall into the hands of children who may stop at that rest area later on.

It took 2 full days to get home from Cedar Edge Colorado. The first day was very cool for the entire day. The mountainous roads were cool and there was a good chance of rain for most of the day which kept it overcast. We only got rained on once for about half an hour so it turned out to be a nice day of riding. The second day however was grueling. As we came back into Texas the heat climbed back up and by the time we got home we were exhausted.

This was the first trip on my new FLHXS and the bike did well. There were a few issues though which can be expected since it only had 1100 miles on it when we left. Again I took tools as always and was able to repair everything along the way. This video: Tools for the Road will help if your interested in keeping a decent set of tools while saving space. The trip button stopped working during our stay in Cortez, NM and I think it was due to dust getting into the control housing from the dirt road we had to ride on every day to get to the places we wanted to visit. I pulled the housing apart one evening and cleaned it out well, pulled the ECM and battery leads to reset it and it began working again. The infotainment center blacked out completely one time. I didn't do anything to fix that. We stopped to eat, came out, it came back up and has been working ever since. The forward shift linkage came loose and was almost spinning on the shift shaft. I found that in Moab when we were washing clothes and our bikes. I hit it with the pressure sprayer and it flopped around. At the same time I found my rear brake pedal was also loose on the shaft so I was able to tighten both up. The last problem I had was the rubber mount for the exhaust under the saddlebag slid out and the exhaust began rattling in the bracket. The rubber fitting had been put in backwards from the factory so I repaired that along the way and haven't had any problems with it since then. Not too bad for a new bike on its first trip with such low mileage and hardly any real break in or road time.

It was a great ride and it was sad for it come to a close. I want to give a huge Thank You to  J-Man on YouTube who's video on Utah Rt 128 Scenic Byway (which we rode) inspired us to make this trip.

New Mexico, Utah, Colorado: Part II Slideshow