I spent a lot of time on the chassis last year, I’m pretty happy with the way it handles now, so other than a good check of everything, I decided to focus on the engine( tune up, oil changes) and on safety.
Safety was a real concern because this spring we had several motorcycle accidents in our area. As the weather warmed up, the bikes were out in force. Most of the accidents were idiots in cagers turning in front of bikes. Not cool, didn’t end well. I see it all the time; a cager on the opposite side of the road, cuts in front of me while turning across my path. I get pissed, I figure riding up next to them at the next stop sign and giving my honest opinion of their driving skills can only go so far to help this problem, so I focused on that I can do to my bike, so the idiots can see it better.
I took a look at my lighting system. My bike is 20 years old now; I doubt it’s been looked at since it was new. First the markers and signals. I was curious if there was a signal lens that would give off more light? I searched the ol’ interweb and came across a vender that was selling larger ‘bullet’ style signal lenses. My thinking was, bigger is better, worth a try. I saved my pennies and bought a full set. To say I am happy with these is an understatement. I can see the glow of my turn signals on reflective street signs over a block away! These things are great and better yet, nobody else has them!
Next step, the headlight… I open up the bucket and find the headlight pigtail is cooked. Medium-well, baked potato and all the fixings. It works, but it’s crispy. A visit to the dealership and $14.00 later, I have the new pigtail. I look at the bulb; it’s an H-4, stock from the factory. Pretty impressive actually!, I get on the ol’ computer and research bulbs, I don’t want to increase wattage as the pigtail has cooked once already, so I look for a 55/60W replacement in the stock wattage. I found a Halogen bulb with a blue halo. I wondered if it would be that blue light that is annoying from the other direction of travel? Damn, I hopped so!, so, I bought the sun of a gun.
While the light bezel was off I washed the inside real well, it had 20 years of fine dust in it. Refractory from a mirror cannot be copasetic with a layer farm dust on it. It looked like an old Kansas reclamation project in there! Only took a minute to clean with the end of a pencil and a small soft cloth over it and some Windex. I installed the new bulb in the clean bezel and hit the switch. What a huge difference!, the signals are reflecting light all around the bike and best of all, I can see much further down the road and the bike is projecting an annoying slight blue glare.
This won’t change my defensive driving, but it did make great results to see better and be seen by others. The total cost was $42.00 plus a pigtail. Not bad for the great results!
