Tech Day – October 2010

I went down to the local BMW club‘s tech day today to do some work on the bike. The first order of business was to replace the halogen light I had to install on the long ride in August with a new HID bulb. That went relatively easy, the only problems being related to the cramped space between the front forks and the fairing. It’s nice to have the extra light output of the HID bulb back.

After that was the real meat of the work, installing a Whelen TIR3 LED lighthead as an auxiliary brake light. It was a pretty involved process, but the gist of it was that I extended the wires coming out of the lighthead, tapped in to the existing brake light circuits, and wired in the flash mode selector. I’ve now got an obnoxiously bright secondary brake light on the bike, so hopefully it’ll increase visibility enough to justify it. I picked up the lighthead from Fleet Safety and would definitely recommend them if you’re looking to do a similar installation on your bike.

Finally was some routine maintenance, due after the long ride. Namely adjusting the valve clearances and syncing the throttle bodies. They were pretty close to good and it took very little time to get them set. After that I just had to put all of the body panels back on and head home.

Thanks to everyone in the club that helped me get the work done. It was definitely appreciated.