Confessions of a Motorcycle Newbie

I recently picked up the new and improved version of SpeedMetal’s LED Conversion Kit from Cycle Gear: This is the "new and improved" version -- so new, in fact, that I cannot yet find it on Cycle Gear's web catalog. It is in stores, however, and (for this month at least) is perpetually on sale. As you can see, it promises up to 3000 lumens. I assume this is high beam. Standard H4 headlights, for reference, produce 1650 lumens at high beam and only 1000 lumens low beam. Here is what my bike looked like after installing one of these puppies: The light on your left is the new LED, the light on your right is the old H4 halogen. No comparison, brightness wise.  While the installation was relatively simple, I wanted to post this how-to because it wasn't quite as simple and plug-and-play-and-go as the box promised. So, here goes: Step 1: unplug the H4 (or H7 if that's your bike) connector from the back of your headlight. On a semi-faired bike...

As of today, I have been moto-commuting for three whole months. Here are just a few of the many things I think about that: 1. There is simply no more awesome way to get to work in the morning than on a motorcycle. Hands down. As an added plus, the adrenaline fix that comes with dodging the occasional mildly dangerous situation or simply from twisting your throttle wrist on an open stretch of road is a fantastic day-starter for those of us who suffer from ADHD! 2. It’s not as dangerous as everybody made it out to be. I mean, I got cut off by an 18-wheeler who decided to merge across two lanes of traffic all-at-the-same-time once, but I had plenty of time to activate my still-new braking reflexes and avoid a collision or a skid or anything. I dropped the bike once when I was skirting around a traffic jam on a soft shoulder, as one is tempted to do when one rides an adventure bike and there is a traffic jam up ahead. But other than those two times, I have never come anywhere close to my b...