I'm going to be moving all of my content to Hyperkingdom.com but, have no fear (I know you are waiting with baited breath for the next post), I will continue to write about all of my motorcycling (and other) adventures. In fact... I have a post about an Emgo Viper fairing that you'll probably find interesting.
See you there!
Saturday, October 20, 2012
The importance of T-CLOCS
So last night I checked the oil, the tires, gave everything a bit of a once over and headed out to have dinner with my girlfriend. We had a nice but quick meal, I gave her a kiss and she went back to work and I headed home...
I fired up the bike, turned on the light... turned on the light... ummm... turned on the... crap. The headlamp, which was slowly going anyway (I had already lost the regular light so I had been running on the brights), but now it was completely out and it was nighttime. I crapped my pants and then started carefully home.
Most of the ride was easy and fairly safe. I stayed close to lit cars, kept away from side streets and signaled if I thought someone might not see me. Curse me for having a black jacket and helmet!
So this brings me to the importance of doing your pre-ride checks and following T-CLOCS as a reminder as to what to check. If you went to the safety course you would've covered T-CLOCS but just as a reminder it stands for:
MSF (motorcycle safety foundation) published a good pdf here. I suggest that we, as responsible motorcyclists follow the checklist so you don't find yourself crapping yourself in the dark of an underground parking lot. I was lucky this time... I may not be so lucky the next time.
Today, I ran out, bought an H4 headlamp (I pulled the original last night, breaking it in the process) and plugged it in, fixing my issue. To be sure, I used the multi-meter last night after pulling the bulb just to make sure that it wasn't an electrical issue. I suggest buying a multi-meter, mine is a cheapie from harbor freight but it does what it needs to - it shows me that 12 volts of power are running through the wires. If you haven't used a multimeter before, this article is pretty good.
Safe riding everyone...
I fired up the bike, turned on the light... turned on the light... ummm... turned on the... crap. The headlamp, which was slowly going anyway (I had already lost the regular light so I had been running on the brights), but now it was completely out and it was nighttime. I crapped my pants and then started carefully home.
Most of the ride was easy and fairly safe. I stayed close to lit cars, kept away from side streets and signaled if I thought someone might not see me. Curse me for having a black jacket and helmet!
So this brings me to the importance of doing your pre-ride checks and following T-CLOCS as a reminder as to what to check. If you went to the safety course you would've covered T-CLOCS but just as a reminder it stands for:
- T - Tire and wheels
- C - Controls
- L - Lights
- O - Oil
- C - Chassis
- S - Stands
MSF (motorcycle safety foundation) published a good pdf here. I suggest that we, as responsible motorcyclists follow the checklist so you don't find yourself crapping yourself in the dark of an underground parking lot. I was lucky this time... I may not be so lucky the next time.
Today, I ran out, bought an H4 headlamp (I pulled the original last night, breaking it in the process) and plugged it in, fixing my issue. To be sure, I used the multi-meter last night after pulling the bulb just to make sure that it wasn't an electrical issue. I suggest buying a multi-meter, mine is a cheapie from harbor freight but it does what it needs to - it shows me that 12 volts of power are running through the wires. If you haven't used a multimeter before, this article is pretty good.
Safe riding everyone...
Friday, October 5, 2012
Cool short film
Long Live the Kings
This was a pretty cool film with some great old BMWs... makes me want to just head down a road with a pack and no idea where I'm going...
This was a pretty cool film with some great old BMWs... makes me want to just head down a road with a pack and no idea where I'm going...
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