- Joined
- Sep 25, 2009
- Messages
- 3,054
- Age
- 68
- Location
- West Des Moines, IA
- Bike
- 2022 Kymco AK 550
- 2024 Miles
- 001353
- STOC #
- 8058
No riding this week. Too busy social distancing. It is true that I am not anywhere close to others while riding. BUT all that changes if I should have the misfortune of needing medical help while out on the road someplace. That would expose me to paramedics who may not know they could be infected or since I have no way of knowing if I'm infected, yet, I could expose them. Being infected with this virus is something that has been shown no one can know until symptoms show up (since testing for it is restricted to those who are showing symptoms or have been in contact with someone who is confirmed). But the infection can be passed around long before that happens. Symptoms may not show up until possibly 28 days after infection but can be passed on at any time. So I could be infected from my last visit to Walmart for some essential supplies (really, getting oatmeal for breakfast and a few other food essentials is necessary) and I won't know for another 3 weeks.
Anyway, it's been raining most of this last week and since I don't HAVE to ride and with the current world situation I decided I'd busy myself with adding a few farkles to my 2013 Suzuki Burgman 650 ABS.
I took my time designing the electrical layout and making the electrical and wire lengths, at least what I could do while sitting in my office. That took an hour or two or three spread out over a few days starting Monday.
Since the temps outside were not great for trusting plastic tabs not to break I put off working directly on the bike until it warms up. All bikes with plastic panels have tabs that can, and do, break. Some more easily than others. I was waiting for a day with ambient temps at least up to 60F. Thursday was that day so I spent 2 hours working on the Burgman 650 to add a Knight Riderz LED light bar with tail light and flashing brake light and also installing a new-to-me official Suzuki top case and mounting plate. The official Suzuki top case is actually a Kappa K49 case that has a 47 Liter volume and has the Suzuki "S" logo circle on top in place of the Kappa logo. I could have just installed the top case and mounting plate in about 20 minutes total if that was all I was doing. And that would even include removing the factory backrest. All the rest of the time I took was designing, making, and installing the electrical connections for the LED light bar. I like mounting light bars like this on the bottom of the top case base plate so it's still there when I remove the top case, which I will do when I don't need it. Here is the result...
Anyway, it's been raining most of this last week and since I don't HAVE to ride and with the current world situation I decided I'd busy myself with adding a few farkles to my 2013 Suzuki Burgman 650 ABS.
I took my time designing the electrical layout and making the electrical and wire lengths, at least what I could do while sitting in my office. That took an hour or two or three spread out over a few days starting Monday.
Since the temps outside were not great for trusting plastic tabs not to break I put off working directly on the bike until it warms up. All bikes with plastic panels have tabs that can, and do, break. Some more easily than others. I was waiting for a day with ambient temps at least up to 60F. Thursday was that day so I spent 2 hours working on the Burgman 650 to add a Knight Riderz LED light bar with tail light and flashing brake light and also installing a new-to-me official Suzuki top case and mounting plate. The official Suzuki top case is actually a Kappa K49 case that has a 47 Liter volume and has the Suzuki "S" logo circle on top in place of the Kappa logo. I could have just installed the top case and mounting plate in about 20 minutes total if that was all I was doing. And that would even include removing the factory backrest. All the rest of the time I took was designing, making, and installing the electrical connections for the LED light bar. I like mounting light bars like this on the bottom of the top case base plate so it's still there when I remove the top case, which I will do when I don't need it. Here is the result...