Brammo Owners Forum

I finally managed to finish my Empulse lighting project.  I've been collecting parts for a couple of months now.  The lights are mounted in the old mirror mount points.  I had to buy mirror adapters to get useable bolts.  (Note that the right mount is reverse threaded)  I had to drill the light mount hole a bit larger.  This setup probably will not work with a wind screen.

I bought the lights with brackets on Ebay for $52 a pair with shipping.  I'm guessing that they put out at least 700 lumens each, using 10 watts each.  I found a handle mount switch for the lights, although it has the marking of a kill switch.  I used the purple Molex (.062 series) for power.  Fry's has the plugs and crip connectors.  I had to order a crimper online.  I found a couple of good youtube videos about how to make Molex connectors/crimps that were very useful. 

The finish product is a big big improvement.  I can't see the stock light at all when the LED's are on.  They are a bit too bright for use with on-coming traffic.  They are supposed to be narrow beams, but I they seem to cover two road lanes at 100-200 feet.  I need some time to adjust them. 

http://www.fastcompany.com/3022941/fast-feed/electric-car-owner-arrested-for-stealing-5-cents-worth-of-power

I saw this interesting news report today.  I thought this technology was pretty cool.  In Portland most of our water comes from reservoirs that are at higher elevation than the city.  Valves must be used to lower the pressure of the water as it goes down hill.  This company,  Lucid Energy, has a come up with a vertical axis turbine that lowers the pressure of the water a bit and generates electricity on the side.  These pipe sections can be placed in series to lower the pressure as much as the utility needs.  The unit in this article generates enough electricity for 150 homes (1100 MW a year).

http://www.kgw.com/news/business/Water-bureau-teams-up-with-energy-company-225277792.html

Today was the first 90+ degree day here.  About 10 miles into the ride home I noticed the bike slowing more than usual at a stop sign.  I turned off on a side road and noticed that I was using about 16kw to go 35 MPH... not a good sign.  Pulled over and found the rear tire almost locked with very hot brakes.  I let it sit for 4 or 5 minutes and also tapped the caliper to see if that would loosen things up.  It seems to get better from time to cool (and/or tapping) so I proceeded about 10 miles to home without using the rear brake.  At home I put it up on a rear stand and found no issues.  The wheel turned freely and the brake worked fine.

This bike is much smaller than my Vstrom, so I suppose it's possible my foot was dragging on the brake.  I think I would have noticed that before now.  (I tend to watch the power meter closely).  I've never had this problem before on 20 some odd bikes over 30 years.  Any ideas out there?

Interesting article about a leaf owner with 78,000 miles on the ODO.  His battery capacity is down 17.5%.

http://www.plugincars.com/after-2-years-78000-miles-high-mileage-2011-nissan-leaf-127387.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PluginCars+%28PluginCars.com+RSS+Feed%29

I took a short night ride to try out the headlight.  I found that the beam is way out of alignment.  The bottom of the low beam hits about 20-30 in front of the bike.  On level ground the high beam never hits the ground.  At a 100 yards the high beams will illuminate the top third of the telephone poles.

I removed the shroud to see if it can be adjusted.  The bottom bolts look like they might serve as a hinge points, but I couldn't find any upper bolts that looked like they might slide.  Has anyone out there managed to adjust their headlight?  Maybe I should try increasing the preload 

I found a headlight I want for my motorcycle.  Unfortunately it's on a Volvo.  This headlight stays on high bean all the time.  For on-coming cars, it blocks the portion of light that would hit the car instead of dimming the lights.  Here's a link:

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2013/02/volvo-permanent-high-beams/