Incursio

Recently I purchased a pair of "Luxeon" 3 watt LED bulb replacements for my motorcycle, a 2006 Kawasaki Concours. The tail lights on my motorcycle are the combo running-light / brake-light that many tail lights are, and use bulb type 1157. There are many reviews of standard LED tail light replacement bulbs, and most of them say that they are just not bright enough. The consensus seems to be that you really need to have LED systems designed for the light from the ground up - as the bulb replacement units simply fall short. The main problem, is that LED lights are very directional, they have a very narrow beam of light. Most tail light enclosures are designed for a regular incandescent bulb which puts light out in all directions. Because of this they use mirrors and lenses to direct the light out of the enclosure. This is the way that tail lights appear to fill up with light when they only have one small bulb in them. LED bulb replacements typically will just shoot...

Night Ride around Mt. Hood Last night I took a motorcycle ride, from about 10pm to 2am. I rode east on I84 along the Columbia River to the city of Hood River (which sits at the mouth of the Hood River as it dumps into the Columbia in the county of Hood River ) and onto Highway 35. I headed south on Highway 35 around the back side of Mt. Hood to Highway 26 where I turned West. At Government Camp I split off and climb up to TimberLine Lodge , then back down to Government Camp and back onto highway 26 and towards home, making a complete loop around Mt. Hood. The trip was about 175 miles total. Going up into the gorge on the freeway was very quiet, very few cars for a Tuesday night... A few barges on the Columbia looked like iridescent ghosts with their couple lights shimmering from the tugs and the big black barge they push. The moon bounced off the small waves that are ever-present on the Columbia. On Highway 35 I could smell the forest fires, especially since Highwa...