new (to me) levy lights and new front tire

[hootmon]

I bought some mini lights off of Allen and bought a Michelin tire..
I like the light location, it gives a nice triangle to on coming traffic..

I also bought a road pilot 3 front tire... I like it so far... It's a 70 instead of an 80... It throws the speedo off about 5 MPH at 70 MPH...

[lragan]

Hoot,

Nice looking lights.  I don't understand the "levy" term.  Are these the Kuryakin "bullet" lights?

[TLRam1]

Now you can go faster!

Your front fender looks off a little compared to the tire.

[hootmon]

Hoot,

Nice looking lights.  I don't understand the "levy" term.  Are these the Kuryakin "bullet" lights?

Yes, Kuryakin mini bullets...
They are called "levy" lights because when I was 17 in Sacramento, one Friday moonless evening I was out on my motorcycle riding on a road on top of a levy. The levy was probably 100 feet high with farm fields on one side, and a river on the other... Because it followed the river, it was not a very straight road... Well you guessed it, while running about 60 my main headlight blew... No street lights. No moonlight, just BAMM instant darkness....
It wasn't long after that I put aux. Lights on my bike... They were, and still are, known as levy lights...

[Smoked U]

Good move.

Greg C. turned on a set in his garage at one of our wrench sessions and I was very surprised at how bright the K. mini bullets are. Expensive, but very, very nice.

[lragan]

Hoot I think you told me this tale once before -- in the parking lot of the motel in Eureka Springs, as I recall.  I had simply forgotten it.  Great tale.  Levy lights ---

[guywheatley]

I forget exactly where I read it, but some guy accidentally got some aircraft landing lights and mounted them on his bike. (Probably the VRCC board.) I never was clear on wether it was the entire housing that was wrong, or just the bulbs. In any case, he had them for about a week before he was able to swap them for the lights he wanted. But for about a week, he had some really bright road lights.

Edit:
I found a link on the VRCC about aircraft landing lights. I don't think it's the one I remember. This guy did it on purpose.
http://www.valkyrieforum.com/bbs/index.php/topic,27666.msg251643.html#msg251643

[lragan]

If I didn't turn off the landing lights on my Bonanza, as speed dropped below 40 TAS, the plastic covers which formed part of the wing leading edge would melt.

This was a 1947 model, also equipped with a flare tube.  One could come over an unlighted field at about 4000 ft. AGL, fire a flare, which descended on a parachute, then circle down and land.  You needed some hooboy landing lights to pull this off.  The flare was supposed to be cool before it hit the ground, so it wouldn't light the field on fire...

Modern fields with runway lights are much safer, for sure.

[Chokse]

Michelin makes great bike tires. I'm running the older version (Pilot Road II) of that tire on the front and rear, and they make a huge difference in handling. Enjoy the ride.