Back in time

I was talking to my father lately about the motorcycles we owned when I was younger. I had been on a search on-line for bikes that resembled what I remember, but with advancements in just about every aspect of motorcycle design, and the nature of human memory, it's been a little tough. My dad found the manual for a bike we used to take out into the central Florida boondocks, and sent me some scans. This is what I grew up knowing as a motorcycle, but anything modern built for the same purpose is quite a different beast.




Here is a modern-day Honda dirt-bike 125


Quite different, I would say.

Also, I just confirmed with my father that this is about the same model as one of the bikes we had (found at bikez.com):

Signal Sourcery

So I bought this device recently from J.C. Whitney (THE place we used to buy parts for VW beetles) called the Signal Sorcerer. It is supposed to be a little device that helps small vehicles to be sensed by electro-magnetically triggered traffic light stops.

It is essentially a small powerful magnet that you mount to the underside of your motorcycle, scooter, ATV, or bicycle. The instructions dictate that you should mount it to a flat surface, parallel to the road, and in-line with the direction of travel. I mounted mine to this part just in front of the kickstand. It is just about the closest part to the ground, save for the exhaust.


As you can see, it's basically a small magnet bar on a foam strip with 2-sided glue. It comes in a small tube, although I've seen differing models that look like little red boxes. After I attached it for 24 hours, you can see that the magnet has pulled itself to one side of the glue strip to make love with the bike chassis. I'm not sure if I want to correct this, but I do know that with it touching the metal, the magnet will discharge faster.

I bought it to try it out on a particular light that never triggers for me until a vehicle comes up behind me. When I tried it out recently, it did not work. I am holding out hope though, because there were no scores in the road that are evidence of the sensor. There are some marked sensors in this town that do not trigger for me either, and I will be testing how they work now.

Work to Ride

I know I'm just a lowly scooter rider, but I'd like to remind all two-wheel jockeys out there that this Wednesday July 18th is Ride To Work day. If you can ride then show your pride.