04-16-2026, 08:43 AM
The latest patient in Gone's Home for Wayward Motorcycles. This is the fourth one, and is a bit of a mongrel. The first bike needed to go in for a new clutch. So, the boss swapped out the bodywork on that bike that had the livery decals to this one, so that it would be ready to go. She's a '16 with 28k on the odometer, and I'll be going through all of the mechanicals, sprucing her up and adding a horn, additional lights and a 360 camera.
It's interesting to now have worked on four different bikes coming out of police service. They really are a mixed bag. One still had the very authoritative police horn - an electronic "get out of the way" tone, one has a little beep-beep horn haphazardly attached with a momentary switch stuck to the handlebar replacing a button that performed some police function. One has the original police white spotlights up front, the others don't. This one has no horn at all, and one non-functional spotlight. So, I'll be adding a horn and lights. I'd love to use one of the existing switches on the handlebars to run it, but with the CAN-Bus system, there's no telling what wires go to any particular switch, and I've tired myself out testing and probing. So, I'll be adding a switch and wiring it externally.
The boss picked out a set of Aux-Beam lights on Amazon that I'm installing on all of the bikes. It's got multiple functions - solid yellow, solid white, both, and variations of yellow and white flashing and strobing, one of which definitely has an emergency vehicle vibe to it.
It's interesting to now have worked on four different bikes coming out of police service. They really are a mixed bag. One still had the very authoritative police horn - an electronic "get out of the way" tone, one has a little beep-beep horn haphazardly attached with a momentary switch stuck to the handlebar replacing a button that performed some police function. One has the original police white spotlights up front, the others don't. This one has no horn at all, and one non-functional spotlight. So, I'll be adding a horn and lights. I'd love to use one of the existing switches on the handlebars to run it, but with the CAN-Bus system, there's no telling what wires go to any particular switch, and I've tired myself out testing and probing. So, I'll be adding a switch and wiring it externally.
The boss picked out a set of Aux-Beam lights on Amazon that I'm installing on all of the bikes. It's got multiple functions - solid yellow, solid white, both, and variations of yellow and white flashing and strobing, one of which definitely has an emergency vehicle vibe to it.
You know what? I actually would like a pickle.