Thunder Beach 2010

So I rode to Panama City home of Thunder Beach in both the Spring and Fall. We went to the Autumn gathering in early October.
It was about 100 miles from home to the gathering and we stayed over night.

To the left here is the fair grounds were all the vendors had their booths setup and the mechandise and cool shows were.

They had all kinds of things like parts suppliers, burnout show, light kits, live music and many other really cool things going on. The picture to the left is of just the parking area and that is about a fourth of the bikes we saw riding in on the Panama City Beach strip.

The piture to the right here if of the pier on the strip. Look at the gorgeous water and the view of from the beach...nothing but clear sky and water, very nice.

The strip was really cool with all kinds of touristy attractions and things to do. Too bad my videos didn't come out better while we traveled the strip. I got a new camera which takes video but when I tranfered the video, they didn't work out too well.

In total we were told the rough estimate was about 50-60k motorcycles showed up. We talked with individuals from everywhere; Tenesse, Georgia, Alabama and severa l from around the area of Florida. It was really cool and I would definitely go back next year!

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Colby Butler aka Kingkole02

These are my switches for starters.

I installed them and ran them under the drivers seat to the frame wall.

Oh and mind the thumb ring...I have a very nervous streak and install of tearing my hair out I spin that, works wonders.

So...I have two switches, one is tied to the expansion block and the other my newest toys (see neons again just below this post).

I wired the main switch into what is called a expansion block, bar, add-on, whatever...

In doing this make sure you add a fuse, you know for just in case you touch the positive to the negative by mistake and blow your main fuse box (previous experience will lead to future betterment, trust me).

So I have in the picture to my left the fuse I am referring to. I used a 30 amp fuse with an in-line fuse holder. One side to the battery positive the the other to the switch batter terminal. Then from the switch positive on terminal to the expansion block positive (or what I created to be the positive side)

Here is a picture of the expansion block mounted to the fuse box under the seat. Notice how I loop the rear channels together. Doing this supplies each connection with that type of front connection. In other words I loop the four on each side to either the ground or in positive doing so linear so that each connection is the same for the first four channels. Giving me 3 total hook ups for expansion.

First channel is used for your battery hook ups to positive and negative from each side. The remaining three are for accessories.

In this picture I was not done was it is missing some connections.

The picture to the left show the completed setup once I put everything back together.

Everything fits a little tighter, however I have options to add more accessories.

The cool part about this is that some of you may remember I added some high power running lights to the front.

Well...creating this expansion block gave me the opportunity to hide my expansion block main switch and redirect the power to the lights through the switch so that no one else can play with the lights unless they know where the switch is.




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Colby Butler aka Kingkole02

Neons yet again

So I finally did it, I installed some real neons.

For around 40 dollars I did this whole install in my garage.

I start with (3) green neon strands (like I used for my rear signal) and some wires and switches.

The cool part about this setup is that I can control all my auxiliary lights with the flick of a switch setup to run a expansion block I have setup under my seat. The expasion block allows me to add up to three items at once incoporating the positive and ground in the same exspansion block.

(I will provide some details about the setup later in my blog).

So to top pic is in the garage the day I finished the setup from the right hand side. As you can see, before I remove the air intake box and do my intake mod the air intake plenum hides much of the light.

However the left side (second picture down) has much more light coming from it.

Man this thing is bright!

It will light up my garage at night when I took these pictures.

The lower two photos are from the first ride I took after the install.

Of course we all have to show off what we just finished right? Of course. So the night before I finished everything and then went for a ride the following night.

Once it gets really dark these babies really start to shine.

I decieded to leave my other blue ones installed as the green ones did not get in the way at all.

Install was easy as I zip tied them to the frame in various locations so that I could removed them and play with locations if I choose too. Plus tucked under the tank, you never know they exist in the day time.

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Colby Butler aka Kingkole02

Neons replacement

I originally had these neons around my engine. They were taken off a car modification I did and didn't like on the car. So I re-used them for the engine on the motorcycle for some ambient lighting.

The only problem is how bright they are, not very. So recently I moved them down to the lower frame to light the road under the bike at night. They seem to be pretty bright in the garage (which the camera does not show very well) and so I hope they look good on the road as well.

So in the dark garage they look good.

What I did was the neons came with their own hook ups to the positive terminal on the battery, so I mounted straight to the battery. Then the wire to the switch as an interupt so when the switch is off no power, on power and so fourth. The switch is an easy interupt for this use. I ran the wiring for the switch to the battery, ground and then to the neon positive. Finally placed the wiring under all the stuff under the seat and down on the frame wall, as seen in last photo. Then ran the neon power lines down the other side between the battery and the frame.

At the lowest section nearest the motor I placed some heat covering to protect the wiring before it reached the lower frame. Then I ziptied the neon strand to the frame.

It's really cheap and simple but gets the job done until I can get some more lights on the motor and other key places.

The switch I got was perfect with a screw on attachment base for use if you would drill a hole in something, but I didn't need all that.

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Colby Butler aka Kingkole02

Just a little touch up

I wanted some additional flair on my motorcycle so for $4, I managed with these to match my rear. Now I can fly a flag everyday I ride.

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Colby Butler aka Kingkole02

Bag Bars

I recently have been working on some projects and just completed my bars for hang the bags better. The stores charge up to 130 for these which I did for under 20.

Wrapped in electrical tape to prevent damage to my bags.

Below here are my crude original designs which didn't work out so well as you can see.

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Colby Butler aka Kingkole02

New headlights and signals

I recently added some new high output driving lights to my motorcycles arsenal of headlights. These are great and really bright. They light up the road directly in front and to the sides. They don't shine as far as the standard beams, but what did I expect from a $25 set?

They help a lot a night and can be used in coordination with the high beam during the day so I can save my passing lights for when I need them.

I got this really great idea one day to add some turn signals to my motorcycle. Previously I had installed some Hayabusa signals from a friend and simply wire tied them to the triple bar. While these worked, I didn't really like the look. So I stumble upon more lights from a company I have ordered from before, http://www.superbrighleds.com/.

While I had some issues with the shipment and wrong color being selected, we managed to work out the details and I installed these LEDS.
They come with positives and negatives.

Once I started this process I realised these aren't the brightest in the world, however they are in a more visible place than the old ones. So now I have a dilemma to add another set of them to a location. However, they draw so little power, that my signals register as if a light is out and flash faster than normal, drawing more attention to the signals. So I figure for what I paid for them, I could order another pair or two and hopefully add more of them.

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Colby Butler aka Kingkole02

New Gloves!

New Gloves are here!

I wore out my old pair after 4000k miles or riding and purchased a new pair from my favorite apparel website http://www.leatherup.com/.

Here is the link to the gloves https://www.leatherup.com/site/product?pid=51538

These gloves are very nice and offer the comfort which my old gloves did but with more protection and looks. Plus they have some cold wind channels which help with the hot summers here in Florida, or at least I hope to find out soon.

It was 81 today and they did a good job of keeping my hands cool today.

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Colby Butler aka Kingkole02

Helmet Locks

My old lock gave out, so I came across a special via the internet and order two of these chrome keyed locks. Very cool indeed! Best places to mount them I have found too. I can now lock two helmets on my motorcycle without having to lift the saddle bag to do so.

I mounted one dead center of the handle bars and the other off the right handle bar. This keeps the helmet from resting on anything hot and provides support from the bars at center. Works well with a half helmet at the center and a three-quarter on the right hand side.

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Colby Butler aka Kingkole02

Added an extra tailight.

Well so I have been riding around alot, mostly to go to work recently and I came across a website superbrightleds.com. I looked over what they offer, pretty neat stuff, than I started thinking "What could I do with all these choices?". So I went ahead and ordered some stuff, with the intentions on expanding my ideas and what not.

So I played around with some idea and ended up with this.It's a nine inch long LED light which I tapped into my brake light wiring so when I brake, I now have a light at the top of my sissy bar. This makes for much better viewing cababilities a night and during the day. Most motorcycles tailight are too low and people can't seem them, or they are not bright enough. There are many after market kits which will change the turnsignals from just signals to running and brake light, with turnsignal abilities out there on the market, except these kits are very exspensive. My solution with under 15.

As you can see that this light is very bright and stands out quite well from a distance too.

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Colby Butler aka Kingkole02