Monday, October 5th, 2026

The weather is Southern Colorado has been so nice since the monsoons blew through. Fall is in full swing, but since we are still having forty degree temperature swing days, the temperature in the afternoons has been perfect. It made it a nice day yesterday to work in the open garage and get some work done on my motorcycle. I got some proper light mounts for the auxiliary lights that mount to the forks. The 3D printed versions I designed and made were working pretty well. But, I noticed a stress fracture on one of the units, so I decided for the way we plan to use these motorcycles it didn’t make sense to need to worry about the 3D printed parts cracking somewhere in South America.

The process of designing and printing functional parts is really interesting to me. I’ve solved several issues around the house and in our travel truck using 3D printed parts. The challenge is always ensuring that the strength is in the needed places, taking into account the way the part is printed. Basically taking into account how the filament sticks to the previous layer. There are ways to take this all into account, but does require a good bit of trial and error.

The good thing about swapping out the 3D printed parts for metal parts was while fitting the new parts, I realized I had weak point in the wiring that feeds the lights that mount on the forks. It was a spot that I used those solder sealed wire connectors. I’ve used these in the past in several applications. But I didn’t think about how the wires in this location were going to possibly be under stress from the forks turning. The good thing is I caught the issue in my garage. And was able to replace the wire connectors with a proper soldered connection. Not that I am very good at soldering. But these connection points already feel stronger. The wire isn’t usually under stress, it is only when I was testing out different locations for the lights, and I was testing the full turning radius of the forks that I put the wires under too much stress. It wasn’t something I was planning on needing to fix yesterday, but it needed to be fixed. And it is a possible fix in my garage. Not an easy fix on the road.

As we prepare for our long motorcycle travels, knowing most parts of these motorcycles is really helpful. Of course, there are likely mistakes I’ve made that will show up when we put the bike under more stress. But, I know how everything goes together. I can’t imagine relying on a machine that I know little to nothing about on trips like we are going to be taking. I know people do it all the time. But having a little understanding of how the bikes work, the systems in place and how they sometimes go wrong is super helpful. I know I sound like Robert M. Pirsig from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance . But, as I read that book recently that is the part that I completely understood. The sections about Quality, I’m not so sure I fully tracked. It seems like a book that needs to be read a few times to really understand the deeper messages. But understanding the systems in a machine makes sense to me.