Sol Power–BrammoBlog.com

Brammoblog Ver. 2.0: #2.

I’m in the mood for love mods, simply because you’re near me I’m crazy.

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Ok… So got the lovely Brammo Empulse R a week and a half ago. I have never ridden a sports bike, so I am slowly learning that style of riding. The bike is easy to learn, but will take a lifetime to master 🙂 I plan to spend a lot of time “learning”.

But Walter (the bike is named Walter White after Breaking Bad) is fun and powerful and the bike does make you an instant Rock Star/ Movie Star. People stopping and staring, asking questions, pulling out their cell phones to take a picture. Or in some cases to google “Brammo”.

Case in point: A car was next to me at a light. It had been parked next to me at a store just a few minutes earlier and I noticed the passenger had gotten out of the car to look at the bike. We left the store at the same time and at the light the driver, a young woman, rolled down the window and the passenger, a young man, leaned over and asked out the window, ” So that takes 3 1/2 hours to charge?” “From empty, yes it does, on 220 or level 2 charging. You must know a bit about the bike?” “No, I just now looked it up on the internet and I’m reading about it now.” He lifted his phone in my direction as if to confirm this to me. I believed him even without the phone screen thrust across the drivers face toward the window.

And most places I stop; to shop or chat or what not, people wait for me to leave so they can hear the bike taking off. Funny. I always love the first part of, Me: “Well the bike is on.” Them: “Really?!?! Cool.”

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One such stop.

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So of course the first thing I do to a brand new bike is change a bunch of stuff. Why? Who knows. All the parts work and are nice. It is just a sickness. Once you start modding your ride, it’s all down hill.

I thought I would share my mods, my sickness (Officer Krumpki, I’m down on my knees, cuz no one likes a fella with a modding disease), as it’s been either tooooooooo windy, or work as been tooooooo busy for nice rides up in the mountains. Hopefully in a week or so I will have photos from Sandia Peak and Madrid. Maybe a nice ride down to Los Lunas?

Till then: MODS: More than just a British fashion statement of long coats and scooters with a crazy amount of mirrors.

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First off I should note that this Modding sickness is shared with a number of people over at Brammoforum.com. And they have many threads to help novice modders like me get really addicted. Sure it all starts with a tail tidy or a mirror change…and then it’s on to the harder stuff: Shock replacement. Suspension tuning. Adjustable clip-ons.

It isn’t long til your wife catches you at 2 am in the bathroom reading electrical schematics in Italian by flashlight. Suddenly it is a bad after school special and she’s yelling, “Where did you learn to MOD?! Where did you learn this?” “I learned it by reading Brammoforum…I learned it from THEM, OK!”

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Day one with the bike. And the first thing I did was shorten the tail section. Day freaking ONE.

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Pre—Picking up the bike. Bag on back seat is the free Brammo bag that holds the charger, the Chargepoint card, manual and odds and ends.

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Post…Bike at his namesakes home. Tail shortened so that brake light is right up against the rear seat.

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Second mod. Mirrors.

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Removed upright mirrors and added bar end, lane splitting mirrors.

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Third mod. A small one.

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Swingarm sliders. Mostly to help out the shop boys. A nice and simple way to lift the rear tire for service work.

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And the fourth mod is a bit of a combo mod…New LED turn-signals all around, with a vanity plate, carbon fiber license plate cover and fancy license plate bolts.

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First: The rear turn signal. One side is  a new Rizoma LED turn signal in anodized gold metal…the other is the standard turn-signal.

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Then I replaced the front turn signals.

Much smaller, brighter and you can see the turn signal light more easily from the drivers position. And, most important, they look cool.

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And the back turn signal lights and new license plate…with Masonic license plate bolts! I’m not a Mason, but I do like the “G” for Gavin. I just like to do weird stuff from time to time. 🙂

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And finally, the bike with it’s first round of mods done.

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Tail tidy, new mirrors and turn signal lights so small in size you can barely see them. Plus the neighbor’s  Oklahoma Redbud tree is blooming nicely and the wind has the American Flag all held out and patriotic. And of course the Sandia Mountains in the background. I thought it would make a nice photo.

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Till next time…

Take Care

Gavin

For more info on Brammo, please visit: www.brammo.com
For more images, photos, discussions and all around Brammo goodness: visit, lurk and maybe join: www.brammoforum.com

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