this post was submitted on 15 Apr 2025
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
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- A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
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I had a Honda Nighthawk 650 once. The perfect bike, for me, if a little underpowered. But it was comfortable to ride, not too heavy, and looked good.
But it always had electrical problems, and I could never figure them out myself. It would just sporadically have a phase where the starter wouldn't turn over. I had it in the shop off and on for about 6 years, and finally gave up on it. Never replaced it, didn't keep up my license, and haven't ridden in years.
If I ever do take up riding again (which will be an epic fight with the wife who's mom was a nurse, and is dead set against me riding motorcycles), I want something in that form factor again. I keep looking at Ducatis.
Anyway, electrical issues are the worst.
At a certain point, it ends up feeling easier to just replace the whole damn wiring harness.
And for that cost, you could just buy a new bike.
They're usually not too bad, if you get a working one off eBay. Buying a new loom from the manufacturer? Yeah, that's a few grand.
Hmmm. I've been known to hit the junk yard for replacements for a Ford LTD, way back in the Oelden Daiz, but a) I'm not sure about trusting second hand parts in a motorcycle, and b) I'd probably be unsuccessful at rewiring it.
By the Nighthawk, we'd started entering the phase where vehicles were becoming essentially solid-state devices. There was no space, and to do anything serious, you had to basically take the whole thing to pieces; and I'm not mechanically inclined. If I can reach in with my hands, I'm fine, but multi-part disassembly and - more critically - correct reassembly challenges me.
Also, motorcycles are death machines. At least if a professional works on it, it's one less thing for me to worry about going wrong on a ride, and taking me out. A sudden loss of power at 65 might not be guaranteed fatal, but I still wouldn't want to risk it, or something falling off because of my own incompetence putting it back together.
It's pretty much plug n' play for wiring harneses. If you are placing the replacement while removing the original one, it's hard to go wrong. The wiring harness that I bought for my CBR was a little wonky; the service manual covers 2007-2012, but they made some very minor changes for '11-'12. One of those changes was moving a single pin where the harness connects to the ECU. The result was that I had an engine code--knock sensor malfunction--and I had to re-pin that single wire. It was a bit of a pain in the ass. It was annoying mostly because the person that sold it didn't realize that there was a difference.
Lots of 2nd hand motorcycle parts are just fine. Things that are damaged in crashes are usually catastrophically damaged.
That's fair. I'm in the process of trying to turn a naked sport bike into a cafe racer, and just to change the headlight assembly, I need to remove the wheel and then the fork. It should be a 10 minute job, but instead it's several hours. When I was checking valve clearances on my CBR, I ended up having to nearly remove the engine to get to the cam shafts. I hadn't thought I was particularly mechanically inclined, but I guess I kind of am?
Go you! I think skill in that area may not make you rich, but would be guaranteed work.