New Brake light and "with great eccentricity comes ridiculous responsibility."

To say the least, this winter has been weird.   We are occasionally blessed with cold and a few inches of snow, only to have it melt away on a warm afternoon, creating icy dangerous riding conditions in the morning.  There is no consistency and I end up cursing the ponderous studded tires more often than appreciate them.  There seems to be just enough danger coating the pavement to prevent any real quality recreation and the MUP's are either pristine and full of dog walkers 

or nearly impassible with icy ruts.  Sigh.

In the midst of all this emotional turmoil, I have found that one can wear out a capacitor in these new fangled lights.  Apparently I did, because the B&M Toplight Line Brake Plus light I have been using for 4 years or so has stopped functioning in standlight or brake mode.  It still works when I roll but doesn't stay on when I stop and since there is no juice stored up, the brake light function quit also.

I admit that I may have wired it wrong when changing dynos and that may have fried it.  According to Peter White's website, it shouldn't matter, so I think it's just something I wore out and broke.  

To make a long story unnecessarily longer,

it's a good excuse to exercise my consumerist right to excess and buy a new one.

They have upgraded the brake function.  If you look at the embarrassing video I made, you will see that the light now pulses brighter when the wheel is slowed.  Turn off the volume so you don't hear the caterwauling in the background and you will see it is much improved over the previous version.  The question still remains,

 " When they see it, do motorists have any clue what just happened?"  

In more expansive news, I managed, through my reputation for eccentricity, to get elected to the Citizen's Advisory Committee to the area transportation study.  KATS, as it's called, is the gateway through which federal dollars are channeled on their way to the pavement.  My first real meeting was yesterday and I received a breakdown of the process.  The chart above is the simplified explanation of money flowing (or not) from Washington to the streets of Michigan.  

Oh yeah, this looks like fun.