The Jealous Redhead

 aka Ginger

I thought we had an understanding.  Wrong.  So, so wrong.

After spending a month abroad with Ginger's twin sister Mia, I came home to this:

And to think I was going to take her out to a nice breakfast.  At least I found it in the garage.  Isn't that a really nice imprint of the nail?  So special.

This was still left in the tire:

Fortunately, I've got a brand new set of Michelin Road 5s in the garage, put on new front and rear, the used front goes into garage inventory.  The BMW Owners of America has road hazard insurance up to $250, this is the third time I'm using it, certainly been worth the membership fee.

Scrubbing in the new rubber with a ride to the town too tough to die.

On the way home, hit a sharp bump and get the dreaded LAMP message.  Ginger was not done being pissed.

Ride on a bit, the error clears itself.  Hmmm.  Pull into the next gas station, fill up, check that all the bulbs are working: they are.  Ride home, the LAMP message comes back, it is the rear tail light.  Pull the housing, replace the bulb, all good.

Or so I thought.

A few days later, Ginger throws a hissy fit about 5 miles from the house, LAMP again.  Ride home, same thing, the rear tail light.  Pull the bulb, check the contacts...they fall away from the plastic socket housing...the plastic has deteriorated.  Ugh.  The desert at work.

To the internet!  Have to replace the tail light housing, about $100.  For about $40 more, I can get an LED assembly from Hornig in Germany designed to work with the the CAN-BUS system (it has a resister built in to fool the system into thinking it is an incandescent bulb).  I can also get a gen-u-ine BMW LED tail light for $250, but this needs to be coded by a BMW dealer so the system will recognize it, and Iron Horse believes the US dealer systems have that function disabled because it is not DOT compliant.  Out of stock anyway; I order the Hornig part.

Ships the next day via DHL, I've got it in my hands 3 days later.  Awesome.

Clear with red LEDs.  Not sure I like the looks all that much, but I like the reliability and the brightness.

Test it out with a ride to Bisbee.  Santa went for a test ride today too.

Ginger is now "+1" on bling compared to Mia.  She seems happy...  😎