Rear Lights for Your Bike

Everyone knows that the headlight is a very vital part of any vehicle that travels after dark. Not only does the scooter or bicycle headlight point your way forward, it alerts oncoming traffic to your presence. What some people don't realize is that your tail light is just as important when the sun goes down. A rear reflector helps, and many bike pedals come with reflectors as part of the foot platform, but a red tail lamp is even better.

Here at Monster Scooter Parts, we want you to stay safe. To keep you riding in inclement weather or when the sky grows dark, we can recommend a number of top-quality lights. It's hard to choose sometimes, but here a few of our personal favorites.

Danger Zone Bicycle Taillight
If nocturnal safety is a major concern, or your daily bike commute takes you down poorly lit roadways, you might consider mounting a Portland Design Works Danger Zone bicycle taillight to your bike's seat tube. The Danger Zone is aptly named; the tail light was designed to provide a brilliant and startling display of flashing red illumination in the dark of night, in inclement weather, or anytime you want people to know that you are there.

Redlite Mini USB Bicycle Taillight
The Redlite Mini USB bicycle taillight from Topeak is a compact and lightweight tail lamp with three super-bright ruby red LEDs to ensure that you get noticed on the road when riding after dark. There are three modes to the Redlite Mini that you can use; a constant unwavering red light, a 3-light concurrent strobe, and a swirling blinker that fires all three LEDs in rapid order. You won't fail to be seen with any of these three modes in operation. Powered by a Lithium battery, the Redlite Mini is quickly recharged by way of a standard micro-USB cable.

Spaceship 3 & Red Planet Light Combo
If you need to replace both lights, you can't do better than the Spaceship 3 & Red Planet Light combination pack from Portland Design Works. This set represents two of PDW's most popular bike lights, and they will make a truly superlative upgrade to any bicycle.

Fly6 Rear Camera/Taillight Combination for Bicycles
The Fly6 Rear Camera/Taillight Combo for bicycles is made by Cycliq, and is one of the most innovative bike accessories that we have seen in some time. The Fly6 bike camera offers 1280 x 720 HD audio/video recording paired with a 30 lumen taillight. Easy to mount on your bike's seat post, the Fly6 camera/tail light also offers looping video recording for "set and forget" use. The incident capture protection makes Cycliq's camera a must-have item, recording everything that approaches from the rear or passes the rider; cars, loose animals, pedestrians, and everything else.


To be a tail light or not to be, that is the question.
We can attest with some authority that William Shakespeare never rode a bike or scooter, such handy & useful machines had to wait for another three centuries to be invented. So what (pray tell) does a paraphrasing of Hamlet's soliloquy have to do with scooter parts in this digital age? The English language has never sat around for very long without changes creeping in from time to time. If the Shakespearean lingo that you read in high school sounds a little quaint these days, that's the result of hundreds or thousands of minor changes in the last few hundred years. Spelling and pronunciations can both evolve over time until the results are scarcely recognizable to people living in another time.

A perfect example that is currently in process is the rapid evolution of words that were not even coined until recently. The Digital Age brought us electronic mail, which became e-mail, and is now simply written out... or more often typed out as email; a single word without a hyphen. The same can be said for website, webpage, ecommerce, and on and on. Useful phrases are created, go through a hyphenated phase, and are soon replaced by a single compound word. Ask your favorite search engine for "tail light" and it will give you just as many results for "taillight" (one word). Suggested synonyms will include taillamp, tail lamp, rear light, back light; you get the picture. Like the eternal struggle between the partisans of lug wrench versus those who swear by tire iron, different people can properly use different words to mean the same essential bike part.

Here at Monster Scooter Parts we offer a wide variety of rear-mounted illumination devices that are suitable for most bikes and scooters. We all recognize the need for these safety devices, and in many places it is a matter of local law. Whether you need a headlight & taillight combination, a light-catching reflector, or a flashing rear tail lamp that secures to your seat tube, we have the best scooter or bicycle parts and accessories.

For more information on headlights, taillights, or any other scooter and bike parts, visit the experts at Monster Scooter Parts.

At Monster Scooter Parts we like to say that we have the parts and the smarts to keep you rolling.

www.monsterscooterparts.com/

Many Minnies - Modern Mini Bikes

While recently waiting for my taco salad in a Tex-Mex eatery, the dinner conversation turned to the esoteric subject matter of tacos, and how the list of standard ingredients has been enlarged from simple ground beef and salsa to an almost bewildering set of choices including fish, pineapple, avocado, and even strips of fried chicken. Soon the conversation morphed into the etymology of the term taco itself, and how it once referred to a little two-wheeled gasoline powered miniature motorcycle. Fifty years ago (has it really been that long?) "Taco" was a popular brand of mini bikes, perhaps capitalizing on the sucess of the Spanish dirt bike brand Bultaco. So ubiquitous was the Taco brand that the name itself became a somewhat genericized term for the entire mini bike category. It wasn't until the 1970s that a California fast food franchise introduced the taco to most non-Californians as being something other than a mini bike.

Early mini bikes were often garage-built affairs; home projects completely built from scratch or from do-it-yourself kits. Many a Tecumseh lawn mower engine found its second life putting the power into these homemade mini bikes and go-karts. As time moved on the popularity of mini bikes waxed & waned until early Honda models began showing up. Recent Asian imports have expanded the range of available mini bike brands to include Baja Motorsports, Coleman, Motovox, Monster Moto (no relation), Moto Tec, and many others. Most often these imported bikes were sold via the big-box department stores where after-the-sale service and support may be a bit lacking. Monster Scooter Parts was quick to jump on the proverbial wagon and we are able to supply the replacement mini bike parts for most of the popular brands and models.

Mini Bike Engines
Where the 38cc gas utility engine once ruled the mini bike world, today's rider has their choice of a range of engine displacements to select from. The minimum standard now begins with the 47cc - 52cc gas burners all the way up to the big (maxi-mini?) 301cc behemoths. The happy medium of the 97cc Honda-clones or the 196cc - 200cc models are the current winners in the engine popularity contest, and Monster Scooter Parts sells a lot of them. Whether you need a replacement mini bike engine that is compatible with the old dead one on your bike, or you are shopping around for that missing powerplant for your custom garage-build, we offer the best models around.

Mini Bike Carburetors
No mini bike is going to get very far without a properly functioning carburetor, and we have the Honda style, the Tecumseh styles, and the gaskets to keep your mini moving along. Back in the early days of mini bikes, those Tecumseh lawn mower and utility engines were the must-have starting items for the serious home mini bike mechanic. Unfortunately Tecumseh folded a few years ago, but we can still supply the carbs, pull starts, and a lot more for their wide range of engine types.

Mini Bike Tires
Question: What's a mini bike that doesn't sport a serious pair of knobby or V-tread mud slingers? Answer: A mini bike that takes up garage space and doesn't get the loving attention that it deserves. Monster Scooter Parts is proud to offer some of the very best in mini bike tires from Carlisle, Kenda, and other brands. We have knobbies and V-treads suitable for the dirt, the turf, and even the concrete suburban cul-de-sac.

Mini Bike Accessories
So you're not one to follow the herd and you want your mini bike to be as different from your buddies' bikes as you can get it. There is a selection of add-on mini bike accessories that you can use to dress it up in style or make it more functional to suit your unique needs. Baskets and cargo panniers, air pumps and smartphone holders, even decorative valve stem caps; these are the essential elements in any well dressed mini bike. And don't forget your helmet.

For more information on mini bike parts visit the experts at Monster Scooter Parts.

At Monster Scooter Parts we like to say that we have the parts and the smarts to keep you rolling.

www.monsterscooterparts.com/