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GPS Update

I decided that it was time for a new GPS.   The weather radar feature on the Garmin 478 is very difficult to beat – it shows areas of precipitation and storms superimposed over your position on the map.   With the animation, you know which direction rain or storms are moving, and you can gauge how quickly they’re moving.   You basically have 3 choices – sprint ahead and get past them, slow down and let them pass in front of you (not really the best choice), or alter course to avoid them.   I guess there is actually a 4th choice – seek shelter for the night and not worry about running faster or slower or changing course.

After receiving a bill for XM’s Sailor package that runs $30 per month, on top of the $9 per month for XM, I decided the monthly charges were simply getting out of hand.   Time for a change.   I have an iPhone that gives me real-time weather radar, so I can see storms and areas of precipitation and alter travel plans with that information.   No, it’s not as convenient as seeing the information directly on my route of travel, but at $40 per month that’s just too much since I’m already paying for the iPhone as well.   So, I sold the 478 and the XM receiver/antenna.

I bought a Garmin Nuvi 760.   No, it’s not waterproof.   No, it doesn’t show weather radar on my route.   What it does is eliminate $40 monthly from the biking budget and add two things.   First, it has an mp3 player.   I’ve loaded music onto several sdhc cards – 60s, 70s, 80s, country, rock, and classical.   I just pick one and put it into the gps and select “shuffle”.   Second, it has bluetooth and is now paired with my iPhone.   I don’t make or receive calls while riding, but at least I can see who is calling and pull over to return a call or wait until the next fuel/bathroom/photo stop.   I’ve updated to the 2009 maps, and I can use Mapsource to upload waypoints, via points, and routes to the gps.   I can also download tracklogs from the gps, so I haven’t lost any functionality there.

Dealing with the not-waterproof issue on a motorcycle is important.   Sometimes the simplest solution is the best, and until I know differently I will just cover the gps with a ziploc baggie, secured with a plastic bread clip.   Inexpensive and effective.   Hopefully the gps will spend most of it’s time on the bike without the raincoat.

Stay tuned for more on-the-bike usage reports as the miles pile up this season.

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Camera repair needed

I love to take pictures, and because of that enjoyment I bought a really nice 35mm camera a few years ago.   It is a grey market Canon EOS 5 slr – grey market because of the +/- f-stop dial in the viewfinder.   The camera focuses where you look, by bouncing a tiny led beam off your eye and focusing where you are looking.   It works better if you don’t wear glasses, but it still works pretty well for me anyway.   For a long time, I just used the USM 28-105 lens that I bought with the camera body, but recently I added a USM 75-300 lens as well.   On to the repair story…

I was taking pictures inside an auditorium, using ISO-800 film (not really my favorite) and the control dial stopped working.   This is a known problem on this type of Canon 35mm SLRs; the control dial internals will come loose and prevent the dial from turning.   Sometimes the dial turns but has no detent stops to hold it in the chosen position – this is what happened to my camera.   Damn.   I had read about this before, but I had apparently been lucky up to this point.   The camera has never been dropped or even handled roughly – there is not a single scratch on the camera body.   Despite that careful use, the camera still failed and a repair was needed.

With a lot of googling and reading forum posts from other folks unlucky enough to share my dilemma, I found a place that would make the repair.   Several posters pointed to Steve at Camera Clinic.   The repair price was very reasonable, he gives a guarantee with the work, and he turned the repair around in a couple of days.   Very responsive via email and the telephone, I recommend that you contact him for camera repairs.   It’s great to recommend someone without having to add all kinds of disclaimers and conditions, isn’t it?

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Helmet issues

Well, I’ve decided to switch to a full-face helmet.   The modular (flip-up) helmets are convenient, but I’m not convinced that the convenience outweighs the safety factor of a full-face helmet.   The other issue is a weighty one – the weights of modular helmets are climbing and that doesn’t make sense to me.   Materials for constructing helmets are lighter and stronger this year than last, and yet the weights continue to climb – high enough that I won’t buy another one until the weight comes down.   I had planned to look at HJC helmets at the bike show in Chicago, but didn’t find any to try on.   So, I used the backup plan of a tape measure and a web browser.   I ordered an FS-15 helmet in the size their fitment chart indicated, and it arrived fairly quickly.   It fit OK, not great, but since I can’t go for a ride now (it’s still February in the midwest) an actual ride report will have to wait.

The quality of the helmet was very good.   The paint and graphics are very well done, and the helmet liner is comfortable.   it is fairy easy to slip my glasses on after donning the helmet.   The only issue with the helmet is not actually an issue with this helmet, it is an issue with any full-face helmet.   Convenience.   With the modular helmet, I could flip it up when stopped at a light in town, or to take a drink from the butler cup while riding the Goldwing.   I guess the tradeoff for convenience is lighter weight and better protection.   So for now, I will forgo convenience – but I hope the manufacturers figure out a way to make the modular helmets lighter and more importantly, to submit modular-style helmets to the testing labs to demonstrate their ability to protect the wearer.

Protecting the wearer is really what their all about, right?

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Painting the Ducati

It’s time. The Duc needs to be painted and I’ve decided on the color. It’s going to be Ducati green, solid, no metalflake. I had some custom retro decals made by Erik at Twisted Vinyl Graphics. There will be a large horizontal decal on either side of the tank, and a smaller vertical one on the seat cowl. The decals look great and I’d have Erik make decals again if I need them for another project.

I’m going to have Black Magic Customs paint the flyscreen, tank, and seat cowl. Mr. Wizard will do his usual magic work and the result will look great. This will really make a difference in the way the Duc looks.

I’m thinking that I will put gold pinstripes on the wheels. I put red pinstripes on the VTX and it looked good so I will try pinstripes on the Duc. The gold pinstripes will match the gold-anodized forks and should tie together nicely. Pictures to follow.

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Luggage on the Ducati

I finally bought a tankbag for the Duc. The model is “Engage-XL” and I got it from twistedthrottle.com along with the tank ring. This is a quick-detach tankbag that comes with a rain cover and a shoulder strap.

The tank ring mounts to the ring surrounding the flip-up gas cap. It looks like a horseshoe with the opening towards the back of the bike. The bag itself has a mating horseshoe that fits over the tank ring and clips on with a spring-loaded latch. The underside of the bag slopes down towards the back and is a reasonably good match for the Duc’s tank shape. It takes all of 5 seconds to attach or detach the bag.

After seeing how well this fits, I am kicking myself for not buying it sooner. Now, I can take a spare pair of gloves, a disk lock, my phone, a rain jacket, and a camera with me without having to stuff all of that in my jacket pockets. There’s still a fair amount of room, even with these items in the bag – the specs say 14 liters of space.

This will definitely make dayrides on the Duc much more enjoyable.

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Time for another trailer…

After our trip to Colorado, and the fun of shipping clothes to the hotel, I began to consider a trailer to pull behind the Goldwing.   We   could take clothes with us, raingear, jacket liners, and pick up groceries.   When it’s really hot and you’d like to take your jacket off, you need a place to put it. Holding it on your lap doesn’t work for a long ride and if the saddlebags and trunk are full you’re out of luck. Enter the trailer. You have room for the jacket and your helmets when you stop for a meal. I’ve never had a helmet stolen, but that doesn’t mean I will not have one stolen in the future. That would be a real problem on a long trip. Locking your jackets, gloves, and helmets in the trailer is a real plus. Once you get to your destination, lock the trailer around a light pole or take it in the garage and you’re ready for day-rides.

Another big plus it that you can assemble a good tool kit to take with you. The motorcycle tool kit is woefully inadequate for anything except a starting point to build a decent tool kit. The truth is that a decent tool kit doesn’t necessarily take up a lot of space, and putting it together with good quality tools means that it will give you a chance to make a repair on the road. Not that I expect to need many roadside repairs – that’s the reason the trailer will be pulled behind a Goldwing.

Now to find one. There are a number of models available, in a huge range of prices. You can take a Harbor Freight frame and put a cartop carrier on it and voila – a trailer. You can spend upwards on $8,000 and buy a Tailwind. I’ve read a lot about this and I think the Aluma trailer made in Iowa would be the best bang for the buck. New, the Aluma trailers are around $1600 and they have a five-year warranty. Most trailers hold their value quite well, so there isn’t always a big savings by buying a used trailer. Usually, the savings from buying used comes from the accessories the previous owner has added, and sometimes you can get a better price at the end of the season.

UPDATE October 17, 2008: I found and made a deal for an Aluma trailer, but the problem is that it’s in Virginia and I’m not.   I could take the truck out there and get it, but I’m going to see if there’s another way.   Maybe I can arrange shipping, or maybe someone else is heading west and could get it part way to Illinois.   Time to do some checking around.

UPDATE October 27, 2008: A gentleman named Jason on the GL1800 forums responded to my question and would be willing to bring the trailer from Virginia to Louisville, Kentucky.   That’s a lot closer than going all the way to Virginia, so I accepted his kind offer.   It’s a really nice feeling to know that there are people willing to help someone they’ve not met – it kind of restores your faith in humanity.   Now to finalize all the arrangements.

UPDATE October 31, 2008: I met Jason and his brother in Louisville and brought the trailer home in my pickup.   It’s still amazing to me that buying a trailer sight unseen from someone I’ve never met, having someone else I’ve never met take a day of their time to help transport it, and have everything go perfectly.   My faith in humanity is restored.   Now, I need to help someone else just because I can.   Maybe this is a trend we can all follow   – and we’d all be the better for it.

Humble thanks, guys.

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My journey to the darkside, episode 2

…is ongoing but has it’s share of pitfalls. The Kumho 205-60VR16 was the proper diameter to correct the speedometer, but was just a little too big in diameter when 2-up with an insufficient preload setting. The tire rubbed on the amplifier box (which is molded into the inner rear fender on the ’06 and up wings) and rubbed a hole it it. Not OK. Even though the speedometer was correct, which is a nice bonus, the potential damage to expensive electronics from water incursion is not worth the risk.

Plan B – I ordered and installed a ContiProContact SSR 195/55VR16 tire. This tire, for all intents and purposes, matches a factory MC tire for diameter and width. Installing it was simple and even without weights I have been unable to detect an out-of-balance condition. Knowing that an even-slightly-out-of-balance rear tire can cause the infamous “wobble”, I ran up to 60mph and took my hands off the handlebars and let the bike coast down. Not a hint of a wobble at any speed. To the collective dismay of the naysayers, there was no fiery crash caused by running a car tire on a motorcycle. This tire will be on the bike for a long time – probably twice as long as a new MC tire, if other’s experience is any indication.

UPDATE – September 30 – I got back from my trip to ride the mountains in north Georgia, east Tennessee, west North and South Carolina and the Conti was flawless. Not a slip during the trip, and I did remove some metal from the footpegs. On the Cherahola Skyway, we were in the clouds at about 2000 feet on up to 5300 feet, with the resulting poor visibility and wet pavement. Not a slip from the Conti – it just held the road like a good tire should. When we stopped for gas, the rider behind me told me that the tire tread was almost flat on the road the entire time. When I tell you that we were wasting no time, believe it. Our group rode almost 500 miles through the mountains in about 12 hours of riding. If you’ve ridden in those mountains you know that is not a slow pace.

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My journey to the darkside…

…is not yet complete – on the Goldwing, of course. For those of you not familiar with the meaning of the phrase, in the Goldwing community it refers to riders that are using a car tire on the rear wheel rather than the more conventional motorcycle tire. The Goldwing rear wheel is a 6″ wide, 16″ diameter tubeless wheel that is just begging for a car tire to be mounted.

Why, you ask? Well, there are many reasons. Here’s just a few

  1. Available in Run Flat
  2. Longer lasting
  3. Doesn’t delaminate
  4. Doesn’t explode
  5. Quieter
  6. Better traction in dry conditions
  7. Better traction in wet conditions
  8. Better traction in snow/slush
  9. Better performance on dirt/gravel
  10. Smoother ride
  11. Higher load capacity
  12. Capable of performing with lower PSI
  13. Runs at lower tire temperature
  14. Costs less
  15. Better balanced (fewer weights required, if any at all

That’s quite a list, isn’t it? Pay special attention to the advantages I highlighted. If the motorcycle tire manufacturers decided to build a tire that addressed these issues they would sell as many as they could make. But, economics enters into the picture. The market for motorcycle tires is a small fraction of the market for automotive tires. Given today’s litigious society, I suspect that a revolution in motorcycle tires for touring bikes is not going to happen anytime soon.

I purchased a spare rear wheel for my Goldwing and mounted a Kumho 205-60HR16 non-run-flat tire on it. I swapped it for the wheel with the Bridgestone cycle tire on it. The first difference I noted is that the bike is slightly taller, as the Kumho tire is a larger diamater tire. I expected this and the choice of a larger tire was intentional. The Goldwing (all motorcycles, as a practical matter) have a built-in speedometer error of 6-10%. When the speedometer says 60mph, a gps will show your true speed at 54mph. Of course, the odometer is off as well, so mpg calculations are based on “shorter” miles. The larger diamater tire corrects the speedometer to within a tenth of a mile per hour. Now, when the speedometer says 60, your speed is 60 mph – just as it should be.

While I’m on the topic, virtually all speedometers are incorrect. It’s just that most drivers aren’t aware of how far off they actually are. With the increased use of portable gps devices that display groundspeed to within a tenth of a mile per hour, more drivers are starting to realize the problem. Why do you think that built-in gps devices don’t display groundspeed? One reason is that drivers would demand that the manufacturers fix the broken speedometers. Consider what this does to warranty work. If the speedometer/odometer is off by 10%, your brand-new 50,000 mile warranty expires in 45,000 actual miles.

Consider what this error does to mpg calculations too. More people are paying attention to mpg these days and if the auto/truck/cycle manufacturers can have you calculate a higher mpg than you’re actually getting, they win. I’m not trying to say that correcting the speedometer/odometer error is a magic pill that will fix all mpg-related problems, but at least you’ll know what mpg you are really getting, not some number that’s based on a “short” mile and really doesn’t mean anything.

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Time for a trailer…

Not to live in, mind you. A trailer to transport motorcycles is the kind I’m talking about here. I’m pretty comfortable wrenching on bikes, but sometimes you don’t have the super-duper-expensive special tool that you will need only once. And to be honest, sometimes you don’t have the knowledge to do a job properly or you can do it but adjustments will take several attempts and an expert mechanic can do the job to spec the first time.

In that case, you need a way to transport a bike without riding it. Yes, you can strap a bike into the back of a pickup, but mine has a cap and the bike won’t fit without taking the cap off. Then you have the problem of loading a bike into the bed that is three feet or more off the ground. Not fun and more than a little nerve-wracking.

I had seen ads for a Kendon trailer. They make models for one or two bikes, the two bike model made the most sense to me. The big advantage of this particular trailer model is that IT FOLDS UP. You fold it up and then you can STAND IT UP vertically in the garage. There are casters under it so you can roll it out of the way. It doesn’t have to sit outside with a tarp over it, killing the grass, and making a nice shelter for all kinds of critters. It stands up in front of my truck in the garage, out of the weather and clean. It has a small ramp to make loading/unloading easier. The tongue is short to make it short enough to stand up in normal garages, but that makes it difficult to back up. The trailer pulls very well and I’ve had only one bike on it at a time, so if it was going to weave I would have seen it. This is a really-good-to-have accessory and when you need a trailer there really isn’t any substitute.

I bought some tie-downs, 2 sets of 4 straps with neoprene covers for the rachets. I got them from PowerTye and the price was better directly from them.

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Ducati suspension upgrade, part 3

Before the GSXR forks get installed, the springs inside them need some attention. The stock GSXR springs are a .95 kg/mm rate, too high for the Ducati geometry and my weight. I’ve ordered some .85 kg/mm springs from Traxxion to replace them and I will overhaul the forks (replace the oil, seals, bushings, etc.) before installing them. No need to install them and then pull them off to overhaul them later – better to do it now and be done with it for a while.

Also, the rear suspension on my Ducati doesn’t have an adjustable link in it so the only way to set suspension ride height is by adjusting the preload on the rear shock spring. But that’s not what preload is actually for – it is to get the rear suspension in the best operating range for the bike and rider’s weight. Once the sag is set, then you adjust the rear suspension link to adjust the ride height. This adjustment will not affect sag – the bike may start higher or lower, but the amount by which it sags with the rider’s weight will not change. There are two ways to get an adjustable rear suspension link on my Ducati – buy a take-off from a different model Ducati, or make your own. I choose the latter, so I will be ordering Heim joints and hex aluminum stock from McMaster-Carr and spend some time in front of a lathe. Maybe I’ll even have it anodized, maybe not. But it will fit, it will be something I made, and it will be on my bike. All of that is good.