Passes & Canyons Blog

I talked about needing a battery cord to be able to use my electric vest on my sorta new Suzuki V-Strom; it was a beautiful weekend, let’s go shopping.

Sure, I could have called and asked, “Hey, do you have a Widder cord for an electric vest?” but that would have been cheating. I’ll just ride over and see.

So I went to BMW of Denver, knowing that they have sold Widder equipment in the past. Heck, I’ve bought Widder gear there in the past.

I also know, however, that Widder went out of business some years ago, but someone else has picked up their line. Surely they’ll have it in stock.

Wrong.

I also checked out Grand Prix Motorsports because they have a large inventory and I knew they carried electrics. Nope. Nobody carries that stuff any more.

My fall-back position was to go to Radio Shack and get the individual pieces and make my own cord. Surely this plug that Widder used (see photo above) is a standard item. And gosh, I’ll probably save money doing it this way anyway.

Wrong. The guy at Radio Shack had never seen a plug like that, and it certainly wasn’t standard.

Hey, at least I was out riding on a gorgeous day in November.

But I still need that cord. What to do?

Oh yeah, there’s this thing called the Internet. Seek and ye shall find. It turns out I was right about someone having picked up the Widder line, but who do you suppose that would be? Would you have guessed the Iron Butt Association? Yes, indeed. They sell everything you’ll need to keep your Widder gear operational through their IBA eStore.

And you know what else? I apparently knew this at one time–like probably the last time I needed something–because when I registered I got a message saying this email address was already registered; did I need them to send me my password? Yeah, I guess so.

So fine. The cord, this pig-tail thing that connects to the battery posts and then plugs into the cord going to the vest, is on its way. Maybe next time I’ll remember. But hey, I got out and did some riding on a wonderful fall day. Who can argue with that?

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Colorado rider training program ailing badly

Biker Quote for Today

The adventure is in the rider, not the bike.

No, this is not a piece about getting your bikes ready to put them away for the winter. I never do that. There’s not a single month that goes by that I don’t ride every bike I own.

Nope, winterizing in this case is getting my bikes prepared for getting through the winter and being ready to run any time we have a nice day. That was my main objective on Sunday.

The first thing I figured I needed to do was make sure each bike had a full tank of gas, with fuel stabilizer in it. That meant running the Kawi and the Honda over to get gas and adding the stabilizer. Of course I then had to go for a short ride on each of them, After all, it’s November, a new month, so each needed a chance to run and keep that battery charged.

The Suzuki didn’t need gas as I had just filled it the last time I was out on it, but I put in some stabilizer and went for a ride. What an incredibly gorgeous day! Temps were at least in the high 60s and I saw one clock that said it was 73 degree. This is why we love Colorado.

The next thing I do is make sure to put each bike on the trickle charger periodically. Getting the seat off the Honda to get to the battery is a bear so I had a pig-tail connected to it. For the other two it’s easy to pop the seat off and access the battery. I only have one trickle charger but I figure if I rotate it around the bikes regularly that will be fine. There’s nothing worse than having a fabulous, warm day in February and not being able to get your bike started! Your battery will live longer, too, if it doesn’t just sit for long periods.

And make no mistake, they do sit for long periods. In the middle of winter it’s cold and I don’t ride as much. (You, too? Who’d a thunk?) And even though I ride each bike every month, I just rode all three on Nov. 3 and in theory at least it could be Dec. 31 before I ride again and that will still meet the criteria. That’s not generally how it happens but there have been a few times over the years when it did. Sometimes the weather is not a friend.

The next part is winterizing myself. I have an electric vest, with pig-tails for it on the Honda and Kawi but I don’t yet have a pig-tail for the Suzuki. That is on the top of my priority list and I just have to remember to do it.

I also have battery-powered electric gloves and for them it has been the opposite. That is, I’ve periodically charged them over the summer because I don’t want those batteries to die any sooner than I can avoid. I really don’t want those batteries to die because they would cost almost as much to replace as the gloves themselves. So I try to keep them charged, and of course during the weather when I wear them they go back on the charger immediately after each use.

I also have some fleece-lined chaps and they’re cozy in cold weather. They don’t keep you warm the way electric gear does but they’re way better than just going out in jeans.

So OK, I’m about ready. Just need to get that pig-tail for the Suzuki. Then eventually it’s going to be spring again and I’ll need to do a bunch of other things. The Honda is going to need new tires next year and the Kawi will need a new back tire. And the Suzuki still needs highway pegs and . . .

It never ends, does it?

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Colorado rider training program ailing badly

Biker Quote for Today

You’re a biker wannabe if you’ve never had to replace a worn out tire.

The first thing just about anyone who buys a motorcycle does is customize the bike to fit their own specific needs and/or wants. I generally haven’t ever gone very far down that road but I always travel it to some extent. I’m extremely pleased to say that I now have a top box on my new V-Strom.

It’s a good thing to have photos–specifically that one above–because these things don’t seem to go by any clear-cut name. I call it a top box, other people call it a variety of other things. Whatever you call it, from what I’ve seen they get the most use as a place to quickly and easily stash your helmet or your jacket–both if it’s big enough–when you get off the bike. Also a good place to carry odds and ends you might want during the day so you don’t have to go digging for them in the bigger side bags. (Presuming, of course, that you have side bags.)

It’s also a good place to put the stuff you’re carrying to work if you’re riding to work, which I do. I can wear my riding boots to work, take them off and stick them in the top box while putting on shoes that you can actually walk in, and switch back at the end of the day.

Sure the V-Strom came with side bags and they’re huge, but that’s part of why I wanted the top box. The side bags are so huge that they make parking the bike in the space I have for it a difficult thing to do. I ended up taking the bags off each time I came home before I parked, then putting them on when I was going somewhere. Now the side bags can just sit in the garage except when I’m traveling. Traveling is the only time I need anywhere near that much space.

Of course, getting the top box mounted was no easy feat. Theoretically it might have been but reality dictated otherwise. Fortunately I had the assistance (read: he did almost all the work) of Ron Coleman, the guy who runs Western Dual Sport Motorcycle Adventure. Ron has been a great help in getting this bike fixed up and because he runs a fleet of V-Stroms he knows far better than I what needs to be done. And he has the tools.

So what theoretically might have taken an hour, hour and a half, ended up taking four hours. The actual mounting was not that bad, it just took drilling out some of the sheet metal in the mount so the bolts could go where they had to go. But the trunk (that’s what some people call these things) has LED lights on it to give you greater visibility, and hooking those up was the real bear.

After putting it all together it didn’t work. So we tried one thing after another, and in the process disassembled almost the entire rear end of the bike. You can see that in the other photo. We did get it done, though, and hot diggety! I’m really pleased. Thank you Ron. Now just a few more mods and I’ll have this bike just the way I want it. Stay tuned.

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Biker Quote for Today

There’s roads and there’s roads and they call, can’t you hear it? Roads of the earth and roads of the spirit. The best roads of all are the ones that aren’t certain. One of those is where you’ll find me till they drop the big curtain. — Bruce Cockburn

Cruise control is nice, but pricey. I’ve always had a throttle lock on my bikes and now I have one on the V-Strom and it could not be a simpler device. That’s it at the left end of the grip in the picture above. And that’s all there is to it. You open the jaws enough to slip it onto the grip and then it rotates easily in what from this position would be forward, but does not slip in the other direction.

What that means is that when you twist the grip to speed up, the device rotates with the grip in a counter-clockwise direction. You then get up to cruising speed and, with your thumb, push the device in a clockwise direction until it is pressed against the brake lever. You can then let go of the grip and the device–pressed against the brake lever and therefore immobile–stops the throttle from rolling clockwise, backing off on the speed. When you do want to slow down you just roll off on the throttle manually and the device easily slips back to where it no longer comes into play. Rinse and repeat.

So how well does it work? Pretty darn well. First off, you need to twist the throttle a little beyond where you actually want it to sit because it does back off a little once you release it. So if you want to cruise at 70 you might get up to 73 or so, move the throttle lock into position against the brake lever, and let go. As for manually rolling off, you don’t even feel that the thing is there.

As with any throttle lock, if you don’t touch it you will slow down on uphills and speed up on downhills. What’s nice about this one is that if you have it set at a pretty good place you can just twist the throttle to speed up going uphill and it doesn’t affect the positioning, so as soon as you let go it goes right back where it was. If you don’t mind going a bit fast downhill you just don’t have to touch the thing once you’ve got it set.

This kind of thing is so much preferable to the other option I was looking for on this bike. Oh, and before I go any further, let me mention that this device is called the Go Cruise Throttle Control and it cost about $20. So anyway, on my Honda I have a throttle control that loops around the bar and has a flange that catches on a bit of hardware to hold it stationary. Then to engage it I flip the thumb tab down and it grips the throttle and holds it steady. I have the same thing on my Concours but there was no place for the flange to butt against anything to hold it in place so I had to experiment with various glues until I found one that would hold. That has worked on that bike for about 14 years now.

Neither of those options was going to work on the V-Strom. The only other workable unit I found would have required loosening things like the mirror to move it over to make room, then attaching a clamp around the bar over there, with a spanner that connects with a clamp on the grip. Again, you push the thumb clamp closed and it holds the throttle in place. But what a pain to do all that.

By contrast, this Go Cruise thing took about 15 seconds to install, and about 10 seconds was spent just getting a good enough grip to spread the jaws far enough to slip it on. I wasn’t quite sure at first that I would be able to get it on, it was that snug. But it has to be snug to work in the way I’ve described, and it did go on.

So now I’m set, and I like it. I know some guys ride without any kind of throttle control device and while you may be able to do that around town, if you’re out on the highway going hundreds of miles, that gets painful for your wrist. Me, I want a throttle lock. And now I have one on the Suzuki.

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Biker Quote for Today

I am taking the advice of all those people who told me, “Hey kid, why don’t you go play in traffic!”

I was out of my Honda CB750 Custom Saturday on my first ride of April when I encountered a small problem.

I was wearing some new boots and this was the first time I went riding in them. They’re not motorcycle boots; I have a terrific pair of those that I’ve worn many times over many miles. These were western boots–cowboy boots, if you choose–that I bought in January to replace some 20-year-old ones that had holes in them.

The thing with the western boots is that I wanted something I could ride in and walk in. Motorcycle boots are notoriously bad for walking, and I’ve certainly found that to be true of the pair I have. I was in Glenwood Canyon one day and took a bit of a stroll along the river. By the time I got back to my bike I was limping because of blisters on my heels. So if it’s just a matter of riding, the motorcycle boots are great. But if I’m going to be doing any walking I need to bring along some sneakers or something else to change into.

OK, so I’ve got these new western boots and I went riding in them. Well, dang. If you take a look at that photo above you’ll see the issue that I encountered. I have a case guard on the Honda, which is there to protect the engine in case I go down. And you can see that the cover is dented a bit right there from one time many years ago when I did drop the bike, before I put on the case guard.

But when my foot is in the normal position on the peg, which is to say, when the peg is at the intersection of my boot sole and heel, the toe extends far enough forward that it clips the case guard when I shift gears. Now, with a little extra effort it will slip past, but it is definitely an annoyance. And it’s more of an interference when I’m ticking the gear lever down than when I’m upshifting. So I don’t know. I just may not wear these boots when I’m riding the Honda. They’re fine when I’m on the Kawi.

So that got me to thinking about other gear annoyances, and I can name a couple more.

Some years ago I bought a textile riding jacket that I use in the summer. It’s a nice jacket except for one thing. When I turn my head to look behind me, the shoulder armor gets in the way of the chin portion of my helmet. It makes it hard for me to turn my head all the way to be sure who or what is behind me in the lane I’m trying to move into. Pain in the butt.

And then there’s an issue with an Icon helmet I got recently. It has the kind of strap where you feed it through a D-loop and then back the other way, and then you can snap the loose end up so it doesn’t flap wildly in the breeze. Well, once again, when I turn my head, if I’m wearing my leather jacket and have the jacket zipped up all the way, the D-loop catches on the collar of the jacket and interferes with my head turning. I can use some force and it will break free, but it’s an annoyance and a pain in the butt. Or a pain in the neck, perhaps.

Oh, the trials and tribulations we motorcyclists endure for the sake of our passion!

So I’m curious. What sort of gear annoyances do you put up with? Maybe you could leave a comment on this post. I’m actually asking this for two reasons. One, I’d just like to hear what you have to tell. But two, no one ever leaves comments on this blog, and I don’t understand why. I know people read it, but no one ever comments. I’m wondering if the link at the bottom that you click to comment is not functioning. I have tried it and it works for me, but I have privileges on the blog that no one else has. I would appreciate it if you would leave a comment, but if for some reason you can’t, I would also appreciate you telling me that via email. You can email me at kendbin at yahoo dot com. Thanks.

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Biker Quote for Today

The truth will come with ten thousand miles in the saddle. — Corb Lund

I mentioned previously that I had been given this Hawk modular, bluetooth-equipped helmet to test and review, but with winter upon us the opportunities for testing have been limited. This is an intermediary report.

Yesterday (Sunday) was a great day for riding so Judy and I were finally going to sync up the bluetooth in the helmet with the UClear bluetooth communicator she has in her helmet. The bad news is, as far as I can tell, it can’t be done. Both communicators have instructions for syncing to identical devices, as well as to your smartphone and your iPod. But as many different approaches as we took to sync them to each other we were unsuccessful. Bummer. So now all I guess I can do is call a friend with a bluetooth-enabled cell phone and give the helmet that sort of test. That’s the later report that will follow this intermediary report.

I have more to report about the Hawk helmet, however. To put things in simple, direct terms, it seems to be a fairly cheap helmet. Don’t get me wrong; it’s a DOT helmet so it should offer protection. And let’s face it, it currently retails for $160–with the bluetooth!–so it’s probably inevitable that the helmet itself is not great. So the question is, with that acknowledgement, is it a good investment if you want the communicator option (though you’d need to get one for each of you)?

This is where the inability to try out the communicator is an issue. Until I can test the sound quality I can’t answer this question. But if it is good sound quality I would say yes, it is worth it. I mean, it’s a nice enough inexpensive helmet. The modular (flip-up) aspect of it is nice. Not having to fuss with wires and speakers is nice. Having the drop-down sun visor built in is nice. All for an outrageously good price.

But there’s a caveat here. If you buy this helmet you’re going to want to inspect it carefully when it arrives and be prepared to send it back if it does not meet quality standards. Let me tell you about the one I received.

Where the flip-up portion meshes with the rest of the helmet it is intended to meet smoothly. On one side of the helmet it did; on the other side it did not. There was about an eighth of an inch gap. Trying to figure out what the story was, I concluded the flip-up part must snap off if you’re going to replace the visor, so I snapped it off. Then I saw the problem, as you can see in the photos. Those two prongs are supposed to slide into a couple slots. On the side where you see that one is bent wrong, the slots that were cut into the helmet were much smaller than on the other side. And obviously one prong did not make it into that too-small slot, and it bent. This is a quality control issue. This helmet should never have left the factory in this condition.

Now, I bent the prong back and with a little shaping was able to get it to where it would slip in, and now it’s just fine. But I shouldn’t have had to do that.

Another issue was with the drop-down sun visor, though I believe that was tied to this other problem. As it was, the visor would not stay up. It was just too loose and vibration from riding would cause it to creep down. Now that the two pieces mesh the way they are supposed to, however, this problem seems to have been eliminated.

The third issue is with the piece–I don’t know what it’s called–that rises up in the front, on the inside, to either keep your nose from getting sun-burned or perhaps to deflect your breath from fogging the visor on cold days. I’m not sure what its purpose is, but a lot of helmets have them. The problem with this piece is that it won’t stay in place; it just falls out. I considered using some epoxy to glue it in place permanently but decided instead just to set it aside and not use it. It’s not in any way essential.

So you see what I mean about cheap. Nevertheless, I really want to like this helmet. As long as it does in fact protect my head–which is the true reason for wearing a helmet–the idea that you get all these extra features for such a crazy low price is just amazing.

That brings it down to the question of how well the communicator works. If I finally get that tested and it works well, then I will be offering this helmet a positive recommendation with reservations regarding the quality control. Till then, I do continue to wear it. After all, it’s not a bad helmet.

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Biker Quote for Today

Have maximum fun while preserving bike and body.

I got out on both bikes yesterday so I have checked off February 2013 in my unbroken string of months that I have ridden each bike ever since I bought them. I lose track of when I bought the Honda CB750 Custom–25 years ago or so–so that’s about 300 consecutive months for that bike. The Kawasaki Concours is at about half that.

Of course every ride lately is a test of heated gear in one way or another. Today the temps were in the 40s so I decided to wear the heated vest but not the heated gloves. After all, one key to seeing how well the heated gloves do is to periodically ride without them.

I took off on the Kawi first. With its full fairing it’s a warmer bike to ride in any conditions. I didn’t feel the need to turn the vest on until the point where I was headed home and was getting chilly. My hands were fine.

The Honda offers a lot less protection so I very soon turned the vest on. Going on a longer ride than I had on the Kawi, my hands eventually were pretty dang chilly. I was wishing I had the electric gloves.

Back home again I wanted to take the Kawi out again just because I noticed that I was only about 3 miles away from the odometer reading 55555.5 (see the photo above). At this point I put on the Gerbings. That warmth on my hands felt really good instantly.

Up till now, when I’ve used these gloves I’ve been interested in determining how long the battery power will last. I’ve been using them at the lowest setting that was comfortable, which has meant that my hands were not toasty warm but they were not cold either. This time I figured I’d just crank them all the way up and see how they feel like that.

In a word: toasty. At full power my hands were not only not cold, they were downright warm. In fact, after awhile I’d have to say they were too warm. I didn’t bother dialing them back because I wasn’t going a long way, but yes indeed, they put out the heat.

Through all of this, of course, I was loving the heat from the vest. I’ve had that vest for many years and have loved it ever since I bought it. I know people who just put their bikes away for the winter because they just don’t like riding in the cold. If I could only get them to understand that it doesn’t have to be that way. Get some heated gear and dress for the weather and you really can ride all year round. Don’t tell me you’re just a fair-weather biker. Come on, don’t tell me that. Get out and ride that thing.

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Biker Quote for Today

“…I am a motorcycle-Samurai, and I have beat my Demons.” -YK

Experience is what ensures that we are completely prepared to fight the last war. Too bad the next war is likely to be completely unlike the last one.

From now on, when I go to buy a new battery for one of my motorcycles I will double-check while at the store to ensure that it is the correct one. Of course, for the rest of my life I will probably always be given the correct battery.

That was not what happened today, however.

I knew it was to be a gorgeous day so I was up reasonably early and headed over to Performance Cycles very shortly after they opened at 10 a.m. I had my old battery from the Honda with me and set it on the counter saying, “I want another just like this one.” The guy brought one out, I paid for it, and I headed home.

When I went to put it in, however, it was clearly not the right battery. It was identical with the exception that the poles were swapped. Sliding into the bike transversely, the positive post needs to be on the left, as you can see in the photo. This battery had the positive on the right.

It’s not like I could just rotate the battery 180 degrees. You can see that there is stuff very much in the way. So I had to make a second trip to the store. And then, of course, they were stuck with a battery that had had electrolyte added and had been charged (by me) that they now needed to sell soon lest they later sell someone a “new” battery that was functionally old.

So all of this delayed my ride, but I did finally get out. And hey, what a nice day.

I also put a new headlight bulb in my Kawi. It took some figuring out but I finally did. I had looked in the shop guide to see how to go about accessing that bulb but all it said was “remove the cover and remove the bulb.”

No kidding? Wow, I never could have figured that out.

What I did finally figure out was that you can–if you have small enough hands–reach past the fork tube from above and get to it. There was a plug to pull off, and that was simple. Then there was a rubber gasket/cover that pulled off, and then I could reach the prongs on the bulb. But there was a little wire wicket in there that made certain the bulb stayed in place and getting that sucker off was a trick.

Keep in mind that when you can barely get your hand in, you don’t have a lot room for movement, and therefore don’t have a lot of leverage. Finally a pair of needle-nose pliers did the job.

Then the bulb just wanted to fall out. OK, keep that in mind putting the new one in. Once I got the bulb positioned correctly the wicket actually went back on easily, the gasket went back on easily, and the plug connected easily. I turned the bike on and by golly it all worked! Yee ha!

So now I’m fully functional again with both bikes, and just in time, too. The weather is supposed to be insanely nice this coming week so I may just have to ride to work. Please don’t throw me in that briar-patch!!

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Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re becoming addicted to riding when you open the door and push your car backwards with your foot because you forgot about this thing called “reverse.”