Motorbikes

Any chance of a look at your Bobber? I’m loving all those retro bikes that Triumph do. I was drooling over the Scrambler 1200 and Bonneville Black earlier.



Strictly a solo machine, although they do a 2 seater version - the Speedmaster. It's not as pretty as the Bobber but a lot more practical! Toying with the possibility of putting a girder front end on the Bobber so it looks even more like the original Speed Twin but rather like the way it currently handles way better than it looks like it should!
 
I never use crimp on connectors. They are insulated which serve as a reservoir for damp and this promotes corrosion. The resulting slurry can be the source of a lot of electrical problems on motor vehicles, and motorcycles in particular. I always solder connections I have to repair and have yet to have one of my repairs fail. Even on motorcycles like BMW (like my 2 x K75's) the joints are for the main part crimped which resulted in the voltage at the battery of 13.4 when the motor was running being reduced to around 10.8 to 11V. These were checked at the multi plugs where they plug into the lights, Indicators and heated grips. It took me weeks of work over last winter, installing extra heavy duty earth wires and splitting apart multiplugs and cleaning them, then waterproofing both halves of the connectors to restore the voltages to what it was when the bike left the factory in 1986. My 2nd one, also from 1986, is on the ramp now and will be done ready for the spring.

I do take crimp connectors when I am over in Europe in case I have an emergency repair to make, but always do a soldered joint when I get home.


The problem with soldering is that it can cause hardening of the wires and crack. Not as much of a problem on multis but can be a real PITA on twins. My problem with crimp on connectors is that they're ugly!
 

Strictly a solo machine, although they do a 2 seater version - the Speedmaster. It's not as pretty as the Bobber but a lot more practical! Toying with the possibility of putting a girder front end on the Bobber so it looks even more like the original Speed Twin but rather like the way it currently handles way better than it looks like it should!

That’s beautiful.
 
I use heat shrink crimp connectors, so it both seals off the inside and also gives a bit of extra strength.

For thin cable you have to use solder butt splices rather than crimp ones, but the solder never seems to melt and I always reach a point that I have to stop out of fear the shrink will melt off. But when I need those is tends to be to extend cables, which go inside another heat shrink tube. So the only exposed crimp connections are on the bullets, used so I can easily add and remove items.

I did consider waterproof connectors, but they take up too much room and I have never had any problems with the bullets even where used outside the bike, behind the headlamp.
 
The problem with soldering is that it can cause hardening of the wires and crack. Not as much of a problem on multis but can be a real PITA on twins. My problem with crimp on connectors is that they're ugly!

Not with copper it doesn't! The solder I use is low melt anyway usually used by model makers. The wiring loom of my already treated bike is neater and more readily accessible should there ever be a fault. The waterproofing I use is car underbody sealant called Waxoyl , It never dries out and will creep into cavities you never knew existed. It also makes taking things apart easy too. Apart from the severe voltage drop to the likes of the lights and heated grips, there has only been one other problem and that was the 'Hall' ignition sensor failed, but that was internal to the unit, so the unit had to be replaced as one component. Not bad for a 34 year old motorcycle.
 
That’s beautiful.


Thank you (on his behalf!) Basically stock, although I have stuck black engine cases on him and replaced the airbox(es) with K&N pod clones. I'll probably get a pair of real K&Ns at some point - they have black ends rather than the chromed ones.
 
Bike is in the dealer now having the upper engine bars fitted at last.
I’ve ordered the pannier rack and panniers.
I decided on the Givi Canyon soft panniers. I figure that with them, the Givi Top Box, and a bag to go on the rear seat, I’ll have plenty of storage for my ride to Spain next year.
 
Did you go for the "same key" option for the Givis? Not sure if they still do it but it did prevent some fumbling with several keys when fingers are cold and wet!
 
Several years ago my set of lock keys fell out of my pocket somewhere in Somerset, and by the time I realized I was too far away to do anything about it. As I could not find anywhere that did replacement Givi keys (I have since), and did not fancy using my top box without a spare at home, I had to replace the lock set.

When I bought my hard panniers it came with a matching lock for a top box and a pair of keys. And a pair of keys for the pannier. And a pair of keys for the other pannier. I feel like Givi are mocking me now.

That said, I also bought the remote unlocking kit after the Somerset incident. Not a feature that I was that interested in, but it was half price and seem like another way I could avoiding being in a situation of not being able to open the box until I returned home. Also, I had the brake light kit anyway and needed to replace the wiring to the plate.

Unfortunately it has a habit of forgetting the remote code, but when it works it is brilliant. No fumbling with keys, you just unlock the box as you walk towards the bike. One of those things you would never think you would want or be that fussed over, but then get very irritated about it does not work.

Also it allowed me to hook into its connection to add a 12V socket so I can securely charge devices when away from the bike, and also installed an LED strip in the lid so I can unload stuff in the dark.
 
Did you go for the "same key" option for the Givis? Not sure if they still do it but it did prevent some fumbling with several keys when fingers are cold and wet!

The Givi Top Box uses the ignition key, tbh I don’t know if the lock that secures the soft panniers to the carrier has that facility. I’ll find out when they arrive!
 
IMG_0107.JPG

I’ll fit the pannier rails on Tuesday.

The Givi panniers were delivered yesterday. First impression is that they look like an amazing, high quality bit of kit. Each has a 35 litre capacity.
 
What's with the weird battenburg crud?
 
What's with the weird battenburg crud?
Assume you mean the brown floor it’s just a concrete garage floor it’s just the way the shot came out on my phone
 
Assume you mean the brown floor it’s just a concrete garage floor it’s just the way the shot came out on my phone

I think he’s referring to the reflective stickers on the bike.
My bike is used for my commute, which means riding in the dark every day. The stickers are there to make the bike more visible in the dark, for my safety.
 
I think he’s referring to the reflective stickers on the bike.
My bike is used for my commute, which means riding in the dark every day. The stickers are there to make the bike more visible in the dark, for my safety.
It must be the way the light is on the bike there’s no reflective stickers it’s just a painted frame
But reflective stickers are a good idea if you need to ride regularly in the dark, I used to put them on my bike before we had a car
 
It must be the way the light is on the bike there’s no reflective stickers it’s just a painted frame
But reflective stickers are a good idea if you need to ride regularly in the dark, I used to put them on my bike before we had a car

I thought he was referring to my photo. Maybe I was wrong!
 
The stickers remind me of courier bikes from the 80's. Anything that gets you noticed (within reason) is worthwhile.

I test rode the Tiger 900 as I am looking to lose the weight of the Tiger 1215 but still keep some grunt. It was perfect! I cannot afford it right now but maybe next summer.

Enjoy yours, Ricardodaforce.

Love the LC by the way Pete, cracking bike.
 
Coming along nicely mainly just bodywork and tank to sort out now
Brakes were easier than I expected hardest job was putting on the top fork nuts/caps was a bugger of a job compressing the spring and getting the nut screwed on [emoji15]IMG_0401.jpg
 
My favourite helmet is my Bell MX9 Adventure. Really comfortable, with amazing vision. But, it mists up really badly in the rain. So today I had the pinlock visor and insert delivered. Am looking forward to seeing if they are as good as people say.
 
I commuted for 10 years , 40 mile round trip , pinlock inserts on all helmets/visors , no misting whatsoever
 
I have not found pinlocks to be as perfect as many claim, but they definitely make a difference. I can never get a perfect seal so end up with a small condensation patch near my nose. But my biggest problem is they do not make them to fit glasses!

However for the opposite problem, I am a huge fan of photochromatic pinlocks. Just enough shade for bright conditions, yet not too dim in darker ones. You still need an internal sun visor when travelling into bright light, but it avoids the problem they have when you go from bright open conditions into a dark wooded area and it is as though you have gone blind.

Though I suppose if you have an off-road style helmet then I probably do not need extra help shading the sun.

None of which matters at the moment as my bike is not road legal until I get it MOTed on Monday. And then the weather and Covid will probably put me off riding anyway.

Edit: Having just seen the news it sounds like we could be redistricted into tier 3 anyway, so I think that means I am supposed to mostly shield and will only be allowed into Kent anyway.
 
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I commuted for 10 years , 40 mile round trip , pinlock inserts on all helmets/visors , no misting whatsoever

You’re right. It works perfectly!
I’ve been spending money again, so now have a SENA Bluetooth kit to install. I also found a local bike accessory shop who will price-match Sportsbikeshop, so I treated myself to a gorgeous RST jacket.
 
I wouldn't have bluetooth anything in my helmet. 100% attention on the road is even more important on a bike than in a car so diverting attention to a phone call or even music is not a good thing IMO. Even worse would be a passenger chatting!
 
I wouldn't have bluetooth anything in my helmet. 100% attention on the road is even more important on a bike than in a car so diverting attention to a phone call or even music is not a good thing IMO. Even worse would be a passenger chatting!

The main reason for it is so that I can listen to the SatNav instructions when on the ride to Spain. I have an integrated BlueTooth unit in my Ruroc Berserker, but never use it.
 
I could not disagree more. It may be distracting to you, but that does not mean it is distracting to everyone.

When I was learning to ride a geared bike on London roads with only a C.B.T. on a scooter for experience* there was a lot I was trying to keep track of in my head. Probably true for a lot of people their first time. Clutch, watch that traffic light, throttle, down gear, car at junction, throttle, mirror!, clutch. Did I forget anything? Each a separate step one after the other, carefully considered and processed. Could easily have got one of them wrong, which was it?

When you know what you are doing everything is automatic and all of those steps happen virtually at the same moment. But with just my thoughts it is easy to overthink everything, which is distracting. For me. When I tried a Lidl bluetooth set and put on music it made a huge difference. The music occupied the part of my brain that was obsessing over the mechanics, freeing up the other part of my brain to just get on with the riding instead of trying to analyze those thoughts. It increased my attention.

In more attention demanding situations, such as urban ones with constant hazards and poor visibility, I find that whatever is playing just gets lost in background noise and I do not "hear" it. And sometimes as background noise it is annoying and I turn if off. I am not much of a filterer, but I always turn it off when doing that.

Which is not to mention that a G.P.S. in your ear keeps your eye on the road and not a screen. (Although if possible, position it near a mirror and you can check both in one glance.) And trying to remember routes, if you shun a G.P.S., is also distracting.

My favourite thing is riding on a summer day while listening to Test Match special. Quite often I find myself waiting for the score because the road needed my complete concentration that I missed a passage of play. There has never been a time that when the two conflicted, that road has not taken as much attention as it demanded. And in 2018 with the final day of that Headingley test, I made sure to stop in the first lay-by I could find when coming home to stop and listen to the conclusion. I am not sure if I was more worried it would take my attention off the road, or the road would take my attention off the cricket!

Music, or cricket, can help stop the mind wandering and losing concentration. Which can easily happen on long open boring sections of road. I find silence and thinking about what to have for tea to be far more distracting.

Every situation is different, everyone person is different. The mind processes different things in different ways, and can do several things at once. You cannot make single declarative rules of what it right or wrong for everyone all the time.

* In hindsight I should have insisted on a bike when they said a scooter would be better. They were the experts and I had no basis to doubt them.
 
I could not disagree more. It may be distracting to you, but that does not mean it is distracting to everyone.

I could not agree more, perhaps he/she can't pat his head and rub his tummy at the same time ;)

I rarely use the headset for GPS prompts these days but I find music or radio helps when munching miles on the motorway, I love adding a soundtrack to a stretch of fast road :)

It's easy enough to turn off if necessary:/
 
A moment of inattention in a car might end up with a face full of airbag while the same moment on a bike is less likely to end happily. Your lives, your choices. Besides, my bikes make nice noises so need no other soundtrack.
 
What inattention?

Besides, if the sound of your bike is so engrossing, then why does that not distract you if you cannot keep focus whilst listening to something?
 
I use my Packtalk Slim for GPS and speed camera alerts. I find if I know where I need to go I am more attentive to what else is going on around me. If I'm looking for road signs I'm not looking at the road. Sure, I survived the 80's and 90's without it but I survived without ABS and I wouldn't give that up now. I'll use anything that I think makes my ride a safer one without lessening the enjoyment.

When she's not telling me where to turn then all I get to hear is the engine and that triple with a nice exhaust system does sound good :giggle:

I don't listen to music but I did make a point of setting the radio to Radio 4 because occasionally if I sneeze she thinks I want the radio on and at least I don't get a blast of static or rock music. I can then say 'radio off' and calm is returned.

As always, each to their own. The important thing is to ride :runaway:
 
As with everything, it’s all down to personal choice.

It is not choice, though. You cannot choose whether music is distracting or helps concentration any more than someone can chose how their brain works. It is down to personality, and therefore ultimately neurology.

Which is why I strongly disagree with nod claiming that "diverting attention to… even music is not a good thing," because for some of us it does not divert attention but actually focusses it. And so I also take offence at the claim it is "Your lives, your choices," as though I am choosing to put myself and other road users at risk just because my brain work differently to theirs. Whilst it is my choice to listen to music, I do so because I have learned it makes me safer and increases my attention. It anything, it would be reckless to not make that choice.

From my various experiences with issues related to mental illness and functioning, I find making grand sweeping statements like that to be dangerous. That everyone who functions different is somehow doing something wrong. You do not want people for whom it helps thinking they are acting dangerously. only to stop and increase their accident risk. So this sort of thing I will always call out

I am not aware of any studies into the effects of listening to music whilst riding a motorcycle, but there is plenty of research on the effects when studying and on cognitive function in general.. And the general commonality is that it is highly individual.


Anyway, today was my first time on my bike in over a month. Only to take it to a service and MOT, where it still is because I got their closing time wrong. So I will have to go back to collect it tomorrow, just in time for entering tier 3 and being unable to ride it. Over 20k miles last year, only 4k this.
 
Been to way too many biker funerals and just want to reduce their number. SAs I said (and stand by), your life, your choice.
 
ive a packtalk bold and i use it for sat nav, and music mainly its linked to my phone so i can make and take calls never have problems concentrating with tunes on, woudnt be without one very handy if on a group ride too
 
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