Just Hanging Around - SKP

Wednesday - Another hot and muggy day. 

Thursday - NOT another hot and muggy day. It's actually in the mid-60s today. Overcast and a little windy, but nice enough to try and get stuff done outside.

Friday - As you can tell by the abbreviated posts, there isn't much going on around here. I've continued doing the test sessions and dinking around with the RVs. As an update, the issue with the AC power shutting off briefly has been resolved. It hasn't happened for a couple of weeks after changing the absorption voltage setting on the Magnum inverter/charger. I regenerated the water softener again yesterday using the new setup. So much easier.

A non-RV task that was finally done was replacing the zipper slides on the Aerostich RC. When we were in Duluth, I mentioned that the main zipper needed to be replaced for the second time. They told me that the slides wear out, not the zipper. And they had replacement slides in the store. Ten months later, I finally replaced them. 

Saturday - I was planning on riding to Castroville this morning for the monthly radio club meeting, but it was pouring rain this morning. By the time I was halfway to Castroville, the rain stopped. Oh well. I guess it would’ve made a good test for the zippers. 

I picked up a new door lock set for our bathroom door in the class A. It was worn out internally. I needed a chisel to install it, and I borrowed one from Brad. One more project done.

Sunday - It was a stormy evening! Lots of lightning, wind, rain, and small hail as several bands of storms passed through the area. And the temperature dropped quickly. 

Monday - We drove into San Antonio for an appointment and stopped at Home Depot on the way back for a couple of items. After arriving back at the RV, I climbed onto the roof to check out the compressor overheat sensor. The Internet claims that this is a component that fails and causes the A/C unit to stop cooling. This morning, continuity through the sensor was fine, and the A/C unit was cooling. The next time it stops cooling, I'll test it again.

Tuesday - I claimed a corner of the shed and started to set. up my radio. It has been a convenient location for the test sessions. There is a ½" schedule 40 PVC wall penetration right below the table in the corner. I plan to run an antenna cable out, but need to cut the PL259 connectors off of one of my existing cables to fit through the pipe, so I'll need to solder on a new connector (yet another Amazon delivery).

Ride to Uvalde

Sunday - It was a nice morning, and I rode the Ural into Uvalde. This is the rest area along 90 between D’Hanis and Sabinal. When I took off the helmet, the chin bar and visor fell off. I think I may need a new helmet. This was the Ski-Doo modular helmet that I used to use in the winter. The Nolan helmet is disintegrating inside, so it is also on its last leg. The Ski-Doo helmet is 10 years old, and the Nolan is 12 years old. So both are well past the 5-year rule. I finished the ride using the SkiDoo helmet like an open-face helmet with no visor. Not optimal. 

Monday - I had my annual medical visit this morning to get my prescription medications renewed for the year. I had switched from the clinic in Fairbanks to the clinic here in Hondo for convenience. Plus, my primary care physician in Fairbanks retired a few years back so it seemed to be a good opportunity. I arrived back in time to participate in the mid-day test session, which is always something that I enjoy doing. 

I needed to go into Hondo again to pick up my prescriptions and I took the Ural. On my way back, maybe a quarter mile from the SKP park, the driver side muffler decided to jump ship. I turned around and slid the escapee back onto the bike. Since it was only a short distance away, I figured that it’ll stay in place for at least that long. 

Small Projects

Thursday - I rode the Ural into town today to do a bit of shopping. I was looking for a hanging solution for my riding gear in the shed. It's been lying around on top of things since we arrived. And, no good place for the helmets, gloves, and other gear.

Friday - It seems like a minor thing, but I've been procrastinating on some sort of gear solution since we arrived. I just wanted something simple and out of the way. The Roadcrafter is the only long item. I still want to add some sort of shelf for gloves. I need to straighten out the rest of my mess in the shed. Lots of tools and not many places to store them. Too bad my large tool boxes are still in Fairbanks.

It's about 78°F at 11am, so it isn't too terribly warm to be sitting outside for a test session. And there is a hint of a breeze. Where's the 15mph wind that the weather folks were predicting?

The inner liner of my Nolan helmet has disintegrated. Not the hard foam but the inner liner which makes it comfortable. The product has been discontinued. Does that mean the helmet needs to be tossed? The helmet was purchased in March, 2013, so it really does need to be replaced. What’s the “standard”? Something like five years. Up until 2018, it was used almost daily so I guess I’m shopping for a new helmet…

Saturday - This mornings task was replacing the windshield wipers on the class A. They are long at 32” and use a saddle mount instead of the normal J-hook. The ones I picked up on Amazon were a little bit wider than what was there so the saddles needed to be modified slightly. I have since found that the wiper blades are available in a narrower width but it doesn’t seem worth sending them back. I need some Loc-tite as the hardware they shipped doesn’t appear to include a locknut. 

This afternoon, I volunteered to help cook dinner in the hall. Yesterday, pounded chicken flat and today I get to fry and bake them. We are having chicken parmigiana.

I also needed to renew my passport. I did it online but with the government shut down, who knows how long it’ll take…

Greening and New Boots

On Thursday, not a trace of green. On Friday, all of the Birch trees are starting to bud. Whole hillsides went from grey to a hint of green overnight. I guess one 73°F day is enough to get the sap flowing again. It was definitely enough to significantly increase the number of bikes on the road. At least until the wind picked up this afternoon. I needed to pick up a router at the university and didn't see a single bike on the road. The router (and me) are headed to Utqiaġvik next week.

The wind on Friday afternoon did a great job of keeping the mosquitoes at bay. On Thursday evening, I tried to move the summer wheels and tires for the Prius from the shed to the garage and practically got eaten alive. These are the large, slow ones that wintered over in the mud so they were easily swatted. By the time I moved one wheel, a couple dozen mosquitoes. This afternoon, I didn't see a single one.

After seeing a comment from DavidR a couple of posts back about Sidi motorcycle boots, I went online to Revilla.com just to look at their selection again. It turns out that the Adventure Rain boots were on sale. I had looked at these while at the motorcycle show in Long Beach but didn't want to pay as much as they were asking. It looks like the Adventure Rain boots are being discontinued and Revzilla had only one size left. My size. And the 30% off made the price seem much more reasonable. I had already tried them on at the show so I knew what size to order. They showed up today. Pretty sturdy and lots of protection and they are supposed to be pretty waterproof right out of the box. After wearing them around the house for a bit, it's obvious that they are not designed for walking.

Leaky Boots

We had pouring rain earlier in the week (as in several inches). Enough rain for me to discover that one of my boots leaked. I assumed that it had simply needed to be re-waterproofed and stopped by REI to pick up some Nikwak leather wax. I finally got around to retreat the boots and discovered an open seam. I could stick my finger all the way inside the boot through the seam. So time to go boot shopping again. These lasted one year of almost daily use. Not too bad but I expected more. For now, I may just use some Shoe Goo or something like that to hold the seam together.

I had done one more repair that I had not documented in the blog. Part of the plastic buckle had broken and they would no longer "latch" closed. After studying the buckle's design, I fitted a piece of "springy" metal (actually a piece of a used hack saw blade) under the buckle to back up the broken plastic piece. It now works better than new.

The last couple of days were spent helping some good friends put up trusses on their addition to their shop. They have hosted many of the airhead tech days and other get togethers and they are always open to helping others. Many have used their shop, motorcycle tire machine and other tools to get their bike back on the road to continue their moto adventures. On Wednesday, we put up the trusses, and Thursday was spent bracing, blocking, and other tasks getting ready for the roof decking.

Fortunately, the weather cleared up very nicely though the clear skies brought below freezing morning temperatures.

KIAM

Curiousity go he better of me so after running around this morning, I drained the crankcase vapor canister I installed last Tuesday. This is how much water came out after only about 120 miles or so. It's not a lot but pretty compareable to the amount of water in the Beemer carbs. I'm pretty confident that this may really be the solution. 

No heated gear for the next couple of weeks as I decided to send back the liner and gloves back to Gerbings to be repaired. One of the glove connectors is broken as well as the liner connector. I can find the jacket connectors at Radio Shack (power connector "N") but not the mating connector such as would be used on the gloves. Additionally, the resistance of the two gloves are different suggesting that there may be a broken wire within one glove. I'm thinking that the Gerbings gear was never designed for near daily use.

On Saturday afternoon, a half dozen of us went to Nenana to visit KIAM radio. It was started in 1983 as an offshoot of Arctic Missions and I had visited the station with a friend back in the summer of 1983. At the time I didn't know that the station was just started. Their current director is a retired IT manager from a university in OR that I had met a while back. We got a fairly in depth tour of the station as well as an overview of their translators around the state and stations in Bethel and Houston, AK. It is only a 250W FM station but a 10KW AM station. A very small, mostly volunteer staff so they don't produce much local content.

While we were there, they were broadcasting one of the novel things permitted in Alaska. Up here, stations are allowed to broadcast personal messages. The intent is one way communication for those within range of their signal. For example "To George Smith on SuchAndSuch Lake, we are flying out to see you tomorrow with Joe. We have the xyz widget that you asked for". I thought that these programs were kind of novel when I first moved up here as just about all of the stations had similar programming. Some even have online classifieds. I probably could have ridden out to Nenana but thought I should be a little sociable and ride with the others.

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North to Duluth

Today's excursion was some 140 miles north to Duluth to visit Aerostitch. Based on recommendations from Chris of EverydayRiding and Troubadour I stopped by to get fitted for a Roadcrafter Light. I had communicated with Aerostitch via their web site and email and they made a size recommendation but since I was going to be in the area, trying the suit on with the gear I planned on using seemed to be a much better plan. As it turns out, the recommended size would have been too short. I apparently have a long torso and short legs so I ended up getting a long and they need to shorten the legs by 4" (the maximum) above the knee. Now I just need to wait for delivery. They said maybe up to two months since they just had the pop-up store in California last weekend and got tons of orders. I was happy to hear that a lot of mods are now available for the "light" as well as the regular Roadcrafter. 

The drive north was pretty uneventful though Duluth was quite a bit colder (14°F) than St. Paul. The roads were completely dry with only a little snow on the shoulders until about fifteen miles south of Duluth. Then you could see quite a bit of salt on the roads as well as traces of moisture and the fenders and doors of all of the cars were white. The rental company probably won't like that. Within the town, the snow was not cleared from the streets.

I managed to leave the store without purchasing anything else though I was kind of like a kid in a candy store. Lots of interesting stuff including lots of sale items. And no "Black Friday" crowds. In fact, I was the only customer in the store. Since they gave me a discount for coming in to the retail store, I went ahead and got the back pad and they threw in free shipping.

This post was posted using the BlogGo iPhone app.

Sunrise Ride

On Saturday morning, I rode to College Coffeehouse to meet some other riders and afterwards took a short detour before heading home. I had been meaning to take a picture from the overlook around sunrise but rarely have an opportunity during the week. The sun was shining below the cloud layer which is one of my favorite lighting. It was around 0°F with no wind. A beautiful time to be out. No more issues with the bike. I replaced the screw studs and haven't had any more problems with our driveway. I guess that have to replace them periodically. Maybe with every fuel fillup.

Today, I made a couple of short trips with the rig. On these short trips, I tend to skip the riding pants if I'm wearing the insulated Carhartt jeans. Probably a bad habit to be getting into. I'm thinking that a one-piece riding suit would address my laziness with the riding pants. I guess that I don't have a lot of confidence in them anyway. They are FirstGear HT Overpants and the nylon Gore-Tex like material seems pretty lightweight and I've worn a lot of small holes in them such as in this photo. Not sure how I got the holes but they make the pants seem pretty flimsy. I've had the pants and jacket for six years. Maybe they just wear out…

Monday Morning Update - Stopped on the way back from coffee this morning. Even with only a few inches of snow, it was somewhat difficult to pull back onto the road. It was a lot of fun getting the rig to slide sideways on the curves. It doesn't take much to drift through the corners still completely in control. I had slid the rear wheel a couple of times on the Cassiar Hwy and the Dalton Hwy when on two wheels but this is different. Lots of throttle and don't stay sitting on the seat. The third wheel gives one a whole lot more confidence but you really need to hang off the bike and manage your center of mass. Fortunately (or not), I have plenty of mass to maneuver the rig….

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Bright, Sunny Day

Another boring parking lot photo

This morning, at -2°F, it was much warmer than it was yesterday due to the clouds and light snow. I went ahead and rode in and brought along the handy battery jump box, just in case the bike proved to be difficult starting. By mid-day, the light snow had stopped and the bright, March sunshine returned. It was a very nice ride in though the screw in studs on the rear tire may need replacement already. It took several attempts to get out of the driveway.

Since I was ordering another Sena SMH10 for Bridget's new helmet, I opted to order the SMH10-11 which has a separate microphone boom. This would work better on the Nolan N104 helmet I had picked up last week as the microphone could then be placed on the opposite side of the helmet and the boom could use the supplied cutout. Since I had to pull everything out, I took a picture of the Sena mount in the slot I had made in the plastic trim. You can see that the thin, plastic trim is not structural and the bracket is clamped to the shell of the helmet.

The wiring for the microphone and the right speaker is run through the plastic trim to which forms a nice channel that Nolan uses for their own Bluetooth communications system. The microphone is now in a much more optimal location for picking up voice. The original bracket should fit Bridget's new Scorpion helmet as I had not read of any issues between the Sena and the Scorpion EXO-1100.

Friday Morning Update - I did need to replace the studs on the rear tire as they were pretty worn from riding on pavement. They only lasted about 250 miles. The ones on the front tire are still in pretty good shape with lots of sharp edges. The difference may be the front ones only touch the pavement when the bars are turned one way or another due to the rounder profile of the tire. On the rear, the studs are always touching due to the flatter profile.

It was even warmer this morning at +15°F. Didn't even need to turn on the heated gear.

Sena SMH10 installation in the N104

Before I picked up the Nolan N104 last week, I didn't do any research on the compatibility with the Sena SMH10 Bluetooth unit. Apparantly, the N104 is one of the few helmets where you can't simply clamp the unit to the side of the helmet due to a plastic trim piece which is a wire channel for their own N-Com communications unit. Fortunately, Google to the rescue.

On an FJR forum, there was a post showing how they used a Dremel to cut a slot in the plastic trim piece for the bracket to slide into. It seemed like a simple fix so I did the same. After a little bit of measuring, I cut a small slot in the trim piece until the backet was snug. After a bit of cleanup with a sharp knife I now had a non-returnable helmet but a nice slot for the Sena bracket. Total time for the mod, 2 minutes. After I get everything fitted, I'll add some black silicone caulk to seal the slot to keep the wind noise down.

The Sena speakers fit the stock cutouts perfectly and are a nice snug fit that doesn't need any additional double stick tape to stay in place. The wire for the right speaker is routed within the channel provided by the plastic trim piece. The liner pieces and neck roll are then put back in place.

The base for the electronics module is then simply clamped in place using the supplied allen head screws and the excess wiring for the speakers routed into the plastic channel. The position of the unit is further back than is optimum but it's necessary to clear the internal sunshade control which is directly in front of the Sena bracket. I think the microphone boom clears the bracket enough to reach the controls.

The positioning of the unit has the microphone on one side instead of directly in front. I'll see how this works later. I also ordered another Sena unit for my wife's new helmet and Amazon claims that it'll be here on Monday.

Yesterday, turned out to be a university staff holiday. I guess we get a day off for spring break. I took the rig out for a ride partly to get familiar with the handling again as it has been a while since I've been able to drive it. It was -9°F when I left in the morning and I just sort of drove around the area for 1½ hours stopping once to refill the tank. I had added some gas from a gas can when I added the Heet to the tank a few weeks back. The Heet seems to have solved the rough running for now. Maybe there was moisture in the tank. No issues at all on the ride yesterday though I did bring the portable battery jump unit with me just in case.

It was a beautiful, sunny day and I tried to stop and take some pictures during the ride but my iPhone had shut itself down possibly due to the temperatures. I guess next time I should carry the phone on my person instead of just throwing it in the tank bag. The engine ran just fine and I put on about 60 miles. By the time I returned home, it had warmed up to a much more "Spring-like" 6°F. The only handling issue I need to look into is the rig pulls to the right at 50 mph and I think this means I need to increase the lean out a little.

The new Nolan is much quieter than my old HJC Symax-II and with the Pinlock visor, no more fogging up! For me, this is a big deal as I would have to ride with my visor partly open from about mid-September on due to fogging. I still needed to open the visor if I was stopped at a long red light as my glasses would start to fog. Not a problem if I'm moving. The availability of the Pinlock visor alone was a good reason to upgrade but the reduced noise level is pronounced. I may not even have to bother with earplugs anymore.

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Visiting Revzilla

Today, we made it back to Phildalphia for our flight back to Alaska. We had some time and planned a visit to Revzilla's storefront. They are one of the few moto-gear vendors that have extended free shipping to Alaska. This alone is a great reason to give them business. We came looking for a helmet for my spouse and I ended up picking up a new lid as well. The customer service was second to none and they had a huge selection to choose from. I guess they recently moved to this location from somewhere else in Philly and it was an interesting location to say the least.

I did think that it was interesting to see this at the front door as opposed to the expected motorcycle parking. We did find out later that the area is a recycled shipyard and the entire complex is places recycling high on their list of priorities for the former navy shipyard.

Bridget ended up selecting a Scorpion EXO-1100 full face with lots of graphics. She tried on quite a few including 3/4 face, modular and full face. This one has inflatable cheek pads to adjust the fit. They really had a nice selection of gear to choose from and much better than anything in Alaska.

I ended up selecting a much more subdued Nolan N104 modular helmet. I think the color is wine cherry. I was originally looking for white or silver but this looked pretty nice and would sort of match the bike (as if that really mattered). My old HJC is now five years old and I would be lying to say that it never touched the ground. After reading a Keith's post, I felt that maybe it was time to replace it. Plus, it never really fit very well and it hits my chin when I latch it down. This new one has a lot more room.

We asked the sales clerk for a lunch recommendation and she recommended a really unique location. The company cafeteria for Urban Outfitters. It was only a short drive through the shipyard and we pulled up to these old warehouses. The food was fabulous and they had a huge selection. Plus the prices were pretty modest. This is looking from one end of the refurbished warehouse they use for their office building looking towards the cafeteria. If you look out the window at the end of the building, you can see an aircraft carrier. I'm not sure if it was being refurbished or just being stored. On each side through glass walls are the offices for Urban Outfitters.

Now, I'm sitting in the terminal in the Philadelphia airport waiting for the long flight home and seeing -20°F on the weather report...

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Cold Weather Gear

It's not as cold as it has been but rather than try to introduce too many new things (sidecar, dark, cold, ice, snow, etc.) at the same time, I'm not using the sidecar rig to commute yet. I still want to get additional practice miles in during daylight hours. In a couple of weeks, sunrise will be before 9 which means that it will start getting light before 8. A bit closer to my normal commute time. I think I'm almost set for these temperatures though. The only areas where I would get cold have been my hands and my face. There are no alternative face shields for my current helmet, an HJC Symax II modular, so I'm looking at my options such as a face mask or a different helmet. The problem I'm having is the face shield needs to be left cracked open all the time due to the visor frosting up.

Last Saturday, I went to Northern Power Sports, a local snow machine/motorcycle/ATV shop where I picked up the screw-in studs, and also picked up a pair of handlebar muffs. These are nylon covered thin foam which slip over the ends of the handlebar grips and controls and are held on with Velcro straps. They are kind of similar to the Hippo Hands that folks rave about but these were about ½ the cost. I think that they are stiff enough to stay open and it's very easy to get your hands in and out as the opening is pretty large. I like that I can still glance down and see the controls. The main concern is whether the wind would push hard enough on them to partially press the clutch or front brake lever while underway. If they do, then I may need to fabricate some sort of support to keep them from touching the levers. They barely fit over the handlebar mounted master cylinder reservoir. Also the bright green Arctic Cat logo doesn't match anything else on the bike.

The wellness program at the university rewards you for getting exercise and proper diet and I've had this gift card (for good behavior) from the program laying around my office for the last 6 months. I finally found something that I wanted to get with it especially since Revzilla finally has free shipping to Alaska. I ordered a pair of Gerbing G3 heated gloves. Last May, after a very cold ride to Anchorage, I had picked up a heated liner and dual controller. These gloves plug right into wiring built into the liner sleeves and the current can be set with the second knob on the controller. The gloves draw 2.2 amps max and when combined with the 6.9 amps max of the jacket liner, this could become a significant percentage of the 23 amps generated by the stock alternator.

I finally dug into the heated grip wiring after finding a wiring diagram on Snowbum's BMW site and discovered that the two wires from the switch to the grip heating elements had come out of a splice located under the speedometer housing. It was a pain to reach the connector and it looked like the splice was there to simplify removing the handlebars for servicing the bearings. It wasn't a factory style connector but had tiny screws clamping of the stripped ends of the wires. But after a lot of fiddling, the anemic heated grips are now working again though the switch only seems to now have two positions instead of the three. So I'm not sure if I lost low or high and a lighted switch would be a great addition.

I'm still trying to decide if I should drill a large opening in the right lower fairing for the front upper sidecar mount. Some BMW purists within our local Airhead group say that I should leave the lower off rather than deface it with a 1¼" hole. I'm inclined to drill the hole as the airflow would be more controlled and the bike wasn't pristine even when I bought it over five years ago.