Motorcycle Journeys Trip Logs

Category: Motorcycles & Gear

  • I don’t know if I can afford another tire change

    I would like to preface this with a short story. I attended a tire changing clinic a couple of years ago and after watching big, strong guys wrestle with getting the old tubeless tire off the rim and the new one back on I later told a friend the clinic left me feeling I only wanted three tools for changing my tubed tires on the road – a good riding buddy, a cell phone, and a credit card.

    My previous tire change before leaving for Vermont and Canada resulted in my ABS brakes and speedometer going out about four hours outside of Dallas. I made it to Kentucky and stopped for the night to research the problem and ended up at the Louisville BMW dealer the next day. There I found out the ABS ring on the rear wheel had been cracked and one third of it had fallen off. The service manager who had worked on BMW motorcycles for many years had never seen a broken ABS ring and he couldn’t believe someone could be so rough when changing the tire to break it. Neither could I.

    My extended warranty covered the repair, but it didn’t cover my additional expenses for hanging out in Louisville while the ring was over-nighted and installed.

    Up until then I had been kind of afraid of removing my own wheels, but after that I decided I would remove my wheels and take them to have the new tires mounted in the future so I could make sure nothing got broken.

    A couple days before leaving for Tennessee I decided I wasn’t comfortable with the tread on my back tire and had a new tire put on. I had been reading good things about the Kenda K761 and decided to try one instead of the Metzeler Tourance tires I have already had. The big reason being the price difference.

    I called around and found the tire at a local motorcycle dealer and took my wheel in to have it put on. I brought it home and put it back on the motorcycle, put all the tools away, and was washing my hands when the phone rang. It was the motorcycle shop telling me the parts guys had just brought the service department my new tube. The tire had my old tube in it. Not good.

    Despite the fact I was running out of time I took the wheel back off, went back to the motorcycle shop the next morning and once again got the tire mounted but this time with a new tube as well. Good grief, what a fiasco.

    So after spending the night in Tallulah, LA imagine my surprise when I found my rear tire totally flat the next morning.

    I tried my air compressor and it was dead. Great. A tire shop up the road sent a truck and when the guy aired up the tire it immediately deflated again. At least he only charged me $10.

    The nearest motorcycle shop was 15-20 miles back in Vicksburg, MS. They would help me, but they were going to charge me $230 t0 come get the bike and then put in a new tube. I felt a little taken advantage of, but didn’t see what other options I had since the motorcycle couldn’t be ridden and I had no way to get the wheel to them.

    The owner himself came to get me and I was relieved when he showed extreme care loading and tying down the bike on the trailer. He ended up being a really nice man and we had fun talking on the way back to the shop.

    When they got the tire off they found multiple folds in the tube – the tube was so big for the tire it folded over and the worst of the folds wore through causing an almost half inch opening in the tube. No wonder it wouldn’t hold any air.

    I was in shock at how badly folded the tube was and that it clearly was too big for my tire.

    They checked the rim strip and their guess was that it was the original because it was worn through in more than one spot. While It hadn’t caused any leaks in the tube it clearly should have been changed along with the tire. It only added to my disbelief.

    The red circle on the picture to the left it the tear that was leaking.

    The two men who worked on the bike showed me the proper way to put a tube in tire to avoid damaging it when putting the second side of the tire on the rim. They showed me that it was the correct size.

    They had noted the mileage on my bike and asked what I did for a living. I told them I had been a career accountant and they found it very funny that a female accountant was traveling all over the place on a motorcycle. They were really great and had a good time giving me a hard time about things and started asking when I was going to the Arctic Circle.

    They took great care getting the wheel back on the bike (no broken ABS ring) and showed me some things to do to make it a little easier. All in all a good learning experience.

    Yes, I still think $230 was a little pricey. But they took really good care of my motorcycle and me and in the end I think it was worth every penny just to get back on the road confident of my back tire and tube. These folks need to make a living too and the owner alone spent 2 hours on my motorcycle plus the other tech who assisted.

    So if you have motorcycle problems in the Vicksburg area I would call Mike and Kay at Vicksburg Cycles. They sell Kawasaki and Suzuki motorcycles, but worked on my BMW. Was that why they charged so much? Just kidding.

    The guys suggested I bring the tube home with me and take it back to the dealer who mounted the tire originally. I think I will take it in and talk to the owner. It’s not just the expense and the inconvenience of having a flat on the road, I feel they did something that had the potential to kill me. I feel very lucky the tube went flat overnight and not when I was going 80 MPH on the highway.

    So all told the cost of the tire, new tube, mounting, and then replacement of the tube in Louisiana was $405. For one tire. So far my switch to Kenda hasn’t saved me a whole lot of money. I think that tube may qualify as the most expensive tube of all time.

    So now I’m rethinking my three tools for changing tires at home – maybe mounting tires is something I need to learn to do myself. At least then I’d stand a chance of having the proper size tube and the rim strip changed when it was worn. And maybe I could make a trip without having to stop for repairs.

  • Day 2 – Dickson, TN to La Follette, TN

    Beating the storm

    Checked the forecast and left earlier than planned because rain was so close. It was misting on me as I loaded the motorcycle.

    I was on the road at 7:30 which put me into Nashville in the thick of rush hour. I tried the 440 loop and it wasn’t great — an older road with construction that bogged down when we got close to I-24. Even with slowdowns I was on my way out of Nashville by 8:30.

    Stopped at a rest area and a truck driver came up to talk to me. He said we’d been passing each other ever since we left the Dallas area at the same time yesterday morning.  Goes to show how my 4 gallon tank effects my progress. He drives slower, but I have to stop for fuel more often.

    Sure enough, I recognized the nice South Carolina decals I had noticed on the tractor part of his rig. He was a motorcycle rider too and said he could tell by my build that I was a female so he was glad to have the chance to meet me. We chatted a while before we both needed to get back on the road.

    It was sunny at the stop but I rode into dark cloud cover not long after and when going over one of the mountain ridges got caught in showers. Nothing too bad and I stayed dry.

    Arrived in La Follette in sunshine and almost 80 degrees. The cold front I was wanting to beat arrives tonight. Low’s in the 30’s and high’s around 50 with rain for the next few days so I’m going to be a wimp and rent a car. Enterprise has a $15 a day special so it even fits the budget.

    I hope to get pictures of the fall color tomorrow.

    Gear issues

    Gerbing heated jacket

    I’ve decided one of my very favorite things about my heated jacket on cold days is the heated collar. There is something about that warmth around the neck that  almost makes up for the fact the rest of the jacket is so large it isn’t close enough to my body to be as warm as it should. That’s the result of having bought Gerbing  heated gear that was only available in men’s sizes at the time.

    I’m really toying with the idea of wearing a long sleeve shirt over the jacket to see if keeping it closer to my body will be warmer but I’ve already had a problem with wires digging into my elbows and knees and don’t know if a shirt will make my elbows hurt worse. I will save that trial for a 35 or 40 degree day. It was upper 50’s this morning.

    Garmin hardwire

    I really like my Garmin Nuvi 2450 but had the second Gilsson hardwire fail about 7 hours out from Dallas yesterday. It was firmly wired into my Centech fuse block so the failure is in the adapter somewhere. At $29 a pop I’m now $60 into this effort when the GPS only cost $169 so I officially give up. I went to Radio Shack and bought a cigarette lighter charger for the rest of the ride. My worry is it will vibrate out of the cigarette lighter socket I have in the tank bag, but at least I can plug that back in. I really missed the GPS yesterday afternoon and today.  The charge from the AC adapter only lasts 2 hours.

    Funny thing about the GPS. I found out you could download different vehicles to show on the map. I switched from the default car this morning to a black motorcycle. I had to pull over and change it. I swear it looked like a coffin traveling along the map and it creeped me out so bad I couldn’t stand it. I changed to a beach ball the rolls along the route and found that entertaining for the hour battery lasted. I think I’ll try the yellow rubber ducky the next time.

  • Suspension and wheel bearing maintenance

    Reading the FAQs on F650.com left me scratching me head wondering if I could even change the swing arm and wheel bearing on my 2007 F650. Heating and freezing things, lots of hammering with big hammers – it sounded like an almost impossible task.

    For anyone contemplating this maintenance, at least on my era of F650, don’t be put off by the descriptions in the FAQs because that isn’t at all how the maintenance went for me. Just for the record – I had to get male assistance with a couple parts of this job since I wasn’t strong enough.

    Swing Arm and Suspension Bearings

    swing arm links and dogbone
    swing arm links and dogbone

    The suspension bearings were no big deal at all except for getting the swing arm bolt out. I don’t know why it wouldn’t budge – maybe the steel bolt had fused to the aluminum engine, or the swing arm bushings were rusted onto the bolt, but it took a lot of penetrant and a male swinging the 8 lb. sledge hammer to make the bolt come loose.

    The bearings on the dogbone and links were in great condition so I only needed to clean and grease them, but I had recently purchased Kouba links to compensate for putting on Ohlin shock on my lowered F650 so these parts had weren’t in original condition.

    Their good condition was contrasted by the swing arm bearings that spilled out broken needles when the bushings were removed. Yes, I was way, way overdue on this maintenance. Unfortunately the broken needles had scored the bushings and they needed to be replaced along with the bearings.

    swing arm bushings and bolt
    Note the rust on the left side, but no rust on the right

    The guys at Purvis Bearing, where I purchased all my bearings and seals, were so great about educating me that I asked them if they knew of a good machine shop that might help me get the old bearings out and put the new ones in. They directed me to a shop with a wonderful owner who used an arbor press to remove the bad bearings and put my new ones in and charged me $20. It was painless. It took me longer to drive to the shop than it took to do the bearings and he let me help so I learned about the entire process for the next time around.

    A note on going to a machine shop: they do this kind of thing all day every day and their level of comfort and expertise was perfect for someone who was a total and complete newbie. They answered all my questions and I left a lot more knowledgeable than I arrived.

    The only thing I screwed up on was not getting an accurate measurement of how recessed the swing arm bearings were before removing them. Because I failed to do this I had to adjust the bearings a couple times using my vice at home before the swing arm would go back on the motorcycle.

    I couldn’t get the swing arm back in place solo, but everything reassembled easily after that. The swing arm maintenance is simple bolts and bearings.

    Wheel and Sprocket Carrier Bearings

    Next it was the wheel bearings. I have three words to say: TUSK BEARING REMOVER. I talked a friend into going halfsies on this $90 tool and we both ended up thinking it’s worth every penny. After reading the FAQ on wheel bearings I wasn’t sure I could do them. This tool made the removal of the old bearings no big deal at all — so in my humble opinion it’s the ONLY way to go. No heating, no trying to find a proper sized drift, no pounding with a hammer. It hooks the bearings and just yanks them out. Again – something I needed male assistance with.

    Tusk Bearing Remover at Rocky Mountain ATV

    I took the wheels and sprocket carrier back to the machine shop for insertion of the new bearings and when I saw how easily it went I probably could have done it myself. I’m not sure why the FAQ talks about heating the hubs and freezing the bearings. We greased up the bearings and gently hammered them in with a rubber coated hammer and drift. I took step-by-step details on how the various parts had to go together so all the circ-clips and spacers went in properly.

    The thing the machine shop provided that I didn’t have was an assortment of huge sockets that were the proper size drift for pounding the bearings in, so in the end it boiled down to paying them $20 or buying the huge sockets that would catch the outside race of the bearing – sockets I would have no other use for. Your call on that one, but I’ll probably go to a machine shop the next time.

    I took the sprocket carrier and wheels home and got everything back on all by myself. Finally – something I didn’t have to get help on.

    FYI – I asked the guys at Purvis how long my Timken wheel bearings should last and they told me they are rated for 10,000 hours, but that doesn’t factor in the bumps they taking going down the road.

    Wrap Up

    Just for fun I called a dealer and asked the service guys how much it would cost for them to do all the bearings and I was quoted $1600. I spent a total of $320 — $215 for bearings and bushings, $40 for the machine shop, $20 for grease, anti-seize, etc, and $45 for my half of the Tusk Bearing Remover. This maintenance is extensive, but if I can figure it out anyone can. When I found out my efforts were saving me $1300 it made the work very worthwhile. Besides, the more I learn about my motorcycle the more comfortable I am with it 🙂

  • Gilsson hard wire for Garmin Nuvi 2450

    While I like my Garmin Nuvi 2450, the battery doesn’t last all that long on the road so I wanted to hard wire it to the motorcycle.  I’m not sure why, but Garmin doesn’t offer a hard wire for this model but Gilsson, who claims to be the largest manufacturer of Garmin-compatible accessories, does have the GUSB5V-B:

    Gilson GUSB5V-B for Garmin Nuvi 2450

    “This Gilsson direct wire cable is eight (8) feet long, with a voltage converter and fuse box in the middle, four (4) feet from the connector and four (4) feet from the power source. Please note this new version is an improved and extended version from our prior version, allowing customer to hide the voltage converter box and away from the GPS receiver.”

    Installation

    I wanted the GPS to turn off with the ignition switch so I wired it into the Centech AP-1 fuse box that handles all my accessories. The problem was what to do with the “egg” since it sits right in the middle of the wire and prevents it being fished through small spaces. I had to pull the wire forward to the handlebar, and then backward to the fuse box that sits at the very back of the area under the seat. The 8′ length made this possible.

    I finally found a place the egg could reside, although it would be buried under the seat so I wouldn’t be able to check the green power light on the side of it.

    The bad thing about this hard wire is stripping the outer layer to expose the negative and positive wires. The wires are so thin that my first few attempts cut right through the red and black wires exposing the copper. I had to painstakingly cut away the outside layer with a skill knife to expose enough wire to feed to the fuse box. It was such a pain I felt like calling Gilsson and asking them what they were thinking…

    I had it wired, turned the key on the motorcycle, and the GPS powered up perfectly.

    Conclusion

    The “egg” voltage converter and the flimsy wire makes this a somewhat more complicated install than it should have been but compared to dealing with an approximate 3 hour battery life of the 2450 it’s worth it.

    Gilsson sells the hard wire for $23.95 + $8 shipping but I ordered it off eBay where the shipping was free so research who is selling it before ordering.

  • Tinting strip for motorcycle helmet visor

    I don’t know about anyone else, but I have sun sensitive eyes. If riding into the sun at the start or end of the day, or when when the sun tends to be lower during the winter months is very hard on my eyes.  So I was looking for a solution.

    tinting strip from front

    I researched and found the strips of visor tinting sold for $14.95 online and thought that was a ridiculous price for a slender strip of plastic cling. I headed to Hancock Fabric and found they sell 54″ wide static cling window tinting (no adhesive) by the yard for $3.97. Tough decision. For a buck you can buy enough to experiment a few times. If Hancock has it, I’m sure other fabric stores do as well.

    Link to UV window tinting at Hancock

    I traced the top curve of my visor on paper and made a pattern for the strip. I ended up trying a variety of widths. On riding tests I felt 1″ was too narrow and didn’t help my eyes enough and 2″ was way too much, so I settled on 1 1/2″ across the top of the visor. It doesn’t obstruct my vision at all.

    I wasn’t sure static cling would stay on the visor at highway speeds but I can tell you after thousands of miles not so much as a corner has lifted up. But if I want remove it I just pick up a corner and the strip lifts off with no residue  left on visor. When I clean my visor with a microfiber cloth I clean the bugs off the strip as well and it doesn’t move.

    It’s made a big difference on how tired my eyes get in bright sunlight and I think it helps with the glare on cloudy days as well.

    If you don’t mind paying postage, I’ll send you some to try (I have plenty). Or go to a fabric store and buy a 1/2 yard and you can have a visor tinting party with all your friends. Seriously — if you belong to a riding club you should get some and share it with the other riders. Anything that makes your eyes less tired after staring at the road for 10 hours is a good thing.

    tinting strip from side
    tinting strip from side