BMW progress...

The fairing mounting bracket problem is solved, (I hope) which means the next issue is the handle bar selection. When the Rabid Transit fairing was designed, some loss of the full steering lock was designed into the mix to allow the fairing to be more narrow. That is acceptable, as the only time full lock is used is when your backing up the bike. You quickly learn the limitation and act accordingly.

With my last bike with the fairing mounted, If I was riding with a packed tank bag and needed to back up the bike, sometimes the starter button would hit the tank bag and engage the starter while the engine was running. That wasn't good..


With this bike I hope to eliminate that problem by moving the bars backward (closer to me) with the use of machined "bar backs" which attach to the triple trees. I have the parts to do this.

New territory here is mounting the oil cooler and front brake lines, both of which I didn't need to deal with on my older bike. I will be replacing the hoses with stainless reinforced high pressure units as much for their look as for their increased strength.

The air horns on this bike are also mounted in the fairing lowers, so some thought as to mounting them elsewhere will be required.

Wiring for the fairing is going to require a plan which I will do next week when I am flat on my ass in the hospital. I'll bring some colored pencils and a lot of paper to draw it out. Doing so will generate yet another list of required switches, relays, lamps, fuses, and other parts to hunt down and acquire.

I think I will lose the BMW clock with the installation of the new fairing and instead use the space to mount a cylinder head temperature gauge. More useful, no constant battery drain, and I wear a wristwatch anyway. In the last bike I mounted a small digital alarm clock I found in an auto parts store. It had a large easy to see display and was on a mount that allowed it to be easy to remove and take into a motel with you when you needed to set a wake up alarm. It was near perfect (only lacked a light). Maybe I can find another one of those, or maybe the GPS in my future will cover that.

Radios are something I need to think through. Massachusetts (as usual) passes laws regarding issues they simply have no knowledge about. Helmet speakers are not legal only in this State. I guess that explains why I see a lot of bikes stopped at traffic lights with loud radios blasting. I will not do that. I will have helmet speakers and perhaps bluetooth the signals to them. Better sound for me and less annoying noise for everyone else.

Two States that I will be traveling through (CT & VA) I understand ban the possession of radar detectors. I guess I'll need to bury mine deep in the fairing so it is not visible, and mount a heads up LED display in my helmet, backed up with a pair of lamps and switching on the dashboard. More wiring to figure out. The effort and cost of installing a detector will be better than paying any "performance awards" that the police love to pass out.

I am going to search for a MP3 player which uses SD cards for expansion. That way I can load the music or books I want to hear and bring a lot of it with me in a much smaller package than if I use a CD player. No moving parts and no worry about screwing up discs as well. The trick will be keeping it dry. I'm thinking that some kayak driver has figured that problem out..

The new Bass Pro store in Foxbough is wonderful! It is out on Rt.1 next to the football stadium I highly recommend you stop there for a couple of hours. All sorts of interesting stuff to be found there. Good food, shooting gallery, waterfalls, huge fish tanks with trout, perch, and bass. This place just blows LL Bean right out of the water. Too bad it isn't open 24 hours.

We stopped by the other day for lunch and I found a couple of low cots that pack down small enough to fit on the bike well. Set up they are only 8" tall, so they will work in a small two person tent. They were inexpensive, about $20. No sleeping on the cold, wet ground for me ever again!
Much to Janel's amusement, I set one up in the living room and tried it out. I did need to modify it a little to make it easier and faster to assemble, but that was no big deal. I found it comfortable even without a sleeping pad on it. With a self inflating Therma-Rest pad on this, a good nights sleep is a sure bet. Maybe next trip to Bass Pro I'll get a pair of them.

I keep remembering things that were in my truck that are now lost. One that comes to mind is my new sleeping bag. After years of buying cheap bags that never packed down small, I found a quality bag that compressed well and bought it. Never got to use it, and now it's gone. Grrrr. Tow company sure lost some nice stuff for me...

Well, the sun is out and I want to get in it while I can, so will add more later...