On the road, I never stop at any of the H-D boutiques I fly by, unless I need an oil change or a part. I’m an oil-change fanatic in the sense that at every 5,000 miles (8,000 km), the old oil and filter gets dumped, no matter where I am. I use synthetic oil — anything but the H-D brand when I do it myself. After all, the engine in my bagger is air cooled, and the proven high temperature protection against oil breakdown provided by synthetic oil versus dino oil gives my engine all the heat protection that it needs.

Volumes have been written about the differences between synthetic versus dino oil. Early on in the motorcycle synthetic oil debate, mechanics would declare synthetic oil to be “too slippery” for the H-D evo and twinkie engines and their bearings, and thus “bearing skate” would occur. That statement was, and still is, a complete crock of shit, of course. Synthetic oil works just fine, and in fact, H-D now sells its own brand of synthetic oil which comes installed from the factory in many of their newest engines. How times change.

I must give the H-D dealerships their due. In most instances, their service departments will take a traveller just riding through and give him priority for things like tire changes in the event of a flat, or an oil and a filter change. My last flat tire was down south in New Mexico a couple of years ago. I got priority then in Santa Fe.

I was in and out of Winchester’s H-D boutique dealership in an hour, which gave me time for a sandwich in their deli. Not bad, since the deli was completely unexpected.

To make it all easy, I use H-D’s atlas for an annual up to date listing of dealers in all of the western hemisphere. Handy as hell.

My only wish is that indy’s would provide some kind of a listing of their locations, but of course that’s an impossibility. I would prefer to use and support an indy and his business if I could.

To read about my installation, go here.

I should have done this years ago, but I only just recently discovered Jim’s easternbeaver.com wiring harness site. The quality of his work is amazing. Had I the ability I couldn’t have built a harness of this quality — and all for approximately U$37.00 which includes shipping.

Here’s the finished Blue Sea fuse block product that fits under the left side cover. Centech also makes a nice little fuse block. easternbeaver’s wiring harness is, of course, unseen, but it appears in the illustration at the top of this page. All that remains to be done is to tie-wrap the wires and the plastic cover so that it doesn’t vibrate off.

Please note: If you’re reading this on any site other than blog.twolaneroads.com, the content has been scraped and stolen in its entirety, without appropriate attribution.

Over the years I’ve added a few electrical accessories to my ride. I dumped the terrible stock horn for an air horn that fits inside the stock horn cover. I’ve added gps and heated jacket relays. There’s a Powerlet outlet for my cheap and very portable air pump for tires. A digital voltmeter is the crowning touch for a check on the highly inaccurate stock meter.

After all that, I’ve decided that I need a switched fuse block harness from easternbeaver.com to make sense of the wiring nightmare I’ve created. The fuse block harness comes with a relay and socket that allows it to be powered on and off with the ignition switch when wired into the bike’s electrical system.

I already have a marine-grade ST blade fuse block from Blue Sea Systems that I’ll hook into the electrical system using the harness. Centech also makes a nice little fuse block.

More to come when the harness arrives and I install it.

I’ve been an xmradio fan for ages now. As an early adopter I was saddled with one of their old Sony units with it’s tiny display and measly five presets. It was long in the tooth and I wanted an upgrade.

I talked myself into a Roady^XT to while away the hours when I’m on the road. The Roady^XT comes with both a home and vehicle kit. Stock in the box is a vehicle adapter called “SureConnect”, which attaches to the base of a non-retractable fender or roof antenna. I tried this interface, but I didn’t like it, so I picked up an FM Direct Adapter, SM10112, which integrates the unit into the existing radio. It’s really a nice, compact little adapter.

Installing it required removal of the radio to get at the antenna lead, which wasn’t a big deal, since the compact SM10112 fits nicely behind the radio upon re-installation. An added bonus: the sound improved too.

Here’s the kicker: No matter which vehicle installation method you choose, remember to power up the XM unit in the vehicle and select “Menu” and then “Frequency” from the menu choice. This will allow you to choose an unused FM frequency to send the signal to your vehicle’s FM radio. The “Frequency” menu selection does not appear when you attempt to select it from your home setup.

I scratched my head over that for a while before I actually went out and installed the unit.

Helmets are a great invention. The keep your head warm when it’s cold, dry when it’s raining, and sweaty when it’s hot. Thus was invented the helmet liner, a silk and cotton accoutrement that makes a rider look like a dork when he puts it on, but quickly turns from a fashion nightmare into an item that makes for a more comfortable helmet. Added bonus: the helmet doesn’t stink up as fast.

cyclegadgets.com can’t seem to get it right, though. I bought their helmet liner product because the last two I owned became indispensable to me. They work so well that it’s just plain silly to wear a helmet without one. This time, the liner they sent me shredded on two of the seams after the first washing. So much for ingenuity and marketing.

It’s not worth it to send it back to cyclegadgets for a replacement. The cost of postage will only add to the cost of the item, thus making an already useless item that much more expensive.

It seems one just can’t win any more.

Now that I’m finished with my rant, here’s a tip on helmet sanitation: When the old brain-bucket does begin to get ripe — and it will — put it in the dishwasher, without soap, and run it through a wash cycle. Just remember to take the helmet out before the heat cycle comes on. Let it air dry, and voila! Good as new.

Tire pressure, that is

On a motorcycle, there are only two things keeping you upright, both of them critical to doing the job, and both of them manufactured out of rubber. When you think about it, two small patches of rubber aren’t much. The condition of those two rubber patches and the material surrounding them is critical to survival.

Ambient air temperature variations cause fluctuations in tire pressure. A change in air temperature of 10 degrees F. (5 degrees C.) will cause tire pressure to change by one pound.

Tire manufacturers show up at rallies all the time, and through their exercises we learn that up to 80 percent of all motorcycles have underinflated tires. Without a doubt, tire pressure is the most ignored problem affecting a motorcycle and its handling and stability. Too little pressure and your tires will overheat and cause premature wear. You’ll look funny wobbling down the interstate trying to pull off to the side of the road. You’ll have plenty to talk about with your riding friends when you tell them about your bike’s handling problems. On the other hand, I suppose it’s a good excuse to look for a new bike with better handling characteristics.

Avoid it all and check your tire inflation presures, and then when you discover that you’ve only got 20 pounds of air in the rear tire, and a garage isn’t nearby, fire up this little beauty:

http://tinyurl.com/f1tv

It’s less than 10 bucks, it only takes a few minutes to take it out of the plastic housing, and after the fan is cut off with a hack saw, it’s ready to go. I added an on/off switch to mine, and I installed a Powerlet jack to replace the alligator clips that were used to connect to the battery. The Powerlet is compatible with BMW, Triumph and Ducati outlets.

I threw one of these - barebones, stripped of its plastic case - into a saddlebag years ago. I’ve used it exactly twice on my own motorcycle and three or four times on those of others who got a surprise when they checked their tire pressure.

For the long distance rider who finds himself in the middle of nowhere, it’s an item you shouldn’t be without, even if you subscribe to a tow package. A tubeless tire repair kit would be an added bonus for those who don’t run with tubes.

Well, all effort to the contrary, I received the parts for a Kiehn carb today. Which is fine, because I own a Kiehn carb — but I don’t need any parts for it! Jesus.

Why is it that a business doesn’t listen to what the customer tells them? Are the morons who work there so dulled by the stupidity of RUBS that they just go and order any old thing, part numbers notwithstanding?

Are they too accustomed to selling bolt-on chrome doo-dads to stupid people who are more dense than those employed by the dealership?

Do any of these people even know what a carburetor is, and how it functions?

Perhaps they can’t spell. Let’s see now…

M-i-k-u-n-i. Oh, yes. Mi-kun’-i. That’s it. Sound it out like a public school moron.

K-i-e-h-n. Hmm. Now that’s a little more difficult. At the end of the word there’s something that’s real hard to pronounce. Like, an h and an n, real close together, like.

Like, much head-scratching over that one, I’m certain. There must have been. I got the wrong parts.

Morons, all.

The Mikuni HSR42 is a great carburetor. I had one on my Low Rider and it never skipped a beat. I think some dealer finger trouble occurred to the enrichener circuit on this one — although that circuit should never have been touched at any time during my reman engine install back in December of 2005.

I’ve been looking — unsuccessfully, so far — for a couple of non-standard parts for the carb. There’s a piston and a spring involved, which I’ve been trying to find locally. No such luck. Unfortunately, dealers only carry jets/needles and re-build kits.

On March 5 I finally broke down and called Mikuni in Northridge. I was patched over to the voice mail of someone named Steve. I left a brief explanation, including the two part numbers that I was unable to obtain locally, followed by a request for a callback.

No response so far.

Had I been able to find an email address for Mikuni, I’d have sent them an email.

Today I emailed sudco.com asking them the same question, and in a matter of an hour I had a reply directing me to a Canadian distributor for the parts that I required.

I’ve ordered everything I need, plus a little extra. Thank you, Sudco.

July 25 - 27, 2006

The road has been good to me so far on this trip - only a downpour after deboarding the Tobermory ferry on the Bruce Peninsula while headed east, and a warm shower when almost in Maryland. There have been no close calls with vehicles; no freezing temperatures to fight in the early mornings; no fierce winds.

As luck would have it, I discovered a cracked header pipe, and I must wait for a new one to be shipped in. I’ve picked up a loaner bike from the Harley dealer, an ‘04 FLSTC. It has apehangers on it, but the hand controls haven’t been set up for riding it comfortably. I make a simple adjustment to the clutch and brake lever positions, helping my wrists to overcome an uncomfortable and twisted position. It never ceases to amaze me what some will put up with to look cool.

Over the next few days I do the tourist thing in this city of 750,000, visiting the Forks and a couple of other places. There is now a nice walking bridge — the Esplanade Riel — over the Red River with a Salisbury House Restaurant located mid-span. I stop to check out the bridge and to have my Nip & Chips fix.

I head out to Lac du Bonnet to visit a friend that I haven’t seen for seven years, and to see a couple of acquaintances from a former life. We talk over old times and have a few laughs at the expense of others who I used to work with. It seems that things haven’t changed with my former place of employment. I was so happy to be done with the place back then, and it is now a lifetime away.

When my header finally arrives and gets installed it is mid-afternoon. As I head out on the road, the clouds and fog begin, and the rain starts on the west end of the city. It only lasts for a couple of hours and then the sun finally pops out and warms the rest of the day. It’s a boring ride to Moosomin and my overnight stop. At least the highway has been twinned in a lot of places now. I suspect it will be completed across Saskatchewan next year.

May 17-19, 2006

I needed a break, so I took off for Tulsa. It was hot when I started in the early morning darkness, and it got hotter by the hour across Kingman and Gallup and Albuquerque. Gas and go at every stop. Finally, at 800 miles, in Santa Rosa, New Mexico I had enough, and I pulled off for the night. I checked in and hit the sheets and didn’t wake up until 7 the next morning.

Refreshed and fed, I loaded the bike and found the nail in my flat rear tire. I could have plugged it, but I don’t like riding on two wheels with a plugged tire, especially at interstate speeds and in this heat. I checked locally, but there were no independents here. The closest dealer was in Santa Fe. I’ve never been to Santa Fe, but courtesy of Road America and $19.95 a year, I have now. Motorcycle towing packages are sweet, and this was the second time that I’d used mine.

I was back on the road by six in the evening, but only made it as far as Tucumcari. Tucumcari Tonight, as the road signs have said for decades. I didn’t care. It was bedtime for Bonzo one more time. I don’t like riding at night any more. Reaction time and eyesight diminish with age, and slowing down would only allow me to see the blur that I hit in the darkness. I think I’m smarter than that now.

The next day I steamrollered through Texas past the western hemisphere’s second largest cross, a religious monstrosity outside of Groom. It even has a memorial to every fetus ever aborted. Sweet. The cross in Effingham, IL is eight feet larger. So much for “everything is bigger” in Texas.

At the Oklahoma border I stopped for a water break. Things were getting a lot greener compared to the ride across the brown desert of the Texas panhandle. The humidity was going up too, and I wasn’t used to that any more.

The TA on the west end of OKC featured Popeye’s chicken and biscuits, so I had to stop there. There’s nothing like a little of Popeye’s best — naked, of course — to excite flagging spirits on the road.

By losing a day I was missing out on a lot of Route 66 riding, so in Stroud I pulled off to meet up with Coaster, a friend, and went to the Rock Café for lemonade and fried green tomatoes. The Rock Café has been remodeled to appear more like it did when Route 66 was in its heyday, and it looks really good. There’s a small store beside it, with slim pickings for souvenir hunters. Dawn, the owner, was there. Dawn is caricatured as one of the cars in Disney’s “Cars”, which is coming out in June.

Another hour and I was in Tulsa, visiting Coaster and wifey.