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timgray

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Everything posted by timgray

  1. timgray
    My wife wants a bike of her own. After year of seeing the world with a helmet directly in front of her she wants to see where we are going. So she went and took a MSC on her own, loved it and has her learners permit for this next year. I am thinking of a Vulcan 750, it's low and a small bike so she can flatfoot the ground. Is that too big? she was throwing around a Buell 250 at the MSC.
  2. timgray
    WEll I ws going to get a FJR1300 but yamaha put in defective valve guides so the bikes have a common problem of the valves failing in the FJR engines. OF 4 I looked at 3 had the same tick in the engine that indicated worn valve guides at 36,000 miles. So that bike is off the list. Honda has their Goldwing, I dont want to take out a second mortgage.. Their Goldwing Lite the ST1300 are harder starting than my 1st gen venture after sitting for a winter in storage from my experience in riding one this smmer. How can a fuel injected bike not start within 1/2 a revolution? It has a stiff ride, but that can be tolerated with a corbin seat upgrade. Lots of complaints online about build quality with the tupperware and the power windshield. BMW: again, overly expensive. and a lot of gadgets that I will not use. I worry about serviceability in the driveway. Kawasaki Concourse: Probably the bike I will buy... I cant find any negatives on this bike online... That means the owners are happy with them. My gripe is that all these bikes have tiny tiny saddlebags and a ugly tiny trunk, why cant they make a decent set of bags for these "sport touring" bikes?
  3. timgray
    It's worse than that. Why even put that in the bike? I just bought a set of A2DP enabled bluetooth helmets intercom that also have a FRS radio in them. I have my bike to bike, my intercom to the ol-lady and we both can listen to our own music and make and answer the phones. I simply say "call.... home" and the cellphone dials my home number. " I say "Play Riding playlist and it starts playing my riding playlist. 100% hands free because of the helmet and the iphone. Plus the FRS is also hands free I have buttons on the side of the helmet attachment to select modes. It works great, I'm ripping out and selling the in bike radio setup as it will never be used again.
  4. timgray
    Going nuts with seafoam wont hurt things. To avoid carb rebuilds on a buddy's bike that sat since 1984 I ran 100% sea-foam into the carbs after I got the bike kind of running. 10 minutes later it sputterd to life with all the pipes heating up. I burned a whole can of straight seafoam through that before we switched to 1 gallon of gas with 1 can of seafoam in it. after running a lot better we shut it down and let it set for 2 days with the high concentration of seafoam in the carbs. it ran perfectly on the next startup. It's not a miracle product, but it is safe to use "going nuts" with it. That said, I was being lazy and did not want to tear apart the three carbs and then have to readjust everything.
  5. timgray
    are you sure you are not running resistor plugs in there? Resistor plugs with resistor caps = weak spark. I found out that I cant get Non resistor plugs around here, so I simply removed the resistors in my caps and replaced them with chunks of copper I cut from a 10AWG solid wire and filed to fit perfect.
  6. timgray
    be careful what you add. I also recommend adding a relay as increasing the current flow through the keyswitch is not a good idea. I had a friend fry his keyswitch by adding 2 sets of running lights. add a relay to the switch and the lights to the relay.
  7. timgray
    I have searched for an hour and cant find it. There is a specific bike starter that will bolt right on and work perfectly for the MK1 1st gens. I want to upgrade to a 4 brush starter if I am taking the thing off. Anyone have any links or info as to what bikes have a better starter that bolt right on our bikes?
  8. timgray

    cell phones

    timgray replied to mraf's topic in Watering Hole

    MAY I DOUBLE THAT? Cell Phones are not to used while driving! PERIOD! I see a LOT of these kids without brains that are riding their Nijna with a cellphone to their head and their helmet sitting on top of their skull. Car drivers with a phone are bad enough, but these kids without any brains are giving all of us a bad name.
  9. timgray
    Yes you can, if you modify them. I used to put regular Christmas lights all over my car. I had a lighted wreath on the front for years. Many rich LandRover soccer mom's asked where I bought that wreath, I always said, "It's an exclusive SUV SPA I go to, you have to become a member by invite only..." Worked great when my little 4X4 was a Suzuki Sidekick.. The looks from them were great. a string is rated for 120 volts, so I counted the bulbs, divided by 10 (I want 12 volts) and that is where I cut the strings up. Works great. the LED type should work but will only light with positive one way. if they dont light, flip the positive and negative.
  10. timgray
    I dont really care about waterproof, a ziplock baggie will waterproof the bike in the rare rainstorm I get caught in. What I found important was being able to read it in the daytime. 99% of all GPS's out there are useless in the daytime on a bike. Great in a car where you have a nice huge sunshade over your head. When you go shopping for a GPS, bring a bright flashlight. if you cant read the gps while shining a flashlight at the screen you will not read it outside in the sun. I have yet to find a GPS that is under $500.00 that has a screen that is usable on the motorcycle. Even the TomTom Go that is supposed to be for a Motorcycle has a useless screen in the sun.
  11. timgray
    The only way to do it is to recast the buttons in a clear plastic. any other way and you end up destroying the waterproofing. I've been everywhere inside the radio.
  12. timgray
    I have tried them all, and this is what I use... http://www.sylvania.com/ConsumerProducts/AutomotiveLighting/Products/Halogen/XtravisionProducts/ The Xtravisions have the lifespan and 95% of the light output of silverstar Ultra super mondos. Plus they are significantly cheaper. I also find that "whiter" = less distance vision at night. The nuts that run blue headlights cant see 1/3rd the distance I can see with my slightly yellow headlamps. If you are looking for safety, nothing adds more safety than a set of auxiliary lamps low to make you look "wierd" to oncoming and side traffic. My 5W LED bright yellow foglamps are on all the time and really get the attention of everyone. I am always told by group riders that they know exactly where I am all the time as I really stand out even in a 2000 bike group.
  13. timgray
    Honestly, if you cant work on a bike yourself you are better off buying a newer bike with less wrong with it and potential wrong. Old classic bikes need a lot more care and can cost you more than buying a new bike over the course of a few years. My 1983 was in like new shape and I have already spent in 2 years an extra $3500.00 bringing the total to $4300.00 spent. Right now I can buy a 2001 goldwing or a 2004 FJR1300 for that.
  14. timgray
    After being in a bike dealership recently I'll tell you the reason for Crotch rockets. dirt Cheap motorcycles. They are incredibly cheap compared to a touring bike or cruiser. There are a couple of expensive ones.. a hayabusa for example is expensive but are far more motorcycle than 98% of the riders out there can handle. Most of these kids cant afford a $16,000+ motorcycle so they go with a cheapie low end bike that happens to have a high HP to weight ratio.
  15. timgray
    I have noticed that as well. It is hard to find a gas station here in Michigan that does not use the garbage 10% ethanol dilution. Once in a while on a trip out of town I'll get gas at a strange station and suddenly I get 10% more gas mileage (Honda civic, 10% ethanol drops me by 4mpg) I wish someone had a list of gas station chains that sell real gas and not gasahol.
  16. timgray
    Yes. Only the #1 sync port.
  17. timgray
    added the fuel filter, it still jumps around at idle, but it evens out perfect as soon as I get above 1100rpm so that's just fine with me. it eliminated the creeping idle as the bike warmed up because the bouncing and higher idle started triggering more advance. I saw it smooth out a LOT above 1100 rpm so a larger VAC chamber is not needed. I am using a luber Finer FF2314 fuel filter with 1/4 inch inlet and outlet. it was the smallest one they had at autozone. Anyone else try the 250K resistor voltage adjust? also basics on a RC filter to smooth out the electrical.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RC_circuit Basically a resistor in-line from the sensor to the TCI and a Capacitor to ground. Thinking a 10uF cap is a good place to start... we are looking at smoothing out very VERY low frequencies.. 80-900hz
  18. timgray
    Designed to plug right in. I got them off ebay, look for the bulb number + the word LED and you will find thousands of people selling them. 1 Watt are way too bright for anything but indicators. They have smaller ones, but I needed it dimmer than that. They also only work one way. you must plug them in and then turn on the bike and test them before you button it all up. Or you will have a 50/50 chance of them not working and needing to be flipped around. I do need to find a GREEN 1Watt LED to replace the neutral light. That one is hard to see with the full sun glaring down at high noon. Now to figure out how to wire in a solid state flasher with the signal cancel so I can convert the turn signal indicators on the front and back to Blind-the-cager bright LED signals.
  19. timgray
    I tried the LED lights for illumination.. It's like looking at headlights. the red bulbs were dimmer and comfortable. I did put in 1Watt yellow ones for the blinker indicators.. So I dont pull an old-fart and drive for 500 miles with a blinker on. The blinker indicators are so bright they annoy me in direct sunlight. at night they act like secondary blinkers to cars to the side as well as light me up from the shoulders on up.
  20. timgray
    I replaced my illumination bulbs with red tinted ones. Makes the dash light up red and is easier on the eyes in the dark.
  21. timgray
    I am still very interested in a set. Please let me know what you need for the set.
  22. timgray
    I was correct, it does smooth it out nicely. the pleated paper inside also creates a bit of a restriction to further smooth things out. I need to dig out the laptop and get a video together of a before and after. I found a small one from AutoZone that has a inlet and outlet that are small enough for the vac line, it's a bit of work sliding it on but it fits. If we can get it to the point that it's all a buy these parts, plug it all together and you are done, then it makes it really easy for the people that are not mechanically and electronically inclined.
  23. timgray
    Yes the final output transistors, but typically only happen when you either have a bad coil that is shorted and forcing the TCI to try and dump the battery to ground for each spark. I personally have not see any actual failures outside of ones caused by the Diodes failing. Every failure I have seen has been with the diodes. The Ingitech is the cheapest way to go. There are other after-market TCI's that will work, problem is they cost a lot... Starting at $680.00 for the ones I was looking at. the only cheaper alternative would be someone finding another yamaha TCI that could work with a little rewiring... Like the Voltage Regulator upgrade we have.
  24. timgray
    I was thinking of the vac-can as a way to smooth things out, I just wish there was a small one in the auto parts stores that would be a easy drop in.. I was actually trying to find a smaller restrictor first. I want a easier Off the shelf solution to make it easy for someone to buy and do themselves. I think it can be done off of only 1 port, Yamaha did it this way, we should be able to as well. I really do wish we could get a standard setup for the VAC sensor hookup and then get a weekend of dyno time to tune it all in. that way we can create a easy turnkey solution for anyone. Actually I have an idea there. A nylon fuel filter in line after the restrictor would work for smoothing out the pulses. I was thinking vac line filter, but the fuel filter would have a lot more volume inside. Time to stop by NAPA on my way home to see what they have in stock that would be a easy fit.
  25. timgray
    I reccomend sealing up the box completely. there are vents in the bottom that are not needed for anything but letting water in. I would also use a LOT of dielectric connector grease on all the connectors after reassembly to further combat water. Good save on the TCI.. as time goes on we will be having a lot more people with failed TCI's if they dont take care of the diode issue before they fail.
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