Motorcycle Junkie:: February 2011

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Headlight brackets for 50mm fork tubes

Since the RMZ250 does not have a headlight, it meant that I would need to figure out some way to mount a headlight once the RMZ forks are on the bike. Fortunately, the DRZ400SM (only the SM model, not the 400E or the 400S) has the same size fork tubes (50mm) as the RMZ, and since the DRZ400SM is a street bike, it has a headlight. I've been keeping my eye on eBay, watching for headlight brackets. New ones from the dealer cost ~ $140 by the time you get the 4 rubber inserts (upper and lower for each side) plus all the taxes. I found a seller on eBay who was stipping down a brand new DRZ400SM for a conversion to a track bike, and he was selling the headlight brackets for $29, plus $10 shipping. Score!

Now I can mount my original DR headlight plus the headlight cowl. However, I plan to ditch the actual headlight glass assembly and just use the mounts with the cowl, and make my own bracket to bolt a VisionX Solstice 10-Watt LED as the low beam, and a 24-Watt LED from ADVMonster for the high beam. Hopefully, I can design some type of lexan protector shield to place in front of them and make it all look good and work properly.

The DR650 headlight glass

Right: DRZ400SM headlight brackets (fit 50mm forks)

Left: DR650 headlight brackets (fit 43mm forks)

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Keyed iginition switch, Raptor fuel petcock, Pelican Panniers

One item to be sorted with the RMZ fork swap is: what to do with the DR650 ignition switch? Well, the key mechanism has never worked well on my DR. Ever since I got the bike, I have often fought with the key. It goes into the key hole easily, but getting it to turn is another story. You've gotta jiggle it the right way, work it back and forth, piece of shit.

The previous owner of the bike gave me one worn out OEM key, and one brand new OEM key. I immediately had duplicates made of the new key, but I think the lock itself was already worn out. In any event, I'm tired of screwing around with a key that requires so much persuation to work, so I decided I would ditch the key entirely. Besides, the steering lock isn't going to work with the new RMZ top triple clamp. So a push-button on/off switch will do the trick. Just needed to figure out the wiring. A little sniffing around on ADVRider and ThumperTalk taught me that the guts of the keyed iginition contains a 100 Ohm 1/4 watt resistor. Let's get to work:

The OEM keyed iginition switch - stupid key never worked properly anyway.

Snip.... I need that green connector.

My local electronics supply store doesn't sell individual resistors,

so I had to shell out 99 cents for this 10-pack of 100 Ohm resistors.

The orange with yellow tracer wire

soldered in place

* brown and grey go together

* black with white tracer, and orange with yellow tracer go together

(with the resistor soldered in there, under the long piece of black heat-shrink)

* the on/off ignition switch will be installed between the red and orange

Next up: the IMS gas tank is great in that it expands the fuel capacity from the stock 13 Litres to about 20 Litres. However, IMS supplies a really, cheap, crappy fuel valve that will eventually fail. This valve has the same build quality of something you'd expect to buy from the dollar store. Every time you turn the valve to ON, OFF, or RESERVE, it feels like the damn thing is going to break. Rather than wait for that inevitability, I decided to be proactive and do what many others have done: replace it with the much sturdier petcock from the Yamaha Raptor. Except for a 5-minute hack job required to enlarge the hole slightly, it's pretty much a direct bolt-on swap. The Raptor valve is about $25, available from any Yamaha dealer. Part #5LP245000100

Left: OEM Yamaha Raptor petcock

Right: junk petcock supplied with IMS gas tank

use Dremel and hobbyist scalpel knife to carefully

enlarge the hole on the IMS tank

Here the hole has been enlarged slightly to allow the Raptor fuel valve to fit

Raptor petcock installed, as well as a one-way venting valve

for the gas cap (eliminates the need for a long, floppy vent hose on the gas cap)

Finally, a sneek peek of my next project: Pelican panniers. Somehow, I'm going to mount these onto the bike to be used as my indestructible and waterproof luggage system. These are the Pelican 1430 top-loading cases. They're not huge, just ~ 15-17 Litres in capacity. I'm not looking for huge, rather, I'm looking for tough and durable.... and dry.

Stay tuned to find out what craazy idea I dream up to mount these things.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

More farkles - HDB hand guards, Corbin seat, LED lighting, fuel petcock, and more

Highway Dirt Bikes top clamp, 2 1/8" bar clamps, hand guards,

2 sets of plastics, 4 waterproof on/off switches,

Vapor dash protector. Expensive, but the most rugged

setup you will ever find.

And a recent drive to Ogensburg to pick up a few other items:

a great bargain on a Corbin seat (like new condition, it was just

$200 including shipping), a 24-watt LED auxiliary light (this thing

is as bright as the sun, from ADVMonster.com), a Yamaha Raptor

fuel petcock, a DRZ250 tail/brake light, an ultra-bright LED strobing

auxiliary brake light from Strobes N' More (called the E3 Super LED),

Twin Air foam filter, OEM Suzuki air filter basket and mounting clip, and

finally, a gasket for the mid-pipe to muffler joint in the exhaust system.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Ottawa International Motorcycle Show

So, I attended the Ottawa International Motorcycle Show last weekend. Many show-goers thought it was pretty lame, mostly because of the size and scale of the show. Yes, it was pretty small compared to the big Toronto show from a few weeks ago (the two shows are not related, not the same event or promoter). The complainers whined that not all of the dealers showed up, and that the aftermarket dealers didn't bother to come. Some people went with the intention of seeing only one type of bike (like just sport bikes, or just cruisers, etc,). However, the show is meant to offer a wide selection, something for everyone -- not just one segment of the motorcycle industry. Given that it was only the 2nd time this show was held, I think it was actually pretty good overall. Certainly a good effort, and the vendors who did participate demonstrated a very good cross-section of what's out there in the world of motorcycles.

No matter how big the show is, you could never please everyone because everyone has their own tastes and interests. And everyone goes to the show to see different things, with different expectations. Maybe it's because motorcycles have become so specific, so purpose-built in the last 2 decades. In the 1970's there were motorcycles, period. Some time around the end of the 70's, they started to split off into street motorcycles and off-road motorcycles. Now there are about 20 sub-categories of street motorcycles (cruisers, bagges, sport bikes, super-sport bikes, sport tourers, etc,) and at least 7 or 8 classes of off-road bikes (trials, motocross, supercross, enduro, dual-sport, etc,).

Either way, I spent twleve bucks to look at a bunch of motorcycles on a cold, snow Saturday night in January. I had a couple of hours worth for my money and I'll do it again next year.

I was pleasantly surprised to see a nice variety of bikes, from cruisers and Harleys, to Japanese, European, , dirt and dual-sport, utilitarian, girly, and retro-bikes. It was nice to see the new Honda CBR250R. I still don't know why they haven't been producing this bike for the last 2 decades (the Ninja 250 is an extremely popular bike, probably because there has been no competition until now). I thought I took a couple of photos of the new CBR250R but I can't find them on my camera's memory card. Oh well, here's a photo I stole from the Interweb:

As you can see, it bears a striking resemblance to the VFR1200.

The base model is $4,500. For an extra $500, you can get it with ABS.

I spent a good hour chatting it up with owner of Woody's Cycles in Perth (an hour's drive from Ottawa). For me, he had the best display by far, and the largest display in terms of the floor space. He sells the full KTM line, but he did not bring them to the show because Wheelsport (from Orleans) was pushing the KTM (you can't have 2 dealers selling the same brand at the same show, which is fair) so Woody showed up with his other 2 brands: Husqvarna and Husaberg. Both of these brands are relatively unknown around the area, easily out-numbered 20-to-1 by the Japanese and Euro brands But, wow, are they sweet machines. Top quality components all around for both the Husky and the Husaberg bikes. My favourite was the 2011 Husqvarna TE449, although the Husaberg FE450 was also very nice.

Woody's a great guy, and well know by anyone who rides off-road around the Ottawa area. He's been racing motorcycles since the 70's and he's now got teenage boys who are following in his footsteps. He's raced on pavement, dirt and ice. I've seen him ride at a couple of Bytown Motorcycle Association events, and he's an awesome rider. Anyway, here are some photos from the show: