November 29, 2007
Maintenance
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When I washed the bike to get all the crud off from my long ride last week, I also cleaned the chain. Until now I always cleaned it with WD40 before lubing it, but this time I took the advice of a few people on various message boards and used kerosene to clean it. The smallest container I could find locally was one gallon, so I’ll pretty much never have to worry about buying more again for years. I simply pour some into a small container and use a big toothbrush style brush to scrub the chain clean with it. It eats through all the gunk and gets it clean real well, just be sure to cover the wheel/tire/swingarm from splashes, you can see in the photo below I got my swingarm a little nasty from it. It’ll clean right off, I didn’t even notice until I looked at this picture. The chain looks brand new again. Afterwards its just a matter of applying your lube of choice, right now I’m using PJ1 Blue Label, I may try some kind of chain wax after this is used up to see if it flings off any less.
Also, I went out for a short ride today to try out the grip heaters. It was about 45F out. I wore my thinner summer leather gloves, and on the high setting my hands were almost too hot. I ended up alternating between high and low every 10-15 minutes or so. They work great and are easily worth the $30 or so.
November 22, 2007
Modifications
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I installed my grip heaters today. It took about 3 hours total, most of which was wiring work. Instead of simply tapping into an existing power source like the directions recommend, I instead used a relay wired to the license plate light. When the ignition is turned on, the signal wire from the plate light turns the relay on, which then powers the heaters directly from the battery. This way they get direct power, not piggybacked off another circuit, and I won’t have to worry about leaving them on since they turn off when the ignition is off. I spent a good deal of time soldering and heat-shrinking every connection so they’d be waterproof and wouldn’t vibrate loose. I mounted the relay and the bulk of the wiring directly in front of the airbox, and followed all the existing wires with zip ties. Getting the grips on and off was pretty easy using compressed air under each one. I ended up drilling a hole for the switch, something I didn’t want to do, but its not like I’ll be removing the grip heaters anyway and it looks pretty clean. Also had to be careful with the wires coming from under each grip, making sure there is enough room for the handlebars to move back and forth, and for the throttle to open and close. Tested it out in the garage, and on the high setting the grips are almost too hot to hold with bare hands. This should make cold weather riding much more enjoyable, and they didn’t cost much at all. Sorry for not having any pictures of the install, I didn’t really have time this afternoon before Thanksgiving dinner.
November 22, 2007
Rides
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Logged almost 230 miles today riding with Bob, whom I met a few weeks ago on his SV1000. We went north and rode all around the Delaware Water Gap, some really nice roads which were unfortunately mostly still wet from the rain yesterday, so we had to take it pretty easy. Still a great ride, and not bad weather for late November.
