Farkled Up

Garmin Zumo 660 Announced

2009-01-15T11:41:00.001-08:00

I noticed that a new Garmin Zumo has been announced - Zumo 660. Looks like it finally gets a larger, higher-resolution screen, like the Nuvi. The screen was my biggest complaint with the Zumo 550.

Press Release

Pentax Optio W60 - Initial Impressions

2008-08-29T08:09:00.000-07:00

Pentax Optio W60 was announced in May. It is a compact waterproof and dustproof camera. I bought one, intending to mount it on my motorcycle to take pictures while riding. I received it last night from Amazon, but haven't had a chance to play with it or even turn it on yet.

The camera is light and does not feel very rugged, but I'll reserve that judgement until I've used it for a while. The black plastic on top and on the front is rough to keep your fingers from slipping, and makes it easy to hold the camera.

One disappointment so far is the location of the tripod mount. Instead of being in the center of the camera, it's all the way on the right side. This will cause more vibration when mounted on a motorcycle. Some kind of an adapter plate may need to be made to reduce vibrations.

The battery compartment door has a black rubber seal on it to keep the water out. The small connector inside that looks like USB is actually not standard USB. Pentax includes 2 cables that plug in there, one of which is USB on the other end, and the other one is video.

The charger uses a cable instead of plugging right into the wall socket. This means one more thing to carry on trips.

While the battery was charging, I also unpacked the 16 GB SanDisk SDHC card that I got.

What's In a Toolkit?

2008-07-12T19:08:00.001-07:00

People always ask what should be in their motorcycle toolkits, so I'm going to show what's in mine. I'm sure that I'm missing things too, so feel free to comment on what else is useful. Everything I'm going to show is on my motorcycle at all times, no matter where I ride. Thankfully, the BMW R1200 GS has plenty of carrying capacity, especially with the Jesse Odyssey cases.

(click images to enlarge)

Let's start with the right sidecase:

In this sidecase I keep my tire pump, small tripod, a bungee net and a rag.

The pump is a BestRest CyclePump:

I also have a gauge with the tire pump:

The tripod (Joby Gorillapod) can be used as a normal tripod:

or wrapped around some object:

Now, on to the left sidecase:

The left sidecase contains my tools, a flashlight, a locking cable for my gear and some paper towels:

The flashlight has 9 LED's and 3 brightness levels, and can be either handheld, or stand on the built-in tripod:

I carry a pen-type multimeter in case I have to debug an electrical problem:

The toolkit contains almost everything needed to completely disassemble my motorcycle and put it back together (though I don't carry a torque wrench, it loses its calibration from all the bumps and vibration):

There's a ratchet and Torx sockets (everything on the motorcycle is Torx), wrenches, pliers and other tools:

I keep more essentials in the small compartment under the top box:

There are some zip ties, the owner's manual, the original BMW toolkit, a medikit and a tire plug kit:

Medikit:

Tire plug kit:

The original BMW toolkit:

Garmin Zumo 550 Submerged

2008-07-04T20:44:00.000-07:00

I've had this Garmin Zumo 550 GPS receiver for over 10,000 miles on my BMW R1200GS motorcycle. I dropped it on asphalt from about 4 feet sometime during the first few thousand miles - all it got is some scratches on the plastic - the screen is fine, and it still works fine. I've had it in blistering heat for hours (highway 50 through Nevada in June), and I've had it in thundershowers so thick, that I could barely see the taillights in front of me. It worked through all of that without any problems. Now I decided to see if it's really waterproof. Garmin says that it's waterproof to IPX7, so I submerged it in the kitchen sink to test that. Here's a video:

As you can see, it still works. I do have a few complaints about it - sometimes it'll take a minute to draw the map after turning it on or after it loses satellites - it seems that it won't draw anything at all, instead of just drawing the last position. My other complaint is that the screen is a little small and the resolution could be higher. I may just go back to using the Garmin GPSMap 378 that I used before.

Garmin Zumo 550 GPS

2007-07-29T00:42:00.000-07:00

I have a Nolan N102 helmet with the N-COM bluetooth headset. At first, I only tried it with my iPod nano, plugged in to the wire and it worked fine. I wanted to eliminate the wires completely though. This was Thursday, and I was leaving for my trip on Saturday morning, so I wanted this done before then. I put in an order for a Garmin Zumo 550 and a locking Touratech MVG cradle (to replace my Garmin GPSMap 378), with overnight shipping , so I'd have enough time to install and test it. I would just have Friday night to get it to work, music and all, and to wire the cradle to my BMW R1200 GS.

As luck would have it, UPS messed up and I didn't get my Zumo until Saturday morning. So I put off my departure date until the next day (Sunday). I got the cradle mounted and wired for power, and I got the Zumo talking to my Nolan and my Blackberry 8700. When connecting the Zumo to the Nolan, make sure you put the Nolan into the handsfree (HF) pairing mode, not the HS. To put the Nolan into HF pairing, turn it off, then hold the on button for 9 seconds. After the first 3 the unit turns on, keep holding the button. After another 3 seconds it goes into HS pairing mode, and starts flashing the LED's - keep holding the button. After another 3 seconds it goes into HF pairing mode, and starts flashing the LED's real fast. Now let go of the power button and pair to your Zumo. The passcode for it is 0000 .

The Zumo to phone integration is pretty nice. I haven't tried talking on the phone yet, but I've called various voicemails. You can dial right on the Zumo, you get your whole addressbook on the Zumo too. You can find some hotel or something on the map, and then call it, all right from the Zumo. I don't know how good the phone sound quality is going to be yet.

Another thing to note for MP3's. I copied all my MP3's to an 8GB SD card and put it in - Zumo can't see anything on it. A 4GB card works. I guess it doesn't support more than 4GB right now. Come on Garmin, it's just a firmware fix - do it.

Overall I was happy with it so far, but I'd test it on an actual road trip over the following week. One thing I wish I could do, is connect my radar detector's audio out to the Garmin and have it transmit the sound to the Nolan. Eventually I'll probably try to connect the radar output to the microphone input on the Garmin cradle. I have no idea if that will work, because that mic input is designed for a wired helmet - but I'll try that later.

I spent a week on the road with this setup, and it works well. There are some minor issues that I may just have to get used to. If you power off the Zumo, and then power it back on and hit "View Map", it takes a good minute before it shows the map, and it doesn't say "Drawing" or anything while it's stuck doing nothing. Not a problem, just an annoyance. I've also had the helmet speakers cut out sometimes when I close the flip shield. Maybe a bad connection somewhere? I still need to figure out how, if at all, you can feed a radar detector into this setup.

Garmin StreetPilot 2730 Water Testing

2007-03-01T23:02:00.000-08:00

I got a Garmin StreetPilot 2730, and wanted to make sure that it's waterproof (manual says that it's waterproof to IPX-7). So I used the kitchen sink to test it, and made a video of the test:

Then somebody asked if I dare put it under water - well, I did:

Arai RX7 Corsair

2006-07-30T23:06:00.000-07:00

I bought a new helmet yesterday. I'm doing a trackday on Labor Day, and didn't want to use either of my existing helmets.

I have a Schuberth C2 that I normally use for riding - it's a flip-front, and I'd rather not use it on the track. And my old Shoei RF1000 never fit me well. Also, Buttonwillow is really hot in the summer. I went to Road Rider and bought the most ventilated helmet they had - Arai RX7 Corsair. I don't like the shield system on Arai's, but this helmet fits me well, and definitely vents - I had plenty of airflow riding in it today. It also seems a little more aerodynamic than my Schuberth on an unfaired bike.

BMW R1200GS Hepco Becker Crash Bars

2006-06-02T15:12:00.000-07:00

It's not a proper GS until it has crash bars (engine protection bars) installed. I picked the ones made by Hepco-Becker.

Installation is pretty simple, once you figure out what goes where. The included instructions are in German (which I can't read), so they were pretty useless. So here's how to install them. One thing to note - don't tighten anything until the very end. You'll need a rubber mallet to beat on the side bars to make them fit into the center part of the bar. Once it fits, then you can tighten to specified torque.

The bars come in 3 parts

These little bolts hold the top center part to the bike

These tiny bolts secure the 3 parts of the bars together

These bolts and spacers are for mounting the side bars

Bike before installation

The top center part of the bars mounts in front of that black plastic cover above.

It is mounted with one bolt on each side (with the 2 small bolt holes in the tubular section facing down and back). The mounting hole on the right side of the bike is already open, but the left side hole has a bolt in it that is holding the silver oil tube in place. You can see the silver bolt in the following picture, it holds the vertical oil tube to the black thingy behind and to the right of it.

Silver bolt holding the oil tube

You have to use a T30 Torx bit and a 10" extension to remove that bolt. Nothing will fall off if you remove it (you'll replace it with another one shortly).

Now you need to install (don't tighten yet) the top center part of the bar. Take the 2 small bolts included, their 2 washers, and the one small aluminum spacer. The spacer goes on the left side between the bar and the bike, and mounts with the longer bolt. The washers go on both sides between the bolt and the bar. Install the left side first (loosely), then slide the right side on and install that bolt (also loosely).

Left side bolt, washer and spacer (upside down)

Left side installation

Right side bolt and washer (upside down)

Right side installation

Top part loosely installed

Don't tighten anything until the end!!! You'll need a rubber mallet to get everything in place correctly before tightening anything!

Test fit of the left side of the bars:

The side bars attach to the bike using 2 bolts each. The thinner bolts (M10) go into the hole (on each side) in the engine case that doesn't have anything in it on a stock bike. You can see it in the picture below between the silver oil tube and the oxygen sensor:

Left side of the engine case

The shorter M10 bolt and spacer go on the left side, the longer ones on the right.

The other 2 bolts (M12, the thicker ones) replace the frame-to-engine mounting bolts. You can see the existing bolt in the picture above to the right of the silver oil tube, holding the frame tube to the engine. Their spacers (both bolts and spacers are the same) end up inside the frame hole where the existing Torx bolt is hiding.

Here is how the left side bolts fit to the bar:

Don't forget the washers between the bolts and the bar!

Closeup of the left bar bolts

You need to remove the left side engine mount bolt first. Don't worry, the engine is not going to fall out. There are at least 3 other bolts holding it. Make sure that you install the replacement bolt on the left side (don't tighten, but make sure it's screwed in most of the way) before you start on the right side.

Engine mount bolt on the right side

You need a T55 Torx bit and a short extension to remove the engine mount bolt.

Here's the engine mount bolt removed:

Engine mount bolt on the right, its replacement on the left

The hole that the mounting bolt was in

Left bar attached

As you can see, the left bar doesn't fit all the way into the center part. You'll have to use a rubber mallet later to beat it in. Same thing on the other side. Don't do it yet though - make sure that you have both sides loosely installed first.

Now that the left side is loosely installed (make sure the bolts are screwed in most of the way, but the bar is still loose), you can repeat the same thing on the right side. Once both sides are done, you'll need a rubber mallet - use it to hit the side bars from the outside in, to make them go all the way into the center part of the bar. It doesn't take too much, but you'll definitely have to hit it a bunch of times. Once they are all the way in, you can tighten all 6 bolts to specification. The M12 bolts (engine-to-frame mount) should be tightened to 35 ft lbs and take a 10 mm hex bit. The M10 bolts (the lower front bolts) should be tightened to 30 ft lbs and take an 8 mm hex bit. The 2 little bolts on top (they are M6) need to be tightened to 8.85 ft lbs (12 Nm, hand-tight really). I used locktight on them. They take a 5 mm hex bit (and you'll need a 10" extension).

Finally, you just have to install the 2 tiny bolts that connect the bar parts to each other. Just use an angled hex key (3 mm), put locktight on them and make them hand-tight.

Yamaha FJR1300 SuperBrace Installation

2006-04-26T23:16:00.000-07:00

SuperBrace arrived!

I received my SuperBrace a couple of weeks ago and finally found time to install it. It fits very well, but I haven't had a chance to see if it helps yet - just riding to work and back, in the rain.

Here's the way it was packaged:

Out of the package and split into parts (I'm holding it upside down):

And here are the splash guards:

I mounted the splash guards to the superbrace:

Front of the bike before installation:

First, I removed the fender to make installation easier:

Then I washed the forks wih some water and a brush around the area of the install:

Removing the old fork spash guards requires sliding them up and then cutting them off (if you wanted to avoid cutting them off, you'd have to remove the forks out of the triple clamps). You need a hammer and a piece of wood to slide them off:

Hold the wood piece under the old plastic splash guard and hit it with a hammer from the bottom up. You'll need to hammer on both sides to get it to slide up.

Eventually it comes off:

And the other one:

I used some heavy-dury wire cutters to cut the plastic pieces. Here are the forks with them removed:

Superbrace installed and tightened:

View of the bolts from the back of the superbrace:

And with the fender reinstalled:

I like how it's black and dips down to hide behind the fender - very unnoticable.

Canon PowerShot SD450 (Digital IXUS 55)

2006-03-25T13:09:00.000-08:00

Since I got a bonus at work, I decided to spend a little bit of it on a new pocket camera. This is a replacement for my old Canon S230.

I've had the S230 for a number of years. It's a good camera - 3 megapixels, metal case and fits in your pocket. It can do 640x480 video for 30 seconds, or 320x240 for 3 minutes. As I said, I've had for a number of years, and it served me well. But it's amazing how cameras evolved in the last few years. For about the same price that I originally paid for the S230, I now got a Canon PowerShot SD450. 5 megapixels, also metal case, and even smaller than the S230. And with a bigger LCD. And much faster. And it can do 640x480 video until it fills up the card (it tells me I have 8 minutes 31 seconds left when recording on a 1GB card). Now, it's still a small point-and-shoot pocket camera and can't compare to my DSLR in quality and speed - but it's much better for carrying around for random pictures when you don't want to lug the DSLR with its huge lens around. Here are some pics.

Yes, I have enough cameras to take a picture of 2 of them with the third one. Shut up.