New Tent

So summers here and I’ve decided to try and open up some options regarding touring on the bike.  Since I passed my test I’ve been doing just daily rides out and whilst you can cover some serious miles on the bike in a day I started to wonder if I was missing out on some of the trip highlights by pushing so much to get the miles in. 

Whilst I might be in my 50’s now I used to enjoy camping when a kid and since the new VFR came with a full set of panniers and currently not having to worry about a pillion, camping seemed to be a sensible way to go.  The money I save on B&B / hotels I can spend on eating in the pub each night if I don't fancy cooking !!!

After doing some research I I narrowed down my choices to a Galaxy Vamgo 300, Coastline Plus 3 or a Lonerider MotoTent.  Being the first year of trying this I knew the investment in gear was going to be be steep ie £300+ but then I saw someone offering a tent on marketplace for just £30 inc p+p that seemed to fit my requirements.  I think its Colemans previous version of the Coastline Plus so decided what the hell and bought it.

Its the Coleman Bi Space 300….

Yes I know its discontinued but for the first year I think it will do fine.  Now its time to research and source a chair, travel cot and jet stove.  I cant be without my coffee in the morning.

VFR Hazard Lights Series - Part 3 - Option 2

 

This is the second post on this topic. The first can be found here

So i bought a 2017 VFR right hand switch gear off ebay for £7 just so I could see the physically what the wiring was like to explore this option.  Wiring diagrams are great but sometimes you cant beat the touchy feely.

Great start, it looks factory not surprisingly. The plug to the main loom is the same as what's already there which is also a bonus

 

Potential Problem

Hmmm the pin outs are different between the two plugs but to be honest I was expecting this or more pins in the newer plug for the hazard functionality

 

Investigation

Time to hit the wiring diragrams and see what each pin is doing.

Wiring Diagrams

2017 Switch	2003 Switch
Both linked from VFRDisccusion.com

 

Pin Usage

For the purposes of these articles I will assume the clip on the connector is always at the top as in the photgraphs above and that the pins number left to right and top to bottom

 

 

Pin	2003 Switch		2017 Switch
	Wire Colour	Usage	Wire Colour	Usage
1	Black with green stripe	Front brake switch	Black with green stripe	Front brake Switch
2	Black with grey stripe	Kill switch	Yellow with red stripe	Engine start button
3	White with black stripe	Kill switch	Black with no stripe	Kill switch, Engine tart
4	Brown with blue stripe	Engine start button	Not used	Not used
5	Not used	Not used	Blue	Indicators
6	Black with green stripe	button	Orange	Indicators
7	Not used	Engine start button	Green	Indicators
8	Blue with white stripe	Engine start button	Not used	Not Used
9	Yellow with red stripe	Engine start button	Black with red stripe	Brake Switch, Kill switch

VFR Hazard Lights Series - Part 2

 

Fitting Additional Switch

Not ideal as I want to keep it looking like it came out of the factory and not cut holes in the fairings for switch's or Velcro them on to the panels.  For this reason I'm not going down this route so its dismissed straight away.

Some say this is the easiest and quickest way to add them and I’m sure it is but its not for me.  If you do a google search you can find plenty of examples on how to do it but I wont be covering it here.

 

VFR Hazard Lights Series - Part 3

VFR Hazard Lights Series - Part 1

So  after an incident with a flat tyre last week that left me with a long wait for a recovery truck in the middle of a nasty set of twisties it became apparent thata set of hazard lights on the bike would be a good idea.  Its something I toyed with doing on my CB500 but never got around to doing before the bike was involved in an accident.

 

From my previous investigations I knew there were 3 options available…

1. Aftermarket switch and mess around with the wiring.
2. Buy an upgraded right handed switch gear from a later Honda bike that has the hazard functionality and see if the wiring in it can be adapted to the existing wiring on the bike.  Advantage is it would look factory fitted.
3. Modify the existing switch gear on my bike to add the functionality to it as it has a blanking plate where the headlights switch is normally.

 

Time for some investigation…

My Biking Life: VFR Hazard Lights Series - Part 2

New Chapter - VFR800

So after my accident and the ongoing recovery from my injuries Ive been doing some rethinking and I’ve decided to say goodbye to the CB world for a while and move onto a different type of bike.

Enter my VFR 800

Gumtree Add........
She isnt in perfect condition ....

The seat has a hole in it, theres some corrosion on her and the heat shield is loose but a little tidying up and she will be right as rain.

But she even came with a rear seat cowl and the full pannier set which are genuine Givi which is a bonus. 

 Overall 

All in all for a 2003 plate shes a nice bike and I look forward to riding her. I personally think she was a steal at £1650.

Headlight Upgrade

Let's be honest the headlights as stock on the cb500 aren't amazing. I use my bike all year road as my only means of transport so being able to see well is sort of important. 

I've already upgraded the bulb and whilst that was amazing for such a cheap win at under £20 I still felt that it could be improved on when I compared it to other bikes.

I did some digging on the Internet with regards to LED conversions etc and stumbled across an article about voltage drop in headlights.its not just a cb500 or even just a bike issue. The switch gear can be responsible for sucking up to 50% of the voltage that goes to the bulb. So out came the proper job volt meter and yep the bulb is only getting around 8 volts. Well that's not good. A quick strip of some wire and a feed direct from the battery with the bulb connector off and yes the headlight does seem brighter with the feed. 

Luckily the article proposed a solution involving a relay that meant the bulb got a battery feed and the switch gear was used as a trigger for the relay. It turns out that Honda are aware of this and the German ones actually had two micro relays built in to the oem loom to do this. 

So the first item for the upgrade arrived today....

It's a little larger than I had anticipated but I'm lucky in that my bike has the fairing to hide it behind. Its also got me thinking that I might use the feed for it to run the heated grips and usb phone charger on the bars which would tidy up a lot of the mess of wiring I currently have cable tied up there on the clock support frame and remove all the wires that head back under the tank to the battery.

So I guess it's fairing of at the weekend... 

Wheel cleaning made easy ?

I was looking at my wheels covered in winter detritus and thought there has to be a quicker way of getting them clean. £1 from Proper job and hopefully a lot less hassle than a toothbrush and less obnoxious than using Harpic 10 every couple of months.

Step 1  - Buy a £1 bog brush

Step 2 - Chop off the handle where it starts to change shape

Step 3 - Insert into drill and ready for action