Month: January 2008

After buying a voltmeter and new wire clips, I located a good live wire and relocted the power feed for the handgrip warmers there. Turns out that it’s my running light wire, which dims a bit on “high”, but seems to have enough power to run it. The grips certainly got nice and warm.

The disappointing thing, though, is that it doesn’t warm the outside of the hands. The inside which clutches the grip is very toasty… almost too toasty, in fact, but the outside is still chilled. However, even though it gets a little uncomfortable, it’s MUCH better than before. In fact, I can lower my minimum riding temperature down into the teens from the mid 20s at least. I know it was 20 when I just rode and quite bearable with the new grips.

Next, I need to somehow keep my chin warm…

Now, I’ve gone and done it. I’ve put handgrip warmers on the bike. The trick now is to get the wires connected to the right places. I think I did it right, but I’m testing them right now to see if all is okay. They got warm briefly, but with the high-beams on. I wired them to the high-beam circuit, but I was hoping to get the hot wire and not the switched wire.

I may have to move the wire to the low beams. In fact, I’m certain that I will have to. I just need a new wire fastener to do so, and then I can put the bike back together and ride in the cold!

Only… not tomorrow. It’s 9 degrees by some measures here right now. I don’t think that’s warm enough even for handgrip heaters.

Blizzards came again. Well, what looked like blizzards to a displced Texan. It came down in buckets today and looks much like the banner at the top of the page. I’m pretty glad I didn’t ride my bike to the office. It would have been a miserable ride home.

Of course, I bit the bullet and ordered some handgrip heaters. They were only $27 or so, but I have to install them under the existing grips. I’m kinda surprised I didn’t do this before. Next, I’m going to try to mod my exhaust system to make it a little louder. It’s not good for a bike to be able to sneak up on people… I need to be heard – it helps with being noticed on the road.

I might even be able to get a louder noise for cheap, too. I’ll let you know what I find out.

After a long hiatus without my two-wheeled companion, it is now back at home in its proper place. As you may or may not know, the VFR800 was under recall for an electrical problem. Once I hit the 24,000 mile mark, I called the shop and verified that they had the part in and scheduled a drop. This was mid-December.

Of course, if the only thing wrong were the recalled part, all would have been well. It was not. Not only was the sub-harness bad, but the WHOLE harness was melted in places to the frame. No wonder I couldn’t keep a batter even a year without it going out. Anyway, in order to replace the whole harness they had to order one from Honda… which took about a month to come in. The bike was in pieces in the shop the whole time.

At least they did a valve job on it while they were waiting. It rides nicer now. At least, I think it does. It’s been so long that I may be mistaken. I’ll take it, though.

Just my luck, though – had great weather this week… until I got the bike back. It’s supposed to rain on Monday. 😦

Yes, I know I haven’t said much on this forum lately, but that’s because I’ve been working… working long, and hard at a new project which I enjoy very much. In fact, I’m trying right now to see if I can get it extended.

Despite the longer commute and hours, I’m really enjoying a faster-paced environment working on one of my favorite technologies: MIIS (now called ILM). It’s been very challenging so far, but I think I’m finally getting the hang of it and I really hope I can stay here longer. Once that decision is made, I’ll be able to make a more permanent place for myself here – and maybe even get my own desk and phone… 🙂

Welcome to 2008!