MPG Motors now offers custom LED lighting solutions for our bikes. Ron has finished some beautiful installations that have our scooters and motorcycles “floating on a cloud of light”.
Starting out at around $100 installed, from accent lighting at one extreme to snow and ice melting eyeball burners, Ron can give your bike the ability to be seen from low-earth orbit.
Did I ever mention that scooters and bikes are supposed to be fun?
I thought so.
Mike McLaughlin, his wife and a friend stopped by recently. Friend was riding a Honda CBR 600, Mike and his wife were riding scooters. Now, scooters and sport bikes riding together can and has been done but it’s not something I often see when riders come to visit.
It made much more sense after I spent some time looking over Mike and his wife’s scooters. Mike’s wife rides a Suzuki Burgman 400. Her Burgman has a Leo Vince custom exhaust and also had a big electronic air-fuel ratio gauge near eye-level. We don’t usually see that either! An air-fuel ratio meter??
Mike then showed me his ride, a Yamaha T-Max. The T-Max is relatively new to the US market and “blurs the boundaries between scooters and motorcycles”. In my words, it’s a performance scooter. The stock T-Max starts out with a 500cc twin-cylinder motor. That is almost twice as big as our biggest scooter motor. Our scooters offer a lot of the rest of the T-Max technology, dual front disc brakes, rear disc brakes, four valves per cylinder. We have scooters that can run over 80 mph. Mike’s scooter goes … faster.
Mike started with the T-Max and then he got to work touching it up.
To the stock T-Max, Mike added a Yoshomira R-77 full carbon fiber exhaust system, a J.Costa racing variator (high-performance transmission) and a BMC high flow air filter.
So far so good. The Genuine Stage II Kit we talked about last month (John and Tara’s “One Bad Buddy”) had most all of that.
Then Mike added a Dyno Tune Nitrous Oxide System (NOS) with a 25 shot bottle. Nitrous oxide (laughing gas) was used in World War II to increase the power of the fighter and reconnaissance aircraft – often at high altitude where the air is thinner. You can read what Wiki says about NOS here. Or, you can go watch the Fast and the Furious movie with Vin Diesel. In the F&F movie, they yell “NOS” about every five minutes – it’s a big part of the movie. But adding the NOS system is only half the story if you don’t want the engine to grenade…
Finally, Mike added what I feel is the most critical upgrade – a Two Brothers Juice Box fuel injection controller. All that Nitrous Oxide adds oxygen to the motor and you must add additional fuel if you want the motor to survive. The Juice Box does that for Mike.
Mike did a really professional job. It all looks factory which is often the true test of a modification suite. He knew the technology and did his research and the end result is just what he wanted.
Mike was kind enough to let me ride his ‘Max. I didn’t use the NOS but even without the bottle, it’s the fastest scooter I’ve ever ridden.
Thanks for the ride, Mike! Nice Job!
As I write this, I can hear that American Idol on Fox is over for the night. Something that Randy Jackson often says on Idol keeps popping up in my head as I think about John and Tara’s Buddy Scooter, “Dawg, you made this your own!”
So Tara’s red 2007 Buddy 125 … has been undergoing a constant makeover since shortly after she got it. With Tara’s requirements in mind, John mixed in a couple of things that made it their own. Let’s take a look.
Early on, John added the Cuppini Buddy windshield to give Tara some wind protection and he also put a swank cover over the seat which let John (a Buddy rider too) stretch out a bit on their Buddy.
Things stayed the same until last fall. At that time, John asked us to add the Stage 1 Buddy Performance kit. This kit includes the Prima performance exhaust which, since it reduces back pressure gives this Buddy a distinctive growl and bite. The kit also came with lighter rollers in the transmission and a new performance spring for the clutch.
Recently, John had us add the last bits to make the conversion to “One Bad Buddy” complete. We added Dr. Pulley sliders that makes the transmission engagement nice and crisp. We installed the YSS performance adjustable shock in the rear and the NCY front forks that are also found on the Buddy Blackjack. We put the ever popular Stebel Air Horn that is standard on the Buddy Internationals, the chrome rear rack and matching top case so Tara has a place for her lunch. When we got to the tires, John wanted white walls. I think the white walls give their Buddy a look like the classic cars of the late 50’s. Like Guido said in the CARS movie when he was talking to Lightning McQueen,
“But these white-wall tires, they say look at me, here I am, love me.”
Last, but certainly not least, John had us install the 161cc upgrade taking his stock Buddy to a bigger motor than the Blackjack. Now this Buddy gets after it and gets the front end light when you just roll on the throttle.
The end result? A Buddy that “You made your own!”
Nice Job John and Tara and congratulations on your Buddy AND your new addition to your family!!
I have been riding with our new Gerbing products for a couple of weeks now. I have used them primarily in my daily commute riding various scooti and a Suzuki S40 (650cc thumper). All these bikes don’t have enough electricity to run traditional heating clothes. I’ve worn a pair of the Gerbing Core Heat battery powered gloves and a Core Heat Vest.
These are working out well for me both on the bike and *also* around the home and shop. Since the chargers are pretty inexpensive, I’ve got chargers at both ends of my commute. There are three batteries total. The batteries in both the gloves and the vest at Wide Open Throttle (100% – max heat) last at least two hours.
Now, if I am going to be warm, I’m gonna be toasty! I crank it up. I wear both the gloves and vest for the commute. The gloves heat all around your hand, not just on the grip side like heated grips. They have a swank elastic pull strap to keep the gloves tight against your coat so the chimney effect of driving doesn’t suck the warm out. My fingers haven’t been cold yet. Very nice. I run the vest at it’s 75% setting, and that is working well too under a Fieldsheer coat.
I pull in and plug the glove batteries into the charger. I keep the vest going and wear it under a light fleece coat. The heat seems to stay constant until the battery is out of juice. Then I pull it out, put another one on and put that battery on the charger. I also had to try the heated seat cushion. This works well in my chair, would work well for hunters and at sporting events or if your car heater doesn’t. As I write this on our cold and wet Thanksgiving Eve, I’ve had the vest on all day. It lets me save a little energy here. I just heat … me.
Oh, I also been using the vest at home like a heated Snuggie (TM) and outside when the dogs are walking me (…and yes, I meant to say it that way). We’ve got both the gloves and vests in stock.
Hammy Hammers Down and Nails the Iron Butt Association’s SaddleSore 1000!
Jonathan Tan (Hammy) completed the required 1000 miles in 24 hours for the SaddleSore 1000 (SS1000) on his 2009 SYM Citycom 300i. Jon rode from Philadelphia to Springfield, Ohio and back – 1049 miles in under 24 hours!
Except for locust, Jon encountered nearly every other natural phenomena. Departing on Saturday afternoon from the Philly suburbs, Jon was in the rain on the warm side of a weather front and transited heavy thunderstorms laced with hail on the way west. After passing through the heavy weather into the cold on the other side of the front, temperatures dropped into the 30’s by the middle of the night in Ohio. Heavy winds buffeted Jon heading west. The heavy weather made it through Jon’s raingear which, combined with a windchill that was sub-freezing at 60mph, made hypothermia a real concern. At one point he nearly lost feeling in his hands and feet. Jon was ready for this and wisely spent a few precious hours warming up and drying out in a hotel early Sunday morning. He resumed riding in the middle of the night and made it back within the allocated time – happy, healthy and really, really tired!
Jon had the help and support of many members of the Wild Hogs Scooter Club. SYM, MPG Motors and Gerbing personnel also contributed equipment and suggestions. Jon said his CityCom 300i (aka “Natasha”) ran “wonderfully” and almost non-stop for the 24 hour run.
Many of us were tracking Jon’s progress real time (graph below) through a SPOT system over the weekend and club members also volunteered as required witnesses for the SS1000. It was a team effort but Jon was the guy in the saddle, twisting the throttle, did the real work and got the job done!
Jon showed tremendous perseverance and great judgement and we are really proud of him!
Great Job!
With the coming of shorter and colder days, we’ve been working hard on solutions so we can help extend the riding season here in Southeastern PA. We get a number of questions about heated (wired) clothing and will or won’t a bike support wired solutions. We have added standalone heated clothing to deal with the weather for our riding commuters on the bikes that we know won’t work. But, there is is a way to figure out what the system can handle. To determine what can work, I like to look at the observed voltage to see what is happening with electrics on a bike.
I had a conversation with Rick at Rick’s Motorsports Electrics (http://www.ricksmotorsportelectrics.com/) when I was looking for electric heated clothing solutions. We were talking about Hyosung’s particularly, as Rick makes stators (the thing that makes the electricity) and the regulator/rectifier (the thing that tells the stator what it should be doing to maintain battery charging voltage) for Hyosungs. Once those two, the stator or the reg/rec, are maxed out, your system is maxed out. A quick way to check this is to look at your voltage with the bike up on the center stand at idle and also with the engine revved up a bit (be careful, of course when you do this).
You can check the voltage with a very inexpensive multimeter from Radio Shack or the like (~$10). You measure the DC voltage with the multimeter at the battery on the + and – terminals. If you have a cigarette lighter adapter (like we do for the Battery Tender Jr.’s for bikes that have a lighter adapter), you just plug it in and stick the multimeter probes in the end of the lighter adapter to measure the DC voltage. We showed how to check a battery’s voltage Oct 15th, at our Maintenance Night.
The battery should be around 12.5 V at rest (bike not running). This is normal battery voltage for a 12V battery. You will see a big drop in voltage when you hit the starter. Makes sense, right? The engine isn’t running and the electrical starter, powered by the battery, is turning a cold engine. This voltage drop shows the battery is discharging and in a big way. The corresponding big amperage draw is why eventually a battery can’t turn over a non-starting motor.
Incidentally, a non-cranking motor does not mean the battery is bad. It often is just the result of the motor not starting for some other reason. You must, of course, now also deal with a discharged battery when one investigates the non-starting problem.
After the engine starts, the stator (an electricity generator) takes some of the power of the bike motor to make electricity to power the electrics (lights, turn signals, horn, etc.). The job of the regulator/rectifier is to take the AC voltage that the generator makes, convert it to DC that the battery needs and also not to fry the electrical system. Left to it’s own devices, the stator can make weird voltages that would hurt the bike – voltages like 18-19V DC. The electrical system wouldn’t survive this. We recently had a reg/rec fail on a scooter and it burned out the headlight. So, we generally see healthy voltages around 13-14.5V when a motor is running some minutes after a start. Rick said he tries to maintain 14.1V with his reg/rectifiers.
So to see what your bike can do, with the engine running, just start adding things and turning them on. Hit the horn, the turn signals, watch the voltage change so you can see how this works. Turn signals take, for example, quite a bit of power for some reason. The reg/rec will try to maintain the voltage designed into it to the limits that the stator can give you. If, with your accessories attached, you are not seeing ~13V at idle, a little more than the battery showed us at rest, you are or are close to discharging. A long time in traffic and then a stop for lunch could find you with a dead battery when you come out after eating – not enough power in the battery to start the bike. If you are not seeing ~13V off idle, that combination of accessories will not work, period.
Running a system that is always working maxed out? Rick didn’t seem to have an negative opinion about adding an accessory package that requires 100% of your stator-reg/rec all the time FWIW. I had a customer that added higher wattage headlights to a TNG Verona and we didn’t maintain 12.5V at idle but did off idle. That was four years ago…
There have been a number of days that I continue to ride the bike that have not been at all unpleasant because of a couple of clothing items I am using.
First, I have a windproof, armoured coat from Fieldsheer. This coat has a double seam down the front and a raised collar with velcro strips placed up and down the zippered seam. A windproof coat (check the specs) makes a *huge* difference.
Next, I use Scott gauntlet gloves that prevents any exposed skin at the wrists. They are not heated. So far, after a half hour commute, only my finger tips have gotten cold on the Goldwing – which has to be the best bike in the world for warm winter motorcycling!
I have worn both rain pants that don’t breathe to keep the wind off of my legs as well as ski bib overalls. It’s easier for me to put the bibs on and they seem to work as well with the wind and also provide some more warmth.
On my head, I have a full face HJC helmet and I wear a head stocking that extends down onto my chest and back and under the collar of the coat. I end up looking like this (below) – ready for almost any beauty contest that is near the Artic Circle…
Final note. I am riding when it is less than 32 degrees, but I am really watching very carefully for any pooled water from cars, trucks and from drains.