You may recall my review of the Low Cost Motorcycle Audio by Shark back in 2009 . Well given to my penchant for low-cost but high value products, I now have a new Shark set up. This is the Shark SHKCYCLEKIT audio 2 speakers+amp . Now don’t get me wrong… I didn’t need it. The existing set-up is perfectly adequate. But when I saw the really cool bullet speakers, all chrome and shiny, my inner-kid kicked in and I simply had to have it. And well… I’m ever-so-happy I got it. Read on.

The Specs (Taken from the Shark website)

Amplifier:

• Working Voltage 10-16V DC
• MAX power @ 4 50WX2
• RMS power @4 25WX2
• THD 50dB
• Channel separation >50dB
• Frequency response 20Hz-20kHz
• Sensitivity 150mv
• N.W. 1.5kg
• G.W. 1.7kg
• Fuse rating 5A

Loudspeakers:

• Each speaker is 3 inches
• Working Voltage 10-16V DC
• VoiceCoil Impedance: 4
• Resonc Frequency: 165HZ
• Effective Frequency Range: Fo-12kHZ
• Puiput Sound Pressure Level: 88dB
• Rated Input Power: 15W
• Max Input Power: 30W
• Distortion: <= 5%

Installation:

Like with my fist Shark set-up, the kit includes a pair of speakers, an amp, and all the brackets and wiring necessary to get everything installed without even one trip to the hardware store.

The actual installation was dead easy. Though I must qualify that. I’ve installed and removed, and installed all of the doo-dads on my bike so many times, I can pretty much do it with my eyes closed. I don’t believe I’m overstating it though… the brackets are easy to use, no puzzles to figure out, and go on with simple tools.  In this case I used the existing wiring so there was no splicing & soldering. Pretty much plug and play.

My only criticism would be the mounting brackets for the speakers. Which are in my view, useless. They’re really nothing more than a single flat piece of chromed metal with a single hole for some screw or bolt or something to slip through. In truth this left me with one mounting option. Under the mirror stems. When you consider that the right and left sets of hardware on most motorcycle handlebars are anything but symmetrical, this left the speaker placement in a visually unbalanced position.

A quick solution was found though. Take a look at these babies… Needless to say, they are already shipping to my house and once I have them, I’ll be switching the mount right away. YAY!

Use:

Dead easy. It’s that simple. Mounted to the left side of the handlebars I can control with a single touch, power, mute, and volume. This allows me to minimize the amount of time my hand isn’t where it really belongs… on the grip.

Sound Quality:

One common issue with any sort of external sound source is what happens at higher speeds where wind noise is amplified. With the previous set up, I lost ability to hear my music at around 80 MPH. With this set up, while on the freeway at about 80 + MPH, I was able to listen to my cool-jams and even caught myself singing along with a couple of my favorites. Okay… you may not have needed to know that part but hey… it’s my ability to hear it clearly that causes me to forget I’m actually trying to judge the things. Another “yay” from me.

My Overall Assessment:

There are many sound solutions to fit the tastes and requirements of most motorcyclists these days. AM, FM, SAT Radio, MP3, etc… Some kits can run you several hundred dollars and require a lot of work to install and cleverly bury components under fairings and such. This is a low-cost, solution with what I’d like to call the mechanical equivalent to “plug-and-play” installation, sounds great, displays sexy chrome (or black) speakers, and costs WAY less than a hundred dollars. Honestly, you can’t beat the value when you consider the sound this little unit produces.

General, Product Reviews

As the final part of reconstruction following that little screw-up on Angels Crest Highway , I ordered from Aerolite Composites , a carbon fiber set of parts to replace my radiator surround. But rather than leave them as raw carbon, I elected to do a little paintwork. When I say “paintwork,” note here that I am no painter, automotive or otherwise, but decided that I’d experiment a bit to see what I can do. The results are by no means professional, but I like it.

The parts were shipped to me quickly and I used some high-temp paint obtained at the local Ace Hardware, to spray each piece and finished that off with several coats of spray-on clear-coat. And then simply let the finished pieces sit until I got my thumbs out of my back-side and decided to actually install them.

I have to say that I’m still trying to decide if I like the black surround vs. the original chrome. I suppose it’ll take some getting used to. But if it helps, those who have seen it have all suggested the new surround is better. What do you think?

More later…

General

It’s no secret I’m blind in one eye. I have been since birth. And while being monocular is perfectly normal to me, I also recognize that it brings limitations with my peripheral vision. Simply stated, I can’t see past my nose. So it should come as no surprise that I rely quite heavily on ambient sound to assist me in perceiving my surroundings. It helps tremendously for me to hear the cars, trucks, and other bikes, next to me.

Societally we are trending toward the idea of being “green.” This brings with it a new challenge for me. That is, hybrid cars are simply too quiet and I just don’t hear them when they are right next to me. And this of course, limits my ability to accurately understand the things by which I’m surrounded.  Not good…

In spite of the fact that I’m monocular, I simply cannot believe that I am so unique that I’d be the only rider who finds this just a tad disturbing. I wonder how many of the engineers at Ford, GM, Toyota, Nissan, and any other manufacturer, actually thought about ambient noise and the integral part it plays in the safety paradigm for those on the road. Consider that there are reasons for sirens on emergency vehicles and that every motor vesicle made has an audible horn.

My hope in writing this post is that it finds its way to the product management or customer advocacy teams at the auto manufacturers and they use it to correct what I consider to be a terrible problem with the design of hybrid vehicles. Note here, this is not a rant against being green. I happen to support such a movement. But when it brings with it new challenges my hope is they will be addressed swiftly. Simple.

More later…

General, Rants

In each of the last ten years, the club with whom I ride holds a multi-chapter event (Mostly the Nevada and California chapters) at Peggy Sue’s Diner. This year was no different. On Sunday the 16th of October I hit the road with some of the good folks from the Orange County Chapter of the Southern Cruisers Riding Club, and we rode from Corona into the Calico Ghost Town in Yermo. Then on to Peggy Sue’s 50’s diner.

We could not have asked for better riding weather, and I couldn’t have asked to ride with a nicer bunch of folks. Big thanks to Rhino for leading us to the Ghost Town and to Peggy Sue’s. Those who group-ride understand what that means. And thanks also to Cruizer who rode as tail gunner. Together they got us there, on the slab, at an awesome pace, safely. Nothing more needs to be said.

While the attendance this year seems to have been a bit down, the spirit was as high as it ever was. As always, announcements were made, appointments were made official, and we even had a laugh or two. And I HAVE to mention the buffet that Peggy Sue’s set up just for us. Well organized, easy flow, and tasty food. Yum.

I must say, I’m proud to be a part of the SCRC and hope to continue riding with them for a good long time. It’s a wonderful bunch of folks, with every bike imaginable, coming from all walks of life, with the common mindset of enjoying the ride. If you want to learn more about the SCRC just follow this link. We have chapters all over the country so if you’re interested, feel free to find the one closest to you and consider riding with us.

Photos from this year’s run are here.

More later…

General, Rides

On the tenth anniversary of the attack upon the World Trade center and Pentagon, I was honored to have ridden with, by my estimation, a couple thousand other riders, to collectively remember that horrific day. It was an excellent and well executed ride through the Protrero canyon starting from Point Magu Naval Base and finishing at Pepperdine University where, they had 2,977 flags set up to honor each of those innocent victims of that terrible day. It was an excellent ride… but this post isn’t about the ride. It’s about the collective heart that went into it.

Too often we are consumed by our narrow and isolated lives and our efforts are put into satisfying our own personal needs. Charity, nurturing the collective human spirit, and efforts in the name of someone else, are rarely executed. Yet when this country experiences such a devastating event as the attacks, we are brought together as one to stand and shake our collective fist at those who would dare to bring us harm. Such was the case on 9-11-11.

The ceremony, the reading of letters sent by fallen soldiers to their families, the beautiful singing of our national anthem, the 21-gun salute, all brought me, and a couple thousand tough “bikers” to tears. I’m not ashamed to say that I did in fact cry as I heard Taps played on the bugle by a uniformed soldier. I love my country and whenever I am witness to an outpouring of love it just gets me.

As for the ride…

Dubbed The Ride to the Flags the event is a volunteer based ride intended to benefit charity (see the website to learn more) and is host to a couple thousand bikes. Staging was at the Naval base where security was well-managed (because it was a military base after all), the bikes were stacked 4-deep for as far as you could see and was lead by the Patriot Guard Riders through Protrero canyon and onto the Pepperdine campus. I was initially concerned about ability to lead such a large number of bikes through the narrow mountain roads but I’ll be honest, it was so damn well-executed I am left incredibly impressed.

Along the rout were road leaders managing the line of bikes, managing intersections, and at times taking some risks to make sure the rest of us were safely guided through the canyon. Everyday people were on the roadside waving flags, cheering, saluting, and watching as we rode by. Parents were out there with their kids and traffic stopped to let us by. Again… I’m impressed. I will most certainly make sure to take the same ride again next year.

Here are a handful of photos we took on that awesome day.

And finally, I want to thank my dear friend Nickie for riding with me and standing next to me as I cried like a child during all the ceremony.

More later…

General, News, Raves, Rides

For most of us motorcycle enthusiasts, riding to new and distant lands is in some way resident on our bucket list. Such is the case for a friend of mine, Tim Stubbe. He’s riding the Four-corners which is a cross country run that starts right here in Southern California, goes across the country to Florida, then up the eastern seaboard to Maine and back across the country to Washington State. It’s a ride that will take Tim through most of the country. Wow! Certainly something I’d love to do when I finally retire. Untill then I will live vicariously through his rides and his sharing of the adventure. Read and subscribe to his blog and read about the adventure.

More later…

General

Owing to some minor damage to the bike, from my too-fast, too-tight turn against an opposing camber, I found myself in the position of having to swap out my shifter. So rather than stick with the stock unit, I opted instead to complete the look of my driver boards with the Rivco heel-toe shifter . And as with any other cool new doo-dad for the beast, I was anxious and just a little excited to install it.

Installation:

Before I installed the new shifter, I had to remove the factory piece. Which took all of five minutes (including the time it took locating that elusive 11mm Allen wrench). Installation was rather simple because Rivco does a very good job of engineering their parts such that there is typically no requirement to replace anything. Well in this case I did have to replace the shift linkage bolt (provided by Rivco). Ten minutes later the installation was done and I was ready to ride…
Wait… not really. Before I could ride, I had to adjust the front and rear portion of the shifter to accommodate my foot, and position it so that it didn’t fall back lower than the driver board. That was the longest part of the installation and added about twenty more minutes of adjust-test-adjust-test iterations till just right. But once I had that dialed in, I was ready.

Road test:

Now I have never ridden with a heel-toe shifter and the first thing I noticed, was the sensation that my left foot was trapped. I could feel the rear portion against the back of my heel. But if I slid my foot forward and away from it, my riding position was… well… it was different. Fortunately this didn’t take too long to get used to.
My only complaint, and I suspect this is somewhat inherent to the use of a heel-toe shifter (the heel part in particular). Simply stated, there are far too many separate movements one must make to actually shift. For each up-shift action I had to;

• Lift my foot off the driver board
• Move it backward
• Heel down on the shifter
• Lift my foot and move it forward
• Set my foot back onto the driver board

I suppose this too, will take some getting used to but it certainly doesn’t lend itself to shifting quickly in those moments of aggression. Then again, maybe that’s a hidden blessing.

My overall assessment:

• The unit was easy to install
• It looks pretty damn cool
• Shifting with the rear portion requires too many separate movements
• Shifting with the front is the same as it is normally
• My foot no longer feels trapped

I’ll keep it on the bike for a while in the hope that shifting will, at some point, once again become second nature.

More later…

General, Product Reviews

After my little mishap on Angels Crest highway… and owing to my inaccurate damage assessment, the beastie spent four weeks in the shop at Newport Beach Triumph. Who, along with the good folks at Triple-A, took care of everything swimmingly, and if they said they’d do something, they did.

But I digress… After four painfully lonely weeks of pining over the Rock, she came home. I took the coastal rout back to the house in Long Beach and pulled her into the garage to get started on re-mounting all the doo-dads… and promptly ran over a piece of glass large enough to have cut an unrepairable slice all the way through the tread of my new rear tire. Damn it! So instead of installing the stereo, GPS and stuff, I lifted her and dropped the tire. Which was dead easy to do once I figured out how to lift it properly.

Well last night I mounted the newly replaced tire, brushed her off, mounted the stereo, GPS, cup holder, and the frilly tassel-thingies… And went for a ride… Bliss…

This morning, I’m sitting at Starbucks, enjoying a morning coffee and fending off the homeless guy asking – yet again – for a handout. Ready to take the long way to the office. As I sit here, lifting cup to lips and staring at the beast like a kid in a candy store, I’m contemplating these past few weeks. I find it funny that I, a guy with interests and friends and stuff to do, would have actually been depressed with the absence of my bike. Really? Well to that end I say only this… For those who don’t ride, no explanation is possible… For those who do, no explanation is necessary.

More later…

General, Raves

I’m happy to announce I launched Twist The Grip’s very own Facebook page! Check it out… click on the like button… tell a friend…

More later…

General

We ride knowing we are taking a risk. Every time I get onto my bike I am all too aware that it could be the last time I do so. It’s just a very real part of the motorcycling paradigm. Close calls, accidents, injury, damage to your bike and other property, etc. are all part of the assumed risk we take whenever we straddle our machines. I don’t care how experienced you are, or how careful you are, or how well you ride… if it hasn’t yet, it will happen to you too. As riders we hope we will maintain the presence of mind to at very least, mitigate the damage when something happens.

Yesterday it was my turn. Note that the best part of what I’m about to describe resulted in zero injury and only minimal damage. It could very well have been devastating.

We were on Angels Crest highway and into the twisties. Nickie, a tremendousely knowledgeable pillion rider, was on the back. The road banked to the right, slight incline, and an opposing camber (the lateral angle of the road). I knew I was entering the turn too damn fast. Nickie did too. Here’s where the presence of mind comes in. In a fraction of a second I thought, “Too fast! Passenger on the back… Can’t risk a slide-out by hitting the breaks… Dig-in to the turn. Hold on tight…”

I leaned hard and the floorboard hit the ground on the right side. Dug in even deeper, and hit the rigid part where the floorboard is attached to the bike. When that happened, it did a couple things. First it caused the bike to bounce out of the lean and stood us straight up, almost causing a high-side-launch into oblivion. Secondly, since it didn’t launch us off the bike, it sent us careening across the road and into the gravel shoulder where… those darned steel reflector poles stood right in our path. Another litany of thought went through my mind in half a second, “Oh sh…t, we’re gonna go down… this is gong to hurt…Nickie… no! Hold on… don’t fight it too hard… stay focused…”

I saw one of those poles in front of me, hit it with the left side of the bike, up-rooted that thing completely out of its concrete footing, got through the gravel, back onto the road, and right back into my original position in our formation.

I debated pulling over at that point but felt if I did, I would more than likely NOT get back on the bike. So I stayed on and after getting a thumbs-up signal from Nickie we continued on for about fifteen minutes to our destination. That turned out to have been the wisest things I could have done else both Nickie and I would have lost our nerve.

Damage assessment (all of it cosmetic):

• Left side of the radiator shroud is cracked
• Radiator tweaked out of alignment
• Shifter bent
• Left rail to which the floorboard attaches bent, causing the floorboard to be out by perhaps 15 degrees.

Interestingly, and most notable during the after-math-conversation, was that path of damage suggests my left leg should have been thrashed. Thankfully neither Nickie nor I suffered any injury whatsoever. Whew!

Nickie congratulated me on my handling of the beast, as did those who saw it happen. I congratulated Nickie telling her that as a passenger, she did everything right and in so doing, shows that she trusts me. Something I take very seriously.

My riding experience in this case has tremendous value. But in truth, that has nothing to do with how I handled the bike or managed to get us out of that situation. Rather it has everything to do with the fact that what happened didn’t embarrass me, or cause me to question my abilities, or anything like that. It reinforced my understanding that no matter how experienced you are, or how careful you are, or how well you ride… if it hasn’t yet, it will happen…

More later…

General