Touring tips - the little things | Page 6 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Touring tips - the little things

The Burgman 650 wants to blow oil somewhere when run at speed ( still discussion about where )...drops a bit each high speed run. Otherwise does not use oil.
The site gauge is horrendously inaccessible.
The dash indicator flickers on a bit when it's down a small bit then goes away when warm. It will come on and stay on and then you need a top up.

It sounds very similar to this

DL650 Oil Consumption - Page 2 - Stromtrooper Forum ...
www.stromtrooper.com/v-strom.../2163-dl650-oil-consumption-2.html
Oct 25, 2008 - 11 posts - ‎9 authors
Although my Wee never used any oil when breaking in, it isnt .... 5W40 and I too tend to use a little bit of oil during extended high speed riding.
Click to expand...

and this

DL650 oil use/loss above 30K miles? - Stromtrooper Forum ...
www.stromtrooper.com/dl650-dl650a.../73907-dl650-oil-use-loss-above...
Apr 16, 2012 - 11 posts - ‎9 authors
Or is it the kind of thing where oil use/loss will slowly increase over the ... The only "loss" I ever notice is after running at prolonged high speeds
Click to expand...

and this amongst many others,,
Oil Consumption DL650 HELP!!!
www.vstrom.info/Smf/index.php?topic=8014.5;wap2
Mar 12, 2009 - Only once have I had to add oil between changes . . . .after a hard 2+ hour run in 100 degree (C) weather at constant 85-100mph speeds. Needed 2 cups of oil to ..
Click to expand...

so perhaps you are the exception or you don't do high speed slab runs.

My oil was changed before we left.
It was down a bit after 1,000 km of 120-150 indicated runs in +30 conditions.
That oil level indicator would have let me know how much.
 
When riding in very dry areas, nasal moisturizer gel (not spray) is a life saver. Makes Arizona smell like Muskoka but it works.

Dirty laundry in a plastic bag stinks!! Use the breathable laundry/spare bedding bag you will find in the hotel room or a typical reusable bag to keep it separate from the clean stuff.

Light weight packable bike cover. Helps keep off condensation and eyeballs.

A pair of thermal underwear/leggings and long sleeve pull over for those cool days can be used on the scorching days by soaking them.
(I keep one presoaked in a zip lock bag and put it on once the temp rises) At the very least wearing a soaked neckie will cool down your core temp while riding. Evaporative cooling.

A can of Pledge (HDX) furniture polish and some micro-fibre clothes. Let it sit a minute and all bugs will wipe off and you can clean the entire bike with it, anywhere. Will also clean your visor and help prevent it from fogging up (hockey trick). Can also be used to clean your leathers/boots. It will attract wasps to your bike though!

Do not use hotel or motel towels to wash your bike in the parking lot. It is an a-hole move. They are not allowed to re-use those towels for personal use by law. They will provide you with old towels/cloths if you ask.

Keep a photo of all you bank, credit cards, licence, insurance, id, travel insurance, etc. in a safe app on you phone in case your wallet is lost or stolen. Make sure everyone in your group has one anothers emergency contact information.

Handy flash light. I have a very small bicycle light that is strapped to my bars. Readily available and shines on me and makes me very hi viz at night. (Can even strobe if ever needed)
 
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Some great tips. Will use on this trip.

Speaking of tips...we are trying Anyglove treatment to make any glove tip useable with a smartphone screen. Will report.
http://www.anyglove.com

originalformula_panel.jpg


Annoying trying to pull a glove off with my teeth to use a touch screen on the go. :rolleyes:

So far there are a few tips we've used successfully - notably taking along a small power bar to charging stuff.
Given our tech heavy trip...been very useful.

2 laptops, 2 cameras, 3 batteries, 3 iPhones, 2 Senas, Mophie iPhone battery case, Lithium Anti-gravity battery, kids real time blood sugar monitor.

••••

Picked up some day old savoury buns at the local cafe/bakery - microwave for 15 sec = fresh and tasty. 3 for $2. Cheap snack with tea of coffee in the motel room.
 
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Get the Suzuki Assistant, Kawasaki Assistant, etc app on your phone and you will have the full parts listing, complete with the exploded diagrams for every nut and bolt for your specific model. Great should you have to order a part 2 towns over from the side of the road!

Keep an emergency **** Kit at the ready in your tank bag or where you don't have to unpack to get it.
Hand disinfectant wipes (more for the toilet seat of the run down gas station washroom), moist towelettes (there is probably no toilet paper and your arse will love you), mini febreeze can ('cause it's probably already hummin' in there) and some dental picks/floss and or any toiletries to freshen up at gas/food stops.
 
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MacDoc said:
The Burgman 650 wants to blow oil somewhere when run at speed ( still discussion about where )...drops a bit each high speed run. Otherwise does not use oil.
The site gauge is horrendously inaccessible.
The dash indicator flickers on a bit when it's down a small bit then goes away when warm. It will come on and stay on and then you need a top up.

...
so perhaps you are the exception or you don't do high speed slab runs.

My oil was changed before we left.
It was down a bit after 1,000 km of 120-150 indicated runs in +30 conditions.
That oil level indicator would have let me know how much.
Click to expand...

V-Tom said:
I don't tank an oil level indicator in the dash is really a big deal.. My 2006 DL650 with over 180,000 km used less than the difference between the high and low marks being ridden at 130 to 150 kph on 1200 km days very loaded in temperatures ranging from 30 to 40C. Otherwise it rarely needed an oil top-up between the 6,000 km oil changes even as it aproached 200,000 km. My 2012 DL650 never has needed to be topped up but it only has 132,000+km on it.

..Tom
Click to expand...

Is not my experience on my 2006 DL650 (above) what high speed slab rides are all about? I did about 3,200 km in 2.5 days from Utah to Mount Albert, Ontario at speeds that were in the 130 kph to 150 kph range. The temperatures were 80 to 100°f or 30 to 40 °c. At the end of each day I needed to top-up the oil. No question the engines use oil at high revs (looks like oil getting sucked out the breather) but is it a problem? On my 2012 I don't need to add oil between the 6,000 km oil changes, I don't think it even does a noticable drop. Of course checking oil is a piece of cake on a V-Strom as you just put it on the center stand and wait a minute. (While it is up there you can take 10 or 20 seconds of that time to lube the chain.) Perhaps the scooter bodywork on your Burgman makes it more complicated and so it needs the digital readout; but why complicate it if you don't need to?


..Tom
 
7up said:
Get the Suzuki Assistant, Kawasaki Assistant, etc app on your phone and you will have the full parts listing, complete with the exploded diagrams for every nut and bolt for your specific model. Great should you have to order a part 2 towns over from the side of the road!
Click to expand...

That is a very good idea. Too bad they don't have the app for android, but I do have my shop manual as a PDF. I never thought of sticking it on the phone until now.
 
MacDoc said:
Some great tips. Will use on this trip.

Speaking of tips...we are trying Anyglove treatment to make any glove tip useable with a smartphone screen. Will report.
http://www.anyglove.com
Click to expand...


MacDoc,
Are you guys heading to Valdez? I was there in 1996 - Saw my first Halibut there - lol - Giant Flounder! great place for Fish N Chips mate.

It will be interesting to see how AnyGlove up/works.. I recently changed from my LG G3 phone to a Galaxy S5 because the S5 has a Glove mode and a gerat AMOLED screen for Sunlight use. The water resistance is handy too. The new Galaxy S6 does not have glove mode. I have been testing multiple GPS apps in conjunction with my Zumo 660.

@7Up.. thanks for the tips. Will be making up my packing list soon for a trip to PA in July and will definitely use some tips provided here.
 
kiwi said:
It will be interesting to see how AnyGlove up/works.. I recently changed from my LG G3 phone to a Galaxy S5 because the S5 has a Glove mode and a gerat AMOLED screen for Sunlight use. The water resistance is handy too. The new Galaxy S6 does not have glove mode. I have been testing multiple GPS apps in conjunction with my Zumo 660.
Click to expand...

I've tried Anyglove as well as Thumbdogs and both work -- a bit. If you have a mapping app open and want to hit the zoom in or out button, anyglove will work. It does make the screen responsive to gloves, but it is still very hard to do precise things on the phone (or tablet) because you are wearing gloves.

So beyond zooming in/out if the app is well setup for that, and perhaps swiping the map around, you'll likely still have to take your glove off to do much. I'm planning to try the other idea I've seen posted here -- velcro a stylus somewhere convenient so when I come to a stop I can leave my gloves on, grab the stylus, and tap whatever the hell I am aiming at, not what the end of my glove happens to hit.
 
Motorcycle Mike said:
I've tried Anyglove as well as Thumbdogs and both work -- a bit. If you have a mapping app open and want to hit the zoom in or out button, anyglove will work. It does make the screen responsive to gloves, but it is still very hard to do precise things on the phone (or tablet) because you are wearing gloves.

So beyond zooming in/out if the app is well setup for that, and perhaps swiping the map around, you'll likely still have to take your glove off to do much. I'm planning to try the other idea I've seen posted here -- velcro a stylus somewhere convenient so when I come to a stop I can leave my gloves on, grab the stylus, and tap whatever the hell I am aiming at, not what the end of my glove happens to hit.
Click to expand...

Yes, after that Stylus tip was posted I did buy one as well. Concern for the "AnyGlove" stuff was how long until it wore off.
 
kiwi said:
Yes, after that Stylus tip was posted I did buy one as well. Concern for the "AnyGlove" stuff was how long until it wore off.
Click to expand...

I think it lasts long enough. My every day gloves that I treated last riding season still function with anyglove, and there is enough in the bottle to do multiple applications.
 
kiwi

MacDoc,
Are you guys heading to Valdez? I was there in 1996 - Saw my first Halibut there - lol - Giant Flounder! great place for Fish N Chips mate.
Click to expand...

Poked our nose over the border at Hyder for 20 minutes just to say we'd been to Alaska :D

Now in Prince Rupert after a cold soggy run....kid has inadequate weather gear. Mine was fine. 9 degrees and wet rising to 12 degrees and wettish made for a mostly miserable end of day - tho midday was tolerable...kid was freezing...mostly hands....thought about taking the heated gloves for him ....should have.

He did not bring rain pants...more misery and his new boots are not waterproof.

Scott jackets worked fine. Lots of real world tips to offer out of this day.

Valdez was the highlight of the ALaska trip by cage with GF....pics are here https://picasaweb.google.com/113408714888195024530/Alaska2014Lulubelle
 
For those of you that like to listen to music while riding, but never quite found the right ear bud that 1) blocks enough outside noise 2) stays in your ear and 3) doesn't hurt your ears, I think I found a great solution (at least for me).

First I bought this cheap set of ear buds from monoprice:
http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=108&cp_id=10823&cs_id=1082303&p_id=8321&seq=1&format=2
83211.jpg


They are not the best sounding ear buds out there, and they also don't isolate a lot of noise in stock form. The ear rubbers are thin. The advantage to these, however, are they are very low profile so even helmets that are tight around the ears should not cause any pain with these and should be easy enough to slip the helmet on and off.

So then I was watching youtube about making custom in-ear monitors. Basically people took radian custom ear plug kits, moulded them to their ears, then jammed ear buds into them and drilled out the channel. http://www.radians.com/radsite/inde...-products/item/radians-custom-molded-earplugs

That might work... I don't know as I tried another method that I found works better. Basically I took a small amount of the radian mould, wrapped it around the naked ear bud channel, stuck it in my ear so it is a perfect fit, then filled the rest of my ear with the remaining mold so the entire bud is encased in the radian mould. I let it set for about 20 minutes and then very carefully took a drill bit and made a sound hole through the mould to the ear bud channel. See this video for reference:

[video=youtube;Nb7bTe5XZPs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb7bTe5XZPs[/video]

I tested it the other day on my DRZ, but a MX helmet lets way too much wind in and I didn't find these effective so I will stick with regular ear plugs on that bike.

Tonight, however, I tested this on the Vstrom... and I am amazed. The ear buds sound way better than they did stock, they don't move at all and it is very easy to slide the helmet over them. Best of all... they block so much external sound that I can keep the music volume very low and still hear it clearly -- so hopefully greatly minimizing any hearing damage. I could not hear much wind at all even with the face shield open, and I could keep the music volume low enough that I can still easily hear the engine revs plus most of the louder noises that I need to hear (like horns, sirens, etc).

Anyway... I am very impressed at how well these worked out for my street bike considering how much it cost me in total ($15 to $20)!
 
I used to own a KLR and now I own a V-Strom, so I know a thing or two about ugly... but man, I don't think I could rock those even with my full face helmet.
 
sk ...I think I'd be calling 911 if I saw those oozing from a rider's ears... ;)

.........

Speaking of ugly and always carry duct tape....

Screen%252520Shot%2525202015-06-13%252520at%252520Jun%25252C%25252013%252520%252520%252520%2525202015%252520%252520%252520%2525208.50.30%252520PM.jpg


At the worst possible time....kid is hypothermic far far from any stop....the screw system holding the visor system on the AFX-55 sails away in the cross wind...backed itself out....so I'm riding one handed for 40 km .....hand in the cold rain holding the thing together til we hit a convenience store .....kid inhaled anything warm he could find and shivered in the corner....I did ugly with duct tape.

The visor works fine - inner and outer.

Screen%252520Shot%2525202015-06-13%252520at%252520Jun%25252C%25252013%252520%252520%252520%2525202015%252520%252520%252520%2525208.50.42%252520PM.jpg


Kudos to AFX for sending two free replacements to meet us in Nanaimo
 
petieboy said:
When in the US, I keep all my change in a sandwich bag in the top pocket of the tank bag. Then when I approach a toll booth I hand them the bag of change and the toll operator takes whatever they need. Beats removing gloves and fumbling for change. Someone had posted this tip on GTAM before.
Click to expand...

Brilliant brilliant idea


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
spankyaf said:
I looked into this a few years ago but it didn't look like Canadians could apply ... This would be even better as I'm always wary of traffic around toll booths


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Yes you can.
You may enter your Province in Canada. I entered for a car and added the motorbike as an "Other"
Scroll down when you select your vehicle and enter "Other"
There is a phone number if you need help and I found the customer service very helpful.
Also consider a Nexus pass.
Is it worth the hassle?
I travel down to Florida in the cage and have found it worthwhile.
 
7up said:
When riding in very dry areas, nasal moisturizer gel (not spray) is a life saver. Makes Arizona smell like Muskoka but it works.

Dirty laundry in a plastic bag stinks!! Use the breathable laundry/spare bedding bag you will find in the hotel room or a typical reusable bag to keep it separate from the clean stuff.

Light weight packable bike cover. Helps keep off condensation and eyeballs.

A pair of thermal underwear/leggings and long sleeve pull over for those cool days can be used on the scorching days by soaking them.
(I keep one presoaked in a zip lock bag and put it on once the temp rises) At the very least wearing a soaked neckie will cool down your core temp while riding. Evaporative cooling.

A can of Pledge (HDX) furniture polish and some micro-fibre clothes. Let it sit a minute and all bugs will wipe off and you can clean the entire bike with it, anywhere. Will also clean your visor and help prevent it from fogging up (hockey trick). Can also be used to clean your leathers/boots. It will attract wasps to your bike though!

Do not use hotel or motel towels to wash your bike in the parking lot. It is an a-hole move. They are not allowed to re-use those towels for personal use by law. They will provide you with old towels/cloths if you ask.

Keep a photo of all you bank, credit cards, licence, insurance, id, travel insurance, etc. in a safe app on you phone in case your wallet is lost or stolen. Make sure everyone in your group has one anothers emergency contact information.

Handy flash light. I have a very small bicycle light that is strapped to my bars. Readily available and shines on me and makes me very hi viz at night. (Can even strobe if ever needed)
Click to expand...

7up

I've always heard that "Plexus" is basically re-branded Pledge.
Do you happen to know if this is true?

+1 on the comment about using hotels towels on your bike. It is a jerk-move.
And people wonder why the cost of hotel rooms are what they are.

Cheers,

Rob
 
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