Cute…
Archive for July 21st, 2012
Helmet – Vcan 136 – Tinted Visor
So I’ve been wearing the Vcan 136 helmet for a few months now, and aside from the minor soldered connection issue early on (quick fix and no further issues) it’s performed flawlessly.
The helmet is comfortable, reasonably well vented and fits me well. My only complaint is that the visor wasn’t tinted. A few minutes hunting around on Ebay sorted that out, with a tinted visor quickly shipped to me.
The visor is a drop in replacement for the clear plastic one the helmet comes with, and looks better. We’ll see how it does for real over the next few weeks.
Stalling on a cold start
So, there’s been a recurring minor issue with the CBR250R. On a cold start the bike will often sputter a bit then die, occasionally with a mechanical clang. It was an occasional issue at first, then it started increasing in frequency until now where it is practically a regular event. It is something I’m not happy with in a brand new Motorcycle with 3200km on the clock.
Took the bike in for service today, and am hoping that the Honda dealer can do that voodoo, that they do so well. There are a few threads on this at the CBR250R forums with some speculation as to what the problem is, but no solid answers.
Bike Mods – USB Outlet
On the longer rides battery consumption of my portable electronics becomes an issue. Phone, GPS, MP3 player and Bluetooth Helmet (at the moment three of those items are actually one in the same) all run down all too quickly.
I had originally planned to install a marine grade 12VDC accessory outlet somewhere, but dangling cables and plugs shaking free sounds like a really bad idea on a bike. A solution from Princess Auto presented itself in the form of a Weatherproof USB outlet (for $6.99 no less).
After some pondering I finally decided that I’d locate the plug in the trunk, and if I did need to charge my phone I could just lock it in the trunk (as it spits everything to the bluetooth in the helmet anyway), and if I run a gps I can snake a cable up along the gas tank with few issues.
For installation I had planned to tap the battery, switching the power using a relay wired to the marker light. A bad relay forced me to cheat, running the USB outlet off the marker light circuit (a draw of 5VDC 450mA shouldn’t cause any issues, and I can cannibalize the wiring when I get a replacement relay).
So for now, it seems to work just fine, and I can stop checking the status of my phone battery so often.