So today I am taking a break from posting pics to answer a couple of questions that I have had.
1. What mods did I make to the bike for this trip, and how have they worked out.
In 2012 we took a 11,000 mile trip through 16 States and 1 Canadian Province. There were a few things during that trip that I knew I wanted to change prior to the next big trip.
A. Get the heat under better control.
Last year we spent some time in traffic and the EITMS would kick in.
Also, on long runs interstate runs at 75-85 mph, in high ambient temps (90+*), the oil temp would start creeping above 230*, which is not acceptable to me.
I did two things to address this-
Traded out the PCV for a Power Vision
Installed the CVS fan from Wards Parts Werks
The Power Vision is an amazing tool that has worked well for me. Before leaving I did a bunch of auto-tuning (with the narrow band sensors) and got it running better than ever, and better MPG too. This was in 80* temps.
That is the map I used the entire time. However, as noted in an earlier post, I was able to use the "Tweak" tuning and the realtime MPG and Throttle position readings to get me better MPG when we needed to make it to a gas station that actually had gas. lol
ALSO, when we got into some warm temps, I am able to monitor the engine temp on the PV and use the "Tweak" tuning to richen it up a bit so as not to run hotter than I wanted.
Lots of other benefits to the PV. Very pleased with it.
The other thing I did was install the Ward Parts Werks CVS fans. I have known about these for awhile. Just did not want to spend the money, plus the looks of them was not all that appealing to me.
Well, I bit the bullet and installed it. WOW! The fans direct air right over the hottest part of the engine (right over the spark plugs). Works better than a parade fan that pushes the majority of the air between the cylinders, plus I can keep my cowbell in place.
EITMS has not kick in one time. Engine temp, as displayed on the PV, is an average of 20* cooler while running down the road. At an idle, just sitting, the engine temp would actually drop and stabilize around 210-220.
Very happy with the CVS.
B. Prepped for the gravel and dust that turns to cement when wet.
Took a piece of plastic (from an old saddle-bag liner) and make a front fender mud flap. Only 1.5", but that is all it took to keep mud & rocks off the oil cooler. It also never dragged the ground.
Mud Guard
Also, I normally run my Outlaw Air Cleaner with an exposed element. I keep a rain sock with me that I use if I'm in heavy rain for extended periods of time.
However, after reading how the dust turns to a cement like material when it gets wet, I changed my cover from a Cyclone style to a Bobber style. Has worked great!
Cyclone Style Cover
Bobber Style Cover
C. Prepare for the cold up north.
I normally run an 8" recurve windshield during the summer and a TALL Flat-top recurve windshield during the winter.
Since we were going to be doing some of our traveling in some pretty warm weather, and other in some pretty cold, I compromised and put the stock windshield back on. This gave us more air in the hot weather than my flat-top, and better protection in the cold weather than my 8" recurve.
A good compromise.
We already have been using gerbing jackets for a couple years now. We have one power port for a dual controller for the two jackets. Well, we thought it would be cold enough that we would want heated gloves also. So we added the gerbing gloves to our gear, and added a second power port for another dual controller.
Turns out that we wore the gerbing gloves quite a bit, but we never had to actually put any power to them.
C. More electricity!
On our last long trip we took I would spend a LOT of time each night making sure all the batteries were charged.
2 cell phones
MP3 Player
2 camera batteries
3 video camera batteries
Even though all were topped off every morning, sometimes we would run out of camera or video battery before the end of riding.
So I picked up a power-point at wally world and installed it in the tour-pak. Ran a line directly to the battery (with an in-line fuse). With that I added a 4 port USB hub so that we could be charging going down the road.
This is much better, I no longer need to be switching out batteries in the chargers in the middle of the night. Nor do we run out of charge during the days when Mary is snapping hundred of pics.
D. Highway peg heel rests.
Adding heel rests to the highway pegs added several extra positions to how I can stretch out. Huge improvement!
There are lots of other mods to the bike, but I'm pretty sure these were all that we did in prep for this trip.
Next post will be answering the other question we have had many times....What all did we pack? Will get to that one tomorrow.