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On my '07 trunk rack, I use a Dowco Iron Rider bag. Self supporting with rain cover, it fits the rack curves well enough. http://www.motorcycle.com/products/iron-rider-luggage-from-dowco-3906.html I am not sure which of the 3 models shown I have. With mine expanded (ends unzipped) it just touches the antennas. Zip in, it just overhangs the trunk rack. Because it is self supporting, it does weigh a bit or pure soft bags. but not bad. - Mike

Just bought a 450 from Comp-U-Plus (http://www.compuplus.com/i-Garmin-Zumo-450-Motorcycle-GPS-Navigation-System-010-00567-05-1008910~.html) for $339 and used Live Search Cashback link to get there, for an additional $20 cash back - so $319 plus about $14 shipping. This was about Dec 22, told wife, and she hurredly called my son. They were going half and half on an Zumo 550 for me for Christmas present. She reached him about 10 minutes before he placed his order. Otherwise would be returning one. They are selling new Zumo 550 for $630 right now I see. I would have gone with the Oregon 300 or the Zumo 550, but the 450 is too good a deal to pass up. The price has started falling on the 450 very recently. Garmin has just this month listed the 450 as a discontinued product. The car mounts are on eBay for around $60 if needed. the MC mount is expensive, and the City DVD is another $90 if purchased separately. So $320 - $160 = $160 for the Zumo unit itself, not bad at all and $300 under the 550 right now. I plan to use the 450 with the motorcycle mount on 2 motorcycles and my truck. All 3 will have a RAM ball mount and a 6 pin small waterproof plug with power and audio wiring. Also each wil have a dust cap to keep the water out when disconnected. The 450 will have a matching plug a few inches away with the audio and power. This way I break one connection and remove the whole unit from the RAM mount and transfer it - no hassle. In the truck I have a small cigarette lighter mounted FM transmitter with aux line level input so I can hear the turn instructions and MP3s. Waterproof mini Connectors from Digi-Key I selected: 3 HR579-ND,CONN PLUG 6POS FEMALE SOLDER,CYCLE SIDE GPS 1 HR593-ND,CONN JACK 6POS MALE SOLDER,GPS SIDE 3 HR598-ND,CONN DUST CAP FOR 3&6POS PLUG,CYCLE SIDE PLUG, CAPS - Mike

Further thoughts: This manufacturer has lots of audio switching modules. They run on 24-33 volts but apart from that, you could combine a couple of these for a solution I think with no custom circuit design/build. They are also expensive devices so the Kennedy is probably a better solution once again. http://www.rdlnet.com/product.php?page=278 The ST-ACR2 is a line level voice controlled relay. When inserted in the microphone line, when the GPS speaks the turns or plays music, it would automatically select the GPS audio instead of the normally connected Mic audio. You will likely need an attenuator on the GPS output also to better match the mic low level signal. The ST-VOX1 (http://www.rdlnet.com/product.php?page=155) is a similar VOX switch which can control muting/switching also. You just press the PTT at the right time to pass on audio from the GPS. This solution scheme preserves the passenger mic input by switching one of them automatically. There are cheaper 12V VOX relays kits out there also. Too much good stuff. - Mike

This is a bit old but seems to have gone without a conclusion. You should be able to do this but will take a mixer device(s), switches, and some wiring work. Probably not as simple as you would hope for. The short answer is - go with a modified Kennedy solution that connects the GPS to the intercom ckt ($$$), or do a dedicated GPS audio to intercom connection (some work and $$),or just repeat the turn instructions over the CB (free - $). To transmit the voice prompts (which means the GPS audio - any audio music and all turn voicings) the GPS audio presented on your AUX input now must also be mixed with your microphone wiring on the bike that feeds the intercom/CB mic inputs. I have not done this (yet) or done a detailed look at the schematics but here are a few options I can think of, presented somewhat conceptually at this point. This is long and written as it came to my mind, edited as I eliminated first thoughts that seemd good at first but logically could not work in the end. These I think have some merit still. This assumes a RSV audio wired system, no bluetooth audio solutions. To get the CB to transmit the audio, you have to connect the GPS audio to the intercom mic (properly) some way. Method 1: Simplest solution - GPS Audio always on over intercom. - Assumes no passenger using the passenger mic connection. - GPS Music and Turn voicing routed to intercom mic line in place of a passenger mic. - No stereo music/voice connection to aux input. - Note that if music is playing when PTT is pressed, it will be rebroadcast (illegal). - Intercom plays the music from GPS in mono over the intercom - not great but simplest. - No power or PTT sensing required in simplest form if it works. a. Connect the GPS left channel output (L audio+gnd) to the passenger connector mic pins via a non-polarized audio capacitor (in case the mic is powered condenser mic versus dynamic mic element). Done properly an impedance matching transformer or amp would be used, but this might be good enough for proof of concept. Even better a mixer would be used to combine the L+R channels going into the mic line. b. Upgrade solution - use the PTT switch to operate a switch that connects the GPS audio to the mic on transmist only. Method 2: Switched GPS audio between the passenger mic and the Aux input - Same as above with changes below a. Connect the right GPS audio line to the Right Aux input line (straight through) b. Connect the Left GPS audio to a relay or other suitable audio switch (a small FET switch circuit for example) common contacts c. Connect the relay/switch normally closed contacts to the Aux input left channel d. Connect the relay/switch normally open contacts to the mic input (via a non-polarized cap possibly?) d. Control the relay/switch from the PTT switch so when PTT is pressed, the GPS audio is connected to the mic line. The aux input is opened, but the system mutes the Aux input anyways. A switch/relay is used here to avoid line loading issues connecting one output to 2 inputs. e. Provide DC power Method 3: Full time GPS Aux connection, sampled GPS audio to switched passenger mic input. - similar to Method 2 above a. Connect the GPS audio to the AUX input full time. b. Using a suitable high impedance buffer audio amp, tap off the left (or right) channel audio and connect the amp output to the passenger mic connector line via a switch or relay device. c. Use the PTT to enable/disable the amp output (or disconnect via a relay/switch) to silence the duplicate GPS audio over the intercom. PTT enables connection to mic. Simple solutions are difficult to come by here so real solutions using proper mixers and impedance matching and muting cost money. The Kennedy line is an example of the variety and complexity these solutions involve to do it right. Overall, the effort does not seem worth the value of this specific need (to transmit turn instructions over the CB). It is a lot easier to repeat the instructions reading the display. It is an interesting mental exercise to me to think about how this could be done, if time and cost were not a concern to me. I am gettng a Zumo shortly and thinking how I could have it play over the intercom (to hear the FM radio) and hear the full fidelity music over the AUX (selectable) but decided it was better to just connect it to the AUX input only and select it when I need to hear it. The GPS mutes the music if playing. One side effect is the AUX input is muted when the CB squelch opens which if listening to people talking a bunch can cause you to miss a turn announcement - so have to keep an eye out on the display. Only way around that is to connect the GPS to the intercom full time, or switch it between aux or intercom as your needs dictate. If I did not care about the GPS MP3 music player function or quality, I would connect it to the intercom some way full time as this has priority over all other audio sources. But it also requires more work than the aux connection,which is free. Anyway, interesting problem. - Mike

Just received new PL14610 filters. The gold surprised me at first since my last ones were blue. They are gold textured finish now and the box now claims 99.9% efficiency at 40 microns. The longer filter does make it tough to use a metal band type filter wrench. I take off the single bolt holding one end of the metal band to the handle and then feed the band around the filter and slip the bolt back in and loosen the filter. These days I tighten the filter by hand far enough so I do not need to use a wrench except to remove it, when it will also get dented. The textured coating should make it much easier to hand tighten it fully. The filters are made in the USA, possibly Fayetteville, NC according to the label. - Mike

The batteries can go quickly, sometimes caused by internal shorts that build up (dendrites if i recall?), or chunks that fall apart due to vibration and fall across the plates. Other fail modes, punch-through between the plate insulators, internal resistance rises that cause it to not accept a charge from the bike, chemical changes (low on water, impurities). Lots of potential causes. If it is several years old, probably just the battery gone. But something else to keep a look out for is a charging system failure. While riding you could have been running off the battery at times for who knows how long. After your trickle charge, check it the next day to see if it maintained the charge. Also check the water level. One failure mode is overcharging (charging failure again) and that can be seen sometimes by feeling a hot battery case and low water levels, maybe sign of moisture in the overflow tube or on the floor, or on the top of the battery around the vent plugs. If you can, measure the battery with the key on and key off (engine not running). If the voltage is under 10.5 something is wrong. A better number to see is 11.5 to 12VDC under light load and 12.5 Volts key off (both +/- .5). - Mike

Generally if the engine continues running at higher RPMs and does not die, fuel flow to the carbs are not likely the problem. If it will not run at low RPM, more likely the carb itself is gunked up or other fault inside. You can remove the hose from the fuel pump easily and test. There is a fuel filter behind it which is not easy to get at though you can shine a flshlight on it and gauge how gunked up it might be. If you stil lthink fuel flow to the carbs might be an issue, an 86 likely has a fair amount of rust in the tank bottom by now and it could be clogging the screen in the tank (over the petcock), the hose to the filter, or the filter itself. The fuel pump tries to maintain pressure so pulling the outlet hose off and turning on the key (engine does not have to run) the pump should squirt fuel out merrily. If flow is good at the pump, consider a pinched/collapsed hose. There is a wire support at the top back center of the carbs that squeezed my braided fuel line nearly shut. Opening up the support a bit cured that. This is a hard one to diagnose since disconnecting the hose means removing it from the support, thus masking that problem. Only draining the bowls over time or such can test that. If that is not it, could be the carbs are gunked up and need cleaning. Other things like floats out of adjustment and deteriorated gaskets/plugs inside also. I started out with the fuel hose test because that is easy to isolate before treating carb innards with cleaners or taking them apart and you mentions the fuel pump directly in your request. - Mike

Hi Walt, No close ups but I do have this one from a recent trip with the pegs folded up. They are mounted the same as yours with about the same angles. I should also note that any air they do manage to deflect is of no value since I wear tall riding boots. - Mike

On my '07 I have the Kuryakyn #7980 Longhorn Offset Dually ISO pegs. 1" magnum quick clamp holds well. These are a wider type footpeg. These have a 3.25" arm that you can rotate the pegs with. Really nice for long legs because you can extend the pegs further in front of the engine guards, or in my case higher and in front slightly to help avoid scraping the ground if it ever tipped over. The engine guard bars do not need more leverage working against them to protect the bike. When folded up, they slant inward so double as a wind deflector on my ankle/shin area. Not a lot of air, but some air is deflected behind the lower cowling. One thing to note about the clevis design - They are chromed die cast metal and use a curved (bent) D shaped washer to spring tension the pegs so they do not flop around. If you find the tension is not enough, it is tempting to tighten the clevis bolt a bit. Do not do this! Die cast parts are not designed to flex and will stress crack. The instructions just say tighten everything up and you might not think about what that implies in this case. Guess how I know this? The correct answer for a floppy fix is to bend the D washer more, or slip in a thin spacer to cause more tension. - Mike

Check out the brackets from MARC for motorcycles. I like the concept their luggage carrier clamp - nifty. http://www.marc-hq.org/40.technotes/40.htm I use a FT-817 with 2 whips on my KLR650 on mountain tops for VHF contests. One whip is a tri band 144-220-432 and the other is a 5/8wave 2M tuned for 50MHz both mounted on surface mounted NMOs on each end of a 1/4" thick aluminum bar bolted to the KLR luggage rack. easy on/off. For convenience I use a Comet diplexer to allow a dingle cable connection. I use it only when stopped so far. There are commercial audio integration units from Kennedy and others if you can afford one. 73, Mike

I typically get 38mpg solo mixed highway commuting using speedo which is 5 mph higher than GPS at 70. I just did a 1400 mile trip from Seattle to Hells Canyon and back. 2 up, temps from low 60's on the coast to mid 90's in the high desert (3-4K feet) in eastern Oregon. Oregon spped limit is 65 max, WA is 70. Rode 2 up with new Avons and 8K service just completed. Using speedometer inidicated speed and mileage I got 40mpg consistently but for 2 times 1. Weaving through Hells Canyon in high heat, lots of winding hills, avg speed was maybe 35mph for half the trip, 60 the other half. 2. Refilled at the OR WA border and then ran up hill at mostly 74mph with some good cross winds and some head wind gusting from river lowlands to over 3000 feet Snoqualmie pass. Filled up a few miles after the pass, got 34.8mpg by speedo. For all the straight runs I used the cruise control, including a lot of time in 4th gear while hill climbing. I think we went over about the about mtn 9 passes. So the odd statistic for me was the 40mpg coming down I-5 Seattle to Portland at over 70mph. Was not much wind and failrly flat, cool temps. 70, and hot with winds it dropped off a lot. Previous mountainous multi day trips I have had up to 42mpg by speedo) but that is 2 up with average speeds about 55mph. So after speedo correction (9%) I have gotten 38.2 to 35mpg actual over all conditions of load, road, temp, and speed mixes. I fill my tank very consistently. This is on a 2007 RSV with 12 months and just turned 9200 miles. - Mike

June 18 did Seattle to Baker City via I-5 to Vancouver, WA, Hwy 14 to the Dalles, then south to pick up the John Day river westward. Very nice bike road, lots of twisties and hills. As I recall 4 passes over 4K feet, 3 over 5K feet. Met many other bike riders for ice cream and sandwiches in Shaniko. Not much else there! The road to Antelope just outside of Shaniko is a canyon decent full of 15mph switchbacks. Should have stopped for a picture from the top. Took about 12 hours to get to Baker City. Raods hit as I recall, hwy 14, 26, 218, 19, 7, 395. Did Hells Canyon hwy 86 to the end at the dam on June 19. The canyon was easily over 90 degrees. June 20 was supposed to be a loop east of town to Medical Springs, but I messed up the road plan and got blocked by gravel roads in Keating off Hwy 86. Should have headed north on I-84 a bit and picked up hwy 30 east then north. Instead went up to North Powder via I-84 from Baker City and west to Anthony Lakes and Elkhorn Summit (7200ft) but the road is under contruction and turned to gravel so abandoned that and instead went through the back roads from North Powder to Union by a wind turbine farm and then through the back of La Grande to I-84 over the Blue Mtns to Pendleton. There we visited the Pendleton Woolen Mills store, Hamley and Co saddle/leather goods store, and had dinner at their new Steak House opened Nov 2007. It was a very nice place, good food. Returned to Baker City 1.5 hours south on I-84. While returning rom Keating, I just got off some gravel roads and onto the hwy where we were stopped waiting for a cattle drive to cross the highway. Several cowboys were on horses and of course there were a few cattle that wanted to go the opposite way, made for entertaining viewing. A few dogs helping out. When I stopped, I heard this loud hissing noise, not unlike the sound from the nail a few days earlier, so I hopped off the bike and was looking all over at both tires. I figured I punctured someting on the gravel roads. Finally took my helmet off and it was a hundred crickets in the sagebrush roadside disturbed by the cattle drive. Really did not want a flat out there. Sat June 21 was to be a ride to the Hell Canyon Scenic Overlook and NF39 up to the Mt. Howard tram in Joseph then home via Walla Walla. While at the Pendleton Info Center Friday, they called ahead and found the tram is still closed due to snow. They also said other visitors tried to follow the NF39 road and was blocked by snow and had to double back. Instead we haded back to Seattle via I-84 then to Yakima and I-90. It took a bit less than 7 hours. I put new Avon tires on a week before the trip, got a nail in the rear tire a couple days later - ouch, and got a new rear tire delivered and installed just days before the trip. The tires made a very nice ride compared to the Bridgestone stock tires that were square, howled at 40 and 70mph, and followed every groove in the road. the Avons were silent and road straight. Nice. 1400 miles over 4 days. Gas was $4.21 to $4.56. Averaged 40mpg consistently except for the return through Yakima and over I-90, where the 70 mph speed limits took its toll. Oregon is 65mph or less limits to rarely went above 69. Lost a front side reflector other than that no casualties and was a very good trip. Stayed at the Gieser Grand Hotel. It was a nice place, and they had a great design-your-own pasta buffet Wednesday night. - Mike

I have been using a HJC CL-Max modular for a solid year now, nearly daily. I find it very convenient since I wear glasses. Most full face helmets I tried are difficult to get my glasses back, besides trying to set them down on something each time I put on or remove the helmet. At the gas pump I can flip it up and comfortable work the pump/terminal. Long stop lights it is easy to flip up and talk to a neighboring biker, provided they can hear and talk as well as I can. I have the boom mic and stereo headset (Yamaha standard) and was able to shave out the foam part way and slip them under the fabric with damage/alteration to the fabric. They do end up a bit higher than I would like to clear the chin strap mount. Last week I tried on many helmets and tried the Nolans and many others. I was surprised to find that many fit OK for me, but the chin bars were brushing my chin, pretty tight for some reason, even the Shoei. The HJC gives me plenty of room. I do find that I get a cold chin since it does not have a chin deflector. My wife's Arai has a pull down chin bar, but is not a modular either. I like the tilt up visors available on some now. I switch shields between clear with tinted eybrow stuck on it, and light smoke. Not as easy as some other brands, but tool-less and about 3-5 minutes for me to complete. Some brands of modulars have a disclaimer printed on the chin bar saying it offers no protection (legal CYA). I have not seen any reports that tested them to full face standards. Another recent magazine review compared about 10 or so and noted such things as ease of use (latch, one hand or two required) latch construction (metal or plastic), foam in the chin bar, and of course the usual points like ventilation. - Mike

For the 2nd Gen, I have the Diamond R LED and also the trunk top mounted Yamaha spoiler LED. One thing nice about the Diamond R setup is the Chrome ring. These puppies really light up day or night. http://www.diamondraccessories.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=DRA&Product_Code=15SLEDLB&Category_Code= These are 15" and just fit between the helmet locks, just pulled the rubber covers down and used the supplied mounting brackets and bolts as I recall.

On my '87 it required pliers. A year of putting up with that decided to spray WD40 on it and work it in a bit. After that I could operate it by hand reasonably well. Got to watch leaving it in reserve if you have rusty flakes and a damaged screen. You might get the fuel port clogged and need to switch to normal to get another path. The crud was piled up inside the tank when I repaired my fuel sender leak and took a flashlight to peer inside. I fashioned a brass strap into a L shape and scooped out the piles of flakes. They were piled high around the reserve inlet and the screen was damaged some. That explained why the crud was in the fuel filter.