Moto mayhem

In a few weeks, Christine and I will embark on our longest motorcycle ride to date: Fort Collins to Flagstaff. We've been busy getting our bikes and gear ready for the long haul.

I've spent a lot of time in the garage over the past week installing cruise control on my bike. Not a throttle lock, but full-on cruise control. Conceptually it's pretty simple. There's a control unit that can tug on the throttle as it monitors speed, tach, and brake. As you might expect, it's a little involved to hook it all up.

It started with a teardown of the bike. I had to remove most of the body panels, the gas tank, the air cleaner (harder than it sounds), and even the throttle bodies. Having never taken that much off the bike, it was a little scary and I often wondered if it would all go back together. From there, I had to hook up the control unit and all of the wires. Sounds simple in words, but it took a long time and several trips to the hardware store.



Finally it was time to put things back together and cross my fingers. Once I got far enough along in the reassembly I could hook up the battery and test my wiring. So far so good, everything seemed to be working. Then I finished putting the bike together and started it up. The first time I tried to start it, I had forgotten to hook up the fuel line to the throttle body and the fuel pump spit a bunch of gas on me. Nice. After rectifying that situation, the bike started up and ran perfectly. Pretty exciting.

Then comes the scary part - a test ride. I put on all of my gear and set out to see what happens when you let a computer (and a marginally competent engineer) mess with your throttle. I got out on an open road near the house and hit the "set" button. To my amusement, I could feel the computer take ahold of the throttle and maintain my speed. It was super sweet. I tested out all the other features and everything worked great. I'm ready for some long highway miles. I still have some finishing work to do (like mounting the control pad), but it's mostly done.

In addition to the work on my bike, I made a couple modifications to Christine's. She wanted to be able to stretch her legs out a bit while riding, so I added some highway pegs. That's still a work in progress as we try to find a position that's comfortable for her. I'm not ready to tackle the cruise control install on her bike, but for now I've installed a throttle lock. Unlike cruise control, it takes some adjusting as you ride, but it will help give the throttle hand some relief.

On the wardrobe side, Christine had some height added to her boots. Even with a lowered bike, it's hard for her to get her feet down. The added bit of sole really helps.

And to top it all off, we added some new white leather pants and a white leather jacket. Hotness ensued.