N-com Success

The Basic kits came this week and were surprisingly easy to install. The author of the instillation page made it sound more difficult then it was. It might have taken me 20 minutes to take the helmets apart, install the headsets and battery then reassemble them. The helmets linked right up to each other and we were talking immediately.

I then added the bluetooth link to my phone. That is a cool feature. I can dial using voice commands and take or end calls by touching the button on the side of the helmet. The first call that I made was in the house to my 2 year old daughter so it was difficult to say how well the system worked. Shortly after my brother called me on while I was wearing the helmet. I took the call and we gave the N-com a road test.

Brant reported that the call quality was really clear and aside from starting the bike he was not able to hear the bike during the call. I rode with my visor open and even stood above the windshield with no wind noise. I haven't tried yet to ride above the windshield with the face completely open. I suspect that even with the wind sock on the microphone there would be noticeable noise.

I made two more calls through the helmet today and both reported the same good call quality and no bike noise.

Rachel and I rode across town with them linked up and had plenty of volume and good clarity helmet to helmet. After the ride we walked to see how far away we could be before loosing the link. At about 30 ft(line of sight) we got static on the line and lost signal at about 50ft. It may be close enough to have communications from one bike to the next.



I really like how the helmet looked finished. Because the N-com is a factory part for Nolan helmets everything fits really well. All the polystyrene is formed to take the N-com components. Everything is self contained and looks as if the helmet was purchased that way from Nolan. If not for the microphone and the battery charging cable one would never know the difference between a N-com equipped helmet and one that was not.

Two big thumbs up for Nolan and the N-Com.

Nolan N-Com Bluetooth

We received the first half of our N-coms this week. The bluetooth and control kit came. With these we can talk from helmet to helmet without wires. It also allows us to make and receive phone calls through the helmet as well as listen to music. The voice and music will cut out when you take a phone call. The basic kit should be here soon. It has the headphones . I'll have to gut the helmets to install the N-com but Rachel found a good step by step that someone did.

http://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/review-nolan-n103-motorcycle-helmet-with-n-com.htm

I am excited to try these out.

How's your gas mileage? Prius? Volt?

To heck with these battery operated piles-o-trash. I just filled the Wing today and was pleasantly surprised. I pumped 4.066 gallons of premium Chevron fuel. I had rode 230.7 miles since my last fill up in Lyman.

"Oh gee Mr. Wizard! What kind of gas mileage are you getting then?"

"Well it's simple Timmy. We want to find out how many miles per gallon the bike uses. Right?"

"Yes Sir!"

"Then lets divide the number of miles by the number of gallons like this."

(scratching on a black board)

230.7 / 4.066 = 56.738

"Geepers Mister! Does that mean that the bike got almost 57 miles/gallon?!"

"That's right Timmy. One more reason that all boys should ride motorcycles."

(spoken in a calm fatherly voice and smiling at the camera)

Well you heard it here folks, the Goldwing averaged 56.7 mpg with a mix of highway and city driving. Join us next time when we disclose how cheap it is to insure one of these beauties.

Highway Boards are Great.

So the highway boards that I originally bought fit the first case guard fine but were too small for the new case guard. Well, I went to my go to guy(Dad)for anything metal and the next day he brings me back a finished product. He took them to the school where Hart and one of the students bored them out to fit. I bolted them on the bike the other night but only got to ride with them today.

It doesn't seem like a 4 inch square board would offer much more comfort then a peg until you ride with one. It is night and day different. I rest my feet there now with out gripping the tank or burning my calves on the valve covers. Glorious.

Road Trip with Trailer

Yesterday, Rachel and I took off for the night. We loaded the trailer with camping gear(despite not having trailer lights) and took off for Bicknell. You must be wondering what in the world would take us to Bicknell so I'll tell you. We went over to see the BIFF, Bicknell International Film Festival. It was a little like weird ville USA. We saw a movie called "The Claw" that we highly recommend.

The trailer pulled fine and follows well. Paving crews had chip sealed the dugway so we had to take it easy going up it. I would really like to get the trailer light connected however because it blocks the bike lights all together. One good discovery however is that the cooling fan does indeed work. I had never heard it kick on and worried that the sensor or thermostat or something was bad, but once we pulled into Bicknell I could hear it running. When we stopped at the campground to drop the trailer I turned off the motor but left the key on auxiliary so the fan would continue to run. After about a minute or so it shut off on its own.

We stayed in a campground just outside of town. It just so happened to be the same camp ground that all the crazy's were also staying in. Surprisingly it was pretty quiet. I locked the trailer to one of the picnic table legs with the safety chains and locked the hitch. We left it there while we went to the movie.

On the way back we decided to take a different route so we circled through Koosharem and over to Otter Creek. We stopped there for a few minutes to stretch our legs.


The bike averaged about 40 mpg which I didn't think was too bad considering we were riding 2 up and pulling a trailer with total weight of about 200lbs. The bike still held 70 mph comfortably while bucking a head wind once we got out of Marysville canyon. 190 miles total and the bike did fine. It is a far cry from a new bike but it still has some life left in it.

Trailer Hitch

So tonight I took on the project of switching the trailer hitch from the 78 to the 79. First off the hitch is a home made contraption that I have yet to prove worthy of actually pulling a trailer. Second, I had to take most of the rear end apart on both bikes. Once I got all the tupperware off of the 78 I caught the naked bike vision again. I really think it would make a nice cruiser. The biggest fight was getting the bracket to line back up on the 79. With a lot of persuasion I mostly got it. I will however have to make some small changes in the rear floorboard mounts and get longer bolts for the boards.

Word to the wise

Use lock tight on any and all bolts that hold aftermarket foot controls in place. I lost the toe pedal off of the aftermarket heel toe shifter that I just put on. The vibrations must have worked the nuts loose. I replaced all the bolts on the controls today with locking washers and Red lock tight. It is suppose to harden so tight that it requires heat to remove them. Sounds good to me. I really don't want them coming off again.