Project Update

As mentioned below, I took off the major bodywork on the front of the bike to take care of some lighting upgrades. My nose cone now houses four ballasts for HID lights. They are really shoehorned in, and I honestly think I may be taking a risk with longevity. All they need to last is about 14,000 miles in the hottest part of summer. Keep your fingers crossed! I'll post some more shots when it's all back together and I can light 'em up in the dark.

Here's a shot of the inside of the nose cone. Low beam ballasts are on the left attached to the exterior of the glove box. High beam ballasts are in the center between the factory light assemblies.



This is a shot taken during testing. The new low beams work!



All major electrical work is now complete. I made a schematic which I will laminate and bring with me. Now I can forget how everything is wired and use that brain space for rally business.

Bits and Pieces Everywhere

My fuel cell is back in the shop of its manufacturer, BLM Accessories. After I sent the dimensions to the IBA tech team, I found that it's too big for the rally. Bill M is going to install a bit of displacement metal, and then ship it to Tom A for measurement, blessing, and certification. Better to get this fixed now than in a parking lot in South Carolina.

Another part miles away from home is my Autocom unit. This item had a defect right out of the box which prevented the cell phone from working. Even though I bought it from a dealer in the USA, I had to mail it back to England to be repaired. Hopefully it survived the US and international postal system and made it to its home country.

I also have a big chunk of bodywork off. The PHID aux lights that came with the bike have always needed attention. Unfortunately I didn't notice this until after I bought the bike, but the ballasts had been installed so that they interfered with the windshield motor. Every time I adjusted the windshield up or down, it would rub against the ballast. So off came all the bodywork. I relocated the ballasts to the center of the nose cone where hopefully they will fit properly.

Also going in at this time is the HID low beam kit I bought back in October. It shouldn't be a problem to properly squeeze in another set of ballasts and ignitors, but we'll see how that goes. Miscellaneous jobs were a repair to the glove box door latch, and a minor windshield motor farkle. Last but not least I have to fix something I broke while doing this job. The windshield mount is made of extremely soft metal. Part of it broke in my hand while I was removing it. That part should be waiting for me when I return to the office next week.

My training rides are just about done. April is an off month. In May I'm finishing the courthouse series, as well as doing a bit of off road practice with some LD pals. We're celebrating with an RTE in Hanford, featuring a house party and some home made gumbo. We've gotten a pretty good response already to the RTE. I'll post a reminder closer to the event and see if that snags any more attendees. Then in June I'm doing the Cal 24, my only rally this year prior to the Butt. And that's it. The SJC10K may turn out to be less than 10K. And that's OK.

Inner Iron Butt Peace




Something has happened to me in the last few days. After months of stress and excitement about this rally, after setting up a new bike, making lists and checking things off the list, after planning and executing a series of training rides, after getting good at the computer side of waypoints and routing, after thinking of a bazillion tiny details and posting every tiny question here on the forum, I realized that it all comes down to a single question:

Can I do it?

And I realized the answer is, Yes. I can do it.

If it turns out that I can’t do it, for whatever reason, it doesn’t really matter. It’s not the end of the world. It’s just a very special summer vacation. No matter what happens during the rally, I’ll have a great time and will always know that I did my best. That’s it. I can fantasize about this finishing position or that one, but where I finish doesn’t define me as a person. It’s just an interesting side product of my summer vacation.

I can’t tell you how much peace this has given me. Suddenly none of it really matters any more. My bike doesn’t have to be perfect. I don’t have to be perfectly trained and practiced. I don’t have to have a plan for every contingency. It’s going to be what it is, and I’ll make the best of it.

Aaaahhhhh.

This doesn’t mean I’m done with the training rides or the lists, or the dumb questions here (sorry!) It just means that the stress around all the preparation is over. I have achieved inner iron butt peace.

See you in Spartanburg.

The Last Farkle

This weekend I installed an Autocom system. This should cure my cell phone blues. I tested it with my friend's Blackberry Curve and it worked great in the garage. Still need to take it for a ride and see how the phone does at speed. Even if performance is not hugely improved, I've got the water-sensitive electronics under the seat now. Won't have to cover the dash if it rains. Mix-It worked great but now it's going into the Bin O Stuff.

Bonus with the Autocom is rider-to-passenger intercom. I wired Claire's helmet with mic and speakers and we went riding around the neighborhood. A real treat to be able to talk to each other. We called home and could both talk and listen at the same time. Cool! I think this could lead to us riding more together.

This weekend the IBA staff sprung a huge surprise on us. I can't say what it is, but I can say I like it. 09 is going to be very interesting.

Audio blog entry

My motorcycling drivel - listen at your own risk.