MRA X-creen Re-mount or "Oops, need to RTFM!"

So here's a bit of a lesson in RTFM.  That would be Read The Farkle's Manual in this case.  Now in my defense, I didn't read it, because I didn't know about it.  If you read my original post, you'll know that I bought this screen second-hand from a fellow Stromtrooper.  When I opened the package, all I saw was the windshield itself, so I figured it was just a direct replacement, using the stock screen's screws to mount it.  Apparently that is not the case.  As I was throwing out boxes that have accumulated, I was separating out the packing material that could not be recycled, and lo and behold, there was a plastic ziplock bag at the bottom of the box with... you guessed it... the installation sheet and some parts!

The mounting parts are essential for proper fit.

The parts baggy included two 15mm plastic spacers, two 10mm plastic spacers, washers, and longer screws with which to mount the windshield.  Interestingly enough, I was contemplating going to the hardware store to look for these very items to see if that would help move the wind off the top third of my helmet.  I installed the parts today before I went for a ride, which took all of 15 minutes.  The key to  installation is to put the washer on the screw, then insert the screw through the front of the windshield.  On the back side of the windshield, put the spacer on the screw, and then put the well nut on the screw and turn it 2-3 times to keep it from falling off, but not far enough to compress the rubber.  The two long screws go with the 15mm spacers in the top holes.  The short screws go with the 10 mm spacers in the bottom holes.  Once all four screws and spacers are installed, it's a simple matter of pushing the well nuts into the holes in the fairing and tightening them down with the included allen wrench (3mm).

 Back side of the windshield with all screws, spacers, and well nuts fitted.

I was very surprised at how much of a difference it made.  I can still hear some wind roar with my ear plugs, but I don't really think that's going to ever go away, but the main thing is that there is minimal turbulence hitting my head now.  I had been considering trying out a Parabellum windshield, but I don't think that's necessary any more.  The main reason I know it's made a difference is because there is quite a bit less wind noise being picked up by my helmet-mounted Drift HD.

I still need to play around with the angle of the spoiler, though.  I angled it back two clicks from the straight up position, and it seems to have improved things a little bit.  I'm going to rotate it forward one click to see how that changes things, or perhaps rotate the arm forward to move it down and out front a bit more to see what that does.  Overall, the proper mounting pieces have improved this windshield, and I thought it was pretty good to begin with.

First Impressions: Richland Rick's Fork Brace and Mirror Extenders

So two weeks ago, I installed the fork brace and mirror extenders that I bought from Richland Rick, but that happened after I got back from a ride, so I didn't have a chance to take the bike out for a test spin. Today, the weather was screaming "RIDE TODAY!!" So I did.

I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical about the fork brace after reading all the rave views about it on Stromtrooper.com, but I figured the brace wasn't heinously expensive, and I could always sell it if I didn't notice any difference. Well, I think I'm going to be leaving this on the bike. As I was riding today, I was constantly hit by some pretty heavy crosswinds. Previously, I could feel the bike get pushed around a lot, and the steering could get a little sloppy. It also felt like the wheel wanted to wander a little on the long, curved freeway interchange ramps. With the fork brace, the steering does, in fact, seem to be a lot more stable and precise, just like what everyone else said. Go figure. In crosswinds, the bike pretty much tracked true, only needing to lean into the wind to offset the lateral force. I'm a believer!

The mirror extenders give me a great rear view now. Not only can I see the lanes to the side with minimal blind spots, but they now have enough overlap that I can now see right behind me. An added benefit to the improved visibility is the windblast seems to have decreased as well, although the jury is still a little out on just how much of an effect this has had since it was so windy today. Just moving my hand around at speed, it now feels like most of the wind comes from around the MRA X-creen and hits me in the body, which will probably be quite welcome once the weather returns to its typical hot, humid Texas self. I'm still thinking about giving the Parabellum windshield a try since they have a 30-day money back guarantee, but the X-creen is doing a fine job so that may sit on the back burner for a while.

So a thumbs up for the fork brace, and so far one for the mirror extenders as well. In other news, I discovered that letting the bike sit in the sun for a few minutes was more than enough to make it easy to remove the warning stickers from the tank and instrument panel. I know, it took over 1,500 miles to get to it, but it's done, and that's the important thing. The bike now officially feels like it's mine. Here it is in all its current glory, and for now, I am done with accessories. I think I just heard my wallet start celebrating...

Graphic Language Reflective Wheel Stripes, Part Deux

One of the things that I did to my previous motorcycle, the Ninja 650R, was apply reflective wheel striping to the rims to provide greater visibility at night.  It also added a lot aesthetically as the color actually matched the 650R's red frame.  Since the V-Strom's rims are all black, I thought a little color would be nice to give them a little more definition in addition to increasing nighttime visibility, so back I went to the Graphic Language website to order up a new set.  I was able to specify 19" diameter for the front wheel, 17" for the rear, and went with the orange in a 10mm width.

I won't recount the installation procedure here as it is the same as it was for the 650R, which you can find here.  The only differences this time were:

• I used an LED headband mounted lamp instead of a desk lamp (much more convenient)
• I used 409 to clean the wheels, because the build-up on the rear wheel was insane.  I think it was mostly the result of chain lube being flung off while riding.  The rear wheel took 2 hours to clean and stripe vs. 45 minutes for the front wheel.
• This time, the stripes were cut a bit better than last time in that only the vinyl stripes were cut, not the wax paper backing.  This made separating the backing from the stripes a LOT easier than last time.
• The V-Strom has lead balancing weights that clamp onto the rim as opposed to the weights that are mounted with adhesive like the 650R had.  As a result, I had to start/stop the strip at the weights.  I suppose I could have cut a small strip from the left over striping to apply to the weight, but I really didn't think it was necessary.

After finishing the installation and moving the bike out into the sun, I was very pleasantly surprised to find that the reflective orange was a very complementary shade to the V-Strom's Fox Metallic Orange.  Here's a pic:

My wife approved of the addition, and seeing as we are both alumnae of The University of Texas at Austin, and the orange is pretty darn close to burnt orange, she said I should put a Texas Longhorns emblem on the bike.  I can't say that it's beyond the realm of possibilities...

Hook 'Em!

Richland Rick's Fork Brace and Mirror Extenders

I've read on StromTrooper.com that fork braces make a world of difference in the stability of the V-Strom.  I have noticed that the bike is fairly susceptible to crosswinds and windblast from large vehicles, but I just attributed it to being taller than my old Ninja 650R and/or the fact that I've got the largest top case that Givi makes hanging out on the tail rack.  Richland Rick's fork brace got a lot of good press for being well-built and affordable, so I decided to check out his website: AdventureTech, LLC.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that it only cost $85.  I also saw that he made mirror extenders, also at a reasonable price, so I thought I might get some of those, too, but more on that later.  After trading a couple of emails with Rick, who was VERY responsive,  I decided to go ahead and pull the trigger and order a fork brace and a set of mirror extenders.  The morning after placing my order, I received an email from Gloria letting me know that they were waiting on the delivery of more braces and would ship mine as soon as they arrived.  I got them shortly thereafter.

The fork brace is exactly as it appears on his website.  It's two symmetrical halves, joined by four screws.  He has excellent installation instructions on the website, so I'm not going to repeat them here.  Suffice it to say that if you can't operate a 5mm hex driver (aka Allen wrench), then you can get this installed.  The fit and finish was very nice, although mine had a couple of nicks in the powerdercoating, but nothing I consider to be major.

Tools Used:
- 5mm hex driver
- Blue Loctite

I chose to install it with the bolts entering from the front rather than the back.  My reasoning was that the brace sites at an angle with the front higher than the rear since it's bolted to the forks, so the bolts aren't as likely to back out since they'd have to work against gravity.  I also went ahead and used Blue Loctite for good measure.  I didn't have to remove any existing parts.  The brace halves slid right into place with minimal maneuvering around the brake hoses.

Be sure to follow the instructions and tighten in longer inside bolts first.  These bolts seem primarily to hold the two halve together.  They pretty much tightened right on down with little to no "snugging" necessary; they simply stopped tightening.  The shorter outside bolts are really the ones doing the clamping, as there is a small gap between the brace halves to allow this action.  I tightened them until they were good and snug, and that was that.

Next up were the mirror extenders.  I decided to go ahead and get the extenders with threaded holes on each side so that I can install a 1" RAM mount ball to potentially mount accessories.  I don't currently have any plans to mount anything here yet, but the price was only $5/hole more than the base $33 extenders.  I figured it was a small price to pay for having some flexibility in the accessory department.

Tools Used:
- Adjustable wrenches (2)
- 8mm hex driver
- 30" metal ruler
- Blue Locktite

Again, Rick has some very good installation instructions on his website, since there's more to it that two metal halves and 4 bolts, I thought I'd add some pictures of  my installation.

The first step is to remove the mirrors.  You need to pull the rubber boot off of the base and slide it up the mirror stalk so you have access to the nuts.  The bottom nut attaches the mirror to the mounting bracket.  The top nut is the cinch nut which holds the mirror stalk in place and prevents it from swiveling around.  The cinch nut is also reverse or left-hand threaded, meaning "Righty tighty, Left loosey" does not apply.  The cinch nut loosens by turning it clockwise (right) and tightens by turning it counterclockwise (left).  I found that you don't need to loosen the cinch nut in order to remove the mirror.  I just took my adjustable wrench, tightened it to the bottom nut, and after a bit of a struggle, the mirror was turning freely, and I was able to unscrew it from the mount.  For the left mirror, you need to turn the handlebars all the way to the left and vice-versa for the right mirror.  Once you've removed the mirrors, be sure to place them somewhere safe and out of harm's way.  If you still have any chrome bits on the handlebar, you removed the cinch nut, so you'll need to remove the base nut from the handlebar mount and re-attach it to the mirror.

Left mirror partially removed

The next step is to attach the extenders.  There are two things of note here.  1)  The longer 20mm spacer goes on the left, and the shorter 10mm spacer goes on the right.  2) The long side of the extender goes to the outside for the mirror, and the short side goes inside for the 1" RAM Mount ball.  I applied a Blue Loctite to the threads and tightened the bolts using an 8mm hex driver.  I was only able to finger tighten them so far and had to use my ratchet for the majority of work.  The threads were pretty snug, but never did I feel like I was damaging them.

Long spacer on Left Extender (L) and Short spacer on Right Extender (R)
Correctly oriented with long arms out/short arms in

 Once I got them tight enough that the extenders would barely move, I used a long metal ruler and pressed the edge against the sides of the extenders so that they were both flat against the ruler.  This should reasonably make them parallel to the center of the handlebar, and place the mirrors as far out as possible.  I then tightened the extenders' mounting bolts the rest of the way until they were snug.  Unfortunately, it was very tough to gauge the "snugness" since the threads were so tight, but I got them to the point where they would resist reasonable attempts to turn the extenders.

Using the metal ruler to position the extenders

With the extenders mounted and positioned properly, it was a simple matter to mount the mirrors in the outside holes.  Before doing so, I tried to place the mirrors in as identical and neutral positions as possible, which would then only require a minimal amount of fine adjustment later.  After tightening the  base attachment nut as much as possible, I got on the bike to position the mirrors so I could just barely see the edges of my shoulders and then tightened the cinch nut.  After getting a visual reference of the mirror placement, I used two adjustable wrenches to tighten down the cinch nut to keep the mirror stalk from rotating out of position.  This step was a bit of a challenge for me as I sometimes caused the base nut to come loose while trying to tighten the cinch nut.  I think I finally got it all tightened properly.  I guess I'll find out whether or not I'm wrong if I come back from my next ride with both mirrors.  After getting the mirror stalks tightened up, slide the rubber boot down and back over the chrome nuts.

After that, it was a simple matter of fine adjusting the mirrors themselves.  I found that with the extenders, I can now see things directly behind me with a little overlap in coverage between the two mirrors.

View from the tail rack showing the width of the mirrors,
note the 1" RAM Mount balls
(Looks like the left mirror is a bit rotated up...)

Left handguard contacts MRA X-creen at full right lock

No contact on the right side at full left lock

As of this writing, I don't have a verdict on either product performance, as I was unable to take a test ride immediately after installing them, but I can definitely recommend AdventureTech.  Rick and Gloria were fantastic to deal with and very responsive.

So far, I like the expanded view while stopped that results from the addition of the extenders.  The proof in the pudding will be how images appear at speed.  I'm hoping there is no introduced vibration or anything, since that was not a problem at all in the stock position.  I'm also hoping that the airflow is somewhat improved, as it felt like the mirrors were directing some air right at me at highway speeds.  Hopefully I can sneak out for a quick ride tomorrow.

UPDATE:  Read about my first impressions of the fork brace and mirror extenders here.

My Wonky Drift Innovation HD170 Stealth

If you've read my previous posts, you'll know that I have two Drift Innovation HD170 Stealth POV cameras that I like to mount to my motorcycle to capture forward and rearward facing footage.  Over the last several rides, I've been having problems with one of the cameras.  It initially started as the random file being corrupted, but then I'd find that the camera would be powered off after a random period of time, or the camera would be locked up and couldn't be reset unless the battery was removed. After a lot of testing, I determined that there was a loose connection in the camera.  I dug up the original order from Amazon.com and found that the camera was 2 months past the end of the 1 year warranty period at this point, but I figured I had nothing to lose by contacting the good folks at Drift Innovation.

I initially used their email contact form on their website but didn't get a response, so I hit them on FaceBook and got a near instantaneous response from Laura, who recommended I open up a service request on their Support page.  I opened the ticket, got a response asking me to send a video of the behavior I was describing, made the video and uploaded it, and waited.  I then received an auto-generated email from their Support site asking me to complete a satisfaction survey, which I thought was odd since the ticket was still open, so I figured I'd just give them a call.  I got a hold of the Support Tech who had my ticket, and he said this definitely looked like an odd problem, but since they do not manufacture the HD170 Stealth any more, he couldn't offer me a replacement camera.  He did, however, offer to send me a refurbished Drift HD camera, which is an upgrade to the HD170 Stealth.  That seemed to be a very good deal to me, especially since they could have simply told me that my camera was out of warranty and that I was SoL.  He even offered to send me an additional battery to offset the fact that I would not be able to use the additional high-capacity batteries that I had purchased for my HD170 Stealth in the new camera.

The next day, I took the camera to FedEx, and despite shipping it via FedEx Ground for which delivery is 3-5 business days, the camera was delivered to Drift Innovation's offices 2 days later.  Kudos to FedEx!  Even more amazing was that 3 business days later, I had my replacement Drift HD camera!  Unfortunately, the tech forgot to pack a spare battery, but that's okay since it uses the same standard capacity battery as the HD170 Stealth.  Once I have a chance to spend some time with the new camera, I'll post some thoughts on it versus the old one.

So thumbs up to Drift Innovation for stepping up and standing behind their product rather than leaving a customer high and dry with a faulty product because of an expired warranty period.

UPDATE:  Shortly after I received the replacement camera, my other HD170 Stealth started exhibiting similar problems, so I contacted Drift Innovation again.  Again, they stepped up to the plate, and they provided another refurb Drift HD to replace this unit.

I am pleased to say that these cameras seem to be working perfectly.  I am, however, having to adjust to having only ~90 minutes of record time with these standard sized batteries.  I really do miss the HD170 Stealth's 4 hour long lifers.  Perhaps I'll sell these cameras on eBay and upgrade myself to the Drift Ghost, which has batteries with a claimed 3 hour run time.

Windshields, iPods/iPhones, Wheel Stripes, and POV Cams

Of windshields...

Just a quick update to share some additional thoughts on the X-creen now that I've had a chance to go on two extended rides with it installed.  The two rides I've been on since installing the X-creen were both over 100 miles each, and I have to say that I'm very please with it still.  I've tweaked the wing angle just a tiny bit, but for the most part it's where I had it positioned after my initial test rides.  I no longer feel the side-to-side buffeting that I used to, and it seems that the wind roar is a bit less than with the stock shield, too.  I can still duck down a little bit and notice some change in the amount of wind roar, but nothing like before.  I think it would be nice if the X-creen had some standoffs like the stocker's to raise the angle of the primary shield a bit more.  One bit of concern to me is that the X-creen does seem to flex quite a bit in the wind at highway speeds.  I haven't seen any cracks or anything yet, so I'm assuming that it's performing as designed.  I'll just keep an eye on it as time goes by.  On the whole, though, I'm very pleased with it and will keep it installed in favor of the stock windshield.

I have to admit that I'm still curious as to how well the Givi AirFlow AF3101 windshield works in comparison, but at $200+ it's not a curiosity I can see satisfying any time soon, especially considering how well I think the X-creen is working.

I'm also curious about the Saeng Micro-swirl edging, and at only $12.50/foot, I can even justify buying it even if I ultimately don't use it.  I'm wondering if a combination of this edging and the X-creen might be an even better solution.  Stay tuned as I may well place an order.

Of iPods and iPhones...

When I ride long distances, I usually wear ear plugs, but sometimes I want to listen to music instead of my own random thoughts or humming.  Yes, I actually hum to myself and even perform private karaoke while motoring down the road.  When I delegate the music performance to my digital stable of better-talented MP3s, I've been depending on my trusty old 4th Generation iPod Photo 30GB.  Unfortunately, I've noticed lately that the battery only lasts about 2.5 hours, forcing me to take up the slack again and go back to humming and karaoke.

I've looked into eBay and purchasing an after-market replacement battery to prolong its useful life as well as simply replacing it with the current 160GB iPod Classic.  The replacement battery is a much cheaper solution than the 160GB iPod Classic, but 160GB will just about hold my entire library.  I then realized that I still have my perfectly functioning 32GB iPhone 3GS sitting idly in my drawer resulting from my 4S upgrade, and it is perfectly capable of providing music and more.  So on this last ride, I loaded it up with some Pink Floyd and the MotionX GPS app.  Even though it may not be quite as accurate without cellular data, the GPS still worked quite well.

The MotionX GPS app is nice in that while cruising along, it will give me audible updates every 10 minutes, telling me how long I've been riding, how far I've gone, and what my current speed is.  The current speed information was a little bit sketchy, considering it's GPS-based, and often wasn't even close to my actual speed if I had sped up or slowed down significantly prior to the update.  If I had traveling fairly steady, then my indicated speed was approximately 4mph higher than my GPS-reported speed, which is also good to know.  At the end of the ride, it shows my track on a map, which I can then share or store for future reference.  The app also has the ability to send regular updates to people via email, FaceBook or Twitter.  I haven't tried this feature yet, but I will.

With the music running along with the GPS app, I had about 45% of the battery life available at the end of my 2h 45m ride.  This means I would get approximately 5 hours of total battery life, which isn't too shabby.  For a multi-day truly long-distance trip, I can see where an extended battery pack or tying into the bike's electrical system would be warranted.  I would eventually want to get a weatherproof case for the iPhone and a RAM mount so I could actually see the controls (or even use MotionX GPS Drive) instead of just leaving it in my jacket pocket, but that's not really a necessity for me right now.

Of Wheel Stripes...

I finally received my order of orange reflective wheel stripes from the good folks at GLSigns.com, but I haven't had a chance to install them yet.  The orange isn't a perfect match, and it's even arguable that it's close.  In the shade, you would say it's close, but I need to pull the bike out in bright sunlight and do a comparison just to see if it's so different that it would annoy me.  I figure my fallback position would be to order some black reflective stripes that reflect silver.  The primary goal is to increase my night time visibility to other drivers.  The secondary goal is aesthetic.  I was lucky with my Ninja 650R in that the deep red stripes matched the red frame almost perfectly.  I may look at this in the morning.  Check back later for an update.

That's it for this update.  I hope you learned something or at least enjoyed the read.  The next post will probably be about my POV camera's woes and their hopefully pleasant resolution.

MRA X-creen

As I've been riding, I've noticed that the wind buffets the top-third of my helmet at highway speeds.  Raising the windshield didn't really seem to make much of a difference, so I started looking into different aftermarket solutions.  I'll save everyone the pain of reading through my thought process and just say that I decided on the MRA X-creen, which is similar to the Suzuki V-Strom Adventure Touring Screen, except the wing on the X-creen is attached with a single arm on both sides (vs. two), which allows it a greater range of motion.  I got a great deal on mine after seeing it for sale on the Stromtrooper.com For Sale forum.  It cost me $115 shipped, which is a great deal considering TwistedThrottle advertises it for $209.99 before shipping.

MRA X-creen (Photo from TwistedThrottle.com)

Installation of the windshield is very simple, requiring only a 3mm allen wrench.  Simply remove the four screws, remove the stock windshield, and mount the X-creen in its place.  I left the X-creen in the top position where I had the stock windshield.  The X-creen with the wing in the lowest position is approximately the same size as the stock screen.  Raising the wing makes the X-creen quite a bit taller.  I would guess approximately 2-3".

Because the X-creen does not have the built-in stand-offs like the stock screen, it sits quite a bit closer to the instrument pod and is raked further back as well.  It's more like the screen was on my old Ninja 650R.  You can see the direct comparison in the pictures below.  It looks like the Suzuki Touring Screen may be designed to provide a positioning similar to the stand-offs.  I would have liked to try it, but they want almost $300 for it!

NOTE:  Please be sure to read my update on the X-creen installation here.

Stock Screen Profile View

MRA X-creen Profile View

Seeing as how I do not own or have access to a wind tunnel, I had to take the bike out and make a lot of runs up and down the freeway frontage road to make my adjustments to the wing.  I started out in the  position you see above, but I got as much if not more wind blast to the helmet.  I then tried adjusting the wing angle, but it didn't do enough.  So I then flipped the arm into the upright position so that the wing was in the highest position.  When the arm is upright, you cannot adjust the wing to be more vertical, only more horizontal, so I ended up adjusting the arm to get the wing more vertical to move the airflow higher.

Final Arm/Wing Position

After several stops and adjustments, I think I've found a good setting that gets most of the turbulent air to go over my helmet.  The arm is pretty much vertical, and the wing is rotated back about 20 degrees.  Just for reference, I am 6'-0" with a 32" inseam, and I'm riding on the stock height seat.

I no longer feel like someone's pushing to top of my helmet side to side, but it's not like I'm riding inside my car, either.  I will still be wearing ear plugs to dampen the wind noise.  I'm sure more adjustment will be required, because there was a good 10-15 mph wind yesterday.  Unfortunately, the forecast is pretty much crappy for the next few days, so it will probably be a while before I can get out for an extended ride to see how well this screen does long-term.  Until then, I think it's a keeper.

UPDATE:  Please be sure to read my follow-up posting on the X-creen and my posting on replacing the wing/spoiler.