Mayan Prophecy Countdown

Yep, another day another dollar accomplishment!

I had a goal today, Simon had told me we were going for a ride this evening with the local BMW riders club who meet up each Wednesday for a feed and a ride, so whatever happens, the bike had to be ready by 6pm!!! That should not be a major drama as the bulk of the work had been done yesterday. Mind you I was a bit concerned about tapping into the bikes wiring harness to find a speedo sensor wire. I did some research last night and found what I think and hope is the answer, but it concerns the chain oiler. It uses the speedo sensor signal from the bike to inform its own computer when to pump a little oil out. The installs I have seen on the net seem to show the actual pump and oil container locations, but nothing much about the actual sensor tap and no photos. So, if you don’t like technical, skip to the bottom 🙂

On our bikes there is a large bundle of wires in the left hand front fairing, and there is a large connector there also. This allows the front fairing to be removed from the bike and it was in this connector that there is a PINK wire which carries the signal from the front wheel speed sensor, up to the dashboard computer on the bike. This is where I decided to tap into the cable. By disconnecting it and making sure I attach to the BIKE side of the connector, it will allow the fairing to be removed in the future, this is the plug with the black tape removed to allow access to the individual wires.

Rather than use a connector to join into the PINK wire, I cut the wire and stripped the insulation off it for about 20mm each side, then slid some heatshrink onto the connector side of the wire and then attached my BLUE wire to both of these ends and soldered them together, then covered that join with the heat shrink and taped the whole thing back up with the new BLUE wire now hopefully having a signal to be taken elsewhere 🙂

Then I had to run that wire to where I had decided to install the pump and electrical junction box and the oil reservoir. This section took some effort, mainly in deciding where things had to go and in the end I decided under the seat was the best place near the existing fuse box, with the oil going where my old one was. The electronic box of my old system was installed under the side panel, but I found that I needed to strip the whole rear pannier system off to access it, so this time I would plan a bit better, I hope 🙂

The pump assembly comes with short leads attached and in my case needed to be extended, not by much, but I think they should be supplied with the maximum length allowed, then can be cut rather than extending, but no matter, this was done easily with the gear I had.

After that it was just a matter of installing the individual components into their respective locations, connecting them all up and making sure the electrics worked. So, in this next photo, we have the following bits, in the centre just to the right of the seat lock system is the small black junction box for all the cables, it has CE on it. On the far right under the rear tail rack system is the white oil container, this is stood upright and is held in place by an undoable cable tie. At the bottom of the picture is the ProOiler pump, attached to the side wall of the tray and cable tied into place and a small piece of tubing connects to the oil container.

So far so good. Now that the front end was complete I replaced all the bits up that way and installed the tank, so at least it looked like half a bike 🙂 This was where I got another shock to the system. I went up to get my rear wheel as I could not install the oil feeder section without it, the thieves charged me $52 to patch my tyre, I was devastated, the tyre only cost $130!!! Once again, I had no choice but to pay it and I guess it was my own fault as I had not asked the price prior to getting the work done, never again! I would not recommend the Suzuki shop here at all after two bad expensive deals 😦

Anyway, it was now time for lunch as it was midday, that is the rule here, 8am brekky, 12 lunch, 6pm dinner 🙂 And I must say I am getting fat on all this food, Hildagard and Sepp are great cooks and pretty much all of the vegies and fruit are from their own gardens. This particular dish was chicken and cheese and ham in a pastry roll, with spinach and salad, all of tasted great 🙂

And here they are, inspecting the Geocaching application on my phone, maybe some new converts, there were a number of caches within walking distance?

So, after lunch I went back to work for what was in my opinion, the toughest part of the install, getting the oil feeder mounted and secured to the swingarm. They supplied self tapping screws, so in the end it was not too much drama once I found the correct tools in the workshop 🙂 The next few photos show the feeder bracket from the top and the bottom and the oil pipe run. This particular oiler uses a nozzle on both sides of the rear sprocket for better coverage to both sides of the chains side plates and O rings.

I then needed to run the bike to check for EMI, or Electromagnetic interference, because if any stray noises got into the cables it may trigger more oil than is needed. Once I siphoned the fuel back in, I fired up the bike and ran the checks and it was all spot on. The system had already been pre-programmed with a ‘map’, which was a set of instructions on how much oil to pump out, this was based on Beemerbirds experience with the exact same bike when she rode through this way last year. Priming the pump and nozzles was easy, the only way to test it was to take it for a ride, guess what, it was raining again!

But, I had achieved what I set out to do, the new heated grips were in and working fine. The oiler was in and I would imagine this would work as advertised, I would find out later maybe if it stops raining. I had also powered up the SPOT from an external source, installed two rechargeable batteries and that also seemed to work. I still needed to sort out the connectors on that but maybe tomorrow when the shops are open again. But, I was finished and good to go 🙂

Once Simon came home from work and we had finished dinner, we DROVE to the bike meeting, because of the rain, here I met a whole stack of nice people and don’t remember any of their names 🙂

This club is a GS only BMW club and was only started recently for central Lucerne. They meet up once a month for a dinner then a ride through the Alps, with the evenings not getting dark until after 10pm, they have heaps of opportunities for doing this. Nice to meet you all, ride safe and rubber side down 🙂 Next Simon took me to his work place to show me the lighting systems they have on display, very nice gear with most of it being LED systems. One particular flat thin LED light I reckon would be ideal for above my Mums dining room table, but I cannot afford it, sorry about that, you can see it on the right above the table in the first picture 😉

Next door was a Gentleman’s Club of which Simon is a member, so we had a quick beer and watched a bit of soccer, although I did not enjoy it that much because it was full of cigar smoke. I still cannot get used to smoking indoors any more, but I am sure it will get worse as I travel east, before it gets better! After that another beer or two at a local bar next door where smoking was permitted outdoors only, that was better, there were girls there and we stayed until after the game 🙂

The next day I was going for a ride, the weather was supposed to be better, but I would first check out the electronic shop for a waterproof connector. Another night cap that night after we got home while having a chat, and I almost forgot, I had contacted the embassy again this morning, another 5 phone calls, and they said that my visa can be picked up Friday. So, of the routes that had been planned, the best option would be to ride to Geneva on the slab, fast. Then ride a bit of France around the lake at a slower pace, before hitting the slab again and head towards Italy, on the way riding a number of Alphine passes, with Simon recommending going through St.Moritz and also Levignio, a small tax free haven in Italy. Then on the Saturday ride Stelvio Pass, before riding flat out for Frankfurt and then Duisburg to my cousin Bob. I was also trying to catch up with my friends Ingo and Cecelia, they lived near Bob, and we had ridden through Peru, Bolivia and a bit of Chile together the other year. Anyway, it was another late night and once again, no time to work on the blog, due to other commitments, this will be a recurring theme methinks!

Cheers from Lucerne
TravellingStrom