Getting Ready...

Did a bunch of work on the bike yesterday. Raining all day so it was a great way to spend the day. Changed spark plugs, replaced the front brake pads with a set of EBC Sintered pads. Why not have race bike pads on a bike that barely clears 100 mph...

I added more storage to the bike. That exhaust can on the left side is really not a second muffler. It's a storage compartment, The cap twists off and a bunch of tools reside inside. I also added a small Pelican waterproof case to the rear fender and relocated the license plate and light to the box. I have a small air compressor and tire repair stuff in there.

You can also see the auxiliary fuel cans I've mounted under the painers. I machined a couple of brackets and used marine grade stainless steel hose clamps to keep them in place. I had these mounted on my past touring bike and they came in handy a time or two. I'll also be using them for fuel for the cook stove.

The picture on the left shows what I'll be looking at for five weeks! From top to bottom....The little square thingy is the antenna for the Sirius satellite radio. Next down is a Garmin 2720 GPS unit. Under that is a Passport 8500 Radar Detector. Next, just below the gages is an electronic termometer. It reads temperature just above the front fender and in the cockpit. At times the air temperature can be 80 degrees but sitting in traffic the cockpit temperature can climb to well over 100.

Down from there is the Sirius radio receiver which resides in a waterproof Pelican case. In the same case, next to the receiver is an "Amplirider" headphone amplifier. This along with a set of Koss Earbuds allows me to listen to Sat Radio and have the radar detector or the GPS unit break in whenever they have something to say. Pretty neat!

A few more things to do and the bike will be ready.