The Zipsicle

We took the Wing and trailer on another camping trip last weekend. This time we visited Lake Wenatchee State Park. The weather was cold and windy, for the most part, but that was almost a good thing as the wind helped to keep the mosquitos down a bit (and there are a lot of mosquitos here). Here’s a look at our campsite:

This is a very large campground and most of the sites are definitely lacking in privacy. Best to reserve one of the pull-throughs, if possible, as they seemed to have a tad more privacy than the others. Still not one of our favorite campgrounds, though, and I’m not sure if we’ll return to this one. More on our trip here:

http://www.zipsicle.com/wing/lake-wenatchee-sp-7-2-2010.asp

Jax and I went camping last weekend at Osoyoos Lake State Park near Oroville, Washington. We had a really great time in a very nice campsite. You can read more about it here.

Here’s a picture of our campsite:

Very nice. We saw turtles and carp and ducks and all manner of wildlife right from our lawn chairs at our lakeside campsite. The trailer towed beautifully and the weather of on the “dry side” of the state was very nice. As we came back over Washington Pass on the way home we got rained on but it was worth it to have such a wonderful weekend!

Thought I’d check out how it pulls with the new swivel hitch. Wow! What a difference. Without the swivel hitch I had to force the bike into a turn and then had to force it back out of the turn. With the swivel hitch turning has become almost effortless again. I still feel the trailer back there but it’s no longer preventing the bike from leaning as required. Big difference. Here’s how everything looks all hooked up – notice we’re not real color coordinated. Probably won’t let us into the Country Club…

I took the seat off of the Goldwing and did some gel and foam mods to it this weekend. Here’s a web page I made showing in detail how to do this mod. I’m sure the general process would be applicable to many other bike seats as well:

http://www.zipsicle.com/wing/seatmod/wingseatmod.asp

Here’s an image:

Showing new memory foam on a GL 1800 stock seat

Tools required:

Narrow bladed screw driver
Wrenches to remove the seat
4 inch sander and disk
Very sharp knife or razor knife
Spray adhesive
Staple gun and small staples (1/8th inch)

Materials:
Memory foam – I used 1/2 inch thick foam
gel pad – I used 3/8ths inch thick gel pads

I cut a bit deep so I used three pieces of foam and two gel pads in my seat. Only things I might have done differently is cut a bit less deeply when removing the old seat foam. This would have saved a layer of foam and one gel pad. I also might have taken the top layer of new memory foam right out near the edge of the seat. All in all, though, I’m very happy with the change to my seat. It feels much nicer than my stock seat did and I’m glad that I did it.

Ride safe,
Zippo and jax

I loaded the trailer up with our new camping gear the other day and took it for a check ride to test it out and see how it was going to pull. I used a bathroom scale to weigh it first and found that it weighed about 220 pounds total with about 22 pounds on the tongue. Here’s a picture of it loaded. As you can see from the size of the sleeping bags, we are definitely not minimalists!:

There are a few more items that will go in the final load when we go camping but I think this is the majority of items we’ll be taking with us. I have read where a lot of other trailer pullers says that they hardly know the trailer is back there but that wasn’t the case for me. I found that it was more difficult to get the bike into a turn and took some extra effort with the trailer connected. Once it was in the turn it took more effort to increase or decrease the lean angle. I’ll need to do some more experimenting with various tongue weights and I’ve also ordered a swivel hitch which may also help to alleviate some of that issue. There are a lot of bikers towing trailers successfully so I’m pretty sure we’ll be able to do so, too…

Out first campout is scheduled for the Memorial Day weekend at the Red Bridge campground west of Granite Falls but I’m hoping we can get out once before then. Maybe run down to Ft. Ebey for a night…

Ride safe,
Zippo and Jax

Got back to work on the bike last night determined to find the reason for the speedometer not working. All leads indicated that there was a problem either with the speed sensor connection or the speed sensor itself. My reading had told me that the speed sensor is located on the right side of the engine and that the wires run up past the rear master brake cylinder reservoir and up under the top shelter. I tried removing the left side lower vent and the glove box and glove box lock mechanism but still couldn’t find the connection. I knew that I needed to find a three wire connector and that one of the wires would be white with a black trace on it. Finally I decided that there was nothing for it but to remove the top shelter yet one more time. I also removed the chrome cover over the oil fill and rear master cylinder location.

After a lot digging around in the wiring on the right side of the bike I finally found the speed sensor connection. It’s hidden in a boot along with several other connectors and tucked away between the vent tube and the bike frame low down on the right side under the shelter. Very difficult to find if you don’t know for sure what you’re looking for and I sure didn’t. Anyway, I found that indeed the speed sensor was disconnected. After studying the location of the connection and tracing the wire back down the side of the bike to the speed sensor it was obvious that I’d accidentally disconnected it while trying to remove the cap on the rear master brake reservoir. That cap is very difficult to get your fingers around to unscrew it and somehow, when I removed the cap to refill the reservoir, I’d managed to tug on the wire enough to pull the connector far enough apart that it was no longer making a connection. I plugged it back in and started the bike up, placed it into gear and yippee! The speedo works again! After a few moments of cursing myself for unplugging it in the first place and congratulating myself for tracking it down and fixing it, I once again began the arduous task of reassembling my bike.

I rode to work on it this morning and really appreciated having my speedometer working again. I also marveled at how well my bike runs and feels with all of its new parts. Ahhhh, that’s the way it ought to be!

Ride safe,

Zippo and Jax

So Sunday I spent most of my day working on the bike again. Wanted to install all of the pieces I’d missed installing when I put the bike back together last time on Friday after my luckless search for the wayward nut.  Tore it back apart and put it all back together, this time with all the pieces in place! Yaaay! Took it out for a test drive and got a few miles down the road before I realized that the speedometer wasn’t registering any speed and that the “F1″ light had come on. Turned around and headed back home and into the garage where I proceeded to tear it back down again. Boohoo! For the life of me I can’t find any wires that I’d missed plugging back in and I spent all of the rest of the day looking. Put it all back together again and still no speedo. My research is now leading me to the speed sensor connection located on the right side under the cover between the lower vent and the glove box. It’s possible that, somehow, I pulled the connection loose or loosened a wire in the connection so tonight I’ll get back into that side and have another look. It’s either that or, coincidentally, my speed sensor has gone bad.

Curses! Ah, well. Just another tiny and minor setback on the road to “doing it myself”! I am getting very good at removing the instrument panel and top shelter, though. Wonder if there’s a competition for that skill somewhere…

Ride safe,

Zippo and Jax

Friday I was off work early so it seemed the perfect time to bleed the brakes on the Wing with my new “One Person Brake Bleeder” from Griott’s Garage. The Goldwing has a very specific proceedure to follow when bleeding the brakes and it took me an hour or so to complete the job being as it was my first time. The fluid that came out of the anti-dive valve when I bled it was almost black and had small bits of crud in it so the bike was definitely due for new fluid. As it turns out I didn’t get a chance to test drive it to see how it felt after bleeding and flushing the brake fluid…

The brake bleeding job went so well that I thought I’d go ahead and install the REG Risers for the handlebars. I got the left side on just fine but, when I went to do the right side I managed to drop a nut deep down into the bowels of the engine! Dang nut! There’s almost no way to see down in there so I began to tear the bike apart to see if I could find the wayward nut (should have just gone into the house and looked in the mirror then got in the car and headed to the hardware store and purchased another nut! ). I removed the shelter and the air filter then removed the throttle body inlets and pulled up on the lower air filter box so I could try and look underneath it. No nut to be found but I did manage to pull the two breather hoses off the bottom of the box which meant I now had to disassemble and lift the front of the gas tank to be able to get at the two hoses underneath the cover to reattach them where the belonged. Shoot! Got that done, said to heck with the nut (which is what I should have done in the first place) and began to reassemble the bike. Got it all back togther and found that I’d forgotten to install a few pieces early in the process. Dang it, again! By this time I’d had enough so it’ll have to wait for further disassembly…

Saturday I couldn’t get back to work on the bike as I’d promised Jax I would work on assembling the greenhouse kit I’d gotten her for her birthday. It took us all day but the finished product looks like it will work pretty well for what she wants which is a place to grow some tomato and green pepper plants. Here’s a picture:

New greenhouse

I got it all done and put back together today and got a chance to take it for a ride. It’s simply amazing and feels like a completely new bike up front (which I guess it is… ). I’m pleased to have done all of the work myself and it was especially nice enjoying the fruits of my labor out on the road in the sunshine. I took it easy on my new front brake pads to give them a chance to break in (so to speak) but they feel very good. I’ve got a brake bleeder tool ordered that should be delivered next week so I’ll bleed the brakes and clutch when it gets here. I stopped in an empty parking lot and practiced some slow speed turns and the front end feels absolutely wonderful.

I also got my new (to me) trailer hitch installed. Since I bought it used it didn’t come with any instructions but when I got it down there behind the bike it was pretty clear how it must install and indeed, the install went very well. I took the time, while I was in there, to install an isolator and wiring sub-harness from a company called Electrical Connections. I see now that I will need to get a 5 wire to 4 wire harness to terminate the wiring to the trailer so I’ll get one ordered and on its way.

All in all, I’m really gratified with how easy this bike is to work on and now, how it rides even better than before!

Ride safe,
Zippo and Jax

Today, after stopping at a local Honda dealer for a couple more containers of suspension fluid, I got the second fork back together and both forks back into the bike. Installed new brake pads in both front calipers and installed the wheel, with the new Avon Cobra tire, and fenders back on the bike. Tomorrow I should be able to move topside and reinstall the hose retaining bracket, handlebars and the top shelter. Hopefully, I’ll get a chance to take it out for a short ride tomorrow and enjoy the fruits of this labor. Then it’ll be back into the garage to install the trailer hitch and wiring. I’m definitely making progress and it feels pretty good to have done this work myself…

Ride safe,
Zippo and Jax