The Zipsicle

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

It was 16 degrees F outside when I jumped on the Bulgesicle (my new pet name for the Wing) to head off to work this morning. The coldest in a week of cold days, so far, and I’m sure I got some real funny looks as I motored up the freeway towards Bellingham. Since I was quite warm and toasty and since I’m also quite used to getting funny looks (sometimes they’re even undeserved) I didn’t let it bother me. “It’s 16 degrees outside and you’re riding down the freeway warm and toasty?” you say, “What’re you, nuts?” Yes, well, let me explain…

Last Thursday, after riding the Zipsicle in the low 20s to work and back, I decided I’d had enough of freezing my cute little tush off so I jumped onto the web and navigated to WarmnSafe to buy some heated clothing (with the express, written permission, of my lovely and talented financial secretary).

I quickly decided upon and purchased a jacket liner, gloves, and a dual, mounted heat controller and paid for 2nd day shipping. Imagine my suprise when the very next day my new heated gear showed up at my door! Terrific service from this company. On Saturday, I spent a few hours mounting the controller into our comfotable Bulgesicle. As many of you with Goldwings know, even removing the seat can be a hassle. I finally managed to get the new controller mounted and it looks pretty good considering that I did it myowndamnself! Here’a picture of it mounted in the lower left side panel:

After successfully mounting the controller I figured I might as well take the Bulgesicle for a ride. The sky was clear and the sun was shining, the temp was in the high 20s, and the Snow Geese were feeding and flocking (so to speak) on the Skagit Flats. What better day to go for a ride? I backed the Bulgesicle out of the garage (love that reverse gear!) plugged in my helmet and heated gear and took off for Snow Goose country. 60 miles of back roads later I was parked and looking at a flock of geese. Unfortunately, while I was plenty warm enough in just the new gloves, a t-shirt and jacket liner, and Tourmaster coat, I realized that my new heated gear wasn’t actually heating. Oh, well. I figured, since I wasn’t freezing, that I’d just check it out when I got home and deal with it there. Here’s a picture of some of the SnowGeese:

After tooling around the back roads of Skagit Valley checking out the geese for a while, I headed over to Sedro Woolley and turned north on Highway 9. I rode north to just past the Park Road where there’s a turnout and a magnificent view of the Twin Sisters mountains. Forgot to upload the image so no picture to show you but it was very pretty. From there I turned around and headed home after logging around 120 miles for the day. On another note, I didn’t see one other bike the whole trip. Wimps!

Once home I went in and read the directions for my heated gear again but didn’t learn anything new and helpful. Back out to the bike idling in the driveway and I plugged back into the controller; which is when I realized that I had a “Dual” controller and had plugged my gear into one outlet of the controller but had turned the other outlet on with the knob. I turned off the unused portin and turned on the section I was actually plugged into and, moments later, felt the delicious heat spreading throughout my gloves and jacket. Wow! What a difference.

If you’re like me and enjoy riding whether it’s cold or not (provided the roads aren’t icy and slick!) then you might consider getting yourself some heated gear from WarmnSafe. You’ll be toasty warm and enjoying the ride while others are looking at their bikes in their garages and wishing they were out riding!

Ride safe,
Zippo and Jax

About 6,000 miles ago I added some Hella driving lights to the Zipsicle. These are Hella Optilux 1102 Halogen lights and are pretty bright. I’ve wired them to be on all the time and not only do they help to light up the road at night, they make it easier for other drivers to see us during the daytime – a very good thing. You can see how they look here:

While we were on our ride to Mt. St. Helens a couple of weeks ago I noticed that one of them had burned out. Shortly after we got home I noticed that the other had gone out as well. 6,000 miles or so doesn’t seem like a very long time for these lights and I was surprised that they’d both burned out so quickly and so close to each other. I like having them so well, though, that I took them apart and found that they use the “H3″ type of halogen bulb so I quickly located some on the Internet and got them ordered. Replacing the bulbs was pretty easy and I now have them working again. I ordered some spares and will throw a couple into the saddlebags jsut in case they go out again. Hoepfully, it’ll be a long time before they need replacing again.

Ride safe!
Zippo and Jax

It was my birthday today (yep, that old!). I have the day off and Jax is getting ready for work, “Whatcha gonna do today?” she asks. “Work on the bike”, I answer. “Sheesh, I should have known!” she says with a smile…

After coffee and a leisurely kitty pet I wheel the Zipsicle out of the garage. There’s a couple of tasks I’d like to get accomplished today and the first one is a good excuse to wash the bike so I do. My plan is to install a new windshield bag I picked up online. It’s a Willie & Max Large TakeAlong bag:

Since this thing is going to mount on the inside of the windshield bracket I’ll need to remove the windshield in order to install it. This’ll be a good chance to give parts of the windshield, that are very hard to get to when it’s installed, a good cleaning. The outside has a good coating of bugs from our recent trip to Mt. St. Helens so I give it a good soaking and wash with a soft cloth and a good automotive soap. Eight bolts later and the windshield is off and I can clean the inside as well. After washing I use Lemon Pledge on it. Works great and leaves the windshield extremely clear (and it smells good, too!). With the windshield off I can give some of the other chrome parts a good cleaning too.

Mounting the bracket for the Willie and Max bag goes quickly and before too long I have the windshield back on:

I think this bag will be a good place to keep a few items handy, like my sunglasses and wallet. It’s very easy to detach and take it along with me if I need to when leaving the bike. With the windshield moved forward there’s enough room behind it for the bag while still being able to reach the key. Here’s the bag from the inside.

Next on the list of things to do is to move the cruise control pad to a location that’s closer to my hand. Here’s where I first installed it:

After reworking the bracket I remounted it under the left side mirror mount. This spot puts it very close to my thumb where it’s easy to actuate. A short test ride verifies that the new locations is going to be great. I love the cruise control! Here’s how it looks now:

…

It’s gotta be a great birthday when you can spend it working on the bike!

Ride safe
Zippo and Jax

So, now you’ve got your bracket made, where do you put it? I designed this bracket to fit on the upper engine bolt on the right side of the bike. This is the same bolt used for the upper right mounting point of the Yamaha engine bar. This bolt is installed with red threadlock at the factory so you may find it a bit of a challenge to remove. I used the correct size allen wrench and wore a work glove on my hand to protect it in case the wrench slipped while I was exerting force on it. I also recommend covering the tank to protect the paint job on your 1300. and finally, I’d recommend using blue threadlock on this bolt when reinstalling it. It’s not a bolt you want falling out as you cruise down the road! Here’s an image of the horn mounted with the new bracket:

As you can see, the horn mounts on the outer end of the bracket and should just clear the tank and engine bar. Mounting the horn in this location keeps the horn up out of the road grime and water it would be subject to if mounted down nearer the road and it also provides a clear path for the horn to sound off when needed.

In a day or so I’ll show you just what you need to wire this baby into your system.

Ride safe!
Zippo & Jax

Fellow riders are blown away (so to speak! ) when we sound off with our Stebel Nautilus horn. It’s rated at 139db making it loud enough to catch the attention of that cager on the cell phone drifting into your lane. Many have commented favorably on how I have it mounted so I thought I’d show how to do it here. First, I’ll show you how to construct a bracket for the mount. Tomorrow, I’ll show how to mount it, and in a day or so I’ll show you how simple it is to wire a Stebel Nautilus horn into your VStar 1300 and what you’ll need to accomplish this task. Doing this yourself will save you a bunch of money, give you a nice feeling of accomplishment, and it really is very easy to do…

I bought 3 feet of 1 inch by 1/8 inch aluminum flat bar from a local hardware store for just a few dollars. You can make the bracket a bit stiffer, if desired, by using 1 – 1/8 inch wide flat bar, too. Three feet is much more than we’ll need for this project but the extra can be used for brackets to tilt your windshield (the subject of another entry). Cut off about 5 – 1/2 inches and round the ends and corners with a file or grinder. Drill a 3/8 inch hole about 3/4 of an inch end from each end. The finished product should look similar to this:

Once this is complete we’ll make a couple of simple bends to turn this into a “C” shape which will easily fit into the space at the top of and behind the stock Yamaha engine bars. Make one bend about 2 – 1/2 inches in from the end. Make the other bend about 1-1/2 inches in from the other end. The aluminum flat bar is reasonably easily bent with a small vise of a couple of large crescent wrenches. When finished it will look something like this:

There should be around 2 inches between the legss of the “C” but none of these measurementrs are very critical. And, for the cost of the flat bar, it’s no problem to do some experimenting and see what works best for you. When you’ve got it the way you want it you can paint it with some black aluminum paint, or polish it with some aluminum polich or just leave it as is.

Tomorrow we’ll mount the horn and bracket on the bike…

Ride safe!
Zippo and Jax

I get a surprising amount of email from VStar 1300 owners who have found the Zipsicle website and actually stopped to check it out. An email I got today was from another 1300 owner asking how I mounted the Gorilla Cycle Alarm on the Zipsicle. I enjoy answering these questions (especially the ones I know the answer to) so I responded with how the details of how I mounted it.

On my bike, I put the main alarm unit just forward and to the right of the rear wheel inside of the wheel well. I used a couple of large (and strong) zipties to hold it in position on the frame there. It has lasted and worked well in that location for almost (the odometer will turn today) 12,000 miles. As I live in the Pacific Northwest, many of those miles were through some rather, ahhhhhh, “humid” conditions!

The Gorilla Cycle Alarm works well and does everything they say that it will. The 2-way pager remote is a nice feature and also works well. The alarm is very loud when it’s set off, as I’ve learned when I’ve forgotten to disable it before opening the trunk or sadllebags. However, in all the times I’ve set it off, I’ve never had anyone come over and ask if I was supposed to be getting into the trunks or saddlebags so I can’t say that it will prevent your bike or gear from being stolen. Just one more way to keep the honest people honest, I suppose.

Ride safe!
Zippo & Jax