daboo

I think the important thing is to have a solution to tire punctures you can trust and know how to use. Some people worry about what tools to bring with them on a trip. In reality though, we have little potential to fix any breakdown on the side of the road. With one exception. If I get a flat tire on the side of the road 50 miles from civilization, I'm dead in the water. But if I have the means to repair it, I can get home. Now...do the rest of you use synthetic glue or dino glue to repair your tires? And does it hurt to use synthetic glue if you are using dino oil? (I just couldn't resist that. ) Chris

I normally like the FortNine videos, but this one didn't seem up to his normal level. There was too much time spent on "filler" because he didn't have enough material on the subject...tire repair. I didn't mind, but I did want more on the tire repairs and testing. I thought the test was flawed. Maybe it applies well for off-road riding with low inflation pressures in the tires, but at 42 psi in my rear tire, it feels like a rock when you kick it. Trying to get a rock to push on the plug in exactly the right place and for long enough to push the plug in, would be hard to get happen in real life. Maybe next to impossible. So was the test realistic? Was it even meaningful? It did make me think about what I was carrying. I usually carry a Slime SPAIR kit (a bottle of Slime with a decent air compressor) and a Stop-N-Go mushroom plug kit. I didn't want to use the Slime on my last tire because I had balance beads in the tire, and they wouldn't mix well. So I dug out the mushroom plug kit. Wow, I couldn't get it to go through the puncture site. It was a tiny tiny hole...but really effective at leaking air. I finally took a drill and made the hole big enough to install the mushroom plug. When's the last time you carried a drill on your rides? I can't think of when I've done that. I've used the bacon strips before. But for that, I would need a hole about the size of what I need for the mushroom plug kit that I already have. The DynaPlug plugs look like they'd work perfect for the size of puncture I had. Plus, as mentioned earlier here, you can insert multiple plugs into one hole. It looks like a good solution. BTW, when you're looking at getting an air pump, look to see how you will plug it in. My Slime air pump had a cigarette plug connector. That'd work well on my car...but not my bike. I carried that thing around for a couple years thinking I had a workable air pump...when in fact, I had no way to use it. Chris

Actually, Slime works like that too. I had a tire that got a puncture a few weeks after it was installed. My wife wouldn't have been happy with me trying to "save money" by riding a motorcycle to work, if it was going to cost us a new tire every month or so. So I decided to try Slime. It saved at least 4 punctures in that rear tire before I changed it out. When it was removed, I asked to watch. I'd read all kinds of stories of corrosion, messes, etc. When the mechanic took the tire off, he made a really LOUD exclamation, "LOOK AT ALL THAT MESS!". It would've been better if there'd been some mess. There was a small amount that fell onto the hub and dried, but that came off easily...it's water soluble. The rest was inside the tread area of the tire like you see in the video above, except it was black, not orange. I would've put Slime in the tire in a heartbeat, but I had balance beads in there. The to products don't work well together, as you can imagine. Ride-On is a great product and I have a bottle of it myself. But Slime is pretty good too, and can be found easier. Chris

I had a leak on my last tire like this. Slow, but definite. I finally took the wheel off, aired it to about 50+psi, and put it in the bathtub. I'd have used a swimming pool, but didn't have one. I finally found the leak. It wasn't the cuts I could see. It was the tiniest tiniest cut. I couldn't see the cut without the air coming from it. The difference though, was that it went all the way through. Chris

There are times when it is just better to bite the bullet and pay the money needed. If I never went on long distance trips, I'd try to go cheap, but I do. When I look at the compromises and risks associated with using a smartphone, the additional cost of a Garmin Zumo XT is not much. I lost my Zumo 595LM last year when I didn't have it snapped into the mount on the handlebars properly. I've taken that GPS over 63,000 miles and never had a problem...till I did. One time of not mounting it securely, and that's all it took. I saw it later in the dash cam footage from my Halocam M1. The first bounce...and this was only at 35 mph...sent the GPS up in the air at least four feet. I never saw it again. Imagine if that had been my Note 9. I've used both Zumo GPS's in temps exceeding 100F for hours, and both have been dependable. FWIW, I think Garmin looked at the market they were losing to smartphones and the Zumo XT is their answer to that. It's more rugged than any smartphone, with an incredibly bright screen and just does what you want it to do. If you travel a lot, it is worth the money. Chris

I wonder if the reason the TPMS was dropped, is that there are other cheaper alternatives to providing TPMS, or the motorcycles themselves have a TPMS system built-in. Chris

Having had both the 595LM (which came off the mount and bounced a few times on the pavement), and the Zumo XT, I wouldn't buy the 595LM. It isn't just screen resolution that improved, but the brightness as well. Battery life is far better on the Zumo XT, which you'll say doesn't matter if I have it plugged in on the bike. But I've often sat down at breakfast with a cup of coffee and programmed in my day's ride. It helps to have a bit of battery life. The 595LM was great when it first came out...but the Zumo XT is better. Chris

When I bought my first smartphone several years ago, I had visions of it doing double-duty. It could be my GPS and also all the smart phone things. But then reality hit in. On the first trip that I took it, it rained. Hard. For hours and hours. Since this was a new Note 4, it was about $700...and I wasn't going to take a chance with it. Plus, I was using one of those X-Grip RAM mounts. Nice, but to tether it was really time-consuming. It would probably take five minutes to put the tether around the phone and get it positioned so the X-Grip feet weren't pressing any buttons. And this would need to happen each time I stopped for a picture or a toilet break at a gas station. I wanted a reliable GPS for my post-retirement ride, and eventually coughed up the $550 for the Garmin 595LM. To me, the potential for spending valuable time on the side of the road trying to figure out where I was and where I was going made the investment worthwhile. I kept the 595LM for years till last summer when it fell off the bike. I didn't fasten it well in the mount. I ended up replacing it with a Zumo XT, and not regretting it a bit. And I added a tether to the GPS. Just an old camera strap, but it'll keep it with the bike in case it doesn't lock in the mount. One of the places where I think any smartphone will fail at, is in extreme heat. You're in the sun and the screen brightness is up on high. The phone is in the direct sunlight soaking up all the heat from the sun. The GPS is doing its thing. And the processor is running at max to keep up. I've read posts where even the Kyocera Duraforce will shut down, if it is hot enough. You'll immediately think to yourself, but I don't live where it gets really hot. Neither do I. I live north of Seattle. 75F is perfect. When it hits 80F, I'm looking for shade. But each year, I end up riding out of state to some fabulous roads in triple digit temperatures. Last summer, I was headed to John Day, OR for a get together with about 30 Kawasaki riders. We're going through Eastern Oregon and the temps started climbing. We hit @112F for a couple hours. It would suck being out in the middle of nowhere in temps that'll give you heat stroke if you stop to cool down your phone so you know where you're going...especially if the gas level is in the lower portion of the gauge. Chris

That's why you have to decide what you want the camera for. The INNOVV K2 and Halocam M1 (and others) are designed to be "dash cameras", not action cameras. Riders might decide the quality is good enough for using as an "action" camera, and that's okay. Eventually, the quality will improve on the dash cameras to fill the need for a dash camera. I've used mine a few times for posting a video of some twisty roads. The perspective of the camera being under the headlight, is nicer for capturing scenes like that, than a helmet mounted camera. Chris

There's nothing wrong with the INNOVV cameras, but you might want to save some $$$ and look on Amazon for some alternatives. Compare the specs and customer reviews. You might save yourself a over a hundred dollars. I bought the Halocam M1 a few years ago. It's awesome. It still sells for less than $180. It's been a couple years since I bought mine, so I'm sure there are newer alternatives out there that are even better. INNOVV is probably the best known dash camera system, but it is made in China...like all the others. Great quality, but from what I have seen from my Halocam, the quality is the same. Chris

A belt drive is quiet also. Mine lasted me 53K. Chris

If you could activate the airbag by walking away...I would've done so several times already.

It must be one of the newer models that I'm not familiar with. I have the Hit-Air MLV-P model. It connects with a lanyard to the bike. And since you're probably wondering, it takes more force than I have when forgetting to unclip it and I try to walk away. It'll jerk you up short. Chris

I picked up a Hit-Air vest several years ago. Things may have changed in model offerings, but I liked what the Hit-Air did verses the Helite at the time. So my thoughts are to check the pictures for each when blown up to see what they protect. Hit-Air at the time was also about $150 less than the Helite. If you watch for sales, Helite seems to discount their airbag vests to get the price pretty much equal. I won't ride without mine. Well, I have, but only after I've used it. 🤫 The first time I had mine go off was when I went to make a right turn at a busy intersection. I looked right and saw that the light had just changed. I looked left and the traffic hadn't started moving, and I gave it gas to move out...and a teenager with a skate board walked out into the crosswalk. I admit I did a stupid thing and shouldn't have gone without checking more thoroughly. I hit the front brake...and found myself looking up at the sky. My bike was over on its side. I was laying up against the edge of the curb...and then realized I felt no pain. What happened? Why doesn't this hurt? Oh...the airbag vest went off. I should've had a couple broken ribs because the edge of that curb was against the rib cage. But the vest had deployed before I landed. Here's my take on getting an airbag vest. Get a vest, not a "jacket". I can wear my vest with any jacket. Stick with the lanyard style, not the sensors. With the Helite or Hit-Air vests that connect to the bike with a lanyard, if the vest goes off, all you have to do is tuck the airbag back where it normally is and connect a new CO2 cannister. Cost of the cannister is about $22. The whole process takes about 15 minutes. With the airbags that use sensors, if it deploys, you have to send it in to the factory to be repacked and inspected. Here's what it says about the $700 Alpinestars Tech-Air 5 airbag vest if it deploys like mine did. Chris

She was assigned to the very bottom portion of Japan. It took hours to get out to the touristy spots. So while she enjoyed it immensely, she wanted to leave after a year to get somewhere else. Chris

I'm not sure if you would call her an expat. Whenshe graduated from Brandeis, she got a job in Japan with the JET program. After a year she went to a French speaking island in the Carribean. Then to the south coast of France. She's found a really great guy and has lived outside of Paris for the past eight years. We use our Worldmark points to fly her home a couple times a year under normal conditions. Hopefully a bunch of us from the PNW can get together later. Oregon is only a state away. Chris

I'd join Salish900 and head south to join you guys, but the oldest daughter is heading home to France about that time. I don't think she'd appreciate being left at home and missing her plane home. Chris

I've noticed something that I haven't done a lot of actual comparisons, but it is more of a general observation. Horsepower totals might be different among different vehicles, but in the power range most people are using in daily life, it isn't much different. In other words, like in the case of the Tiger 855 and the 900, I think the horsepower in the 3000-6000 rpm range might be very close and that it would be only at the higher rpms that the difference would be more significant. Chris

Rider magazine said this in their first looks article: So that's the base model to get you in the door, and then you'll look at that and the difference to get into the Tiger 900 and decide to move up instead. Still, we get rather jaded about horsepower "needs" or what is "acceptable". One of my early cars was a 66 VW Beetle. I think it put out 50 hp. That 50 hp took my new wife and I from Washington to Colorado with all our worldly possessions in it, and up Pikes Peak. Not bad for pushing along a 1900 lb vehicle. Chris

You'll think I'm crazy, but that's okay. My BMW F800GT is that way...and that's the way I like it. I want my brake light to come on if I'm braking hard, but if I'm not braking hard...I'd rather the person behind me not have that extra bit of warning. It sounds kind of counter-intuitive...but read on. I started riding again in 2006 after a long break and I tried to be very conscientious the first year. Even if I was only using engine compression to brake, I tried to warn the driver behind me by lightly applying my brakes. I got a lot of people tail-gating me. They were counting on me to warn them that I was slowing down. After @15K and a set of brake pads, I quit doing that. I simply watched to see if the driver behind me noticed. Whoa! What a difference. After the first or second time of slowing down, they backed off. Way back. Like 4-8 seconds back. No way did they want their eyes to be glued to my brake light...especially in the morning. It's like the reaction you make when you realize the car in front of you doesn't have working brake lights. What do you do? You back way off. It gives you more reaction time to realize that the car ahead of you is slowing down. And hopefully...someone else will slide into that open space...and now they have to deal with it. When I gave the driver behind me that warning that I was slowing down...they took advantage of it...and tail-gated me. When I took away that advantage...they backed off...and I was actually safer. Chris

Like some others, I have third-party luggage. Without luggage...a motorcycle is an expensive toy. With luggage...it's fun and useful. It's not only useful if you want to stop for a loaf of bread and a dozen eggs, but when you stop, you have a secure location for your helmet and riding gear. Chris

One of the things I do, is to keep track of what the Calculated or Actual MPG is, and the MPG Readout. As you can see from this screen capture, it does vary. In these cases, the MPG readout is lower than I'm actually getting. Sometimes, by quite a bit. In this case, by 6 mpg. At 49 mpg, I have a range of 196 miles supposedly. But at the actual 55 mpg, I'm up to 220 miles and can breathe a lot easier if I'm planning on a fuel stop at 180 miles. That's why I think it is important to know your bike. Find a way to determine what your approximate MPG is before you end up walking. On my F800GT, the gas tank is under the seat and of an odd shape. So BMW didn't try to show the upper half of the fuel level. It's full...till it is not. So for me, I look to see what I'm getting for an average MPG as I'm riding...and at how many miles have I traveled when the fuel gauge goes below half. Because at the halfway point, it's getting serious and I'd better know whether my plans will work, or not. I've seen the fuel tank hit the halfway point at 112 miles...which doesn't mean at all that I have a 224 mile range. It means to me more likely that I'm getting about 49-50 mpg. Is my next fuel stop within the next 60-70 miles? If so, great. If not, I'd better slow down and stretch the MPG out. If I reach that halfway mark and I'm over 120 miles...say 128 miles...I'm really really happy. Because I'm getting somewhere around 65 mpg and have no issues at all. My point is simply, to know your bike. I talked to the campground host at one of the campgrounds in the North Cascades National Park. There's no gas in the park. But he had encountered numerous bikers who just assumed (that's an acronym that you should look up, if you don't know what it means)...anyway, they had assumed there would be gas in the park...and there wasn't. He had to bail them out from their own stupidity. I also left a town in Montana and refilled at about 80 miles down the road once. Why? My comfort zone or planning range is 180 miles. That's way early and a "waste of time". It was because I was headed to Lolo Pass and there's no services for at least 100+ miles. Around town, I don't worry. Gas is everywhere. But I'll put on 15,000 miles this year and most of that is touring. And that's when I need to know what my range is...and not what someone else's range is. Chris

You have some inputs here. I suggest looking the bike up on Fuelly and seeing what a larger sample size gets. That'll give you the high, the low and the mode. What I do is to track and record every fill-up. I have a different bike, but I can tell you that I'll get around 45 mpg in town in the winter...around 53-55 mpg on most trips...and if I'm doing a lot of non-interstate back roads, I've gotten up to 70 mpg. So multiply that times my gas tank size and I have a range of 180 to 280 miles. Now which figure should I count on for my range? If I'm counting on the max range of 280 miles and I'm only getting 45 mpg...then I'm probably going to walk a lot. I suggest you do the same. Don't push it till it is empty. You could find yourself pushing that bike for a couple miles if you miscalculate. And is the fuel pump cooled by the fuel? Just start keeping a record of your fill-ups and the conditions. PhotoAl does the same as I do. I reset my trip odometer with each fill-up. When I'm on the road, I already have planned my max comfortable range. In my case, it is about 160-180 miles. Then as I'm going along, I'm keeping tabs on my average MPG and how many miles I've gone...and how many miles I need to go till the next fill-up. There are so many variables that affect gas mileage that this is like asking what is the best oil to use. How often and how much do you twist your right wrist? Do you have a head wind, or tail wind? Hilly country, or Kansas? How many stop lights do you encounter? You'd be surprised at how quickly that ruins your gas mileage. I think you get the idea. And since this is your first post...welcome to the forum! Chris

He'll never admit it was his fault. Chris

Dumb. And to record it and publicize it for all the world to see, is even dumber. Chris