Motorcycle power socket

Any reason not to do this?

http://www.motorcyclepowersockets.com/

Its so I can charge my Blackberry/ Tomtom while on the move.
--
Gavin.

GSXR600K1
Twitter: http://twitter.com/gavin_wilby
Blog: http://www.stoof.co.uk

 

No reason not to do it. I note the length of the cable is not stated in
that kit. Similar kits are available on ebay for a few quid less,
especially if you can get away with a shortish lead.
e.g. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300283244886

 

Nice, cheers - ordered.

--
Gavin.

GSXR600K1
Twitter: http://twitter.com/gavin_wilby
Blog: http://www.stoof.co.uk

 

Ooh!

I love advert speak:

'Suitable for most makes including Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha, Kawasaki, BMW,
Triumph, Ducati, Aprilia, Harley Davidson, KTM and more'

 

That's exactly what I installed in Elly's 9R and my Bandit. The socket
sits in the dry, up under the seat and an extension cable (1,5m for a
couple of quid) will plug in when required to take power up to the bars
or into the tankbag if required.

I carry a fag lighter for it too, for when the Zippo runs out.

 

Im preparing for my trip to Silverstone is all, at least I can have my
BB and SatNav powered.

--
Gavin.

GSXR600K1
Twitter: http://twitter.com/gavin_wilby
Blog: http://www.stoof.co.uk

 

If thinking of more ambitious electrics improvement, this (with the
suggested relay) may be of interest.

http://www.whitehorsegear.com/motorcycle-circuit-manager

 

You won't need it, Silverstone is a big circle really, just keep going
and you'll end up back where you started.

HTH

 

I fitted something similar to Number One Son's bike, so he could use the
satnav facility on his mobbly whole riding.

 

HOW FUCKING MUCH!!!

Jesus. The relay shouldn't cost more than about three or four quid and
fuses are certainly a good idea but again shouldn't cost more than a
fiver for a suitable fuse block.

 

Tailor-made for a tinkering GoldWing owner, that is.

Go nicely with the quad socket power take-off in the topbox.

 

It'd have to be a GW owner, have you seen the size of the ruddy
thing ..

Only 1.5 inches thick, less than 5 inches long, and 3.25 inches wide.

Really easy to conceal on a sportsbike, that ..

Paul.

 

Sir is right, that's what a posher than posh biker suggested me.

I just arsed myself to Google and found this cheaper box.

http://www.ledstuning.com/tienda/product_info.php?cPath=59&products_id=144&osCsid=fzidukfhpe

 

It's exactly what I used to run my satnav one time. They work well if you
connect the red wire to the pos and the black wire to the neg. Otherwise..



--
Beav

VN 750
Zed 1000
OMF# 19

 

Even though you've got a fucking big tank full of Zippo fuel?

--
Beav

VN 750
Zed 1000
OMF# 19

 

[You're gonna love this - but, OTOH, you're a smoker ... and I think
I've seen you use a Zippo too, so you should get it ;-)]

Yes, for the following several many reasons:

1. I believe lighter fuel to be a lighter (sic) and more refined
distillate than your standard unleaded.

2. Petrol lighters will work on standard unleaded, but they don't like
it much - they burn cooler and sooty, with some quite fucking
objectionable little black, greasy smuts being produced - (much like
the 'blackbirds' you get from an oxy set when you're way rich on
acetylene) that get /everywhere/ that you don't want them.

3. I really don't like the taste of unleaded, whether a gobful
starting a syphon, or a lungful on the first drag of a gasper
(especially first thing in the morning).

4. I know smoking is going to kill me, but I'd expect habitually
burning unleaded in a lighter to kill me a bit quicker.

5. Being a habitual smoker and Zippo user (**** knows why, there's
shedloads of decent lighters out there now that will light in a
hurricane and that don't run out all the time (and especially when you
really, really need them) and that run on gas) I always carry a gas
lighter in the opposite front trouser pocket, for when the Zippo does
that running-out thing. The fucking gas lighter runs out too, and I've
yet to try filling one of them from a bike tank.

6. At the risk of upsetting darsy, it's all about redundancy. That,
and keeping your options open.

7. I was stuck one day, many years ago now, when I went "Nomad".
Zippo ran out, gas lighter had a damp flint, it turned out. I
discovered that it is possible to light a fag off Bandit headers, if
you're prepared to kneel with your head in front of the engine, while
you're revving the cods off it to get sufficient heat in the pipes. I
also discovered that is a good way to get a fake tan on the side of the
nose and forehead, and a good way to meet a local copper who really
doesn't appreciate or want to understand what the **** you're trying to
do. I think he thought I was examing ways to commit motorcyclier
suicide, and, TBH, he wasn't that far wrong.

8. Refilling a Zippo isn't that straightforwrd, from a bike tank.
Fuel, fuel, everywhere, but not a drop in my fucking lighter. Innit.
Yes, the fuel pipe pulls off the tap reasonably easily if you've got a
pair of small longnose pliers to hand. Grip, squeeze, twist, pull -
and then, with your third hand, proffer the guts of your Zippo to the
streams of fuel coming from both the tap and the pipe that goes to the
carbs. Or drop the pliers, scrabble for the lighter, get covered in
fuel, yadda yadda. Turn the tap off first, you ginger fuckwit - I hear
you shouting that. Thing is, there's enough fuel in the bit of the tap
downstream of the turny-off bit to fill a Zippo - and plenty more than
that in the carb pipe. There's plenty to soak into your trouser knees,
too.

9. Once you've turned the tap off and emptied the carb feed pipe, then
you can ease the tap on for a few moments and drip-fill your lighter.
Have a fag, sigh with relief and reassemble. Get all your gear back
on, get back on the bike and ride off. The float chambers on a Bandit
12 will get you just far enough, see. Just far enough to spurt out
through the traffic into the maelstrom of a motorway junction, then the
fucker will cut dead on you. Dead as a dead thing, no warning, no
cough, no fuckall. Dead, just like that. PANIC.

Let the hindbrain take over, FFS. Stop doing that jerking back and
forth like you're trying to shag some life back into the tank, cool the
jackrabbit vinegar strokes of acute embarrassment and fear of imminent
death on the bumper of a foreign 40-tonner. Do stuff. Do anything,
FFS. Not that it'll do any good, mind.

You can slap the choke on, you can wiggle the bike all you like, but
with the tap still turned off and the float chambers and feed pipe all
empty, it will achieve the square root of ****-all, let me tell you.
Even when the initial heartstopping, seat-puckering panic abates just
slightly, just enough to remember why you've got no motive power and
you slide around enough to get your gloved hand on that tiny tap - and
you recall which way to turn the awkward little bastard - then even
with the bike still going forward on the starter motor because you're
by now intentionally still in second but now with the clutch out and
you're heading for the kerb at 10mph - it still takes several lifetimes
to get fuel into the carbs ... and all those few seconds that Czech
pantechnicon is getting so much closer, even though he's smoking all 98
of his tyres and he's got full lock on but the Russian in the next
lane's having none of it and the Czech's still sliding into you because
all his wheels are flatspotting their tyres - and then a drop of
unleaded gets through and off you go, pump the clutch in relief, and up
you go, on the back wheel, face in the clocks, trying desperately to
unwind the throttle and get your thumb off the starter button because
it can't be doing it much good at 10k rpm and your left hand is trapped
on the fuel tap because your cheap glove has split on the fingertip and
jammed there irretrievably and the back end of that Nissan Micra looks
like a cool landing spot which is just as well, 'cos there ain't no
other .... I don't need to labour that point, now do I?

10. Should, against all odds, you succeed, a fuel tank-overfilled
Zippo is not a sensible thing to put in your trouser pocket and get
back on the bike, because the Zippo then turns horizontal and the
excess petrol seeps out, doesn't it? Yes it does - and it soaks the
pocket, soaks the trouser leg, soaks the human leg. Fuel in contact
with skin irritates, then burns, right. It fucking hurts, that what it
does. Having suffered a few/several Zippo-inspired leg burns, I have
utmost respect for the GP drivers of old, who seemed to habitually
drive around in a cockpit full of fuel, sitting in a couple of inches
of it. I wouldn't.

11. The optional method of filling the Zippo is to whip the unfuelly,
dried-out guts of the thing out, attach a bit of wire to the windscreen
(the perforated bit) and dunk it into the top of the tank. Swish it
about for a couple of minutes and the Zippo will have filled itself,
right? It may well have done, but it's damn difficult to light your
fag when your lighter is lying on the bottom of your fuel tank. And it
rattles when you go round corners. And you look like several varieties
of twat when your mate catches you trying to fish your brass lighter
out of your steel tank with a magnet-onna-stick. And the old chewing
gum onna stick don't work too well in fuel - and Blu-Tak is right out,
let me tell you. So you go back to the damp-flinted gas lighter for a
while, until the tank is nearly empty and then you have a go.

Great entertainment, fishing for Zippos in fuel tanks. Bit of bent
wire with a hook on the end and off you go. It may rattle going round
corners, but when you want to get it out, it fucks off and hides and
there's lots of dark corners in a fuel tank, even one as small as a
Bandit one. So you get your LED light-onna-stick out and force it down
the filler next to your fat ginger bonce. No worries - there's the
lighter, now all you need to do is hold the light still, get the bent
wire with the hook on the end in there at the same time and get your
fat head back over the hole so you can see what's going on. You can't.
Not physically possible. Well, not for me, anyway.

Go find another bit of bent wire, 'cos the first one's going to rattle
going round corners. Get the 1/4" drive sockets and ignition spanners
out and whip off the filler, making the hole big enough for both hands
to work around fat head. Get the magnet-onna-stick to pick up the
non-captive nuts from the fuel filler, 'cos they'll really rattle in
the twisties.

Go and sit down for a bit, while the left eye recovers from being poked
with the butt end of the magnet-onna-stick, as the magnet has stuck,
once again, to the biggest target - the fuel tank, of course - and when
fathead tries to yank it free, all that happens is that the retractable
shaft un-retracts and it grows from a manageable 9" to a
poke-in-the-eye 18" in a flash. Well, in a flash and a stab of searing
eye agony, exacrebated by the inevitable splash of unleaded, natch.

Get up and have another go, because sitting down in savage pain really
don't cut it unless you can have a fag, and you can't have a fag
because your fucking lighter is still in the bottom of your fucking
fuel tank. And your ghas lighter flint is now wet with unleaded.

Discover, eventually, that the very best way of illuminating the inside
of the tank is when the light onna stick is lying horizontally on the
bottom of the tank. Using the second bit of bent wire, get a good
purchase on what you think is your lighter and give it a triumphant
tug. That fuel guage never worked very well, anyway.

Yield to the inevitable and do what you should have done in the first
place - get the proper sockets out and whip the damned tank off, turn
it upside down, give it a right good shaking and recover all your gear
- and, incidentally, find out how big reserve really is when it's
spread out all over your trousers, your boots and somebody else's
tarmac driveway. Hope that a) you can get away before they realise and
b) they like rainbows and c) they don't park anything heavy there until
it has rained heavily a few times.


I love Zippos. I have more than several of them, and consider myself
not properly dressed to go out without one in my front right trouser
pocket (or right-hand waistcoat pocket) (and the backup gas lighter in
the left, natch). I love the solidity, the sound they make, and that
they're a proper lighter. I scorn disposable plastic lighters,
especially those that don't work in anything over the merest zephyr of
a breeze, that fail when even slightly damp, and I despise those that
refuse to spark when moistened with a bit of petrol. I love the
guarantee, the only one in the world in my experience that comes close
to Snap-On's service. I've tried other lighters, and use cheapo gas
lighters when I have to - but I always come back to the Zippo, simply
because it's the best.

Having said all that, I hope the foregoing ramble explains why, despite
my adoration of the Holy Zippo, I carry a 12 volt fag lighter under the
seat of my bike.

 

My god! (And yes I'm deliberately not snipping that lot, get over it).

That's desperation if I've ever seen it. I loved the lighting the
ciggie on the headers. Classic.

Don't give up smoking. By the sounds of it you would not survive.

Kev

 

<thunderous applause>

 

Pip wrote:

It must have been asked before, but *when* are you going to write a
book? Or at least a blog so this stuff can be collated?

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 GTV TS GT 3.2 V6
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

Blog? Gah!

Too sweary for a book - and it wouldn't read right without it, IMO.