Scruit

I fabbed up an aluminum mount that places the shield 4" higher (at the correct height for me, level with my nose) and tilts the to edge towards me by 4". If that works out on my commute tomorrow I'll have a machine shop make me a set from stainless steel. The design allows me to loosen a quick-release and tilt the shield backwards and fowards up to 6". I can also raise/lower it by about 2". On today's commute I had the shield at the full height but not tilted yet... As I rode any buffeting I got was "cured" by leaning forward 3" to get closer to laminar airflow right off the shield and away from the von karmans. I'm hoping that tilting the screen towards me will keep my head in laminar air in my natural seating position.

Most of my time was troubleshooting an issue with the Verizon A-GPS features - I had to disable A-GPS to make it work.

What phone do you have?

The instamapper service is free. There are a couple different competing free products (Google Latitude etc) and each one has it's list of compatible phones. You absolutely must have GPS and Java application support. The instamapper website lists most Blackberry and Motorola iDEN phones (The i290 is one and it' $29.99, however getting hold of one has been a pain being discontinued. I got one from an OH supplier through Amazon. The next cheapest phone is $59.99. ) If you don't want to buy a disposable phone and your own phone is compatible (my Blackberry Storm is) then just use your existing phone and the entire thing is free. The problem with that is you don't get the theft tracking as you'd likely take your phone with you. I'm doing the disposable phone so that my bike is ALWAYS trackable (assuming GPS coverage) Think of the other possibilities... You want to sell your bike and the buyer demands a test ride? Along with your other precautions, have a GPS-transmitting phone on a 5-sec interval hidden in the bike. If they take off then you can track them live. The config changes needed on the phone as: - GPS set to "Location On" instead of "E911 only" - The application must be granted permission to access the GPS It took me about 30 mins from scratch to get the thing running on my own cellphone.

The toolbox is plastic.

Another advantage: You can go back and look at breadcrumbs from previous trips:

Insurance will pay an amount of money for your bike that you may or may not be happy with, and then raise your rates. Nothing is free. Lojack requires the police cruiser to have the lojack receiver, and that just gives them a direction to follow. With this I can bring up a website and see the exact location of the bike (or the last successful GPS track, which could be outside of the building the bike is now in). I get a good GPS signal in the 3rd floor of a 4 story office building. That has advantages beyond theft recovery. My wife can use the website to check on me if I'm overdue on a bike ride. 60mph in the moddle of nowhere means I'm taking the scenic route. 0mph in the middle of nowhere means she needs to check on me. 0mph outside Columbus Gold means I'm sleeping on the sofa tonight. I also heard a rumor that Boost Mobile doesn't count *outbound* traffic against your data plan, so some folks claim to have used the service for 3 months for $5.

GPS Tracking for free. I'm not associated with the website, but I *do* have it tracking my cellphone - works great. Just ordered a cheapie disposable phone from Boost Mobile (i290 for $29.99, but discontinued so VERY toought to find) because it works with the gps tracking and costs about $10 a month. Gonna hardwire the charger to the bike's battery and hide the phone int he lockable tool box. If my bike gets stolen then hopefully I have a good chance at tracking it.

Let's just get sirens like an emergency vehicle. Then when people hear us we'll be completely safe... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d53NjaNQYJk Sound is just another sense. Doesn't help you when the cager is senseless.

In honor of ReconRat's post I'll clarify that I *have* had sport bikes shoot past me on the white line between myself and another car, going twice my speed on the freeway, and I've be unaware of them until they are in front of me... But that's not a case of me being unobservant.

I can always hear the guys with loud pipes riding past my house on the highway half a mile away. Pretty annoying. Can't say I've ever been in a position as a cager where the volume of a bike's exhaust has made the difference in me knowing they are there or not. But then I've never been in a position where a bike "snuck up on me".

Group hug?

Deleted, as the trip has changed per below...

What do you have to be a dick about it? I'm not taking a stand on loud pipes. You won't see any post from me advocating either side. I'm just arguing that there ARE times when it could have helped. If there is a bike in your blind spot that is loud enough to hear then you're going to be aware of it's presence. Just like you won't notice every person in the movie theater, but you sure as hell notice the guy with the loud cellphone. In my video the driver never saw me until my horn prompted him to check his shoudler. He responded to the sound of the horn. Now, if I had loud pipes and he heard those then would it have had the same effect as the horn? My opinion, since you asked for it, is why not have an electrically operated exhaust cutout so you can be quiet when you need to be quiet and you can be loud when you are riding in a pack of cager and need to give them the benefit of perceiving you with an additional sense?

The only situation I can imagine when loud pipes would make a difference is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LEmwhgTWiY If I had louder pipes he could have heard me over his shoulder...

At least the snakes won't have headaches.

If you're gonna get all legal and technical, then granny might be in trouble... Deadly Force Justification is all about "Means, Motive, Opportunity, Retreat, Don't Escalate" The attacker must have the Means (rock), the Motive (Already attacked her) and Opportunity (They were in rock-throwing range)... The shooter has a Duty to Retreat or Flee unless doing so would put her in greater harm (ie turning your back on the assailant). This is where she may be in trouble - she could have gone back in the house where she would be safe from the rocks. The shooter also has a Duty to Not Escalate - I've heard no suggestion that she did so - she should be good in that respect. So really her only problem is that she could have stayed in the house until the police arrived. If the assailants tried to enter the house then she's good to go. But then, I haven't read the Castle Doctrine laws too closely yet... The lack of charges may be due to castle doctrine.

Cool. What prize did you win?

Yeah, I wish calsi did a shield for my bike. Theirs are all unique to the bike so there's no universal fits.

- Were you wearing a different jacket / pants? - Fridge / pantry (seriously) - Under mounds of papers etc? (speaking from experience) My last couple of epic key searches wound up with me finding the keys: - In the garage on a shelf next to my wife's car - In the wrong car (had them on me while I was a passenger in someone else's car and they wound up staying there for whatever reason.

Saw that page and looked to see if they have a windshield for my bike. Nope. I *have* heard from other forum that people have added goldwing vents to their windshields for the same effect - to fill in the low pressure.

I ride an 04 Volusia that ha a factory windshield set at the highest setting from new.. I'm 6'2 so my head it high and further back that most volusia riders. This isn't really a question, more of a rant / documenting my thought process in hopes someone benefit from this at some point. I've been half-heartedly chasing a wind buffeting problem caused by the windshield since I got it, but now that I'm commuting on the bike the buffeting has to stop. The first thing I tried was putting my arm out in front of my chest and feel where the air was coming from. It was around the tank into the low pressure air behind the windshield, so I got some lowers and that fixed the problem enough that it didn't bother me too much. Now I'm finding what's left of the buffeting to be pretty annoying. If I stay at 60-65mph for most of my commute then I wind up with my head beaten around and a nasty headache from it. So it seems like the buffeting now is coming from the air that is going up over the windshield start off pretty clean but then get very turbulent by the time it reaches my helmet. I've tried the following: - Adding a laminar lip, trying everything from 5" below the top of the windshield to a high as it will go. Some positions helped a little but others made the buffeting worse. - Found a simple mod that tilts the factory windshield more vertical. Tried that at with the windshiled at the lowest setting and found the buffeting worse, and EVEN worse with the shield mounted at the highest setting. Feels like the air becomes more turbulent the further back it gets from the windshield, so tipping the windshield away from me gives the air more time to become turbulent. - I put the windshield back to original factory mounts but at the lowest setting. I can feel the air hitting my helmet, but it's cleaner air so up to 70mph (fastest I could test tonight) the buffeting is limited to sidewinds and when I get too close to other vehicles. The top of the windshield is now a couple inches short of my chin. This is the best setting I've found so far. So, this weekend I'm going to give the laminar lip another try at the lwer windshield height. If all else fails I'm going to try fabbing up some brackets that will let me tilt the windshield towards me. The turbulence seems to be at the back of the low pressure "bubble" created by the windshield, so by bringing the windshield tip closer to me should move me further forward towards the clean air. Hopefully.

One bike for the rest of my life? Hayabusa. Only because the rest of my life would be about 12 minutes. Honestly? It would have to be something I coul go everywhere on, touring. BMW GS or a Wing. GS if I'm alone, Wing if my wife wants to tour with me.

Blah blah ... good kid ... blah blah ... turning life around ... blah blah... just started going to church. Mulitple young assailants throwing bricks at an elderly lady? Shooting back would not by my first preference, however if I'm on the jury I'm gonna call it justifiable.

That's my rule. If you violate my right of way I'll brake but not swerve. if I brake and hit you then it's your fault. If I swerve and hit something else, it's my fault.