Time for a new fuel cap!

Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid Oberon keyless fuel capOn the eve of another little trip the half-key fuel cap has decided to throw its toys well and truly out of the cot. For the last couple of months the half-key has worked perfectly, but yesterday it just didn’t want to budge but the spare half-key still worked – go figure! Unfortunately I’ve now lost confidence in the cap opening as and when required. So two things happened …. first, out came the security bolt** and second, I ordered a nice silver/silver Oberon keyless cap to meet me at journey’s end. Now at least I can unbolt the whole cap assembly when I need to refuel if I have to ….. tedious but I won’t be left stranded!

**The cap is held on by four screws, three in the top of the cap (the other three are dummies) and one inside the filler neck. So if you can’t open the cap, you can’t remove the fourth screw and you’re stuffed!

Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid fuel cap security screw

 

Innovv K1 motorcycle ‘dashcam’ system … and a little soap-box time!

bike-close-up1Twitter, Facebook, emails, texts … it’s a fact that the modern driver is ever more distracted and as a consequence, the one thing I hate most – rear end collisions, are on the increase. It’s the one direction I have little or no influence over what the driver is doing. The last incident I was unfortunate to be involved in dates back to July 2005. Sat minding my own business at a roundabout waiting for a gap, when in a heartbeat the day turned to s**t. White-van-man ran into the back of me …… Ripping off the panniers and exhaust of my lovely Triumph Trophy 1200, while at the same time bending the subframe and ruining the body work as it slid along the road. The drivers opening words were: “I didn’t think you were there”.

Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid Sony Video WalkmanThankfully he never contested that he was to blame and the insurance paid out pretty quickly. But it could so easily have gone the other way. None of the vehicles in the immediate vicinity stopped – they had a good gawp, then trotted on. If he’d argued that I’d cut him up or some other sob story, I’d have been hard pressed to prove otherwise and the case would have dragged on for ages. This is of course one reason why cameras make mighty useful tools for our defence!

In reality I’ve been using cameras on bikes for about 13 years now ….. First a 640*480 bullet camera feeding into a Sony Video Walkman (digital tape). Nowadays I use the GoPro 3+ I bought a few years ago, but it’s really not suited to the roll of ‘dashcam’ and of course, running two (forward/rear) is an expensive hobby! So I was interest to read recently about the Innovv K1 system.

inovvThe Innovv K1 uses dual cameras (1920*1080 full HD) that feed into a single recording unit and it is designed to be a permanent installation on the bike. Both cameras are recorded in full frame and can be played back as such or as ‘picture-in-picture’ on the recording unit built in screen. It also has a GPS unit that can overlay information onto the footage if you want. What I particularly like is that the cameras are fairly discreet and can be mounted out of the way of prying eyes and fiddly fingers. It has many more features that I’ll not go into here, but are well worth checking out on the Innovv website. Oh and the price is damn good when compared to many single-camera systems.

I really like the idea of an almost fit-n-forget system that starts and stops at the turn of the ignition key. Other than keeping the lenses clean I should be able to go about my daily business, smug in the knowledge that should something untoward happen, the Innovv K1 will have probably captured it and (if it detects excessive g) will have locked the video file to prevent deletion.

duc_instruments

Of course common sense says that if vehicle manufacturers reduced the number of eye-candy gadgets and driver training were improved then the number of distracted idiots might reduce and I wouldn’t have to worry so much ….. but that’s not going to happen any time soon. Unfortunately the same is now happening with bikes, just look at the latest offerings. Colour LCD dashboards with more information, entertainment and interconnectivity than you can shake a very long stick at.

Above is a classic example of the latest sort of offering, also can anybody reasonably explain to me the obsession about knowing which gear you’re in and why it has to dominate the dashboard! It also appears that ‘neutral’ is so important to Ducati they show it you twice…… WTF! 😯

Easy RiderNo siree Bob, none of this information overload for me thank you very much. I’m going to fire up the Capo, fiddle with the GPS for a minute, turn on the GoPro from the wireless remote, plug into the Autocom, kickstart the music and make sure the phone has Bluetoothed itself to the GPS/Autocom just in case someone phones,  then I’m all set to ride around the corner for a nice loaf of bread ……….

……… The new breed of riders just don’t have a clue how simple life is with older bikes! 😉

Bird watching!

Every so often nature throws a little something our way just to add a bit of spice, a touch of zest to what was just another average ride-out. Thinking about it, over the years I’ve tickled a dove, knocked out a sheep and sent a pheasant knock, knock, knocking on Heavens door. In fact the biggest thing I’ve hit is a cow, but that’s a whole other story. So the other day, when this Buzzard and I almost met (intimately!) I don’t quite know who got the bigger surprise.

Bear in mind that GoPro’s and cameras with wide-angle lenses make things look a lot further away than they really are …….. believe me, he was close enough to smell his aftershave!