Helite e-Turtle2 air vest

Helite e-Turtle2 air vestToday a post on a new bit of kit in my wardrobe and how a couple of companies renew your faith in how retail should work.

First, the bit of kit …. a black Helite e-Turtle2 air vest with optional motorcycle sensor kit. In all honesty I’ve been dancing around the purchase of one of these safety garments for a couple of years, but only just bit the bullet after a rather sobering article in the press, where a Police rider heaps praise on one of these devices that saved him from serious injury after a rather ugly incident on the M25. Later I learned that 16 Police forces now use these devices along with many other agencies. I was sold, and the order was placed with sportsbikeshop.co.uk for the vest, sensor kit and a spare gas canister. Of course I don’t ever really want to use the first canister, let alone a second, but as the saying goes …. better to have one and not need it, than need it and not have one!

 

Helite e-Turtle2 air vest canister connectorsWithin a couple of days I was stood marvelling at my new purchase, more on which I’ll write later. But before that, I have to tell you the ‘good retail’ story! Being a curious sort of soul, I opened the spare canister and compared it to the canister fitted in the vest …. there was a difference. The electrical connector in the vest was a locking two-pin item, but on the spare canister it was a jack plug. Hmm … had I ordered the wrong one? Back to sportsbikeshop …. no, they only listed the one type of 100g canister. OK, over to the Helite website and slap me sideways, only the same canister with the jack plug is shown. Now I Helite e-Turtle2 air vest CO2 canisterwas stumped. So the next day I called Helite and received a massive apology as it turned out the new vests (Mk2?)  have the locking plug connector and a batch of spare canisters had only just been received, so no distributors had them yet! Now this could turn ugly … Helite could say get your distributor to sort it out and the distributor could argue they sold me what Helite say fits. But not in this case – both were fantastic, Helite sent Sportsbikeshop a batch of canisters and explained the issue, meanwhile Sportsbikeshop and I swapped a couple of emails and hey-presto a correct canister arrived this morning, just 48hrs after noticing the problem … no fuss, no arguing, just good old fashioned customer support – so thank you both, I’ll be buying from you again that’s for sure!

So with that little drama behind me and the rain cloud parting it was time to delve into the fascinating world of air vests. The setup of the vest is simple – pop it on charge with the supplied cable and when the vest LED changes from amber to green, you are good to go. Battery life is rated at up to 25hrs with the led turning amber when the vest has approx. 2hrs of life left. Charging takes approx. 5 – 7 hrs so they say. The charging cable supplied is a USB to power plug – an unusual cable and not one you’re likely to have kicking around, so I figure it should stay with the vest for safe keeping  … and there is a tiny pocket in the vest that’s not much use for anything more than a credit card or loose change but is ideal for storing the cable – sorted.

Next up then, the motorcycle sensor. First you need to pair this to the vest (dead easy) then fit it to the fork leg of your bike. Again,  very easy with various length straps and bits to fit a massive range of fork diameters. They say the sensor is good for up to 5 years and should be tested monthly using a little magnet supplied. Now my bike looks like a local bad boy wearing a tag on his ankle! Incidentally, the vest can be paired with up to 5 sensors if you have multiple bikes. Nice.

Now the air vest itself. Well the construction is first class and I would say the fit … unobtrusive and comfortable. I bought the XL-L, one for the more ‘portly’ rider …. both the XL and XL-L use a 100g canister while the smaller size vests us a 60g canister as their air bag volume is smaller. This does add a little more weight to the right-hand side of the vest, but once you’re wearing it the weight disappears. In use the vest is absolutely fine and doesn’t hinder my movement at all, you can even wear a rucksack with it, but there are a few caveats (loosen straps etc) otherwise you could be in a right pickle if it deploys! Turning the vest off and on is a simple quick-three-taps of the button. If the vest is powered up, but doesn’t move after 40 seconds,  it goes to sleep to conserve power. To wake it up, simply move the vest and you’re good to go again. The vest itself comes with a 2 year warranty which extends to 4 if you register it with Helite. They do recommend the vests are returned yearly or at most two yearly, if damaged or deployed more than 7 times for a service/inspection, which appears to cost approx. £75 plus p&p. 

So far so good. Putting aside what the vests purpose is for a moment (loads of YouTube videos available anyway) I just want to spend a moment thinking about some of the features which I think should or could be addressed in a Mk3 version to make the garment even better. In my eyes, they’ve missed a trick by not pairing the vest with an app. I know, everything nowadays has an app … but when well written they enhance the function of a device and I think the Turtle vest could greatly benefit from one. Take power for instance, the vest only uses LED/beeper to inform battery status – an app could show detailed info and predict when the vest will run out as well as being used to alert the rider. An app could also show electronics pack  and motorcycle sensor status and again, be used to alert the rider if either develops a fault. An app could also for example, be used to alert emergency services when a deployment is registered. And what about selective profiles road/race/off-road algorithms (like ECU maps) and the ability to detach from the motorcycle sensor if required. I’m sure there are many other things as well, but that’s just a few that come to mind. 

Also on the wish list – charging. The current 5 – 7 hours seems a long time, I’d like to see fast-charge functionality bring that down to 2 -3 hours if possible. Also the charging cable .. why a proprietary power connector when USB-C is now becoming the connector of choice? And while you’re at it, design the electronics it to accept charge while it’s functioning (currently it only does one or the other) then a power pack can be connected for those looooong days in the saddle! After all this, please don’t think I’m maligning the existing e-Turtle2 vest, I’m not, and I’m really glad I purchased it. I’m just thinking how a great product could be made better and even more user friendly in the future.  

Lastly I just want to mention  the differences (as I see them) between the standard Turtle2-lanyard deployed and the e-Turtle2. In essence the only difference appears to be the triggering method – one electronic and one that uses a lanyard attached to the bike. The latter requires the rider to move far enough away from the bike for the lanyard to separate from the vest, thus triggering the air bag deployment. The electronic vest relies on sensors and magical algorithms to do the same (and the bikes sensor if fitted) … bottom line, deployment should be quicker and reliable for different incident situations. 

It had to be done ……… but

Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid valve service and cam covers replacedAs I sit looking at the vast expanse of white in the WordPress editor window, fingers poised over the keys and acutely aware of the aches in my fingers and wrists and subtle waft of soap barely masking the hint of worn out engine oil clinging stubbornly to the creases  in my old hands, I think to myself ….. aaagggghhhh why did I bother!

Yes, another Caponord service is over – with a valve check. Don’t get me wrong, everything went well, couldn’t have gone better in fact. Air/Oil filters and engine oil, plugs, hoses, fuel tank drain lines etc … are just perfect … but this time I had to fight my way in to check the valves, last done sometime when Crackerjack was on black and white TV’s – or so it feels.

Don’t get me wrong it’s not a hard job, just a fiddly one, especially the front cam cover bolt beautifully obscured by the coolant thermostat, oh and the buggeroo of a screw at the front of the cam cover, behind the radiator and below the finger shredding plastic mount for the front coils … otherwise, all good.

It’s none of that that bothers me in reality. It’s the fact that when you get in and measure the valves after what seems like way too many miles since the last visit, they’re all bloody fine! Couldn’t just one be out, just one require a shim change just to make the whole visit worthwhile – please! Oh well, I guess I had to console myself with fitting the powder coated cam covers and savouring the moment in the golden hour at the end of a beautifully warm day. 

Service time over

Empty tank makes for light work!Service time is over for another 6,000miles. I decided a couple of years ago to extend it from the original 4,650 miles due in part to the well documented stability of the valve clearances and because I’m using the long oil filter and a decent branded oil. Whether I’m being realistic or foolhardy for extending the interval only time will tell.  😕

Valve clearances were all in spec but on the tight-side, so no need just yet to use the new Hotcams shim kit, but next time I’ll change all the shims by ±0.025mm to shift the 0.13mm ...... getting close to the limitgap back into its mid-range. That should see the valves good-to-go for at least another 50k miles. Everything else was absolutely fine, with just a slight tweak of the CO to lean out the idle.

The rest of the bike was given a thorough check over and happily all bearings and seals are fine, a squirt of grease in the rear suspension linkage keeping that nice and smooth. The drive chain and sprockets were cleaned and checked and after 33,333 miles (yes, that’s a genuine number!) they’re still good ….. This is the highest mileage I’ve EVER had from a drive chain. DID ZVM2 chain rocks!

Air filter frolics

Athena CA8925 air filter to replace Aprilia AP8104169I mentioned recently that I’d ordered a batch of air filters made by Athena in Italy. They’re a direct replacement for the Aprilia AP8104169 one and the only obvious difference is the black foam material instead of orange, and that’s fine and dandy with me. However, on stripping out the old filter I noticed for the first time (that I can recall!), it has a code on the end …. hmmmm ….. could it be a viable manufacturers code I wonder?

Hmmm what's the code mean then Sherlock?A few minutes on the web confirmed that the number is definitely a manufacturers code – not Aprilia, but FIAAM. A bit more digging unearthed a total of three cross-referance numbers. Tecneco AR9474PM, FRAM CA9474 and FIAAM PA7301. The downside? All of them seem to be obsolete, with FRAM/FIAMM saying they went out of production in March 2012! Buggeration ……

But … one of the sites I found listed a filter that is an almost identical footprint to the OEM one:-

Aprilia OEM          210 x 140 x 30

FIAAM PA7180   212 x 140 x 60

Now a 2mm length difference is peanuts – the OEM one can be stretched/compressed by 10mm easily, the problem may well be the height, at 60mm it’s double the OEM filter. So to try to find out I took some pics of the airbox with the OEM filter in and had a play in Photoshop. Here’s the outcome.

Photoshop airboxThe vertical lines show where the filter ends or interferes with the frame or lid. As you can see, the 60mm high PA7180 will squash in at the ends …… will this be enough to restrict air Athena box label for the Capoflow, or will the greater surface area of the larger pleats compensate? Answers on the back of a crisp £20 note if you please! 😀

Next time I’m passing a motor-factors, I’ll order one and have a play. At £4.68 each they’re half the price of the Athena …. and that brings me nicely back onto track, the new Athena filters that turned up today. What are they like then eh?Embossed pleats

Well, dimensionally it’s an exact copy, so the fit is absolutely fine. One nice touch is the embossed pleats. It keeps them evenly separated for better air flow unlike the OEM element that is simply made of folded paper where the pleats can collapse onto each other. The bottom line is that it fits well, looks better constructed and is substantilly cheaper than OEM (€8.35 each from Germany) …… oh and it comes in a nice shiny box!

Santa and his sack of Capo goodies

Ho, ho, ho ... dashboard inlay for MrB!!!!!I’ll start off by wishing you all a hearty Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year wherever you are on this wonderful globe of ours. For the Capo and I, it’s proving to be an extra special one this year, with Santa dropping off a few extra goodies for the riding-year ahead.

The dashboard has been especially good, and so merits the star prize of a new OEM quality inlay with all the new graphics in place. So as I write, the old one is on its way to Lockwood International Ltd in the UK to act as a template,  meanwhile the plastic chassis has been Finished inlay templatecleaned and preped ready for the big day. Like a kid on Christmas morning, I’m all on edge – and I’ve got to wait at least three or four more weeks yet before it’s installed!!

Probably the most needed bits are for the (very) overdue service. Yes folks, I’m hanging my head in shame as I admit that the Capo’s mileage overran a tad ……. a couple of thousand tads give-or-take! Now I’m waiting for a few packages to arrive for this truly international service to take place – Hiflo HF564 oil filters and ‘O’ rings from the UK, Hotcams valve shims from the USA, Athena air filters from Germany and 15w50 engine oil from Italy. Cosmopolitan or what!

That just leaves the parcels snuggling together under the tree …… a Shoi Neotec or a pair of socks? Slippers or a slipper clutch? Hmmm ….. roll on tomorrow!! 😉