Chong Alterations

I highly recommend this lady for anything you need worked on. I think she did a pretty good job on my jacket.

Ms. Chong & her husband

This is the seamstress/tailor who altered my jacket for me.

Dakota II Altered

I think the jacket still looks pretty professional. It IS short, but doesn't look abnormally short on me (I don't think) and also if it is any longer, it srunches up on me when I sit on the scoot. What do YOU think?

Front

Back - I may need her to put in belt loops for the back side. The strap keeps coming down.

With "Big Air" vent open

Closeup of bottom--you can see she re-attached the logos as patches.

This is the only part that doesn't look 100% It's the front open with the mesh section zipped.

Power Trip Dakota II Jacket

As I mentioned last month, I have needed a new 3-season jacket for a while to replace the red and black jacket.  I ended up with the Power Trip Dakota 2 Jacket.  First things first.  I ordered the 5XL because of the thought "I need it a little big to go over regular clothes and maybe a hooded sweatshirt." which was the wrong attitude to take in the beginning.  A good jacket should fit close to you and keep you warm without other layers of stuff.  The Dakota II was supposed to fit at "waist length".  Well, the 5XL hung down not to my knees, but over my arse easily.  When I sat down in the jacket, I knew immediately it was too big.  I returned it (free of charge) for the 4XL.  The 4XL came last week and I tried it on.  The good news is it fit around my chest, stomach, arms & neck very well.  The bad news is it hung down almost as low and bunched up so bad when I sat that it was unworkable.

 

My options were three:

 

1.  I could return this jacket and keep getting other 4XL jackets from newenough.com until I got just the right one.

2.  I could ask newenough for a refund to apply toward another much more expensive jacket that would be made to order (read: a $700 motoport jacket where they get your measurements and take 8 weeks to build your jacket from scratch.  This $700 becomes $100 if you want a waterproof or thermal liner!!)

3.  I could have the Dakota II altered.  This is something I truly dreaded because of the fiasco that turned my nice Power Trip summer mesh into a POS.

 

I had read that one fellow on the Suzuki Burgman forum got his jacket alterated for around $80.  This wasn't too bad, so I took it for an estimate to British Custom Tailors on Bardstown road.  They quoted me $280 - $320!!!  I just about crapped!!  I decided it was time to return the jacket and see if motoport had any slightly less expensive options.

 

Newenough would only give me another "gift certificate", or what is commonly known as store credit.  I was about ready to call bullsh*t on this when the Motoport people called back and confirmed that to get a jacket with all the same functions as the $170 Power Trip but made to fit, it would be really really close to $1000!!  My second stroke in as many days!!!  So now I was stuck with a jacket that was too long, and a $300 alteration bill.  I did the only thing I could do.  I gritted my teeth, called around to other tailors/alterations people, and prayed I would not get screwed.

 

What I found was Chong Alteration, Dry Cleaning & Repairs.  I spoke to the asian lady over the phone and she seemed really down-to-earth.  She wanted to see the jacket before she would give me a price.  She told me she absolutely could do it and had worked on this kind of jacket before.

 

Thursday I took it in.  The next stroke was not mine, but Ms. Chong's!  She looked at the intracacies of the jacket and how many zippers it had.  She said at first that the original quote would be very close to correct.  I was dejected and I guess she could see that, so some compromises were made.  I told her she could make the pockets smaller, remove the lumbar pad, and not to worry about the cinch straps along the sides, or the "Power Trip" logos.  She said she could do it for $200.  I wasn't thrilled, but I got the sense that she would do a good job.  She said it would take a while, but agreed she could have it done before April.  I was resigned to worry.

 

Sunday I got a call.  She said "I put off other work.  Jacket is done."  I asked, bewildered, if I could pick it up Monday.  I went in after work yesterday.  She let me try it on.  It was short---way short, but I reminded myself (and Ms. Chong) that if it was any longer, it would bunch up when I sat on the motorbike.  I saw that, even though I told her I would like to save some money by not worrying with the Power Trip logos, she made neat patches of them and reattached them, including the label!  I was worried she would ask for more money but she did not.  The only problem was this: once the jacket was shortened, it skewed the bottom a bit.  There was a true need for the cinch straps because where the spine CE armor was in the back of the jacket, it caused the back bottom to jut out like a tent!  I was not happy with the looks.  She started going back through the peices that she'd removed, and designed a back cinch strap that would allow me to take up some of the slack.  It now looks very professional and you can only really tell it's been altered if you look closely.

 

Chong Alteration, Dry Cleaning & Repairs for the win!

 

I wore the jacket home and was fairly comfortable.  It is NOT my old jacket and will take some breaking in.  It also fits differently, but I knew it would.  One minor mishap--the back cinch strap on one side busted a seam loose and needs fixed, but it is still attached and works.  I am sure she will not charge me to fix it.  It has a waterproof liner, and a thermal liner which zips out.  There is also the partial Big Air section in the front that is mesh and will allow you to leave the main zipper undone and get max air flow through the chest and out the back vents.  I wore the jacket to work today, and my upper body was perfectly comfortable in 34 degrees and I felt no chill.  I did not have on any other liners or clothing besides a polo shirt.

Garmin Scooter Mount

The Garmin Scooter Mount for my Nuvi 550 seems loose.  When the scoot vibrates, the ball socket slowly moves to the lowest position.  It's not horrible, and I think I might be able to tighten it, but I asked Garmin about it anyway.  Here's a transcript:

ME:  I note that after a short period of riding on my scooter with the Nuvi 550 on the Garmin Scooter Mount, it will slowly swivel down to it's lowest position. Is there a way to tighten the scooter mount so it does not swivel as easy?

 

GARMIN:  Have you tried tightening the mount to the bar? Is the mount too big for the scooter? Unfortunately, the mount may not fit all scooters so it might be loose. You may want to try searching for a third-party dealer that sells a mount that mounts tighter to your scooter.

 

ME:  It is not the entire mount that slips, but the swivel so you can adjust the unit up or down.  The mount itself stays perfectly in place.  It is the ball-joint swivel that is loose.  Is there a way to tighten that?

 

GARMIN:  If you can not find a way to tighten it, you may not be able to. I went ahead and ordered you a replacement scooter mount. The order number is: 19106204 and you should receive this in 5-12 business days. You may have the same problem due to the way the mount is made, however, let's give this one a try.

It is nice to see that they are willing to send out free crap in the cause of customer satisfaction.  I just hope that the scooter mount can either be tightened, or my current one is defective and the new one will work well.  I still have to get the power wire mounted.  That is like the 3rd or 4th thing on my list of scooter related tasks to get done before April and the WKRP rally...

Parts & Service on the Yamaha

A while back, my V-BELT light came on. It's set to do this at 12K
miles. I need to get it replaced pretty soon, so I have been calling
to get the best price on parts, and also to check the cost of labor.

Derby Cycle seems the most fair. They want $163.99 for the belt,
$5.99 each for the 8 weights, and they quoted me 1-2 hours of labor at
$65 per hour. This gives us a grand total of $276.91-$341.91.
Yamaha/Suzuki of Louisville ran in the middle of the pack. They
quoted about the same price for parts ($163.47 for belt and $5.54 each
for weights) but charge 2 - 2.5 hours labor at $75 per hour. This is
a grand total of $357.79-$395-29 for the job. Lastly, I called S & S
Powersports in Clarksville. They did a good job with my rear tire.
The fellow in parts could not figure out exactly what belt to order,
but guessed the price would be around $179. The weights--he said that
they come only as a whole set with the clutch and could not quote me a
price on weights only. He also could not state how much they charged
per hour for the work, or how long it would take. I gave up on them
and called the new S & S location in Brooks, KY. They quoted me
$163.49 for the belt, and $5.99 each for the weights. The sticker is
the labor. He said it would be $190 and take about 2.5 hours. This
would bring their grand total to $401.41.

Any way I go about it, the labor is gonna be crazy unless Derby Cycle
can get it done in an hour. Then not too bad. I'm going to run down
there this weekend if at all possible and order the parts and pay for
them. Then when they get the parts in, I can either choose to put
them in myself, or have them do it. I also need to get the v-belt air
filter elements replaced, or at the very least blown out. I may wait
on the roller weights. I kinda want to put in Dr. Pulley sliders
anyway. My friend Jeremy says we can do the work in his garage, and
he's the one that helped me change the belt and weights on my 250cc a
couple years ago. He's brilliant with mechanical (among other stuff).

Riding with Mushu

The dragon decals I got from streetglo are not exactly what i wanted, but they are highly reflective and will add visibility to my solid black helmet. They look a little like Mushu from the Disney cartoon Mulan. Ugh.

The road to work this morning was cold as hell. 15 degrees is quite cold enough. You might wonder why I rode to work if you have not been following long. That is because I am not one of these people who stores their bike for the winter putting it on a battery tender in the garage. I like to ride year round, but getting caught out in snow and ice is something I am not quite ready for. Even though we had sun and a little warmpth yesterday which melted off most of the road ice, there were still some dangerous slick spots.

There are 49 days until The WKRP "Jump the Shark" rally in Cincinnati, Ohio. I really hope its a bit warmer then!

FW: Scooter Mode!

The Nuvi 550 really is bitchin', and I am figuring out the routing software! Does YOUR GPS have "Scooter Mode"? Mwahahahaha!

Mapsource success

Experimenting last night, I was able to suss out the biggest bits in Garmin's Mapsource. Now I have created a preliminary route to the WKRP rally via the ferry that crosses the Ohio River at Augusta, Kentucky. There are various ways to do it but my favorite (and what I am most familiar with) is a drag-and-drop route line method commonly referred to as "rubber-banding". I found a quick tutorial on advrider.com forum. Simply put, you make a waypoint at start, and finish, then Mapsource defines the route. If you don't like it, you can click on the route to turn it yellow for editing, then click a point on the route, hold, and drag to another road on the map. This will change your route to include the new point! In using this method, I can select my "blue highways" instead of the more common interstates.

Scala Q2 & Multitec test continues

Last night I put an extra layer of hook & loop inside my Multitech in order to get the speakers for the Scala closer to my ears. Music from the iPod sounds ok, but I have not had a test yet of the adjustment with a phone call over 50mph. I noted from initial tests that I have "old folks" syndrome for some reason. Since I can't hear as good, subconsiously I believe others cannot hear me as well either-and my friend Ralph noticed I tend to talk too loud. It will obviously take more than mechanical adjustments...

GPS DC charging cable

My DC charging cable came today. This will allow me to keep my GPS up and running while I'm on the bike without using the 12v cigarette lighter adaptor. This should also allow me to route in such a way as to avoid any wires running over the body of the scoot. Also with the GPS came the Garmin Scooter Mount. The mount might allow me to do away with the farkle bar altogether, but I really like that bar, so I will likely keep & modify it to use the scooter mount.

Nuvi 550 track log

This is a sample track log from the Garmin. Just home to scouts. I found a site www.gpsvisualizer.com that will work until I get my copy of Mapsource from Garmin. This will let me view the log of where I have been using the GPS.

The Nuvi 550

As soon as I got around to fiddling with the new Garmin, I noted some things I like. Besides all the regular GPS bells and whistles from my Tomtom, this one is waterproof, has sd card slot, can save a track log, and I have already customized to have a motorbike icon instead of a car. ;)

Givi with huge Ogio pack

This pack fit better in the square hard case that came on my Roketa. The difference is that it was square and this Givi is round. I might look for a new bag. This one will not easily stow anywhere on my bike.

Givi E450

The Givi E450 is as big as I wanted to go for a top case. I like how it looks now that it is adorned with stickerage. The texture makes some stickers hard to keep on. :( It can fit two full face helmets, but they are just barely able to fit and you have to close the lid using some pressure. These things are supposed to be well made though. It goes on and comes off pretty easily. I am still not 100% positive I like the anti-dumbass feature of not being able to leave it unlocked with the key out. I know locking it without the key is good so you don't lock your key inside, but not being able to leave it unlocked...well, I guess thats a good anti-theft measure, but seems annoying right now. The only thing I really didnt like was that they shorted me one small rubber gasket. I bought two packs from Home Depot and they should work, but still...for the price they ask, you should get a little extra QC. All in all I think I'll like it once I'm used to it. It doesn't seem to handle any different so far, but its like 30 degrees right now and I'm not doing any distance runs.

Wet Spot

Its not hammering down today, but its definately raining pretty good! My car is still in the shop, so I ran a mandatory road test on my new Tourmaster boot covers. I had them on over the pants half of my $29 www.jafrum.com rainsuit, and I wore my regular jacket with rain liner. As you can see, I only suffered minor issue with rain getting in. On the way home I will try it with the boot covers on first and then the pants. Thumbs up from me!

Shoei Multitec Helmet

So far so good on the Shoei Multitech. Anti-fogging and road noise are substantially diminished from the KBC helmet. The fit was good enough that I dont have to worry about getting thinner cheek pads. It looks good, although in black, slightly different than what I'm used to. It is comfortable also, and a LOT less "drafty" than other helmets I've owned. The final point will be durability, and I can't assess that for a while.

Armadillo Scooter Armor

This stuff is wicked!

Armadillo Scooterwear Tough Enough from Armadillo Scooterwear on Vimeo.