Update report on 50000 miles - Jun 2002

It's been quite some time since I had the chance to update the information and give some more feedback on how the bike is developing over time. But finally I found the time to give you some more feedback. Since my encounter with the Dunlop tires I have gone back to use the Bridgestone tires all the time and am quite happy with them, despite the fact that the front one is cupping, but not affecting the handling of the bike too badly. Since now there are alternative tires on the market (Dunlop and Metzeler) some people might want to switch, but I feel that these tires are doing what they are designed for and Bridgestone is coming with an updated front tire for the bike that should solve the known problem so I will not try to elaborate more on this issue.

We had several trips around the USA, the latest one took us from the Bay Area over to Key West, doing 8250 miles (according to our GPS) on the bike. We did this nice trip in 15 days that were more than exciting. We started off doing a Saddle Sore 1000 from the Bay to Albuquerque in New Mexico in about 15½ hours. From there we continued on I-40 (with occasional distractions to see some National Parks) through the Smokey Mountains and the Blue Ridge Parkway down to Savannah. Over the Smokey Mountains we hit temperatures of down to 32 degrees and black clouds hanging around so that we expected it would start to snow any time soon, but we were lucky and neither rain nor snow hit us. On the stop in Savannah while I checked the tires for pressure, my wife found a huge nail stuck in the rear tire. Surprisingly the tire was still holding the air and had not lost a single pound of pressure. After investigating in the motel we were told the next Honda dealer would be just 6 miles away on the same street and we immediately took off to find it. Once there they even had a tire in stock and we only lost 3 hours that day waiting (since we normally take off around 7am) and now would leave at around 10am. We continued to Key West, which is a long ride due to the 'high' speed limit going there. We spent one night there and took our way back home going the southern route (I-10) with a stopover in New Orleans, where we found the French Quarter being closed for some private party (what a bummer). But still we had a good time and toured the quarters the next day in the morning on the bike before continuing on to Galveston Island in Texas where we put a one-day rest in.

The last days of the trip proved to be the most gruel some of the whole trip. After passing Houston where on the Radio we could hear already warnings about heavy rains, which we escaped at that time. However later on before coming to San Antonio, we were getting several heavy downpour rains that made us stop and seek shelter under bridges or any other cover we could find. At least after San Antonio it got better and the sun came out again. But being this time of the year, the sun was really extreme burning us with 110-degree temperatures. So we decided to drive through the night in hope for lower temperatures. Coming close to 11pm and still having 95 around Phoenix, we thought that it would be best to seek shelter in an air conditioned motel than continue like that. After the trip my wife decided that she will not ride in the back seat any more, since I was a 'bump search equipment' hitting the only bumps for miles around. No problem, she's now going to ride the 1800 while I will have to put up with our old 1200 - at least for now until we get another bike.

Now there are a lot of people that do complain about the bike overheating in specific situations. We have come through a lot of different traffic on our trips. In no situation we have had the bike overheat. Yes the needle is able to climb a bit upwards, but this is normal operation and in no way an indication of overheating. We have been stuck in Stop and Go traffic in Florida (Pacific Beach on a Saturday afternoon) where we were rolling along at 15-20mph for a very long time. I said in the beginning I have talked enough about tires, but I feel to add a little bit more to that. Before we left we had a new front tire installed that is still on the bike with over 9000 miles on it right now. It does look better than all the other tires before after 6000 miles. Maybe the driving type (lot's of straight freeways) did help increase the mileage on the tire. On the previous occasions we usually went for the Sierra Nevada or other twisty roads that would cause a lot more tire wear. There are still hardly any options on my bike, since in my opinion the bike does not need any Chrome to look nice, or any other major toys. However I would like to share with the readers of this report some of the experiences that I had with added equipment.

Helmets and Headsets.


I bought a HJC SyMax flip-up helmet for myself to replace an older helmet with J&M headsets installed from Sierra Electronics. The shop experience itself was fine, as I was expecting. The Helmet is very noisy and the windshield would not stay in the up position, which is what I normally would do on riding unless hitting rain. The next thing was that the sound quality of J&M was a major disappointment. While the system works on my GL1200 at reasonable sound levels (about 1/3 volume while going down the Freeway) the 1800 is turned up all the way and only mid range coming through. I then installed Chatterbox headsets on the two open face helmets that we have. They provide a much-improved sound quality and the wind noise from the intercom is way below the levels we experienced with the J&M set. After browsing the Message boards for the 1800 (www.gl1800.org and www.gl1800riders.com) somebody said he installed Labtec Elite 820 speakers in his headsets and like them. So off I went to CompUSA and bought a headset to try myself in one of the open face helmets. The installation was simple and took only about 10 minutes (doing it for the first time). Once I hooked them onto the bike I was amazed. Sound quality was like sitting in front of a perfect home stereo system and the volume level could now be cut to comfortable levels. Even after using the bike with the CB (on my 1200) it provides much improved voice quality. So off to the shop again and get more headsets to install in the other helmets. There was only one left and I took a different Labtec speaker setup for the HJC helmet. After installing them I can tell some difference between the J&M and Chatterbox. Installation on the Chatterbox took 5 minutes on the second one. The J&M configuration has detachable speakers (do I care? - no) so they can be taken out without removing the headset completely. However while the Chatterbox Speaker case uses screws to hold it together the J&M are glued shut (stupid in my opinion). Both type headsets are now much better to listen to, while the Elite speakers are clearly better due to the cushion they provide around the ear that also seals off more noise from outside.

My personal recommendation is to use Chatterbox headsets and install some 3rd party speakers (like Labtec Elite 820). This way you pay half of J&M and have a product that delivers better sound and less wind noise. However personal tastes might give you a different feeling and at the end of the day it is your own preferences that count.

Audio.

We have bought a Archos Jukebox 6000 MP3 player after hearing as well from the boards about the impressions that some other people had with the unit. Originally I used the unit in the left fairing compartment of the bike. But using it together with a power adapter would cause the unit to skip (because it really gets hot in there). So I was looking at different solutions. Some people went and installed the unit in the trunk. This was no option for me, since I want to have the unit at hand during driving to operate it (like skipping a song that does not fit the current mood). The alternative was to put it on top of the left pocket lid. But could it be made to hold there? A friend of us had the idea and tools to help out. He installed a metal plate on top of the lid that is screwed on to it. The Jukebox has gotten a plate on the bottom as well with double sided sticky tape so that it provides a flat surface. Using Velcro tape on both of the plates I can put the unit on and off any time I want to. We have routed the cables for Power and the AUX input connector through the hole provided for the headset now so that the unit can be connected to the bike. I've used this setup on our last trip and the unit did not skip once on whatever weather we got (up to 110 degrees). Works fine and I can press any button on the road without having to go and buy another remote control or whatever else.

All this is personal experience. Your own results may be different. I have not tried different products than mentioned here and other products may be better, but I will not comment on them since I have no experience with them.
 

"Reiner"