Giving my Other Half an Earful!

If you've been following this blog, you'll remember last year my OH bought a Starcom rider to pillion communication system and the various issues we has with it, which resulted in him taking it back for a refund.

For a variety of reasons, he hadn't acquired another system and it was starting to get boring and dangerous for me on the back, especially on long runs. So, at the start of the month he bit the bullet and bought an Autocom system.

Our initial impressions of this system were really positive. The microphone is on a boom, so it can be positioned close to the mouth. On the Starcom system, the microphone is stuck to the front of the helmet. Also, the cables to connect the parts in the helmet to the brains of the system under the bike seat are much more substantial than the Starcom ones. They also have raised "bars" on each end of the connectors, making it easy to connect to the system, even with gloves on.

The setting-up of Autocom (in terms of volume, vox sensitivity etc) seemed much easier than
with Starcom. I've no idea of the technicalities of it, when we went out for a set up run my OH only had to pull over once to make adjustments. I think we pulled over 4 times in 3 miles setting up Starcom...

We've now used Autocom during a few runs and it works really well. There's little is no wind interference (when we've experienced it, its been windy) and we can hear each other
clearly.

It seems Autocom is really well designed, by bikers, for bikers. The bit that impressed me was in the instructions for "in-house" basis setting up was to run the system with a hoover on in the room to replicate wind noise. Great attention to detail, as far as I'm concerned.

Now that I've experienced both of the main rider to pillion communication systems, I can safely say Autocom outshines Starcom by a mile.

Scottoiler Fitted

Over last weekend I fitted a Scottoiler to the Hornet. This is a handy little device which constantly oils the chain, while the engine's running. Although I cost me just over £60 and took about 3 hours to fit, it will more than pay for itself as the chain and sprocket will last longer.

I've really impressed with the Scottoiler as a product and business. They supply the parts which will allow fitting to most bikes. As for bikes that require more specialist parts, they will supply them free of charge (now that is virtually unheard of these days). Also, their website has very good instructions of fitting the Scottoiler for virtually every make of bike out there.

For more information about Scottoiler see:

www.scottoiler.com

Additions to my bike

I've now had the Hornet for 7 weeks and am really getting into it and enjoying using it. It's all getting a lot more natural for me.

I've added a couple of accessories to the bike. They, in my humble opinion, make it look better and make maintenance easier. I've added a fender extender to the front mudguard, which helps stop too much road dirt getting into the front of the engine. I've also added a hugger to the rear wheel. This looks really good and, more importantly, stops the road dirt, salt and grime being thrown up from my back wheel into the rear suspension.

I've also bought a Scotoiler. This continuously oils the chain, so the chain and sprockets will last longer. That hasn't been fitted yet. My OH and I were going to do it yesterday, after we'd bled the brakes in the Pan and he'd changed the air filter. Changing the air filter took longer than he expected (it was supposed to be a "5 minute job"...), as 2 of the retaining screws were rusted in place and weren't for budging even with the application of penetrating oil to loosen them. The joys of "quick" jobs. The Scotoiler will be fitted one evening this week, with a but of luck.

Kirkcaldy Farmers' Market

Last week the young church held a stall at the local farmers' market, to promote the project and raise some money. It was a beautiful day (very hot in bike gear!), which meant the market was very busy; all the better for us.

There was a lot of interest, particularly among small children. They got to sit on either my or my OH's bike (or both), that got the parent talking and the message of Riders' work passed on. All in, on the day we raised just under £180, which we were more than pleased with. The following link has a photo of the young church (with help from some older church!) and a write-up from Riders:

http://www.riders.org/n_details.aspx?nwId=161

The young church's project is going so well that they have already reached the original target of raising enough money to buy a motorbike for a health care worker - £1450. The project has until the end of the year to run, so the young church has decided to spend the rest of the year raising money for a Spanner Fund. Thus, they will have paid for the transport and maintenance of the bike. That's what Riders is all about.

The National Gathering - One Word - Fantastic

That's what everyone thought of the National Gathering. There was an amazing atmosphere, with everyone being very friendly and welcoming. I really have been to nothing like it.

This is the tent all set up. I wish we'd taken the photo when the event was open, as there were loads of people around. The bike did draw a lot of attention (the stereotypes of Christians and bikers don't usually mix, but perhaps they should). There were a few times when I was going around the other parts of the event I heard people asking their friends if they'd been to the tent with the motorbike (fame, at last).

So, the main aim of taking the bike had been achieved; the hook to get people interested and promote the work of the church and exchange ideas. We also showcased the work of Riders as outwith the motorcycling community, very few people have heard of them. Everyone was really interested and impressed with their work. Some people even donated money towards the young church project, which was very generous.