Arriving at work,tried putting the bike on the kickstand and it just toppled over as the kickstand didn't have the "strength" to hold it.
The root cause was the loss of one of the two screws that hold the left foot peg and kickstand in place. No major harm done as I was able to put the bike on the center stand, and after a visit to the local dealer got an extra screw. However it raises concerns, the first being if this assembly was to fall off (it was only held in place by one very loose screw) I could have had a serious accident if this hit the rear wheel and the second that it is poor engineering to have such a "stressed" attachment, which holds he weight of the bike, held in place by two screws even without a nut! Even stranger is that I had tightened these a couple of days before!
Today dedicated some time in getting "route navigation" set-up on the iPhone before going out for an afternoon drive with a friend. Found there are two issues with what should be a simple task. The first, you can't get files on an iPhone easily, specifically the gpx files used on web pages with readily available motorcycle routes such as http://www.moterus.es & http://www.wikiloc.com. And after some more investigating the other isue - even if I can get the files on, Tomtom for iPhone doesn't have the itinerary planning functions which means it doesn't accept pre-written routes!
So after some investigation with google found a solution: MotionX GPS for iPhone. It's relatively simple to use and better for the task than Tomtom as it give you nice statistics such as altitude, time spent, avg. speed and tracks your progression and saves this so you can share afterwards.
How to use: After downloading the gpx file, you send it via email to a specific MotionX email address. It sends back a link which you click within the iPhone and voila - you're route is imported and ready to use. Also, you can offline download the maps you will use during the route so you don't need an internet connection along the way.
So for the route - thanks to "julianclimb" found this interesting back street rout in the Southeast part of Madrid:
http://www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=732092
It's not an easy route as the roads are pretty irregular, so it helps to have a trail bike, but a lot of fun! It took us 5h30 to go around it, with a couple off stops for beers & coffee. This was our final Map, which looks almost the same, except for a couple of wrong turns in the beginning near Rivas where I didn't understand the GPS and towards the end where we stopped at Loeches for some end of trip tapas.
After some initial difficulties with the MotionX & iPhone as I didn't figure out how the Map worked and the touchscreen only works without the gloves on, it started working like a charm and is extremely easy to follow. It does lack voice commands so you need to see the screen for teh software to be useful. I don't see this as a disadvantage as the last thing I want during a sunday cruise is the voice of a GPS in my helmet nagging left & right...
The back streets were amazing, and one comment I think says it all was from my friend when we stopped "This looks like we're driving through the third world!" - it was so far away from city reality with little villages and no cars circulating - only the occasional farmer. Funny to find this so close to the big city.
Did my first iPhone video from the RAM mount:
Nice Interesting effect of how it shimmers with acceleration!
and tried another recording, the only thing interesting is the shadow... (go to 00:26)
Statistics:
Time (including stops): 5:29
Avg speed: 48,1
Max speed: NA
Distance: 264
After seeing a couple of pictures of GPS mounts, satellite phones, etc.. decides to cheaply give some navigability features to my F800GS. Instead of buying more electronic devices, decided to leverage the connectivity heavyweight iPhone. With the installation of some software, it can be a versatile GPS device - just need to install it in a visibile position on the bike and also find a way to power it during longer drives.
After looking around for a while, narrowed the search down to two contenders for the support - the touratech and the RAM. Decided for the RAM because of the price difference. As for power, found a Power socket to Car cigarette lighter adapter, into that device I can plug in a regular Cigarette lighter to USB abd power the iPhone. The RAM mount arrived today and I've been going around on exactly how to mount it. The mounts are very modular so you can mount almost anything, anywhere. The one I purchased has one module which is the Handlebar mounting kit (a U type bolt), and another module which is the iPhone support. Everything is connect by mounting balls. Very sturdy. After experimenting a bit, I didn't like the mount on the handlebars, as it's to close to the driving position and means you have to take your eyes really off the road to look at the screen. I decided to mount it on the structure which supports the windshield & the instrumentation panel. All with the pieces supplied by RAM, no further handywork needed.
First I unscrewed the windshield and took it off I wrapped the F800GS support structure in cloth as to protect it (it's plastic) from the tightening of the ubolt.
Added some cloth inbetween the windshield and the U-bolt as to not damage the windshield (it's pretty tight and they touch) After some tightening and putting the windshield back on, this is the result!
I only had the iPhone camera, so as soon as there's camera around bike I'll take some pictures of everything up & running - with the iPhone and the charger.
Details: RAM-HOL-AP6U UNPKD RAM HOLDER FOR APPLE IPHONE 3G RAM-B-149ZU UNPKD RAM U-BOLT MNT W/2.47DIA. X 2.47X1 BMW Powerlet to USB Charger
The reason is that I need some type of navigation on the motorcycle but won´t use it enough to invest in a motorcycle specific navigation device which tend to be very expensive. So I wondered if I could use tomtom or google maps on my iPhone for the task.
