Friday, May 25, 2012

Time travel - met up with a 1977 Suzuki

Time travel. I met up with a 1977 Suzuki just like the one I rode when I was in graduate school decades ago.
Tried some captions via Youtube, on this one. Shot with a Contour. See the original at http://contour.com/stories/291757.

Karakung Drive on my Piaggio MP3 500

Karakung Drive is my favorite starting point for joy rides on my Piaggio MP3 500.


I experimented with adding a sound track in Youtube. Shot with a Contour. See the original at http://contour.com/stories/291753 .

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Church & Darby Roads on my Piaggio MP3 500

My second ride with my new ContourGPS. I just received the 360 Helmet Mount and was anxious to try it. Again, one of my favorite weekend rides on Church & Darby Roads. The wind noise is distracting, so just turn down your speaker volume. Looks like the classic MG had engine trouble (0:31). Note that I used my new Banshee Airhorn to warn a car (10:05).

Shot with a Contour. See the original at http://contour.com/stories/288811.

Saturday, May 19, 2012

First Contour Camera Ride

My first ride with my new Contour GPS camera. A brief video along one of my favorite early morning rides, Mill Creek Road near Wynnewood. I used the rotating flat surface camera mount stuck to the side of my front fairing.

If you want to see exactly where I rode, look at the Contour Stories site showing the GPS map, speed and elevation at http://contour.com/stories/288280.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

My new Screaming Banshee Horn is Installed!

I discovered the Banshee Horn project on Kickstarter and thought the inventor had a great idea*. The stock horn on my Piaggio is quite weak - beep beep. It made sense that I could still use my stock horn to gently warn a pedestrian in a cross walk without making him/her jump out of their skin by blasting an air horn that sounds like a Mack Truck!

But... just hold in the normal horn button for 1/2 second and you get the full pulsing air horn blast and flashing high beams!

Here's what the install looks like on my Piaggio. Note that I drilled a hole in part of the bike frame to solidly mount the horn - part of the frame used to attach the fairing. I didn't really trust the bracket approach specified in the Banshee instructions since it resulted in two possible connections that could vibrate loose over time.
Fairing removed showing placement of Control and Horn

Horn bolted to fairing frame
Control Box attached using heavy-duty velcro























Stay tuned for my first test video of the new Banshee Horn! You can buy your horn at the new Screaming Banshee website.

*I pledged $75 back in January to get one of their first production units (they exceed their funding goal of $12k and received over $30k!). I got my horn at the end of March, but wanted to wait to receive electronics for my next bike mod before I dissembled my Piaggio. Finally was able to finish both projects in May.