This afternoon I took the PC800 out for a quick romp through Kings Valley via Airlie. On the way there I filled up with gas. It took 2.77 gallons of gas. The last tank lasted 129.5 miles giving me a fuel economy of 46.75. Not too bad considering I was having a lot of fun on the throttle all of those miles. Tonight’s ride was about 46 miles total.
Wheel plastic troubles on my PC800
Since replacing my front tire a month ago I’ve been having a heck of a time figuring out how to get the plastic to snap back on correctly. The left side piece is not reconnecting correctly. There were a few posts on IPCRC from a few months ago with someone having the same troubles. I tried to follow the suggestions there but to no avail. Anyone have any ideas how to make my front wheel shroud whole again?
The mud is from doing a little off-roading/gravel/mud roads with the bike. At the top of the plastic semi-circle you should be able to see where the plastic is separated. Click through the picture a couple times to get a HUGE version to see what I’m talking about.
Here’s a close-up. I can’t get the tabs to attach to anything and it seems that maybe the left side plastic is warped or something?
Looking at it from the front. The right side plastic (left in this photo) is just fine. The left side piece is screwed up though. Any thoughts on how to fix it?
Voltage meters for my PC800
Since I was already installing heated riding gear and because of all of the stories of faulty rectifiers and dead electrical systems, I decided to install an analog voltage meter. I chose the Honda Marine voltmeter [Note: links to this keep changing so your best bet is to go google “Honda Marine Voltmeter” and you should find one for sale]. The gauge is waterproof and lighted. Rather than buy it from some random website, I decided to get it from my local marine supply store. Next time I’ll buy it online. The local store took forever to get it and then charged me double what it would have cost online. They even charged me for shipping!
While I was at it I decided to get an idiot light because I suspect that if I didn’t have it, I’d end up being an idiot someday. I ordered a Signal Dynamics Heads Up Voltage Monitor. After going on several rides with it installed, I can say that I am VERY glad that I chose to install both an analog gauge AND an idiot light.
To make the hole for the analog gauge I found an appropriate sized hole saw at the local home improvement store. The small hole for the LED for the idiot light only took a little drill that I had in my tool chest.
I ran wires for the gauges back along the right top frame tube to the auxiliary fuse block I installed in the trunk. Most people hook a voltage gauge directly to the battery. I chose to connect mine to the fuse block instead. Sure, I might lose 0.05 volts going through some extra connections but I think it’s better to be cautious with my bike’s voltage anyway. I don’t need to squeeze every last tenth of a volt out of the system. At least not yet anyway…
My setup. The idiot light LED is in the upper left corner of the speaker blank. It ends up being in the extreme bottom portion of my peripheral vision when my head is up while riding. So far it hasn’t been distracting at all although I haven’t ridden during any dark nights yet. There are plenty of photos of other people’s setups on IPCRC. This is just the way I did it because I liked it this way. I’d be interested to see what other people come up with for their installations in the future 🙂