Hobbies – Page 86 – Not Your Average Engineer

February 8, 2010July 1, 2020

New Regulator/Rectifier for the PC800

The other day I picked up a brand new Honda R/R via a friend from Rick’s Motorsport Electrics. The old regulator/rectifier on the bike had been put on sometime in the last few years and came from a completely different bike. It works but I thought I might as well put the real deal back on my bike. The other R/R is now in my trunk as a spare in case of problem on the road.

The new R/R behaves differently than the other R/R. Now my voltage stays at 14.1 volts no matter how much electrical heated clothing I have running (while the engine is above 3000 RMP). At idle the bike stays happily in the 12 volt area and doesn’t dip below like the old R/R did. I think this new one is a lot better than the old. Hopefully I will get many thousands of miles out of it without incident.

February 8, 2010July 1, 2020

Superbowl Party Ride

Yesterday I got done early with my work and went out on a ride to Rick’s house to attend a Superbowl party. After the party and some Pictionary, I headed south back to Corvallis. The route took me through Scio and Silverton up the Cascade Highway to Oregon City. On the way back I used the freeways.

Total distance was 166 miles. I stopped in Stayton to buy gas where some Harley Davidson motorcycles had pulled up. They didn’t acknowledge my funny looking plastic-covered motorcycle. I took on 2.13 gallons of gas after going 100.3 miles. That gives me 47.1 MPG.

This was also my first ride with my new Honda-brand Regulator/Rectifier. More on that in another post.

My Route Map

January 31, 2010July 1, 2020

Back roads of the Coast Range

Today I blew off work for a few hours to go have fun on my motorcycle in the central Oregon coast range mountains. Out of the 150 miles I drove, I only hit really sketchy gravel and mud for about a mile total. FYI to all the sport bikes: don’t take Highway 411. Well, you can… but only if you want to have fun going up and over a tight windy pass in mud and gravel.

I filled up twice during the ride. The first fuel up I took 3.02 gallons and had driven 134.3 miles. At this fill-up I topped it off as high as I could for the coming ride. Even so, I still averaged 44.7 mpg.

The second fill-up happed about 85 miles later. I didn’t push the trip meter until about 10 miles after the first fill-up so I’m not 100% positive on the distance but it was something like 85 miles. Another top-off brought me to 1.66 gallons. That makes for 51.2 mpg. That’s not bad considering I was going slow along some sketchy back country roads.

Every time I go out and ride my PC800, named The Tardis, it’s like falling in love with the bike all over again. The Tardis might have a few nagging issues (need new clutch plates soon, back tire will need to be replaced sooner rather than later due to old rubber rot, underpowered stator, etc) but it sure is fun to ride.

In other news, I was having some trouble keeping my heated gear working throughout the ride. One of the outlets kept cutting out. I’m not sure if it’s an issue with the Heat Troller, the outlet, or the plug. Until I get some right-angle plugs for my heated gear I won’t be able to tell for sure.

My Route Map