Lofoten ride

Made it back in one piece. A good ride, but the weather sucked a bit.

Some notes from the trip:

- the backrest was just spectacular on those long boring stretches
- tank size was not a problem at any point
- waterproof luggage proved to be very necessary this time
- too much stuff came along (again)
- need better riding gear, having separate rain gear sucks
- invest in really really good "come hell or high water" gloves (had several crappy ones with me)
- stock suspension is absolutely fine
- phone still sucks as GPS navigator
- have your own straps for any future train rides

On my way

I will be on my way up north and towards the Lofoten Islands tomorrow evening. Updating the blog from the road with the phone is too much of a hassle, but if you want to tag along you can see updates from the road on my Instagram account https://www.instagram.com/web_biker/

Below is the plan for 4 days of riding.

Luggage testing for the trip

Wolfman bags on a cruiser no less

Did a test mounting of my gear for the upcoming trip. If I leave one of the Wolfman bags at 50% I can get a working back rest from the bags. Rain gear is strapped separately to the sissy fro fast deployment.

Testing luggage

Waterproof Wolfman luggage on Yamaha Bolt

I tried mounting one of the two Wolfman bags that I have on the sissy bar. Seems to work great and it's actually easier to mount and take of than on the luggage racks I had on the previous bike.

If tightened properly the bag is not resting on the fender, so it shouldn't scratch the paint. The bag however does not work as a back rest as I originally planned. There is just too much space between my back and the bag. I need to either wear a back pack or mount a much larger back on the sissy. Bummer.

3rd person GoPro motorcycle mount

I have long wanted to fabricate a 3rd person motorcycle GoPro mount, but I haven't been able to come up with a reasonably portable and elegant solution on my previous bikes. With the Bolt, the mount could finally be doable due to the sissy bar of the Bolt providing an excellent rigid and elevated mounting point.

The mount

The mount is essentially an inverted camera monopod. The GoPro bar mount is attached to the rubber end of the monopod and the monopod is zip tied to the sissy bar. By doing it this way the height and orientation of the camera is fully adjustable. On the shaft of the monopod I have zip tied several silicon hoses to dampen vibrations and ad friction between the sissy bar and the monopod. The monopod attaches very securely with only 2 zip ties.

I haven't been able to test the rig yet and it seems I wont be for some time as winter has descended. I'll get back to this when the weather allows it.

The monopod is zip tied to the sissy bar. The sissy bar has silicon hoses zip tied to it to prevent scratching, dampen vibrations and prevent the monopod from moving.

Monopod extended half way

Yamaha Bolt sissy bar backpack

My old Kata camera bag has a trolley strap that I have never found any use for. Looking at the sissy bar I started to wonder... Today I brought the bag along with me to the garage. Low and behold, the bag fits on the sissy like a glove! The strap is the perfect size and once you drop the bag in place it sort of automatically locks in place. The Kata bag even has a feature that the shoulder straps can be tucked away so there will be nothing flapping in the wind while you ride.

Kata camera bag on a Yamaha Bolt sissy bar

Yamaha Bolt tall and short sissy bars

Yamaha Bolt tall and short sissy bars side by side

I replaced the short sissy with the tall one, I personally don't like the look of either one too much, but the tall one will provide a sturdy mounting point for attaching my luggage for longer trips.  I took some comparison shots in case someone is pondering which one to get.

Motorcycle offline navigation by phone

I've been using an old cheap beaten up TomTom for years now. The reason being that it works and it plays well with the Tyre route planning software. For pleasant and successful route planning Tyre has been much more important than the actual device mounted on the bike. So far there hasn't been an App available that would do what traditional GPS combined with Tyre have been able to do, that being easy route & waypoint planning and off line navigation.

My Requirements

When I'm planning a trip, what I want to do, is plan the route exactly as I want. Not  just "find scenic routes" not "avoid highways" etc. So far doing this with the actual navigator has been a nightmare. Phone apps have not been much better and very often there is a requirement for internet access.

Near constant mobile internet access on a proper road trip that usually takes me to other countries is either totally impossible / impractical or costs way too much.

My approach has been to use Tyre to plan my waypoints on the computer and then upload the finished route to the TomTom. No internet required on the road and the planning is a pleasure with a computer mouse and a big screen.

The current/previous way of planning a route and navigating on a motorcycle
1. Plan the route with Tyre
2. Export the .ITN file to the TomTom navigator
3. load up the route from the TomTom menu
4. ride!

With the new MotoEye App this is about to change. It looks like I can finally retire the TomTom and only have my phone with me for navigation. With this in mind I'm designing my "cockpit" so that I can easily see my phone and keep it charging while riding. The good thing is that I can still plan the route with the computer and everything works as before but I know have one less device to lug with me.

The future way of planning a route and navigating on a motorcycle?
1. Plan the route with Tyre
2. Export the .GPX file to dropbox*
3. Load the .GPX file to the MotoEye App*
4. Ride

* For this to work you need a dropbox account and dropbox installed on your phone

I found out about the MotoEye a bit too late as the riding season is pretty much over. I'll have to wait for spring to test it properly, but so far it's looking promising.

For some reason most of the promising navigation apps designed for motorcyclist do not offer offline maps. That's pretty much a deal breaker for anyone planning to even a bit off the grid or go abroad where mobile data transfer charges can be obscene. MotoEye seems to be the only one that allows me to plan my routes on the computer and offers offline maps. If there are other options out there, please let me know!

Ram mount X-grip phone holder for Yamaha Bolt

Test installation of the Ram Mount X-grip.
I will be getting risers so the installation is just to see how the parts fit together. I have two different length arms for the mount, but it seems that bu using the longer one I can get the phone pretty much smack in the middle. The reason I want my phone mounted this way, is that I have plans for using as a navigator. Previously this hasn't been feasible because of mobile internet restrictions on other stuff, but it looks like I can retire my old TomTom soon. I'll post more about this later.

Ram Mount ball the Yamaha Bolt stock riser

The ball is pretty unobtrusive

Iphone on the X-grip

Quite ok so far

EDIT Feb. 11th

The mount was moved to the center of the bars once the pullback risers were installed. The main reason was that soviet europe could not provide me with a suitable UNC bolt that would fit the risers.