Atlas Questions

Heated grips, dash-mounted cig lighter charger plug and remote battery charger plug all now working again. It's surprising how well connecting to the correct side of the battery helps this stuff work properly. While doing this I bought a white oil-based paint pen to mark the inline fuse holders to what they affect, used to see the Sparkys doing similar to GPOs, power points on building sites.
 
couldnt get crushed granite-managed to get 30 kgs of pea gravel either side-sag is perfect
 

Attachments

  • thumbnail_71946679783__5DBC6A99-A5B5-4AD2-8391-DDE3753E0945.jpg
    thumbnail_71946679783__5DBC6A99-A5B5-4AD2-8391-DDE3753E0945.jpg
    176.3 KB · Views: 26
That makes at least 2 crazy people here Paul. It's a bit late to discover your bike won't take a load 5 minutes into a long rough ride. Some might say that's a big load but remote camping cooking and eating takes more than a credit card.
 
I have a plan to eliminate the loud wind roar I get once past 80kph. I noticed on the last expressway ride if I held my hand over the large gap below the dash instruments it suddenly became a lot quieter. It looks like air flows around the new bigger windscreen sides and into this area causing this loud sound. But I cannot block this area as that's where the ignition key is, but I can add a couple of panels up each side of the Navigation tower and forward scribed against the new larger windscreen. I bought some very stiff cardboard to experiment with and cut and scribed 2 pieces approx 200mm x 300mm against the windscreen and added 4/ 20mm bulldog paper clips to hold them in place. If this works I will remake them in perspex so I can still see the speedo and tacho easily in daylight. We have a week of rain forecast so after that, I will test this out, plus check to see if the speedo is fixed and how the newly reconstituted full rear suspension travel works out.
 
Vince said:
I have a plan to eliminate the loud wind roar I get once past 80kph. I noticed on the last expressway ride if I held my hand over the large gap below the dash instruments it suddenly became a lot quieter. It looks like air flows around the new bigger windscreen sides and into this area causing this loud sound. But I cannot block this area as that's where the ignition key is, but I can add a couple of panels up each side of the Navigation tower and forward scribed against the new larger windscreen. I bought some very stiff cardboard to experiment with and cut and scribed 2 pieces approx 200mm x 300mm against the windscreen and added 4/ 20mm bulldog paper clips to hold them in place. If this works I will remake them in perspex so I can still see the speedo and tacho easily in daylight. We have a week of rain forecast so after that, I will test this out, plus check to see if the speedo is fixed and how the newly reconstituted full rear suspension travel works out.
Click to expand...
Wind noise is a bastard. I’m glad helmets have become so much better, I used to dread buying a new one because there was no way to know how they’d be with my various bikes until I’d left the shop.

P.S. how’s that sag? I’ve just had a birthday and my sag seems to be getting worse every year…
 
Straight to the ground like I am divining for water, it's an age thing. I now have the sag set approximately 10 to 15mm low, it's a compromise between the correct 1/3 of travel, that results in a 900mm seat height and thats not pleasant, or a bit lower to get both feet to the ground. If I get no contact between the rear tyre and the battery I will leave it there, on the test ride I will put some masking tape on the battery to see if it rubs, I am waiting on a new lower rear mudguard from Piet in Germany to arrive. BTW I have a pretty good helmet for sound insulation, and wear Ear Mould earplugs connected to my phone to play music when on 110kph expressways and that wind roar is still bloody intrusive as hell so hopefully those blocking panels sort this out. This really needs to work as typically I always end up on expressways for an hour in the morning and often 2 or 3 hours heading home in the afternoon on all the rides we do. That is just how it is living where I do in the middle of the Sydney CBD
 
I might start a thread on punter's choice of earplugs for motorcycling. I'd prefer not to use the cheapo foam ones, but do want to attenuate the wind noise without losing the sound of that beautiful induction and exhaust on the Q.

On the topic of air dynamics, the ZXR250 fairing upper I have fitted has smallish (maybe 50mm) fresh air intakes on each side just below the screen and I've left them open. It's possible it helps eliminate air pressure variations behind the screen - seems very neutral at any speed.
 
Last edited:
I was hoping the larger windscreen besides supporting the Navigation tower would also help with comfort on the long boring expressway transport stages between the fun bits. I really didn't want to enter that kick-me circle you constantly see on Adventure Rider with people constantly buying and modifying screens to reduce buffeting so I am hoping those side blockers work at reducing this droning sound it makes. One additional pain in the arse is there are major changes happening to all the close-to-me expressways with the standard speed limit reduced for these works to 60kph and tight police presence enforcing it so it's a bit longer to go to safely test at 100ks.
 
The weather has cleared, so I pumped up the tyres. The front shows 21psi instead of its correct 34, it loses air pretty quickly even with a new tube and valve fitted. Added some masking tape to the back of the battery to check for tyre rub, dropped the bike off its stand all really for a test ride tomorrow and then the new rear mudguard turned up from Piet in Germany. So no test ride, I will fit the replacement guard instead. I am hoping it's just pulling the 2 side covers and the seat, leaving the rear wheel in place but that's just a bit painful anyway, The seat mount holds the subframe to the frame as well and bolts into captured nuts in the frame that takes perfect positioning or they cross thread really easily. I chased them with a plunging tap but it's still really easy to buggar that up. I expect I will need some new guard fixings as the original are as rusty as hell, salty roads I expect. That is just about everything that I wanted to do, except the left side heated grip has died, always something. So no testing till I fix the guard and check the tyre contact with it.
 
I changed my mind, the bike was all ready to do a test ride so I did. The first thing I noticed was the speedo wasn't fixed by the simple thing I did. There is no means of stopping the lower cable connection to the drive from rotating and it did on the last ride only being stopped by the limit of the cable. So I swung it back into position and added a cable tie but no bueno. It's going to take pulling the wheel and a look inside. I added some masking tap to the battery box to see if it still rubbed and it might have just on the extreme corner, it's going to be covered by the new rear mudguard probably even more as it adds 3mm of plastic that will be in the way as well. I had also moved the adjustable footpegs up and back as far as possible to help get on the bike it also makes standing much more comfortable. I also hit the 110 zone on the M2 expressway to check how the new air-blocking panels worked out to remove the wind noise. Slightly better and really good if you get your head down and close but that requires looking through the windscreen. I know they look crap but lots love those deflectors that mount to the top of windscreens so I might try one.
 
Shoei New Tech 2, that is a bloody expensive flip-top road helmet and moulded earbuds. Really quiet on my 3c with its bevel fairing. It's unpleased loud riding the Atlas over 80kph. Get my face 70mm up close behind the nav tower and it's incredibly quiet, but it blocks your view and doesn't make for a comfortable riding position on expressways. I cannot avoid the bloody things living where I do. It's only money, who needs to eat anyway.
 
Looks pretty close to my 3c, hard and unresponsive. You do have nice weather so that's good for the hords of spectators from around the country. So I made a template out of that really stiff cardboard I used for the side blades up the sides of the Nav Tower the same size and shape as that deflector above. I found a couple of rubber bungs to space it the same as the upper pictured one mounts, I will duct tape it in place so I can try it out at expressway speed to see if it has the desired effect of reducing the wind sound. Not keen on spending close to $250 and it not helping. If you check out lots of GS BMWs they do sell heaps of those deflectors and they do get the thumbs up.
www.motorradgarage.com.au

MRA X-Creen Sport - Variable Windshield Extension

www.motorradgarage.com.au www.motorradgarage.com.au
 
I had a more detailed look at why the Speedo stopped working. It has a cable clamp about halfway down the fork but nothing else to stop it from rotating other than the cable itself and that's what happened a couple of rides back. I found it almost 180 degrees away from where its best connection was. So I spun it back and put a cable tie on it hoping that would allow the inner to reconnect. It didn't because the inner had snapped 100mm up the cable. Its wheel drive looks very Ducati like so tomorrow I will take a drive out to Gowanlocks and see if any of their Speedo cables will work.
 
Yes, it was a bit sticky but freed up with a clean and regrease. It was a struggle getting to the back of the Speedo, it has the oil cooler mounted close with it all jammed up behind the headlight. I just hope Gowys have a long enough suitable speedo cable as the Atlas has pretty long forks. The Speedo worked great till I got a new front tyre, The speedo drive has a 4mm wide peg that indexes into a slot in the hub, the drive is black and so is the hub, I didn't notice that slot and that didn't go so well. Fingers crossed a new cable will sort it. Not so keen not knowing what speed I am doing in local Cop Central or how many ks before running out of go juice.
 
Last edited:
Vince said:
The Speedo worked great till I got a new front tyre, The speedo drive has a 4mm wide peg that indexes into a slot in the hub, the drive is black and so is the hub, I didn't notice that slot and that didn't go so well.
Click to expand...
You SURE that little piece of info isn't trying to tell you something, Vince? i'd be suspecting something related ...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top