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[RZRob]

I ran my cigarette lighter on switched power with the outlet and phone mount at the bars. I've got a cigarette/USB and the iPhone cable with Ram Mount for the iPhone. Cheap, simple, functional.

RZ Rob

[bwalsh]

Originally Posted by ONandOFF

I doubt the custom built one from some guy near Front Royal would last long chained up....

Don't know who your talking about. No custom boat builders here...yet.



I bet that was a little freaky going through Union for the first time alone. Well you know that little bypass route to that one hill, it's as bad as the hill itself now.

It was interesting...It wasn't much of a sneak when I did it. It was just the lesser of two evils.

I could never convince her to go again.

I can't imagine why...

Originally Posted by ONandOFF

Absolutely. Unless you've got the type that is programmed to recognize when service doesn't seem to be available and stops trying until you ask it to do something. But regardless, it's at night and you're charging from a battery - that's two reasons to power down the phone.

And if you start charging when you stop then it'll probably be charged by the time you hit the sack so you can unplug it from the bike.

Life's a gamble....

Having anything drawing power, however little draw it is, while stopped, on an XRL is just asking for battery trouble IMO. Whats the problem with charging it while riding?

[Brown Falcon]

Originally Posted by mhking

hahahaha havelock how i hate you. i hate this place but ya the beach is nice. wish there was more offroad here instead of one offroad park.

I didn't have a bike when I was out there, but I remember there being some decent looking trails out off of Catfish Lake Road. If you head out towards the actual lake you'll find them.

[SmokeBike]

Hey guys, I'm looking for a Dual Sport - XR 650L would be gret but I know some of you guys have multiple horses in your herd...

DR Suzuki or KTM. are both cool. This is for my nephew and I'm trying to get him to see the light on the merits of this XR addiction of ours...
That siad, he just wants a DS of some type.

West coast is preffered as a shipping cost from the east would be rather costly.

If in Cali or BC Idaho etc would all be way cool

Thanx in advance boyz....

[Walterxr650l]

Originally Posted by ONandOFF

It's possible when the battery is weak and/or on it's last legs, a connection is going bad, or if the key is left on, that the tiny amount of charge reqjuired by a cell phone could make the difference between barely starting and not quite. Bummer that happened to you. When all's strong and good, it's not much of a risk. But to be on the safer side, of course, charge while riding.

The battery was not week or on it's last legs. 3 1/2 years and 30 some thousand miles later, and it has never since failed to start the bike. Once it even sat for nine months without a charge and still started the bike. I also agree a cell phone battery doesn't have enough capacity to drain the bikes battery. So it had to be my phone charging setup (inverter and phone charger) that caused the drain. Just because my setup drained my battery, doesn't mean everyone's will. But they may want to test ahead of time to be sure. In my case, I was on a hill so it was no big deal. All I had to do was push the bike out to the road, climb on and let it start rolling, pop the clutch and I was on my way.

Walter

[techforlife]

Alot of chargers will use power,even when not charging a phone,,how much it uses??????? best to find out before hand..an inverter will definately use power..

B

[mcma111]

Spell check on isle three:

D-E-F-I-N-I-T-E-L-Y

[ONandOFF]

Originally Posted by joexr

Oh my God. Who the hell was talking about the physical weight of the spring. TENSION.Mass and gravity have nothing to do with tension of a spring. It exerts the same force up , down or horizontally . And a highly accurate scale would be perfect to measure the tension of a tiny spring. Weight it really? You were kidding right?

Sorry, but that's what it seemed like you were probably suggesting, to weigh the spring. It's my own fault for not asking you to explain what you meant. I should know better than to attempt to interpret "Postage or crack scale , whichever you might have." as a complete thought. I will try to learn from my mistake. Nevertheless I hope the original poster TedMagnum benefitted from the discussion.

Yes, it is possible to measure the force exerted on a spring with a scale. The deflection also has to be measured at that force, while in a static condition. But unless I'm missing something it's going to be a heck of a lot more time-consuming to set that up than to simply situate the spring on a solid, flat surface and put weight on top, holding up a ruler next to it referencing the surface to measure the spring lengths unloaded and loaded.

The latter simpler approach uses mass and gravity to produce the force which deflects the spring. (force is what you really meant with "tension of a spring", right?)

[pngaudioguy]

Originally Posted by mcma111

Spell check on isle three:

D-E-F-I-N-I-T-E-L-Y

Since you went and made it so big I think you meant "aisle"...

tedmagnum - Any progress on finding a spring?

[ONandOFF]

Originally Posted by stiggs13

yes especially if you are in a area with crappy service. my idea was put it on the charger for a few hours while setting up camp etc.. although if I charge while riding I wont't have to worry about it much at all.

Here is where I ended up mounting my aux box



ordered up better usb plugs, oh and its got a water tight cover to keep it snug. My first jaunt out is March 16 to Death Valley, we will see how it does. New gel battery installed also tonight. Need to lube up the chain and find some saddle bags....

You're in good shape! You can charge while riding and/or charge while setting up for a couple of hours NO PROBLEM.

If you want to take some time and do a verification test, here's a way to do it. Run your phone down. Now, open the feed line to the charger and insert an ammeter. A DMM with at least 2A and 200mA scales will do. It can be tapped in at the inline fuse (you DO have one, right?) or by taking a lead off the battery.

Start on the 2A scale, plug the charger into the socket, then plug the charger into the phone, watching for a reading. It shold be under 200mA so now switch to that scale to get a more accurate reading. This should be the worst-case current draw, when your phone batttery is dead. Let's call it Icw.

Now, repeat this measurment when the phone is reporting "charging complete". This would be the quiescent draw, let's say Icq.

Since the battery is rated in ampere-hours, we want to use the above measurements to find that product for charging that phone. The other variable we need to specify is time - how long it takes to charge and how long it will sit afterward. Let's call those time Tc and Tq, repspectively. We will need to express current measurements in Amperes and time in Hours.

ampere.hours charging (Qc) = Icw * Tc
ampere hours quiescent (Qq) = Icq * Tq

ampere.hours depleted from battery (Qt) = Qc + Qq

That's all there is to it! Now you can see how much charge your setup would take from your battery for various amounts of time charging and sitting there after charge complete. This may even over-estimate usage since some charging techniques ramp down the current toward the completion of charge. Then you can decide what safety factor you are comfortable with, which will indicate time available. My comfort level would be at 10% depletion, since you never know how cantankerous that xrl will be in the morning.

A Death Valley excursion should be awesome! Enjoy the hell out of it...

[ONandOFF]

Originally Posted by Walterxr650l

The battery was not week or on it's last legs. 3 1/2 years and 30 some thousand miles later, and it has never since failed to start the bike. Once it even sat for nine months without a charge and still started the bike. I also agree a cell phone battery doesn't have enough capacity to drain the bikes battery. So it had to be my phone charging setup (inverter and phone charger) that caused the drain. Just because my setup drained my battery, doesn't mean everyone's will. But they may want to test ahead of time to be sure. In my case, I was on a hill so it was no big deal. All I had to do was push the bike out to the road, climb on and let it start rolling, pop the clutch and I was on my way. Walter

Gotcha. The inverter was the culprit! I bet it was using a fair amount of power just running with essentially no load. I second the test ahead-of-time suggestion and make a motion for the aformentioned procedure in a previous post.

[mcma111]

Originally Posted by pngaudioguy

tedmagnum - Any progress on finding a spring?

I have that spring available

[ONandOFF]

Originally Posted by pngaudioguy

Since you went and made it so big, I think you meant "aisle"... ...

Fixed Sorta...


"... went and made ..." ??

[ONandOFF]

Originally Posted by mcma111

I have that spring available

Woohoo! Two to choose from!

I wonder how costly it would be to drop it into a small bubble wrap envelope and mail it to the UK....

[beechum1]

Originally Posted by ONandOFF

Woohoo! Two to choose from!

I wonder how costly it would be to drop it into a small bubble wrap envelope and mail it to the UK....

used to be around 15$. USPS.