The Transfiguration of Natasha

[you you]

You've fitted a windscreen?

[Ishkabibble]

Well, as promised, I have a couple of photos to add showing the new windscreen on Natasha.

I also got the chance to ride about a little today, (about 45 minutes worth) and let me tell you, that windscreen makes a difference.

Here she is!

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Oh, and before I forget, here's the label that was on the windscreen when I took it out of the box...

label-1.png (647.88 KiB) Viewed 1594 times

I'm going to be doing a short write up review of the National Cycle windscreen, and will get it posted in a couple of days, I hope!

[Ishkabibble]

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[WhiteNoise]

Good idea Ish! Your 2013 needed one
A clock was finally added on the 2014/2015/2016 model years. Honda listened to many of us complain back in the 2010/2011 PCX days.

I want to share this link with you: http://www.Clocks4Bikes.com
I think you'll be very pleased with what you see.
Quite a few of us have purchased a clock from them. They Are The Very Best in my opinion and the folks that make them are very helpful and pleasant to deal with.
One word: QUALITY !

[Mel46]

The new pcx has a clock? I didn't know that. I bought one for my 2016 but I thought Honda wasn't listening. Good. I am glad. I wish I had a tach on mine, but I have to wonder if I need one since the bike is an automatic. I am just use to having one.

[gn2]

Revcounter is useful for diagnosing/assessing belt wear.

[Ishkabibble]

Good idea Ish! Your 2013 needed one
A clock was finally added on the 2014/2015/2016 model years. Honda listened to many of us complain back in the 2010/2011 PCX days.

I want to share this link with you: http://www.Clocks4Bikes.com
I think you'll be very pleased with what you see.
Quite a few of us have purchased a clock from them. They Are The Very Best in my opinion and the folks that make them are very helpful and pleasant to deal with.
One word: QUALITY !

To be honest, it wasn't my idea. It was my dad's.

I got him out into the garage one day last week, and we were piddling around trying to decide where to mount an old light fixture, and I was explaining to him how I planned to repair the old dry-rotted termite-infested workbench that's 90 years old, and he asked what time it was. I wasn't wearing a watch, and thus didn't know. He pointed to Natasha and asked, "doesn't that thing have a clock on it?" When I told him she didn't, he just hummed a bit under his breath, and went on back into the house. Yesterday afternoon, he came out to the garage where I was putting away some yard tools, and handed me this little paper bag. Inside, was that neat little digital clock. Dad just smiled, and went on back into the house. I hope that when I get to be 85, I have that kind of sense of humor.

[WhiteNoise]

That's Terrific Ish! A keeper ticktock! Forget the clock I mentioned. Your's is Special. Love the memory you two just made. My Mom will be turning 91...I can relate. She surprises me All the time with ideas and resolves.
Wiser? They most certainly are

[WhiteNoise]

The new pcx has a clock? I didn't know that. I bought one for my 2016 but I thought Honda wasn't listening. Good. I am glad.

Sure Mel, the newer PCX'S have clocks. Take a look at this quickie vid on setting time on one:

[Ishkabibble]

That's Terrific Ish! A keeper ticktock! Forget the clock I mentioned. Your's is Special. Love the memory you two just made. My Mom will be turning 91...I can relate. She surprises me All the time with ideas and resolves.
Wiser? They most certainly are

See, that's the absolute amazing thing. Dad doesn't drive anymore. Hasn't for two or three years. Nobody knows where he got it, or how he got it.

My wife didn't take him anywhere to get it. Mom didn't either. She's 83 and only drives herself to play cards once a week.

The old man has some serious tricks up his sleeve, let me tell ya...

[Ishkabibble]

There hasn't been much in the way of updates to the transfiguration, mostly because I've had two classes during the shortened summer semester.

Cramming 16 weeks of material into 10 weeks is not fun, let me tell you. Nor is revising all the lecture notes, quizzes, exams, and what-not to be able to cover the state-mandated material in a limited amount of time. Hence, not a lot of things getting done in the lair, or to the lair's occupant.

The last I left it was that I had stripped all the dry-rotted, termite-eaten planking from the top of the workbench. The basic foundation to the bench is good, except for a couple of pieces that are going to be fairly easy to replace. I'm also planning an extension to the bench, to carry it all the way along the wall of the shop platform along the side of the garage, to create a place for my vacuum-former and soldering station. I drew up a diagram of what was there, and what needs to be done, so for reference purposes, here it is:

Lair03.png (139.68 KiB) Viewed 1504 times

For reference, the gray area is what was existing before I started this. The blue area is the bench top that will have to be replaced. The red area is the new flooring I've already put in, and the green area is the new bench area I am going to build.

We are going into Holiday Break for the Independence Day holiday starting Friday, (even though I have a Saturday Class, so it starts for me on Sunday) and that is my planned and projected time-frame for finishing up the work on the bench so that I can start setting things up to work on them.

I might post a photo of the finished lair when I get the work area completed, even though it will be in direct contravention of her directive prohibiting photos of the garage. I'll find some way to do it.

In the meantime, I just turned 2400 miles as I pulled up in the driveway this evening after class, and so my first maintenance thing will be a oil change and inspection at 2500 miles.

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The upcoming plans for Natasha are to add my rear lighting, and possibly convert to an LED bulb for the tail/brake light, if I can figure that out, and then the next step will be to add running lights. My plan is to put LED side-marker lights in the positions where the round reflectors are, and adding reflective tape to the bike to replace the reflectors. I'll have to get with one of my students (he's a motorcycle cop here in town) to see if I will still be "legal" if I do that. The next project is the secret one I mentioned in another thread. Regrettably, that one will have to stay secret until I get the vacuum-former up and running.

Until then, here's the image I've settled on as the poster for the back wall over the bench, for Natasha's Lair...

Natasha-0.png (505.82 KiB) Viewed 1504 times

[montliz44]

Ish,

Your photos of Natasha just took a definite turn for the better!

Johnny

[Ishkabibble]

Kind of lends a new meaning to the term "riding Natasha" doesn't it?

[you you]

Photos of the garage restoration?

[Ishkabibble]

Here is an update to the Transfiguration...

Let me first say that getting the aft body panels off was hell the ruggedest mile. Getting them back on was an even bigger PITA, even though I used Maddiedog's excellent tutorial, and even the Service Manual. Utterly and totally exhausting.

As many of you know, it was my intention to add a bit more lighting to Natasha for visibility and safety reasons. As the semester wears on, I know I'm going to be coming home from my evening class in the dark, and wanted to have a bit more light on so that I'd be more visible on the five-lane road I travel.

I went through an evolution to adapt the LED running lights because they had two mounting holes on either end, rather than one central mounting bolt, so putting them in the place of the existing reflectors wasn't possible without some modification. So I designed up some brackets, fabricated them from aluminium strips, and they worked exactly as I had envisioned. You can see those brackets here: http://hondapcx.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=6519#p89913

Yesterday, I decided to bite the bullet and I mounted the two rear running lights. I must say they turned out even better than I expected, and man, those things are BRIGHT.

I also added a pair of 3" long red 3528 LED strips into the rear reflector that Mel sent (Thank you, Mel!) and wow, it really adds a good bit of light to that reflector. Much brighter than the $3 reflector/lights you can get off Ebay. (Yes, I got one, and was totally underwhelmed at the amount of light it puts out.)

So, here are some photos. I have only done the rear running lights, as I want to wait on the Posi-Tap connectors I ordered, so I don't have to cut any of the wiring up front. In the back, it wasn't so much an issue, as I used the license plate light as my power/ground. Oh, and I also took out that little T-10 bulb, and replaced it with a pair of 2" long strips of 3528 LED lights.

I hope everyone else likes the end result as much as I do.

The amazing part of this is, the damn things work!

Once my Posi-Taps come in, the front will be next. I also have a pair of strip-Daytime Running Lights coming, and I'll install them at the same time.

After that, we go to the LED turnsignals... Wow.

[Jge64]

Lights look good, nice job.

[Ishkabibble]

Thanks, Jge...

I'm waiting on the Posi-Tap connectors I ordered on Amazon to get here before I put the front (amber) ones on, so I guess I'll be running around town "half-lit"... Heh.

I checked the tracking from Aliexpress about my strip DRLs, and they've just left the Chinese warehouse on the 18th. So, I suppose it will be another week to ten days before those get here. I bet the Posi-Taps get here before the DRLs do.

Then, I have to start the planning for the LED turn signals I'd like to mount to the rear. These are the ones I'm looking at, even though I haven't actually ordered them yet:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C184QHC/re ... HUN66XDZNU

I'm still deciding which of the "work" lights I'd like to add to the front, and I'm thinking about these: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VL4H78W/re ... 4WWW&psc=1 or something like them.

Part of my hesitation is that I would like to add a completely new circuit for them, not tap into an existing one, and that's a little bit beyond my knowledge level at the moment. I might just get one of those Mictuning harnesses to do it. http://mictuning.com/mictuning-2-lead-h ... p0174.html

I won't use their switch even though I like an illuminated one. I'll probably get one of these: https://www.amazon.com/BlueFire%C2%AE-U ... WMJNDQ7H1N

This doesn't even begin to cover the turn signals up front... That's a big project, following dem0nk1d's thread (http://hondapcx.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3100) Then, I have to finish the vacuum-former and do the ones on the mirrors. I'm excited!

[Mel46]

I really really wanted to add some lights to those empty sockets on the headlight assembly, but taking the bike apart is a pain, even though I have taken my bikes apart a dozen times. I went through the same process when I upgraded the tail lights on my Santa Fe, so I know how to do it. It is just very time consuming. My wife asked me the other day how much longer I expected to be able to ride, and how much financial reward I thought I would get from all of the upgrades I have made. Both are very valid points, so I have to think about what else I want to do to the bike. At present I am working on strobe lights for my bike. I have found by experimenting that the strobe lights can be set to constant on lights or strobe. All I had to do was run a set of leads before the strobe circuit for the constant on (DLR) effect. I wired everything up to a DPDT center off switch and it worked fine. The problem was that I bought the switch from Radio Shack, so it started breaking down the second day of use. I ordered a marine version off of the Internet and am waiting for it now.

[Ishkabibble]

Wow, Mel... Ambitious. I simply don't know if I have the guts or motivation to take on a job like that.

Truth be known, I'm really worried about my ability to get everything put back together properly after I take the headlight out.

It occurred to me that I just might try ordering a European or Asian headlight assembly (empty, of course) and swap them out so that I don't have the front apart any longer than I have to. I just don't know if I have the skill or ability to do the complex job, so I've subconsciously put it off.

Adding running lights and things like that aren't major to me. Fiddling with the stock headlight assembly, well that's another animal entirely.

[chicaboo]

I don't know if it applies to scooters, but make sure to order an headlight assembly from a country that drives on the same side of the road as you.
For cars at least they have a shaped light cutoff that puts more light to the side the road you drive on. If you're not using the internal reflectors it doesn't matter.