Almost Ready to Ride!

One of the fun parts of doing a long ride (at least to me) is getting the last minute preparations done. Until now the ride is always something that's "out there" in the future so there isn't that "it's vacation time!" feeling. Now we're down to crunch time though. I took the bike into the shop for it's 12k mile service even though it's only at 10,500 miles right now. I figure the bike will be somewhere around 15k when I get back and given the choice between doing a service early or doing it late I'll choose early every time. My riding buddy John took his bike in last week but he commutes on his so he is probably a bit closer to the actual 12k mark than I am.

One thing I made sure they did during the service was to apply the latest firmware updates. I knew from reading the K1600 forum that this update changed the Neutral "N" indicator on the control panel from white to green. Other than that no one seems to know what it does. Sure enough I went to pick up the bike and the "N" was still white so I had to wait around while they did the update. I'm not sure if it was the software change or some other adjustment they did but the bike is noticeably smoother at very small throttle openings. This bike is ultra touchy and it can make even a seasoned rider look/sound pretty amateurish when poking through a parking lot. The bike right now seems to be a lot easier to ride smooth when going slow and since I'm pretty sure my right hand didn't get smoother I'm assuming the it's an improvement to the bike.

I spent a couple of hours this weekend cleaning the bike and getting a fresh coat of wax on everything as that last tiny measure of protection against the elements and I attached my latest farkles:

First is a phone case/mount that is weatherproof but still allows me to use the phone while it's mounted. I installed a nifty little speedometer app that also handles all the phone functions and a whole slew of other things related to riding.

Second was a little Touratech handlebar bag to hold my bike-to-bike radio, Sena SR10 and good old Spot Communicator. The whole setup looks like this...

The phone is mounted on the left handlebar near the grip (it's hard to miss) and the bag is that saggy looking black thing just below the control panel. I'm not keen on those handlebar mounted bags because they just don't look 'tidy' to me but in this case it's exactly the right tool for the job.

The radios are the "Motorola MT350R FRS Weatherproof Two-Way - 35 Mile Radio". 

I went with these because they are cheap, should hold up to any weather and can be charged with a normal USB charger.

The Sena SR10 is a Bluetooth hub designed especially for this kind of application. It lets me attach the radio via a wire and my phone via Bluetooth and manages the connection to my helmet. A push-to-talk button is strapped on my left grip that lets me chat with John while riding when needed. When nothing is coming in on the Sena the helmet listens to the bike system so I can jam to tunes if I want (and I usually do). It looks pretty much like this when set up...

We did a short test ride today to make sure everything is going to work and I think I'm ready to go. A few quirks about the way the phone works in that case revealed themselves but nothing that makes me want to leave it at home so the only thing left now is to pack and wait.

Oh, I also treated myself to a new jacket for the ride. The now discontinued BMW Motorsport 2 Jacket. I just like the looks and fit of this jacket and I've always wanted a BMW jacket  so by golly now I have one! Unfortunately none of my back protectors fit in this jacket so I'm on the hunt for an 'official' BMW back protector or I'll be doing some temporary tweaks to adapt it to one I already have.