Stella! is a lady of a certain age, very very near 100,000 miles, while Blanche arrived with just over 14,000 miles on her ticker.
Now with 2000 more miles on her, in a month including a trip to Alabama and some perfect days in NW Arkansas, she needs to be presented.
Blanche at The Blue Nile on Frenchman Street in the Faubourg, showing her really comfortable Corbin seat. All I've ever heard about Corbin was how poor their customer service is, but as Blanche arrived with a Corbin, not an issue; and, I like it a lot.
Blanche seen here on the "Fly" in Audubon Park, at the river. Cee Baileys screen, bottom third painted nachtschwarze because the previous owner didn't like cleaning down there behind the screen.
You can also see the SW Motech engine guards, F800GS mirrors, R1200 GS handguards, motolights, Remus muffler, and a widefoot on the sidestand.
The motolight brackets from Stella! were just a wee bit too large to fit on the calipers on Blanche. Dremel to the rescue, machining the insert down to fit just fine.
The electronics showing how I mounted the zumo/XM with antenna on the left, the rocker switch for the motolights on the left bar bracket, the rheostat for my Gerbing's vest mounted on the right bar bracket, and the Valentine 1.
Someone made a comment about how they didn't like occluding the view of any dash display. I agree 100%. The entire display is visible in the riding position.
I also color coded the two buttons on the dash. Black on black can be hard to see when riding so the yellow and red dots of color help. I also put two yellow dots on the rocker switch for the motolights to show ON position.
the white thing under the Valentine is a Belken "Rockstar" mixer. I plug in the Valentine and the Zumo and my Etymotics. All sound miraculously comes out the earbuds in the volumes set on the individual units, so I can hear radar alerts, directions, and XM at the same time.
What you can't see, because they are sort of hidden from casual view is the plug for my Gerbings which is under the zumo on the left, but easily accesible, and a Burnsmoto USB plug to charge my iphone. It is JB Welded under the XM antenna shelf.
The rear Ohlin
This is my GIVI top case, now modified. The top of the clam case tends to be underused, so I built a crude shelf out of a plastic lid and mounted it inside the top of the clamcase. I added the blue elastic straps to hold it in place, and now can carry my laptop up there with charger easily.
The bottom half I have fitted with a Pelican Case insert. This is an older one-a 1450 insert. I have since put in a newer larger one that fits nearly perfectly, a 1520. I've found Foamerica.com has the best prices. I carry a DSLR and lenses back there, and this arrangement works very well
Under the seat to drive those farkles I added an Eastern Beaver PC8 fuse box.
It has 6 keyed terminals and two always on ones. The wires to the farkles are wrapped with cloth electrical tape similar to that which BMW uses. The tape is called "friction" tape.
I used the hot from the accessory socket as a trigger for the relay to turn on the Eastern Beaver. Actually what I did was completely cut the hot and the ground to the acc socket
The red/green is the hot and the brown the ground.
I spliced the lead from the relay (blue) to the red/green and grounded the brown to the ground on the Eastern Beaver PC8. The brown wire is continuous with the black one running in from the right--same wire--and it now is modified to not cross the board like that but enter from the left.
Then I ran wires from an unswitched terminal to the acc socket so that it is now always hot. The main advantage for me is that I can plug in my trickle charger there, the acc socket, as I was able to do on the 1150 thus eliminating a dongle.
The farkle wire bundle wrapped with friction tape and secured to the frame. This is kind of looking under her skirts, and with a normal angle of view the red wires are not visible.
Someone asked about the difference in size between the GIVI monokey sidecases and the system cases. Here is a side by side--system cases from my 1150.
I was shooting with a wide angle, but they are about the same size.
So, other than a faltering fuel sensor strip (what else is new?) Blanche is "road ready!" I didn't think she would have deserved her name with only 2000 miles, but when she magically made appear enough gas to ride 8 miles to fill up, after the sensor strip and miles to empty and low fuel light failed me; well, I thought she was christened.
Roll on, Blanche DuBois.
John
