Moravia Roadtrip 2013 (2/2)

And there are some more pictures from our Moravia roadtrip. Its really great place where to ride a motorcycle, you enjoy the landscape, listen to the engine or music in your helmet and just relaxing... 

One of the roads along a large vineyard

Marie at the same place - notice the same color of her nails and the bike :)

Since our motel was in small town of Mikulov that is located close to the national borders with Austria we also made few ...hundreds... kilometers there. What to say more. Just enjoy the land with its windy roads...

Cruising through the beautiful Austrian countryside

Another typical thing for Austrian countryside - windmill power plants

Wish I had one of these on my backyard

Moravia Roadtrip 2013 (1/2)

Me and my girlfriend Marie decided that we would like to do some short roadtrip or just extended weekend on motorcycles somewhere. Since south Moravia is a beautiful piece of Czech Republic (what's more - not that far away) we decided that it could be an ideal place that we could choose as our destination. It is well known for its beutiful landscape and also wine and wineyards - ideal for motorcycle ride... so let's do this!

Water reservoir near Koryčany on our way to Mikulov

Vineyard on the right side - we are already in Moravia

Vineyard on left side

I could not resist to stop somewhere close to the wine yard to take few photos:

Looking forward to liquid form of these... believe it's gonna be a good year ;)

Nové Mlýny water reservoir

Marie passing me

VIDEO from Summer Roadtrip 2013

Short video that sums up the summer roadtrip that we took this summer.

Summer Roadtrip 2013 - Our way home

Wonderful morning after rainy night. What could we wish more...

Morning clouds in Oberau - near Berchtesgaden

Myself with the bike at Attersee on our way home

And finally... after seven hours of driving we are home. Wonderful roadtrip that I hope I will repeat again.

Summer Roadtrip 2013 - Nockalmstrasse

The title of today's entry could be "The Best for the Last". We really enjoyed every kilometer, every curve of today's roadtrip. Not talking only about the main aim of the trip (Nockalmstrasse) - which was actually the rainy place - that really sucks, since it provides astonishing sceneries - that are not that much visible in cloudy rainy days :-/. 

But if I omit this rainy part - the rest was like a dream. Almost empty roads, lot of fast curves, good qualitty of the asphalt... I cannot imagine better conditions.

Elevated highway on the left, alpine river underneath, empty windy road next to it
- not too far from ideal

Rainy way to the top of Nockalmstrasse

Sudent change of the weather on the top

Typical inhabitant of alpine slopes

Summer Roadtrip 2013 - Starnberger See

Well... today's trip as a journey itself wasn't the best I have to say. It was about 400km long but we went through pretty loaded (in terms of traffic) roads, also the landscape was relatively boring so the journey took prety much of energy to us. At least the main point of our journey - Starnberger See was a nice surprise. Pure water, not that many people (maybe due to the fact, that it was a working day), ideal place where you wanna be during a hot day (it was about 31-32°C). So at least this relax at the lake was a good way how to re-fill the energy and to be able to continue in our trip.

Starnberger See

My R1150GS making 50 000km

Summer Roadtrip 2013 - Krimml waterfalls

Today's trip was magnificent. Great weather, but what is more important - great nature, landscape and also the most important thing for every biker - great roads! Main point of interest for today were the Krimml waterfalls. They are the highest waterfalls in Austria (together about 380m). They are located near Zell am See discrict in Salzburg county. 

Krimml valley with the waterfalls

View on Krimml waterfalls from a bikers-friendly café

After some refreshment (espresso and water) we continued in our trip through really astonishing series of windy curves. Something like a heaven for every biker. 

Wonderful vantage point that was something like a bonus
to series of great road turns 

Mountains near Kitzbuhel on our way back to hotel

Summer Roadtrip 2013 begins!

Since we took a short trip to Slovakia two weeks ago and it would be probably too exhausting to take another trip that would be even more time consuming, we decided to take pretty short one to already known place in Bavaria, Germany. The place that I am talking about is Auerwirt gasthof that is located close to Berchtesgaden. We are going to spend there four nights and we will travel to interesting sites and places nearby (mainly Austrian Alps and Bavarian part of Germany). So that's the plan.

Auerwirt - our hotel near Berchtesgaden - Germany

Slovakia Roadtrip 2013 - Bojnice

Last but one day of our roadtrip was pretty short - in terms of distance. It was just about 200km (from Poprad to Bojnice). I planned todays route so short to have enough time to visit Bojnice castle and also to gain some energy for tomorrows pretty long way back home - about 450km. 

The weather was wonderfull - after the previous rainy days it was a nice change. Great weather makes everything much better, also the photos:-)

Our bikes on our way to Bojnice

And two pictures of Bojnice castle itself:

Bojnice castle from inside court

Bojnice castle

Slovakia Roadtrip 2013 - Vysoké Tatry mountain tour

Today's 270km around Vysoké Tatry mountain region were relatively nice. Also part of the journey was involving another country - Poland (so the list of visited countries was enlarged again :) ). I have to say that the mountain view would be really magnificent... if the weather was better. Unfortunately about 70% of our today's ride was rainy. That is also the reason why I couldn't take too many photos. So I am posting just few of them:

Today's route in Tyre - route planning software

Spillway of a dam - Poland

Back in Slovakia close to restaurant where we enjoyed delicious soup
that really helped after 2 hours in rain

Slovakia Roadtrip 2013 is on!

Just relatively short road trip to our neighbours - Slovakia. The natural beauties of this country like Tatry mountains are really magnificent and I cannot wait to see them on my own - don't worry some photo reports will follow to share it with you as well ;-)

What's more - the road trip like this is a great opportunity to test my new TomTom Rider navigation system and planning software Tyre. So let’s hope everything is going to be fine without any problems ;)

Slovakia in Tyre - road planning software

Topcase mounting kit

Finally my topcase is on its place! I wanted to fix it to the motorbike in some simple way to be able to remove it without usage of any tools within just few seconds. After few days thinking about it I made a final design. I made some drawings, paper models to check if it fits there and then I was ready to make it of stainless steel.

I sent my drawings to local steel workshop if they could do the laser cutting for me with accordance to my drawings. I originally wanted 8mm thick stainless steel plate, but it was pretty expensive and also unnecessary. So its made of 6 mm thick stainless steel "only". I ordered more of the parts than I needed (just in case that something goes wrong or I would loose some of them) so in average I have about 50% parts more. The price of the whole stuff was about 40 Euros (50 USD) including the material, cutting, programming of the machine etc. 

My drawing of all necessary parts - and already laser-cut stainless steel parts

So after four days I was able to take my laser-cut parts from the steel work shop and finish all the other works that had to be performed. First of all drilling of all the required openings - I used M6 bolts so the openings had to be 5mm in diameter to be able to cut a thread.

Drilling 

Cutting of the thread

This was pretty much time consuming - it took me almost whole afternoon to do that. But when it was done it looked pretty good:

My mounting kit already done - with all the threads and bolts in their place

And now just to put it on its place on the motorcycle:

Bottom view - notice the middle part embedded in "U" shape rack

Bottom view - now you can notice the front part
that is prestressed with two bolts

Inside view - to the bottom of the topcase

Bottom of the topcase covered with soft foam - with openings

Everything hidden under the heavy duty carpet
There is my rain suite just to show the depth of the topcase

The king is dead, long live the king!

I had my Garmin Zumo 660 for one and a half year. It worked pretty good but I was not satisfied with its navigation logic. It just made strange routes, illogical "shortcuts", mp3 were not played fluently sometimes. So I decided to sell my Garmin Zumo 660 and buy the brand new TomTom Rider 2013 instead.

I bought it at local Touratech dealer together with locable holder. Great stuff when you need to leave a bike few minutes alone (gas station, coffee etc...), it should also decrease vibrations coming to GPS from handlebars. So here it is:

Everything necessary - TomTom GPS, Screen protector, RAM Mount,
Touratech locable holder for TomTom Rider, cables and other stuff from GPS package

Problem number one - the RAM mount that was included within the TomTom had different (or at least it seems like that) bolt spacing. I took a driller and tried to modify it - just forced the driller to cut the material on desired side. Problem solved:

Adjusted RAM Mount - enlarged holes with modified eccentricity 

Problem number two - Touratech holder is in three pieces that you have to put together, there would be nothing so difficult about it if... there were all the bolts accessible. Minimally two or more likely three of four bolts are hidden behind something (TomTom holder or lock of the Touratech holder). I had to take one L-shape Allen key and cut it to be able to get between the TomTom holder and wanted bolts. It took me some time but it works!

Backview of the holder already installed

Locable Touratech holder from back view

When this was finished, I found the best position of the GPS on my handlebars to be able to see all warning lights, gear indicator etc. When I found it I was ready to make the cable work. I conected the cable to navigation and followed the bundle of cables comming from handlebar switches. Then I continued under the gas tank and finished at the battery. Just for sure I also placed there a fuse on the cable - just in case that something goes wrong and it was done.

TomTom Rider 2013 ready to navigate

Sargent rear seat cover

Since I have changed my front seat to Sargent with different design from original BMW seat I decided to change the rear one as well. Since the price of Sargent rear seat is pretty high and due to the fact that I ride all alone most of the time, I have decided to buy only the Sargent cover for OEM seats. This costs only about 1/5 of the price and provides the same look as Sargents... Just two pictures for comparison:

Original BMW R1150GS rear seat

OEM BMW R1150GS rear seat with Sargent cover

Sunday afternoon in America (quarry)

Finaly! My bachelor thesis was submitted last friday so the weekend was perfect for a ride. We rode together with my father and his R1200GS to abandoned limestone quarry called "Velká Amerika" which means "Big America" in Czech - it is also known as Czech Grand Canyon. Is located just few kilometers from Karlštejn castle and about 20km from Prague. It provides magnificent scenery. It was used several times by filmmakers for some western movies etc.

The quarry is about 800m long, 200m wide and 80-100m deep. Part of the quarry is flooded - the depth of the lake reaches up to 18 meters.

Velká Amerika quarry

Coffee break on a way back home

Relay controlled power outlet on my BMW R1150GS

As I mentined in previous entry/article about the Samsung Battery pack and gadgets charging problem on journey, here is my solution:

Scheme of wiring

I want to place my battery pack into detachable topcase behind the rear seat. That is why I want to place the connection of the power outlet from the topcase into the toolbox under the rear seat (in some waterproof way if possible). The scheme of the circuit is described above.  

Prepared wiring (with connector) going to the rear seat tool box,
12V car power outlet socket (that will be placed in topcase),
relay embedded in a plastic box (which is placed under the tank)

So here is everything ready. Now the most difficult part - finding 12V cable that switches the lights on (I am not sure if it is the side light or dashboard light). The connector with lights is located on BMW R 1150 GS under the gas tank. There is quite lot of cables and connectors in two rows above each other. The one with lights is in upper row of connectors, on right-hand side (from riders view). Then you have to find the proper pin of the connector.

Trial and error method to find the 12V side lights wire

Better if you check it on your own - if it is the same as for me (funny is how ABS is blinking :))

Here it is: left bottom corner pin (from riders view)

After finding out that the pin that switches on the lights is in left bottom corner (of above mentioned upper right connector) from riders view. The last picture (above this paragraph) is taken from handlebars back. Since the connector is waterproof I removed the cable insulation from the cable that is soldered to this pin about 2-5cm (1-2 inches) behind the connector. After removing the insulation I could solder a new cable that is controlling the relay. Then I insulated everything back again. I fixed this "relay controlling cable" on several places to ensure its position and gave the tank back to its place. The relay is placed under the tank as well to reduce the possibility of short circuit caused by water. So everything is done, covered and works perfectly. 

Everything charges only when the lights are switched on - so that solves the problem of lack of energy for starting the engine, when you forget something connected to the power outlet (for example overnight).