What have you done for your T7 today?

[Wintersdark]

Got out for the first group adventure ride of the season!   A nice 100kms of dirt back roads and Forestry Trunk Road, a stop for a coffee, then over to 1A for some zoomy twisties on the way back to Calgary.  

 

I'm very, very happy with the Motoz GPS tires.  Vastly better than the stock Scorpions both on pavement and dirt, super confidence inspiring.  They hooked up really well in the loose gravel and dirt, and handled 160-180kph twisties on the way back with ease.  None of the vagueness on the front the Scorpion had in gravel, which was really a blessing for me.  

 

 

Had some fun here afterwards - it was "test ride the T7" day.  Had a minor tip over, before we moved it to a curb so people could hop on and off while I held the bike up.  Turns out normal sized people find the Tall Rally seat on the already tall T7 somewhat hard to manage.  Even so, as soon as people got going, they were all tearing around the lot there.  I get a bit of a kick out of it; seems most people assume it's going to be like a KLR or some such, and are always really surprised by how smooth the engine is and how well the bike handles. 

 

Amusingly, despite having ostensibly the smallest displacement and lightest bike here (ktm 1190, 1250gs, dl1000, super tenere) the T7 was the largest looking bike by a substantial margin, and the only bike with a 21" front.  Handlebars a full 10" higher than the KTM's.  

 

[Tenerider]

33 minutes ago, NeilW said:

Good choice. I prefer sena for ease of use and compatibility with non “same brands”. I hope your riding friends all have Cardo’s. I have both. In fact I have both a cardo and a sena on the same helmet. I have been riding with one sena guy and one cardo guy. I am the monkey in the middle.   It will serve you well. 

Actually, not many mc riding friends yet - but Cardo seems to be strong here.

I found ease of use on this unit good, voice commands work well, and I like the dial. Plus, Pol Tarres used it in his video!

[Dougie]

Do these headsets fit in a tour x4?

[Dougie]

26 minutes ago, Wintersdark said:

Got out for the first group adventure ride of the season!   A nice 100kms of dirt back roads and Forestry Trunk Road, a stop for a coffee, then over to 1A for some zoomy twisties on the way back to Calgary.  

 

I'm very, very happy with the Motoz GPS tires.  Vastly better than the stock Scorpions both on pavement and dirt, super confidence inspiring.  They hooked up really well in the loose gravel and dirt, and handled 160-180kph twisties on the way back with ease.  None of the vagueness on the front the Scorpion had in gravel, which was really a blessing for me.  

 

 

Had some fun here afterwards - it was "test ride the T7" day.  Had a minor tip over, before we moved it to a curb so people could hop on and off while I held the bike up.  Turns out normal sized people find the Tall Rally seat on the already tall T7 somewhat hard to manage.  Even so, as soon as people got going, they were all tearing around the lot there.  I get a bit of a kick out of it; seems most people assume it's going to be like a KLR or some such, and are always really surprised by how smooth the engine is and how well the bike handles. 

 

Amusingly, despite having ostensibly the smallest displacement and lightest bike here (ktm 1190, 1250gs, dl1000, super tenere) the T7 was the largest looking bike by a substantial margin, and the only bike with a 21" front.  Handlebars a full 10" higher than the KTM's.  

 

She is the tall slim pretty one nobody expected to turn up at the party  

[Tenerider]

 

25 minutes ago, Dougie said:

Do these headsets fit in a tour x4?

Pretty sure they do.

Mic and headphones are quite small. The bigger unit is outside.

 

 

 

Edited April 29, 2022 by Tenerider

[Dougie]

This may be a silly question so bear with me here, but I’ve never had an intercom on a bike helmet. Do you still wear earplugs with these? If I had to go without them with my tour x4 I’d be deaf in an hour. 

[Lewie]

I’ve fitted cheap set to both of my helmets and have read today they sound us increased by wearing ear plugs so I’m going to try as at speed I can barely hear mine

[Tenerider]

I also decided I will wear earplugs with them. Any suggestions?

[Dougie]

I wouldn’t use the yellow foam ones anymore unless it’s all I had. I got the £20 “Christmas tree” looking ones with a hole through them. There are more expensive ones out there and made to measure ones too. Mine are ok but I don’t know if I’d be able to hear the music through them. The higher priced ones are kinda clever so allow talking and music but not wind roar. 

actually just tried mine with my radio in the room. Still clear, slightly muffled higher notes. So no opera.

[NeilW]

10 hours ago, Wintersdark said:

Got out for the first group adventure ride of the season!   A nice 100kms of dirt back roads and Forestry Trunk Road, a stop for a coffee, then over to 1A for some zoomy twisties on the way back to Calgary.  

 

I'm very, very happy with the Motoz GPS tires.  Vastly better than the stock Scorpions both on pavement and dirt, super confidence inspiring.  They hooked up really well in the loose gravel and dirt, and handled 160-180kph twisties on the way back with ease.  None of the vagueness on the front the Scorpion had in gravel, which was really a blessing for me.  

 

 

Had some fun here afterwards - it was "test ride the T7" day.  Had a minor tip over, before we moved it to a curb so people could hop on and off while I held the bike up.  Turns out normal sized people find the Tall Rally seat on the already tall T7 somewhat hard to manage.  Even so, as soon as people got going, they were all tearing around the lot there.  I get a bit of a kick out of it; seems most people assume it's going to be like a KLR or some such, and are always really surprised by how smooth the engine is and how well the bike handles. 

 

Amusingly, despite having ostensibly the smallest displacement and lightest bike here (ktm 1190, 1250gs, dl1000, super tenere) the T7 was the largest looking bike by a substantial margin, and the only bike with a 21" front.  Handlebars a full 10" higher than the KTM's.  

 

 Glad you had a fun day out. when you are letting the inseam challenged mount your T7, have them mount with the kickstand down and left foot on the peg.  With 30" inseam and 5500 miles on the odometer, I cannot just swing my leg over- and my T7 is lowered.

[NeilW]

3 hours ago, Dougie said:

This may be a silly question so bear with me here, but I’ve never had an intercom on a bike helmet. Do you still wear earplugs with these? If I had to go without them with my tour x4 I’d be deaf in an hour. 

I have been using Comms for many years. The speakers are VERY directional. Sometimes just 1/8" movement of the speakers can make the difference between loud and can't hear anything. glue in some velcro  and test move the speakers around until you get best volume. I had to dig out a little of the eps foam in one helmet to move the speaker. what a difference! If you have a loud helmet then definitely wear ear plugs. with the speakers properly aligned you will be able to hear the music with earplugs.

[NeilW]

9 hours ago, Tenerider said:

Actually, not many mc riding friends yet - but Cardo seems to be strong here.

I found ease of use on this unit good, voice commands work well, and I like the dial. Plus, Pol Tarres used it in his video!

I usually have to repeat the voice commands. I spoke with Cardo customer service about it and they said if the unit isn't responding to voice commands then speak in a  "Lower" voice. It worked better when I pretend to be an Airline Captain on the intercom.

[Tenerider]

1 minute ago, NeilW said:

I usually have to repeat the voice commands. I spoke with Cardo customer service about it and they said if the unit isn't responding to voice commands then speak in a  "Lower" voice. It worked better when I pretend to be an Airline Captain on the intercom.

Thanks Neil, good to know!

[Ray Ride4life]

10 hours ago, Dougie said:

Do these headsets fit in a tour x4?

 

4 hours ago, Dougie said:

This may be a silly question so bear with me here, but I’ve never had an intercom on a bike helmet. Do you still wear earplugs with these? If I had to go without them with my tour x4 I’d be deaf in an hour. 

Yes and yes.
I have the X4 tour with the Cardo Packtalk bold, i did remove some extra foam around the ears to get the JBL speakers to fit and i removed it on a specific spot to move the speakers to a better position to my ears in that process.
I have fitted soft earplugs from Alpine with the red filter.
I used the microphone on the boom first and changed it to the sticky one but i go back to the boom because the voice commands are not great with the sticky one, i guess to far from the mouth and more wind noise through the vents.
I just wait to go back to the book because i want to modify that with an extra jack for the GoPro mediamod.

[TexasT700]

9 hours ago, Dougie said:

I wouldn’t use the yellow foam ones anymore unless it’s all I had. I got the £20 “Christmas tree” looking ones with a hole through them. There are more expensive ones out there and made to measure ones too. Mine are ok but I don’t know if I’d be able to hear the music through them. The higher priced ones are kinda clever so allow talking and music but not wind roar. 

actually just tried mine with my radio in the room. Still clear, slightly muffled higher notes. So no opera.

Moldex Comets=best biking earplugs, bar none. Nothing sticking out to rub on helmet.

[Redneckj]

13 hours ago, Dougie said:

This may be a silly question so bear with me here, but I’ve never had an intercom on a bike helmet. Do you still wear earplugs with these? If I had to go without them with my tour x4 I’d be deaf in an hour. 

The speakers actually sound better with earplugs.   Kinda weird but true. 

[Ray Ride4life]

4 hours ago, Redneckj said:

The speakers actually sound better with earplugs.   Kinda weird but true. 

True, i was thinking about put in my reply.
Almost like they where made to work best with plugs.

[Dougie]

That’s great news. Thanks all. It’s mostly for music. But handy for unknown routes where groups get split. I don’t always want to listen to my mates constantly. . And I’m certain they wouldn’t want to listen to me all day.

[Tenerider]

Just picked her up from 600mi/1000km service.

Had the famous oil drain plug replaced by a third party valve (which stated 25Nm max torque in its manual ).

No engineers there today, only sales personnel, so couldn't ask about the actual torque they applied. Probably 43Nm plus 25Nm

[NeilW]

6 hours ago, Dougie said:

That’s great news. Thanks all. It’s mostly for music. But handy for unknown routes where groups get split. I don’t always want to listen to my mates constantly. . And I’m certain they wouldn’t want to listen to me all day.

For me it depends on the terrain. Riding 500 miles  per day on the freeway my buddy and I listen to our own music unless we have something to say like “gas”. When riding in the dirt on trails we always keep the coms open for warning for obstacles or stay left  or the puddle is deeper in the middle than it looks etc. 

Edited April 30, 2022 by NeilW

[Chris1974]

Today I made this chain tension gauge. Tested it after making it and found out my chain was way of. Much too loose... 

 

Check it out, maybe it can help you... 

 

Chain tension gauge

[Ray Ride4life]

I tested the crash protection at high speed...

 

Time for a new handlebar other than OEM because my new one is also bend now.

[Landshark]

Just now, Ray Ride4life said:

I tested the crash protection at high speed...

 

Time for a new handlebar other than OEM because my new one is also bend now.

 

How many beers does it take to accomplish that! 

I hope you are all right Ray.  Are the human parts OK?

[Ray Ride4life]

2 minutes ago, Landshark said:

 

How many beers does it take to accomplish that! 

I hope you are all right Ray.  Are the human parts OK?

All fine, just the handlebar... again.
Maybe tomorrow a bit sore but nothing serious and the beers came late on and still flowing.
Was about 80 - 90km/h and the corner was a bit sharper than expected with a height difference between the left and right track.

[Wintersdark]

On 4/29/2022 at 7:05 AM, Dougie said:

This may be a silly question so bear with me here, but I’ve never had an intercom on a bike helmet. Do you still wear earplugs with these? If I had to go without them with my tour x4 I’d be deaf in an hour. 

On 4/29/2022 at 7:16 AM, Tenerider said:

I also decided I will wear earplugs with them. Any suggestions?

I'll just highlight this:

21 hours ago, Redneckj said:

The speakers actually sound better with earplugs.   Kinda weird but true. 

They really do sound better with earplugs, and earplugs don't really mute the sound much at all.  Earplugs are designed to block certain types of sound, but allow speach (and thus music) to be heard pretty clearly.  The real goal of motorcycle earplugs is less about sound blocking at all and all about simply blocking the wind itself from hammering your ears.  

 

I actually prefer foamy earplugs while riding to any other kind and I have a LOT of different kinds, being a blue collar factory worker.  The key is knowing that all foamy earplugs are not the same.  You want the ones with small foam cells vs. the larger scratchy feeling cheap ones.  If you go to a workplace safety store, there's typically bags of ~100 or so for $5 of ones that are extremely comfortable and soft.  

 

The problem I have with the "christmas tree" plugs posted above, or even the custom fitted silicone ones I wear at work, is that they create a rigid or semi-rigid body between my inner ear and the helmet, and a side impact on the helmet can be uncomfortable (and potentially dangerous with a major impact).  You don't want anything that can "jam" the earplug into your ear.   That's less of a danger with the custom fitted silicone plugs, but that same solid body is there transfering force and feeling bad.   (Edit: I'm not saying "Don't use those other types or you'll poke out your brain!" just that they at least for me have significant comfort problems - maybe that's not the case for you people with normally shaped and sized noggins, and if so, awesome!)

So, look for disposable foam earplugs focusing on comfort, don't care about the db level.  The foam plugs will fill your ear canal and completely block wind regardless of the rating of the plug itself. 

 

Finally, if you re-use earplugs a lot, you can have a bunch of problems with getting dirt crammed into your ear and leaving it there - this is a road I've been down and it's not fun.  They're really cheap, I'll use a set across a ride but that's it.  You can clean them if you're really into doing that, but... they're really cheap.

 

On 4/29/2022 at 10:38 AM, NeilW said:

 Glad you had a fun day out. when you are letting the inseam challenged mount your T7, have them mount with the kickstand down and left foot on the peg.  With 30" inseam and 5500 miles on the odometer, I cannot just swing my leg over- and my T7 is lowered.

Oh, it's not about them getting on.  We're all very experienced riders, and can get on a tall bike without issue.  Though with the seat up and pegs down, even this is a lot tougher for a short guy.  But I don't think you really appreciate how tall my T7 is   The problem was that they were unable to even touch toes to the ground while sitting on the bike.  Seriously, it was like this: 

 

 

So buddy hopped on, exactly as you described, got it off the kickstand with the bike at a pretty extreme angle the other way, started riding, but when he tried to stop, he wasn't able to fully catch the bike with his foot as it was going over, because he couldn't touch the ground at all until it was already pretty substantially leaned.

 

It's sprung for my weight now (300lbs without gear or luggage), so it doesn't really compress at all with a ~140lb guy on it, then there's the 1 5/8th" taller SC Tall Rally seat, and a Mad Dog seat cover (+1/4").  Poor guy was like 5'8" or 5'9".  

 

So the "starting and stopping at a curb" wasn't so they could get on the bike, but rather so they could not fall over while starting/stopping it.  

 

Edited April 30, 2022 by Wintersdark