Page 52 – Mechanical Sympathy

Triumph Tiger 955i Valve Clearance Check

I just measured the valve clearances on the Tiger. They’re supposed to be checked every 20,000kms, I’ve put 27k on it since I’ve had it and who knows when they were done previously, so this was well past due.

Getting to the valves isn’t that problematic since I’ve gotten gas tank removals down to under 10 minutes while I try and trace down this frustrating inability to idle. Here are the numbers:

Cylinder Intake Exhaust
1 .13mm & .10mm .20mm & .23mm
2 .13mm & .10mm .20mm & .20mm
3 .13mm & .10mm .20mm & .23mm

Intakes are supposed to be 0.10-0.15mm, so they’re all within spec. Exhausts are supposed to be gapped at 0.15 to 0.20mm, so a couple are on the cusp, though they’re a tight 0.23mm (you have to push the spacer in there like you mean it – the .2mm is still snug, just not as).

Turning the engine with the rear wheel in top gear was pretty easy – don’t grab the spokes, use the tire, you get more torque and it turns pretty easily. As you turn the back wheel you get the cams pointing up, which is when you check clearances by sliding a feeler gauge under the cam and above the shim.

This Spurtar 32 blade feeler gauge from Amazon is a nicely made thing that offered me a full range of tapered ends that covered what I needed for checking valve clearances on this 955i Triumph Tiger.

With the Tiger’s timing pretty much to spec valve clearance wise, it suggests that my intermittent stalling problem isn’t related to valve clearances. Working on older bikes (and watching Car S.O.S.) has me well aware of what fails on older vehicles: RUBBER! Perished rubbers are Tim’s go-to in Car S.O.S. when it comes to restoring an old vehicle – this Tim is thinking that’s the issue with this 17 year old Tiger too.

I spent today putting things back together and double checking everything. The vacuum system that feeds the idle control wasn’t plugged in 1-2-3 (I had it 1-3-2). That’s something stupid enough that it might be the culprit. At this point I don’t care what it is, I just want the bike to idle to the point where I can depend on it to not stall on me and leave me hanging.

If I get it all back together and find that I’m still stuck with an intermittent stall I’m going to start systemically replacing all the rubbers in it. Doing a deep cleaning on the fuel injectors is an idea too. I ran into an old guy at Canadian Tire who swore by Sea Foam for cleaning fuel systems, so I got a can. I’ve got some in the Tiger tank for the rebuild which will hopefully be done by tomorrow. In a perfect world the Tiger will be back to normal and I can go after the valves in the winter if I’m so inclined. If it’s still stalling out on me, It’ll be a perished rubber hunt next.

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Zen And The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

I just finished this book. It’s the first book I’ve finished digitally, I’m more of a paper and ink reader, but I thought I’d give this a go on my phablet.

The narrative is based on a man and his son doing a cross country trip on a motorcycle in the 1970s. The story focuses on that quiet mind you experience as you make miles on two wheels. While some people’s mind wander while riding, the narrator of this hefty tome starts with an examination of the basic mechanics of motorcycle maintenance but quickly wanders into a philosophical deconstruction of Greek philosophy and its effects on Western thinking.

If you’ve got a background in philosophy it’s fairly easy to follow, if you don’t you’re probably going to be wondering what the hell is going on. Persig likes to wander into complicated philosophical arguments with little warning.

The book is full of some real gems in terms of how we approach basic mechanics as well as life in general, but it can get pretty full of itself as well.

“Is it hard?’
Not if you have the right attitude. It’s having the right attitude that’s hard.”
― Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values

To further complicate things the author is battling with his alter-ego as he recovers from electroshock therapy. No, this isn’t an easy read, though it’s worth it if you can get through it. I suspect this is a book many people have purchased but few have finished. It sure looks smart on your bookshelf though.

Last year I read Shopclass as Soulcraft, which I’d recommend as a much more accessible read if you’re interested in getting philosophical through the lens of motorbiking.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a classic, and it has attained a kind of cult status in philosophy and motorcycle literature. I’d recommend reading Crawford before you take a run at Persig. Reading a review of Western philosophy wouldn’t hurt either.

Digital Collars

Originally published on Dusty World in April, 2014:

Wise Europeans have begun enacting legislation to protect people from the relentless onslaught of digital noise. Coincidentally, I’ve recently had a number people lamenting the digital ties that bind them. An article on how students can’t hold a conversation any more and a moody French art film on digital alienation followed:

LOST MEMORIES (French, English Subtitles) from Francois Ferracci on Vimeo.

This past weekend I had an elearning student send an email Friday afternoon and then shrilly demand, Monday morning, a response. I haven’t heard back from them yet, but I did point out they were getting a detailed response to their email the next school day. Ironically, that student has never logged in on a weekend and has frequently been weeks late handing in work, but perhaps we aren’t all held to the same standards of immediate access. That people can yank on that digital leash and demand our attention regardless of their own competence is an irritation.

Another teacher mentioned how his smartphone is spoiling his hunting. He used to get himself up into his hide and then settle down for some meditative and quiet hours communing with nature. The last couple of times, deep in the woods, he’s been so busy keeping up with texts and social media that he forgot to commune with anything.

The same teacher also mentioned that he has called students out for answering texts while in the middle of a working machine shop. They often tell him that it’s their parents texting them. He takes the phone and texts the parents saying that the student is busy and should be paying attention to what is happening (it is a machine shop). It seems parental expectations have piggybacked on invasive digital practices.

One of the reasons I enjoy me motorbike so much is that I can’t be doing anything else while I’m on it, though apparently others have found a way. The operation of the bike occupies my mind and body completely, it’s very therapeutic living completely in the moment like that. That the information technology around us constantly pulls us out of the present is a problem we need to resolve. Maybe the French aren’t out to lunch in trying to protect people from this expectation of being permanently leashed to our information stream.

From the frustration of sitting behind a car at a green light because the driver is distracted (thought they aren’t supposed to be), to helicopter parents being constantly in touch with students, perhaps it’s time for educators to start charting a more socially responsible approach to digital intrusion.

Note: In case you think it ends there, here is another sad ode to social media, it’s becoming a meme!

Educational Bourgeoisie

A couple of months ago Alanna did a podcast with Albert Fong and myself on seminal books from our adolescence. I was all about Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers when I was a teen. It felt somewhat biographical (I joined cadets because my friend did – like Juan, the main character in the novel), but in retrospect the philosophy in the novel is what really struck home because it emphasized a clarity of purpose that I’ve always found elusive. At various points in the novel Heinlein goes to great lengths analyzing the failures of Twentieth Century thinking. When Juan is in officer training he gets to the bottom of why the robotically armoured mobile infantry of the 23rd Century are willing to have themselves launched out of an orbiting spaceship and ‘dropped’ into a terrifying war zone:

“The root of our morale is: “Everybody works, everybody fights.” An M.I. doesn’t pull strings to get a soft, safe job; there aren’t any – all “soft, safe” jobs are filled by civilians; that goldbricking private climbs into his capsule certain that everybody, from general to private, is doing it with him. Light-years away and on a different day, or maybe an hour or so later—no matter. What does matter is that everybody drops.

…many armies in the past commissioned 10 per cent of their number, or even 15 per cent—and sometimes a preposterous 20 per cent! This sounds like a fairy tale but it was a fact, especially during the XXth century. What kind of an army has more “officers” than corporals? (And more non-coms than privates!)

An army organized to lose wars—if history means anything. An army that is mostly organization, red tape, and overhead, most of whose “soldiers” never fight.”(Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers)

I don’t know where we are in Ontario education when it comes to teachers who are teaching versus teachers who are getting paid as teachers but aren’t, but if you factor in all the support positions across the system I suspect that 20% is optimistic. For every teacher earning a teacher’s salary that doesn’t teach, classroom teachers carry the burden. When classroom average sizes increase (as they seem to every contract these days), you seldom see support positions disappear. The education system is much more hierarchical than you might think.

At the school level we’ve already got a number of teachers working in non-instructional roles, but, like the 20th Century military that Heinlein criticizes, the fairy tale of a system with too much support and not enough boots on the ground continues at the board level where you find people earning teacher salaries doing administrative jobs ranging from shuffling health and safety paperwork to managing budgets. In addition to making teacher pay without teaching, each of these support roles has to be supported by a multitude of larger classes in order to keep a 23 students to each ‘teacher’ average ratio.

The only place the education system ever seems to want to make cuts or create harsh, standardized testing to assess effectiveness is in the classroom. Meanwhile, there is a hidden bureaucracy that remains untouched by cuts that hurt how children learn.

I’ve had a go at this before on Dusty World, but what kicked it off this time was a writing gig that came up recently. I took a swing at it and was surprised to get a call back. Why was I surprised? These kinds of jobs tend to get passed around in that insular group of educational bourgeoisie who operate beyond the classroom. Unsurprisingly, I appeared to be the only classroom teacher in the meeting. I was then stunned when I was told that instead of actually creating subject specific material for this subject council we were going to create material that supported the specialty programming that everyone else in the group ran as their day job. A guidance councillor who isn’t even qualified in this subject area then stated that we’d be writing support material for other subjects as well. This got me quite angry. I thought the purpose of subject councils was to support their subjects. The long and the short of this very frustrating interaction is that I seem to have been removed from the program.

I’m still boiling about this as I look at my upcoming dangerously over-full, under equipped classes. Instead of helping me and thousands of other teachers protect our programs, this subject council is busy feeding the educational bourgeoisie a second pay-cheque to support what they’re already doing in their day jobs at a board office.

I’m feeling very much a part of educational proletariat right now, but then all I do is actually teach. Heinlein was right, your morale takes a real kick in the head when you realize you’re doing the job others found their way out of as soon as they possibly could.

Were it the 23rd Century and humanity were united in an intergalactic war against insects intent on destroying us, I’d be proud to call myself a mobile infantryman doing a difficult job while knowing the organization I work with and the society it is serving recognizes and supports that difficult effort organizationally. Instead I work in Ontario public education.

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Snows And Crows and Adobe’s Lightroom

A crow playing in the wind on a snowy Saturday afternoon in February prompted me to get the Canon T6i out. These were taken with the 55-250mm lens. The original photos are so atmospheric that I started posterizing them in Photoshop and then gave Lightroom a try. I’ve never used it before and was curious to see what it could do. As a simple image editor it can do quick and effective image touch-ups. LIghtroom did a nice job of making the images posterized in Photoshop pop…

The original image: f/8 1/500 sec, ISO 200 -1 Exposure, 250mm

Posterized (colour reduced) in Photoshop

Details tweaked in Lightroom

Original image f/7.1, 1/400 sec. ISO 100 250mm brightened in curves in PS.

The crow colourized and layered with the background monochromed in black & white

After some tweaking in Lightroom. The tree reflection caught in the window could have been washed out, but I liked how it came out with the vignetting. I’m reading Neil Gaiman’s Norse Gods at the moment and this reminds me of Odin’s crow Huginn and Yggdrasil, the world tree.

Original photo: f/10, 1/800sec, ISO 200, -1 stop, 250mm

Posterized in Photoshop…

Touched up in Lightroom…

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Triumph 955i Stalling Issues Part 3, between a rock and a hard place

This started in June with intermittent stalling. I’ve done all the obvious things like spark plugs, fuel and air filters, but the problem persisted intermittently, so I had another go at it in July. The Tiger has been my go-to ride for over four years now. I’ve put over twenty-seven thousand kilometres on it, and up until this year it’s been as dependable as a sunrise.

This week I chased down some other possible electrical issues. The ECU was covered in muck so I cleaned it up and sealed the plastic underbody around it so it won’t get mucky again any time soon. I then found out how to test the ECU relay under the seat:

That’s the main how-to test Triumph 955i relays video, here are the two follow up videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwkhX461GjM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDmh7FdpDDQ

Everything else is sorted on the bike, so I’m down to the valves, which I really should have done in the winter. I’m now between a rock and a hard place since I’m not sure I’m hanging on to the Tiger and it takes weird, old 25mm over bucket shims that Japanese bikes haven’t used since the ’80s. Modern bikes use much smaller under bucket shims. My nearest dealer is far away and dropping off the bike there would be a real hassle, so I’m looking at getting the Triumph valve shim removal tool T3880012. But you don’t need that if you’re willing to remove the cams, so now I’m elbow deep into pulling most of the top end out if I want to avoid getting a special tool for a bike I’m selling on.

On the other hand, one of the reasons I got into bikes was to get back into mechanics, and any self respecting rider should know how to do valves, so I’m kinda keen to do the job since I haven’t done it yet. I’m just shying away from sidelining my long distance motorbike in the middle of a too-short Canadian riding season while I wait for COVID crippled parts delivery on a 17 year old European bike. The valves need doing anyway, but doing them might still not sort out the stalling issue, which would be very aggravating.

If I can move the Honda on I’d get the C14 Concours I’ve been eyeing and then the Tiger could take as much spa time as it needed. I just had the Honda up for a few days in the four thousands, which is high for what it is, and only got an offer for a trade. I’m going to put it up this week in the threes and see if it goes, then I can do some shuffling and take the weight of expectations off the old Tiger.

Motorcycle Valve Adjustment Research:

Good primer on valve clearance from Revzilla:  https://www.revzilla.com/common-tread/why-do-bikes-use-shim-under-bucket-valve-adjusters

Why higher revving bike engines have bikes have solid rather than hydraulic valve lifters that need adjusting (cars and Harleys rev less and so use hydraulic/self adjusting valve lifters:  https://www.quora.com/Why-do-motorcycles-require-valve-adjustments-when-automobiles-dont-require-them

https://www.bikesrepublic.com/featured/checking-bikes-valve-clearance-important/
Why checking your valve adjustment is important.

Triumph 955i specific valve clearance primer:  https://www.canyonchasers.net/2006/02/triumph-t955i-valve-adjustment-tips-tricks/

Local advice on how hard it is to find 25mm shims for the Triumph 955i engine: https://www.gtamotorcycle.com/xf/threads/help-looking-for-25mm-valve-shims.201738/

Some 955i engines are under bucket shims, the Tiger has over bucket shims (which is why the tool is needed if you don’t want to remove the cam):  https://www.triumphrat.net/threads/05-955i-valve-shims.6986/

Good advice on when to do your valve clearances (when you stop hearing the valves ‘rustle’): https://www.mikesxs.net/25mm-valve-shims-sizes-2-30-to-3-10-honda-yamaha-triumph.html

Shim sizing on 955i Triumphs (25mm over bucket shims are hard to find!): https://www.triumphrat.net/threads/2000-955i-shim-diameter.230758/

BikeBandit has the tool (1-2 week wait, and a 25mm shim set for $335US/$455CAD because even though the US is making a mess of COVID19, their currency seems to be immune to their poor management.

At this point I’m stuck between over four hundred bucks in tools, parts and the opportunity to do my first valve adjustment and whatever Inglis Cycle gets back to me with costs wise – though that’ll also include having to get it over 140kms down there and get it back again on another day. If they get back to me with a price north of $600 and a long delay in getting it done, I’ll be going after the tools to DIY it, though I don’t want to go crazy with a fancy set of 25mm shims when most modern bikes don’t seem to use these big over bucket shims any more.

I’d go with Fortnine, but for some reason they’re selling the identical shim kit to BikeBandit ($179US/$243CAD) for $278CAD.

If I can move the Honda, I could get the C14 Concours and then have time to work on the Tiger without depending on it as my main long distance tool. On the other hand, selling the Honda means I’ve just sold the only bike that’s working right at the moment. The Tiger picked a bad time during the summer of COVID to tighten up on me, though I’m well past when the valves should have been checked so I only really have myself to blame.

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Triumph 955i Engine Stalling: next steps

The Tiger continues to stall out on me at the most inopportune times. It starts from cold and idles high, but once warm the lower idle doesn’t seem to hold and the bike will stall, but not all the time, only when I really don’t want it to. Riding back from Haliburton last weekend, the bike stalled at lights and when I got stuck in traffic on a 6 lane highway traffic jam during a rain storm, but when I pulled over later it idled normally. This kind of intermittent failure is very hard to diagnose.

Looking up the issue online, intermittent stalling on a Triumph 955i engine seems to be an issue. I’ve replaced the idle control system and tested the vacuum tubes again (no leaks), so I don’t think that’s the issue. It might be a sensor that doesn’t return information consistently, but there are a lot of sensors feeding the computer that controls the fuel injection, so unless the bike is showing an error, I don’t want to start replacing them willy-nilly.

The bike does occasionally show errors on the Tuneboy Software that came with the bike:

July 1st it showed:
P0113 Intake air temperature sensor
P0230 fuel pump relay fault
P1231 fuel pump relay open

P0462 fuel level sensor input
P0463 fuel level sensor input
P0505 Idle control system malfunction… but then they all seemed to go away and the bike was running well when I left for the long ride last weekend (over 800kms over 2 days), at least until I was riding home at the end of it when the intermittent stalling returned. It was showing this again this week:

I’m not sure that the air temperature sensor would be enough to stall out the engine, but this at least gives me a couple of things to look into: that air temp sensor and the fuel level sensor (though again, that shouldn’t affect the idle).

Some advice people have given (on the internet, so take this advice with a healthy dose of skepticism) is that out of balance throttle bodies might cause the issue, so I got a Carbmate vacuum balancer from Fortnine who have their shit back together as far as filling orders go and got it to me in less than 2 days (use UPS, not Canada Post, who are still not working properly).

I balanced the throttle bodies with it, but the stalling persists. I’m now looking at the mapping for the bike in addition to keeping an eye on errors that might pop up. This video uses Easy Tune, which I haven’t monkeyed with, but gives the impression that early Triumph electronic fuel injection was a bit of a mess and many dealers don’t know how to resolve it:

That’s a bit worrying because if I’m still stumped I was going to take the Tiger down to Inglis Cycle and have them resolve this with some factory testing, but if I’m going to pay dealer rates and get the bike back still stalling, that’s not cool.

TuneECU was a free Windows software download (it’s still available but not supported any more), but now it’s an Android app you have to pay for (though fifteen bucks isn’t unreasonable if it gives you control over your bike’s ECU). Unfortunately the Tuneboy cable and software I have isn’t directly compatible with it without some dark Windows driver mojo (newer windows auto-install a driver that doesn’t work with the old chipset on the Tuneboy cable). Triumph uses the same FTDi FT232RL VAG-COM OBDII/USB cable as VW does, but I think I’m going to try and resolve any mapping issues with the Tuneboy since it came with the bike and works.

I think I’m going to go back and look at the fuel pump relay and the wiring for it as an intermittent fault there would starve the engine and cause stalling. Less likely are the air temperature sensor and fuel level sensor, which have been a bit whacky with the fuel gauge going from full to empty and back to full again, but I don’t see how that could cause a stall. If there’s gas in the tank, the engine will use it.

My order of operations is:
– fuel pump relay (which might have gotten wet at a recent cleaning, so it’s on my mind)
– fuel level sensor
– air temperature sensor

If they aren’t crazy expensive, I might just get all 3 new rather than paying shipping x3, which would probably cost more than the parts.

NOTES:

https://www.triumphrat.net/threads/955i-engine-stalls-need-help.16567/

“throttle slides were out of balance”

https://fortnine.ca/en/tecmate-carbmate-synchronizer-ts-110
fuel injector/carb syncronizer

https://en.vindecoder.pl/L4PLUMC0662000046
vin looker upper if you’re wanting to confirm year and make

https://tuneecu.net/TuneECU_En/install1.html
‘free’ ECU tuning options for Triumphs – early FI Triumphs seem to have a number of issues

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvHqNeClz2U
video guide to TuneECU (I can’t stand online how-to videos, I prefer text. Waiting for 30 second intros each time drives me around the bend, but maybe you like that

https://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/D2XX.htm
chip drivers for FTDI cables

https://www.r3owners.net/threads/tuneecu-with-tuneboy-cable.7856/
Using a Tuneboy cable with TuneECU

https://www.triumphrat.net/threads/cant-get-tune-ecu-app-to-connect-ugh.962476/
connections issue with TuneECU (I found Tuneboy pretty straight forward, but it’s a more expensive option that I’m using only because it came with the bike)

https://www.bikebandit.com/oem-parts/2003-triumph-tiger-955i/o/m121594#sch565841
Parts diagram for a 2003 Triumph Tiger 955i focusing on the EFI relay (it’s under the seat) Triumph RELAY, EFI Part # T2502109

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How to Pick a Project Bike

I’m still wallowing in the sense of satisfaction from taking an old, field-found Concours and putting it back on the road again. With a road-ready bike in the garage I’m looking for another project bike. I’m not short on choices, a quick look online revealed a wide variety of ‘project’ bikes; apparently a lot of people start them and don’t finish them. You can pick up failed projects that run the gamut from boxes of bits to a machine that just needs a bit of TLC. I’d think you have to feel like a real burk if you bought a bike, dismantled it and then walked away from the mess you made, but people do it. I’m left wondering if some people start projects just to waste time rather than aiming for a finished product.

Knowing which bike to pick is a big part of selecting a workable project. The Concours was owned by an older fellow who knew what he was doing and fully intended to ride the bike again. It wasn’t stored properly or used, but the attention paid to it was knowledgeable, making it a good choice for a project. I was able to hear it running and even rode it home, so I knew what I was getting into.

The Connie is also a popular bike with a huge online community. The ZG1000 Concours I have was in production from 1994 up until 2006 and ’86 to ’93 in a previous, similar generation. A lengthy production run means lots of parts out there. I had no trouble finding both new and used parts for it and getting advice was as easy as logging into the Concours Owners Group or referring to the easily found shop manual.

As a starting project the Concours was a good choice. For my second project I’m looking for a bit more of a challenge. Just north of me a 1989 Suzuki DR600 Djebel came up for sale, menacingly suggested as a project bike.

The DR600 evolved into the DR650 in 1990. DR650s are still in production today, but the DR600 was quite a different machine. After doing some digging on the interwebs I discovered that finding parts for it might be a real problem (one Suzuki dealer said there was no such bike). There is no shop manual available from any of the usual publishers and the only thing I could find that was close was a photocopied PDF of a 1985 model from a guy in Australia. The bike was available in continental Europe and Canada, but not the UK or the US, so I’m looking at a long out of production bike that was never sold in the largest market in the world. This didn’t stop me from going up to look at it though.

The DR600 is a huge trailee machine. The young owner had the ownership, but it was still in the previous owner’s name in spite of the bike being in his possession for a couple of years; the project had obviously gone stale. The amount of rust on fasteners suggested that the bike had been left in the weather for at least some of the time. It won’t run, rust in the tank and fuel system was the diagnosis. Aftermarket tanks are pretty easy to find for off road bikes (and look very Mondo Enduro), but there are none specifically for the DR600. A DR650 tank might fit… might.

A non-running machine means you’re missing a chance to get a sense of the internal workings. You’re probably walking into a complete engine rebuild if the bike has had rust force fed through it during two years of failed diagnostics. An unplugged speedo cable and loose, corroded wires also raise questions around the accuracy of the mileage as well as the potential for annoying electrical issues.

I’m looking for a challenge, but the Djebel (an Arabic mountain!) is one I’m too cautious to climb. If I’m a decade in and have wrenched a lot of bikes, I might have taken a swing at it, but not when the asking price is similar to a ten years newer, running KLR650. I still had to fight my mechanical sympathy which was tugging at me to take the bike home and make it whole again.

So, I’m still looking for another project bike. An ’81 Honda CB400 came up nearby for half the price of the Suzuki. Also not running, but a much more popular machine that isn’t a problem for parts availability or service manuals. Stored inside, it looks like a good candidate for my first rebuild. It also looks like a good choice for a more complicated customization. A CB400 Scrambler would be a sensible evolutionary step in bike builds for me.

VR: visualizing data and realizing potential

Originally published November, 2016 on Dusty World: https://temkblog.blogspot.com/2016/11/vr-visualizing-data-and-realizing.html

I spent Saturday morning in the next town over demonstrating virtual reality systems at our board’s Digital Saturday. We had a line up the whole time and put dozens of kids through their first VR experience. You get to see their first moments when they realize just how immersive this technology is, and then you get the follow up when they start thinking through the implications of what they just tried. The next ten years aren’t going to be like the last ten years.

Our choice for first VR experience has always been Google’s Tilt Brush. Users get used to the 3d experience in virtual space by sculpting with light. This time I launched the Vive using Google Earth VR, which just came out last week. If you’re looking for shock and awe Google Earth in VR will do it for you.

There was a moment last week when I was looking for Machu Picchu in Google Earth VR. I was hovering over the Andes about ten miles up looking at various peaks, trying to isolate the ruins. I looked up to my right and could see across the curve of the Earth into the Amazon basin. To my left the Pacific receded into the distance. Looking up I could see the Andes like a bumpy spine up the back of South America. I was in this huge space looking to distant horizons in all directions. People often talk about how intimate it feels being inside a headset but in this case I felt more like an ISS astronaut. This kind of visualization is thought provoking. It changes how you conceive and manage complex data. It changes how you interact with digital information.

The first thing many people do when they first enter Google’s virtual Earth is to go somewhere they long for. One of our business teachers went to her Grandmother’s house in northern Italy. I went home to the north Norfolk shore. We both got quite emotional about getting to go home even if it’s only virtually. Our sense of place is really just immersion in the literal sense. Virtual reality mimics that feeling remarkably well. Don’t underestimate VR’s ability to provoke an emotional response with immersion. How we manage that emotionally powerful response is important, especially if it’s being used for educational purposes.

While at the recent ECOO conference I gave the Microsoft Hololens a try and was surprised at how effective it was for an engineering sample. It isn’t a full virtual device like the Vive or the Oculus, instead it inserts digital information into the world in front of you as augmented reality. Only the user could see a ballerina dancing on the conference floor or digital information like distance and size overlaid on real objects. The resolution is surprisingly good and the fact that it’s wireless (battery powered and wifi) is totally next level. This experience suggests that fully immersive virtual reality and augmented reality might start to move off in separate directions in the future. The Hololens doesn’t send you elsewhere like the Vive and Oculus do.

What’s next for VR? I’m not sure, but software is constantly probing the limits of what this new display technology can do. Having data all around you in resolutions you haven’t seen outside of a 4k display means we’re going to be forging new relationships with the digital world. The days of accessing digital information through a window (screen) are numbered.

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Rearsets and Customizing how you sit on a bike

Stock Ninja on me

Unlike cars, a motorbike has a set position for all riders. Can you imagine a car that had a seat without adjustment? That’s what sitting on a bike is like. When one doesn’t fit you make adjustments, unfortunately most of those adjustments are aftermarket choices. If something doesn’t fit, you customize. This is yet another way bikes are different from cars. Can you imagine if all car drivers had to customize their own vehicles? There would be far fewer traffic jams…

Modified Ninja on me

If I make some minor adjustments to the rearsets (foot pegs and the frames they attach to) on my Ninja I can reduce my forward lean by almost half, relax my knee angle and make the bike a custom fit for me. The other advantage of custom rearsets is that they allow you to focus the bike. Instead of the stock 2-up rider/passenger rearsets, many are simplified, single rider kits that allow for adjustable footpegs that suit the rider’s dimensions.

Modifying your rider position is a next level move in riding. Don’t be satisfied or dismiss a bike that feels a little out of sorts. With some minor upgrades you can set your foot pegs and controls just where you want them.