The HJC-FRS has four inputs;

1. MIC-SP: for the helmet speakers, and microphone
2. Intercom: to connect the passenger’s helmet mic-sp headset
3. PTT: for the push-to-talk button ( I made one of these but that was a different project)
4. AUDIO: a 3.5mm jack for MP3 players etc.

Th iPhone has two input/outputs I’m going to try using the 3.5 mm 4 conductor jack on top. This provides stereo audio and microphone input, and well as the ability to pause, skip, hang up and answer if you short out two of the wires with a button…just like the hands free headsets.

The Plan:

Make a cable to connect the iPhone’s 4 pole jack to a 6 pin mini din jack on the ChatterBox.

The Diagrams:

This diagram shows the pin outs for the jack view, looking at the back of the ChatterBox. When soldering the wires this is the view of the pins as well.

This diagram shows the pin outs in the iPhone plug.

The Parts:

The easiest way to get the parts for the cable…Amazon.com.And a grand total for the parts $1.81 !!! The cable I spec is nice and round so it fits perfectly in the din plug. Here are the part numbers;

• $0.65 iPhone cable (camcorder vid-aud cable): link to cable on Amazon
• $1.16 6 pin mini din plug: link to plug on Amazon

The Assembly:

After the cables arrived I soldered them up using the pin outs circulating on the internet. If you buy these exact cables these colors should match up, but double check with a continuity tester to be sure.

Note: The cable I bought can be disassembled and desoldered, not cut. Use an exacto knife and carefully split the plastic triangle. Inside you will find a PC board and the wires are soldered to that. Now all you have to do is re-solder them to the pins. Nice.

Note: The din plug needs to be trimmed a bit. The outermost sleeve is 2mm too long. Because the HJC-FRS has a recessed jack trimming the outer sleeve down a bit will give it a step down so it fits better in the ChatterBox. I would lose the right audio on the ride because the plug was not seating all the way,m so trim it before assembly. Slide this onto the cable before soldering.

To bridge the grounds I cut a little off the left over RCA jacks pig tails and soldered it onto pin 1 and pushed the blue and bridge together and soldered them at the same time.

REMEMBER: The pin outs diagram is looking at the back of the din plug!

The last step is wrapping the back of the jack and wire with ~3 wraps of electrical tape. This protects the wires, and allows the plug to grip the wire and reduce the chance of the wires getting pulled out.

The Results:

How did it work? Ok. It works, but it isn’t perfect. The intercom input bypasses the volume control, so the iPhone volume is what controls the music, the volume knob on the ChatterBox does nothing to boost or attenuate the volume of the music. It will however cut the volume down by ~30% when the ChatterBox is turned on. In other words turning on the bike-to-bike radio will reduce the volume of the music, and it’s noticeable. Bummer.

Here are a few other options I have thought about;

1. iPhone earplug headphones with a wind guard on the mic stuffed into the helmet in conjunction with the ChatterBox, intercom still available, separate volume controls
2. Bluetooth headset disassembled and wired into the intercom jack, but then I can’t talk to my passenger
3. New ChatterBox with Bluetooth built in…expensive ~$400

Option one here may be the best/cheapest solution… Any other ideas?

Anatomy of a Crash

Even at moderate speeds the physical trauma that you can sustain can be severe. As an example my roommate in college, Mike Spitz, was descending Mount Hamilton on his bicycle and in a corner hit some gravel. He had slowed down for the corner, so he was only going about 30mph. As a result of the crash he had extensive road rash, torn ligaments in his forearm, and was unable to ride for about a month due to the impact injuries. Had he been going a bit faster he would have hit a barbed wire fence and the injuries would have been even worse. Keep in mind also that Mike and I were experienced cyclists, very fit, and very comfortable descending. More specifically Mike had no fear when descending, he was a monster. After the crash it took Mike a few months to get back on the horse, he lost his confidence descending.

The Cult of Naked Motorcyclists

So how does this apply to motorcyclists? Here in Sacramento I see a high percentage, say 50%, rolling around with shorts, t-shirts, or sandals as a set, or mixed and matched with slightly more appropriate gear. Worse still guys with their hot girlfriends in next to nothing on the back. A cyclist in spandex is about as exposed as a motorcyclist in shorts and a tshirt. Now
take the injuries that Mike sustained and compound it with the impact at higher speed, a car, or having the motorcycle land on your leg. It’s a pretty simple equation to work out, the more exposed you are the higher risk you run of sustaining injuries in an accident.

It’s not all in your head

One of the most illuminating articles I’ve read on motorcyclist injuries was an article in Motorcyclist Magazine. They tested several helmet designs and compared the results and how they correlated to the certification standards. While the helmet information was a revelation, the body trauma data was even more amazing. It seems that motorcycle related fatalities are dependent on several factors. While having your head smashed would kill you, having extensive damage to your body and no head trauma can also kill you. It makes sense when you say it, but think about it a bit. As your body sustains damage it tries to heal every damaged part. The more damage, the harder your body has to work to repair the damage. So if you have internal and external injuries your body doesn’t choose which parts it heals first, so you may die as a result of internal damages that don’t heal fast enough.

The Importance of Armor

It’s not the external scraping of flesh that will cause the most damage, it’s the impact damage. The deep tissue damage, the slamming of limbs onto the pavement, or into a car bumper, or being crushed by your bike. When I was three years old, my neighbor laid his bike down and pinned his leg under the bike as he slid into the side of a car. His leg was amputated below the knee. So wearing leather, or textile suits, with armor is critical to preventing severe internal injuries. Remember that Mike tore ligaments, and had some pretty deep impact injuries under his road rash.

The Price of Freedom

While I’m all for freedom of choice, it seems like a pretty imprudent choice to risk severe bodily injury, and potential death. Even if you take the vanity excuse, you don’t want to look dorky, is having a scarred up face, or road rash scars on you legs sexy? Think about how hot your girlfriend will be with half her face ground off. It’s not a pretty sight, and I won’t even both linking to the pictures to illustrate my point, Google them yourself if you doubt how grotesque these injuries can be.

If It’s too Hot in the Kitchen…

The other mentality is the “it’s too hot to ride in leather”. My philosophy is simple I’d rather sweat than bleed. Yea it can be hot. If you can’t stand the heat get a better suit, something with better ventilation. There’s no reason that you can’t protect yourself and stay cool enough. Sit up in the wind, open your vents, buy a suit that’s perforated, even unzip your suit a bit if you have to. I’ve found that the only time it was unbearably hot was sitting at a light in the 103 degree sun with no breeze in my perforated one piece full leather suit. Once the light changed and I had some wind blowing in my face I cooled right down. It’s not as bad as you might think, and it’s better than the alternatives.

It’ll never happen to me

If you’ve ever said this, or thought it, go out right now and buy a lottery ticket, bet your whole bank account on a crap table, or spin the cylinder on your revolver, because you obviously are the luckiest person on the planet, or you can predict the future with total certainty. No one can predict the future, and while you may be that lucky the idiot in the car next to you isn’t. You’re the most incredible bike handler in the world, and can control a two wheel skid with one hand, because you were scratching your ass when someone pulled into your lane. So you’ve never had someone slam on their brakes in front of you? Never had a near miss with someone cutting in and out of traffic? Never seen someone pull a u-turn from the far right lane? Keep riding you’ll see it all. I saw it two blocks from my house hen I was living in Napa, California. A sixteen year old kid got a bike with his parents help, after he’d saved his wages working at a theater. He t-boned and old lady who pulled from the curb across two lanes of traffic making a u-turn and was killed instantly. He was pulled over for doing 100 in a 25 the previous week. Drivers do stupid things all the time, why not stack the odds in your favor and wear some protection?

What is your life worth?

If none of this has given you pause, think of what you have to lose. Do you have a family, or a significant other? Do you like like how you look? Is it a good thing to have all your limbs? Do you like being alive, and healthy, and happy? I do, that’s why I wear leather and armor when I swing my leg over my bike. If you think you can’t afford the equipment, can you afford the hospital bills, or being dead?

The first problem I ran across is documented in the article on push starting a motorcycle.

The second design issue is one that is potentially dangerous, and well documented. I first noticed it when I was riding on a rainy day, the bike seemed to cut out, or lose power. I’ve run across similar problems when I’ve had voltage regulator rectifiers fail. This was different in that it would suddenly surge back on, and then drop out again…imagine losing all the power in the engine and then having it pop back on a wet slippery road in the middle of traffic, or while negotiating a turn. That’s why this is a particularly dangerous design flaw. It turns out that the front cylinder gets hosed down by the spray off the front wheel, drowning the front spark plug. When this happens the front cylinder fails to fire, the water evaporates, or partially drains, then the spark starts again. Bad. There is a drain hole in the front cylinder, but it tends to clog according to a few owners. One of the more typical solutions would be a fender extension that would deflect the water before it even hits the radiator. I opted for a different approach. I knew that I could fabricate something overnight, rain was forecasted for the next day, but nothing that would look good to attach to the front fender. So I fabricated an aluminum plate to go over the front cylinder. It needed to curve to clear the radiator brackets, but be large enough to keep the water out. An hour later I had a cool little plate that was just right, and zip tied it to the breather hose off the top of the cylinder head. I’ll snap a picture next time I need to get behind the radiator.

The other horrible design that just presented itself is the front wheel speedometer magnet. The magnet is a flexible ferrite magnet, the soft refrigerator magnet material. I know why they designed it with this material, it’s easy to manufacture, cheap. The ferrite is mixed into a polymer and cast into the exact shape required to fit the application. Unfortunately this is a mechanical part that is under some stress and the present material is prone to disintegration. The front wheel hub has four notches and the magnet has four splines, like a gear, and as the wheel turns the magnet is spun actuating the magnet switch and triggering the speedometer. This is the exact system used in cycling computers. A better design would be one that uses a harder, ABS spline bonded to the magnetic tube. That way the stress of the front wheel would drive a more durable material and be less prone to failure. I have included a small Sketchup sketch of the idea for this design. For those that are interested in a free awesome 3D application you should check out Sketchup on the Google apps page.

These modifications might cost a bit more during the manufacturing process, but the pay off for the manufacturer is a more reliable product and a happier customer.

Carver Engineering has developed technology for vehicles that will enable 100mpg with 100+mph, and a +350mile range…Sounds fantastic! Unfortunately the cost of this efficiency is a 1+1 seating arrangement. Those not familiar with the auto industry lingo: two people per vehicle, one behind the other. While the practicality of the mechanics are fantastic, the seating limitations eliminate this vehicle from ever becoming widely utilized.

Here’s the car of the future…unless you have a family, or want to go shopping with your girlfriend. I like the car, but this is not the solution to the world’s automotive oil dependency. Read more about the cars here:VentureVehicles

The other good car coming out is the Tesla. Fantastic! a sexy, dynamic, fast and ultimately saleable vehicle. Or is it? Read the fine print: ~250 mile range, all electric, 0-60 in 4 seconds. Sweet. Price: $90,000 USD. And it only seats two. They foresee producing a more economical version in the coming years, ~$50,000. But that is a ways off, and only if they sell enough of the roadsters to keep the company moving.

Here’s my take. It’s great that companies are trying new things. It’s fantastic that small nimble companies are taking risks to move automobile technology out of the Model-T age in fuel efficiency. But when is someone going to produce a mass marketed, practical automobile that will seat four, with groceries or luggage, get 100mpg, have a range of 300 miles, recharge/refill anywhere, and cost $30,000 or less? Who wouldn’t buy one? I firmly believe that the capability to accomplish this is within reach for any of the Japanese or US companies. It would be a fantastic reassertion of American ingenuity and innovation if we could beat the world to this goal. We used to be the best at reaching for the moon, why can’t we do this?

I used to push start my 77′ Volkswagen Dasher, so I should be able to push start a motorcycle, heck it’s lighter by at least 2,000 pounds. Damn, becasue they are lighter the gears counter the weight so it’s more complicated than I thought. Well after an hour and a half, and the help from a few kindly HP employees, I was piecing together the details. Here are the final results of this very unfortunate experiment.

If you want to jump start an SV, and probably any other modern bike, here are the key ingredients:

1. Push the bike, duh. It really helps to have someone halping to push for the next steps.
2. Drop the tranny into second gear, not first. First gear has to much torque and will stall the engine.
3. Once the engine kicks over drop it back into neutral, and keep the throttle up to keep the engine running. Pulling the cluth in will not be enough, the clutch has enough resistance to stall the engine even with the lever pulled all the way to the bar.

And that’s the truth. Maybe my exhausting struggle will result in aiding some poor unfortunate soul.