Updated 3d Modelling Software on Motorcycles

I've had a Structure Sensor for a couple of years now.  They keep updating the software and firmware and improving the detail capture of the device.  After the last round of updates I spent some time in the garage while it's -20°C and snowing outside in March to test out that new detail.

You get all the Structure software with the scanner, but you can also use third party apps to operate the device.  Itseez3d is one of those apps, but I always found it quite buggy.  That all seems to be behind it with the latest update.

                naked concours: Scan of the Concours in the garage using Itseez3d and the Structure Sensor
                by timking17 click on it to open, then you can scroll in to zoom and drag to move it around
                on Sketchfab

The model above is on Sketchfab, but itseez3d is doing 
something like it on its own website.  The detail seems similar on both.  I'd never been able to get a stable large scale model out of itseez3d before, I could this time.  The level of detail and how well it paints the surface of the model using the ipad's camera to catch colour and texture is impressive.  The pictures on the left are the Tiger inside and out as a model on the itseez3d site.

Even with the Structure software I'm finding that the quality of detail in the 3d models the scanner produces are always improving.  A boxed capture of the front section of the Tiger was a way of working close enough to take in a lot of compound curves and mechanical parts to see how well the Structure sensors lasers could feel out those details.  It's producing smoother, more accurate models than ever.

Triumph Tiger 955i Front End
by timking17
on Sketchfab

Bike Van

I've been stuck on the Ford Transit Van probably due to my Guy Martin fixation, but there are other choices for a motorcycle carrying vehicle.  I'd been looking at the full sized, extended Transit that is lucky to break 20mpg, but the Transit Connnect is a smaller, more frugal van that will just fit the Tiger while getting more than 30mpg.  It's also on the road for thousands less than the big one.

The Dodge Ram Promaster City cargo van is another choice in the smaller van category.  It seems to beat the Transit in cargo size (the Tiger fits inside it and it's likely to be the largest bike I'd ever transport).  It also gets the best mileage.  Comes in yellow too!




Nissan makes the NV200.  It's the smallest in terms of dimensions and engine (a 2.0l 4 cylinder), and gets the best mileage.  The Tiger wouldn't fit height or length wise in it, but a smaller bike would.

Looking at the three, I think the Dodge gets the nod, though the Transit Connect is within a whisker of it in every category and it starts quite a bit cheaper than the Dodge:

Every one of these manufacturers build a next-size up industrial version of these models.  Nissan makes the NV Cargo, which comes with a big V6 or V8 and gets 20mpg.  The fully sized Ford Transit is similar.  Dodge makes the Ram Promaster which comes with an optional 3.0l eco-diesel that gets an impressive 21/29mpg in a big vehicle.  

If efficiency is the goal, that big Dodge is in a class of its own.  Similar mileage to the little guys but in a van that I could pretty much stand up in and would carry not one by two Tigers.

It too comes in stunning yellow.  A nice Mechanical Sympathy screen on there and I'd be off to winter motorcycling trips, track days and picking up old bikes!

I think I might be over my Ford Transit fixation, but the whole van thing ain't cheap.  Perhaps I can engineer a change to a cage that offers a lot of utility instead of just being what I drive when I can't ride.




This one's got 5k on it with the balance of warranty for $33k.  It still handily swallows the Tiger with inches to spare.  That'd do...

Too Far Gone

Bike Magazine had an excerpt from Todd Blubaugh's Too Far Gone in the last issue.  The excerpt was so moving that I just got up and purchased the book on Amazon.

My favourite motorcycle reads have been the philosophical ones that dig deep.  The 'I rode very far every day' travel trips don't always get to the why's of the trip, often getting stuck in the trivial details.  The result ends up feeling like a travel advertisement rather than showing the real power of a journey.

Alternately, you have the books that aim directly at motorcycle culture but end up being dimensionless descriptions of it, hyping up the excitement of the ride without making any attempt to understand why people would take these risks and identify with such a divisive cultural icon.  

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was one of the first books to go deep, showing the depths to which some motorcyclists dive when out in the wind.  Anything by Matt Crawford does the same thing for mechanics in general, although he comes from a place of motorbikes.  Deep thoughts while flying through time and space on two wheels are kind of the point for me.  If I just wanted to go fast, I'd do it in a car or a plane.  There is something elemental about motorcycling that zens you into the moment.  The immediacy of it makes you honest.

After reading a few pages of excerpts in BIKE, I'm looking forward to reading not so much about Todd's travels but about his insights.  The motorcycle isn't the point, but it's one of the best vehicles for taking you to eureka that I've found, and I'm more willing to follow an author to those moments of enlightenment on two wheels because I believe in the medium.

Party Time_3LG from Todd Blubaugh on Vimeo.

March Break

The dream March Break trip? Load the Tiger into the back of the trusty Ford Transit Van and head south to a place where the weather won't suck all week; it will here. While snow is flying during the most pointless school break in Ontario, I'd be driving one thousand kilometres south to Virginia to chase the waterfalls my cousin suggested in January. 

The drive down has us doing an eleven hour slog to Roanoke, Virginia on some back roads through the Allegheny Forest and down through the Adirondacks into the Appalachian Mountains before finally landing at the Hampton Inn off Interstate 81 just outside of Roanoke.

Once in Roanoke we'd put our feet up for the night and then take one of three routes over the next three days.

The weather is lovely: mid-high teens all week, rather than the zero degree snow we've got going on here all week.

Yeah, it'd be cool, but it wouldn't be painful, and the roads would be salt free and winding through the mountains.  To top it all off those waterfalls would be plump from all the run off.  It'd be a photography and media making dream.  The mountains would be blooming in early spring and I'd have the cameras on hand to catch that moment on two wheels.

Each day we'd loop back to Roanoke before heading out in a different direction the next day.  Thanks to all the mountain roads there would be virtually no overlap between loops with each offering unique sites.  Having the same base camp also means the bike will be light on gear and ready to explore the mountains.

Leaving on a Monday morning, we'd be in Roanoke Monday night and ready for a Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday of motorcycle riding from waterfall to waterfall before making the ride back north into the snow and darkness on Friday.

It's not a crazy expensive week.  Under five hundred bucks for hotel then gas and food money.  Two long distance highway days would be all about gas and quick food stops. $200 would feed the van, another $60 would cover the bike.  Five days of food on the road could probably be done for $250.  All in that's a thousand dollar holiday.   The three days in Virginia would be all about slow lunches and dinners and riding between photogenic waterfalls.

Of course, the ongoing issue is not having the bike delivery system.  Mid-winter isn't the worst time to be a motorcyclist in Canada.  The worst time is the end of the off season when the snow is fading but the winter weather hangs on week after week, prolonging the caged life.

Sourcing Parts and Kawasaki Master Brake Cylinders

The rear brake light I ordered on Amazon in December decided to show up today.   I'm going to pass it on to Jeff's BMW cafe racer project and I think I'm done with four month delivery times from Amazon.  Time to source my parts elsewhere I think.  I'm curious to see how soon the rear brake light I got instead from eBay takes.  I have a feeling it's going to make the Amazon Marketplace delivery times look sketchy.

Meanwhile, a coolant overflow tank and master brake cylinder kit arrived for the Concours in a timely fashion from Fortnine.  I wish they'd start stocking customization pieces like those all in one LED lighting systems.

The tank looks like it'll fit nicely on the battery case.  It isn't as big as the stock one, but the stock one isn't that big anyway.  I've routed the coolant overflow tube and it fits nicely down the spine of the bike.  Where it's placed means the overflow pipe can stick out the side and not dump in the path of the rear tire.

The master brake cylinder kit took a bit of work to get into.  Getting it off the bike was easy enough, but getting the compression ring out took some fiddling.  I've replaced the rubbers on the cylinder and I'm ready to put it back together again, but the kit came with 2 copper rings that don't seem to be on the original, so I'm going to figure out where they go before I reassemble.

Brake handle and electronic switch removal was straightforward.  The only tricky bit was the snap ring that holds in the master cylinder.  Compressing the cylinder while getting a pair of compression pliers in there
to squeeze the ring into the groove on the cylinder is swear worthy.

The old outer gasket was in pieces before I even started pulling it out.  Rubbers don't typically last 24 years.
Fancy people pay for that kinda patina - mine comes virtue of the bike being 23 years old and Canadian.

The old gaskets and spring on the cylinder

New gaskets and springs ready to install - as soon as I figure out where the copper rings go.

I don't see copper rings on there anywhere.  I'm still not sure why the
All Balls Racing master cylinder kit has them, but have them it does.

Triumph Tiger Motorcycle Digital Art

Mechanical Satisfaction

The Concours carburetors weren't snapping back when I released the throttle. Everything worked, but they wouldn't close on their own as they should. I removed the carbs, reset the butterflies so they all closed properly and replaced a bent spring. With everything lubed up and working freely, I reinstalled the carbs and ran the throttle cables over and along the top of the frame rather than around the side, trying to have the throttle cables address the carbs as perpendicularly as possible.  With the cables properly tightened, the carbs snap shut when the throttle is released, as they should.

My to-do list on the Concours is down to a rebuild of the master break cylinder.  The part isn't expensive.  I'd purchased a set and did it on the Yamaha XS1100 I had before, so the Concours should be pretty straightforward.

I also have to sort out a rear light and body panels for the back end.  I'd asked if they could be done at school in the metal shop, but asking for work to get done there seems to result in it disappearing down a hole.  I'd rather do the work myself anyway.  The plan is to form the panels for the back end and find a rear brake light with indicators built in and wire it in to the back end.

The last job is going to be reworking the radiator reservoir to somewhere around the battery box.  With that done, in theory, the Connie will be ready to begin test riding the kinks out.

Follow-up:  rear brake lights were found on ebay - let's hope they arrive this time.

If they do then ebay is a more dependable shipper than the Amazon Marketplace, which seems pretty bizarre, but there you are.