Preparations

We’re in the home stretch of preparing for this trip. A few technical issues have or need to be addressed.

• PiggyBacker tail lights would all go out if the BMW’s brake was applied. This proved to be a problem with the nut that connects the handlebars to the seat, i.e. me. I had picked a point for the ground terminal of the Hopkins 5-4 wire converter/isolator that proved to be a poor one. Solution: Wired straight to the negative battery terminal.
• Leaking right fork seal on the BMW: Garcia Moto (formerly Capitol BMW) in Raleigh fixed that this morning.
• Clutch adjustment on the ZR-7s: I have no problem with it due to my longer fingers, but the friction zone is too far of a reach for Angela. I’ll mostly be riding this bike but we can swap at times.
• Shifter linkage on the ZR-7s: Team PowerSports in Raleigh adjusted this so that the shifter is much lower than before. For a long time Angela had a problem with the bike periodically jumping out of second gear, but, after this adjustment, it began doing so for first gear and I sometimes cannot get positive engagement in that gear (on the ZR-7s, the shifter typically won’t move downward if pressed while in first, but I have times when it does while in first as presently adjusted.)