Road Captain USA

In this third installment of this story I am going to show you how I installed the Midland 75-822 on my Harley-Davidson Low Rider using the Midland’s mobile adapter (part# 18-821). The mobile attachment has a cable with two leads coming off it. One ends in a 12 volt cigarette lighter plug and the other is a coaxial CB base antenna coupling.

Click here for Part 1 and here for Part 2. 

First I put my magnetic map holder on the gas tank and removed the seat. I attached my backrest with chrome luggage rack. I used the handheld CB’s belt clip to attach it to the map holder on the gas tank. I met someone at the DE/MD State HOG Rally who had a handlebar mount that holds the CB on the handlebar. She said the handlebar mount was sold by Radio Shack. I would like to try this out and see if it works better than the map holder set up.

I coiled up the twenty feet of coaxial cable coming off the magnetic mount antenna and put it under the motorcycle’s seat. I attached the coaxial couplings from the mobile adapter to the antenna cable. I put the seat back on and mounted the magnetic base antenna on the luggage rack. I plugged the 12 volt cigarette lighter plug into one of my 12 volt cigarette lighter adapters from www.Shop.RoadCaptainUSA.com and attached that to my battery tender quick connect cable (pigtail also available at our online store). I used a few black tie wraps to neaten up the wiring.

This set up didn’t work well and from the advertising propaganda of CB parts and conversations found at online forums I summized the following three problems:

1. Magnetic mount antennas do not provide a good ground. I needed to replace with a traditional CB whip antenna with a ground lead.

2. You should not coil up the excess coaxial cable. I replaced with a short 2′ cable which seems to be a rare item to find as most people need more lead to run through a truck or automobile.

3. The antenna should be held away from the vehicle by a few inches by using an antenna mount.

After picking up a new antenna and mounting it to the luggage rack using a CB antenna mount bracket and gounding it to the screw that holds the seat in place the system was working. I was able to communicate successfully with Diana who was using the J&B handlebar mounted CB. I didn’t take any pictures of this set up.

A problem I experienced several times after that was the cigarette lighter plug would vibrate inside the plug and the quality of the electric contact would worsen causing decreased radio performance. I never did adjust the second antenna’s SWR using an SWR meter. It is possible the 2′ coaxial cable was not of high quality. There is also the possibility the headset was also not the best quality. The ground connection I had to the seat screw may not have been affective. Those possibilites could all be part of the poor performance on the CB set up using the Midland’s mobile attachment to make it into a motorcycle compatable communication device.

I finally put 6 low quality AA batteries into the battery compartment, attached the short 7″ antenna and ditched the mobile set up. Surprisingly this worked better! I wasted about $75 trying to power the radio off the bike’s battery and using a base antenna.

Firestik makes CB antennas that have a great reputation. They make two kinds: GP and NGP. GP (Ground Plane) antennas have a ground lead and need to be grounded to the vehicle’s metal chasis. NGP (No-Ground-Plane) antennas are built for vehicles such as boats where the vehicle chasis is not conductive. I would have liked to keep trying different combinations of antennas including the no-ground-plane antenna to see if this resulted in better performance. However I can’t keep spending money on this project.

The Firestik website which is full of information indicates a poor quality radio with a great antenna will work better than a high quality radio with a poor antenna. In other words the antenna has more to do with the performance than the radio itself. I believed that until the antenna on Diana’s motorcycle came off during a ride. Her J&B CB radio still outperformed my Midland hand held CB with no antenna at all! It suffered very little in performance when the antenna was lost.

I am happy to get rid of the base antenna set up because I like my T-bag attached to my backrest on the luggage rack.

Tags: Technical Stuff by Jay Green
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In February of 2010 I wrote Part 1of this story. Since then several members of our HOG chapter came to the same conclusion: that the ability to communicate would greatly improve the group riding experience. Four female members, including Diana, purchased the J&M handlebar mounted CB radio. Diana purchased hers used and was the third member of our chapter to own it (the two previous members were men who upgraded to CB equipped Ultra Classics). She got a good deal on it and it has worked fantastically. Some of our members purchased the J&M with the short antenna and found they had to replace it with a longer one. The only time Diana had a problem with her CB radio was when we stayed overnight in North Carolina and she didn’t put the cover on it. In the morning the condensation on it affected it’s performance for several hours before it dried out.

The J&M unit with all the attachments and antenna will cost in the area of $600. I was curious if I could find a more affordable system and purchased this handheld Midland 75-822 at $76.73 and a Cobra magnetic mount base antenna for $24.99 both from Amazon. I purchased a special motorcycle RiderComm-S1 headset that worked with the Midland at $89.95 from www.HiTechWireless.com

I spent a considerable amount of time and money trying to get the unit to work well as a mobile unit powered with the 12 volt cigarette lighter plug and utilizing a base antenna. In the end I found it worked best as a handheld unit powered by batteries with the short 7″ antenna. To say it works well in comparison to the J&B or the Harley CB’s would be a lie. It works just well enough for the absolute minimum of communications but not good enough for conversation. In the end I would have to say any amount of money spent to be able to communicate is well spent. However you will get what you pay for. I initially invested $200 and subsequently another $50 or so on antenna’s and antenna mounting brackets. The system does work and for $200 I would say it is worth it. If you can afford the $600 system I would recommend you go to www.CycleAccessoryStore.com and purchase the J&B.

Tags: Product Reviews, Technical Stuff by Jay Green
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This is an interesting product that appeals to me. First off it is a modification to the stock exhaust pipes so it is cost effective and it will appear to the authorities that your motorcycle is still equipped with the stock exhaust system that meets EPA standards. Secondly it is adjustable. You can change it from the full baffle system that is equivalent to stock sound, to a medium baffle system that adds a little rumble to completely removing the baffles for full thunder sound from stock pipes. Very convenient for switching back to stock sound before a DMV inspection. The company appears very customer friendly. You can order your tone flex system and send them your pipes for a core exchange/credit after you install your new ones leaving you with zero down time. If you prefer, you can send them your pipes and wait for them to come back with the tone flex modification. Full satisfaction guarantee. If you find this interesting check out their website at www.AmericanCustom.com

Tags: Technical Stuff by Jay Green
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Those of you who know me won’t be surprised when I say I have a number of dumb moments. The great thing about being honest about my dumb moments is that you can read about them here and chuckle… and learn from my experience if you are new to riding.

Those of you who do not have a gas gauge and those of you who are wise know that you need to know how many miles your motorcycle can travel on a full tank of gas. You know? This way you can use your odometer as a gas gauge to see how much further you can travel before filling up again. Common sense, right?

For some reason my gas gauge was dropping lower than Diana’s sooner (we pretty much have the same motorcycle and gas up together at the same time). She would tell me not to worry because we have x amount of miles left before we need to gas up. I would become concerned because my gas gauge would be lower than expected for the amount of miles traveled. I started to think the Stabil I put in my tank in the winter was affecting my motorcycles efficiency. Maybe I plugged up the jets somehow? This became an issue on the Blue Ridge Parkway because we were in the middle of nowhere and didn’t know where the next gas stop was and I needed some go go juice badly! Diana didn’t need it so badly and kept telling me not to worry, that we had plenty of miles left.

I figured out what was happening! I had gotten out of the habit of completely topping off my tank. Less gas = less miles. No wonder my gas gauge was hitting the low point twenty or so miles earlier than it should. The lessen here is: you need to be consistant in filling your tank if you are going to use your odometer as a gas gauge. I hope there is at least one person out there who didn’t realize this before reading my post and doesn’t think I am a complete boob. For those of you who do think I am a complete boob; I know who you are and you do not need to comment.

Pay at the pump equipment.

Tags: Technical Stuff by Jay Green
8 Comments »

I was happy with the way we had the motorcycles outfitted for luggage on our recent trip to the Blue Ridge Parkway. It has become much easier to take what we need comfortably since Diana started traveling on her own motorcycle. That opens a whole new space to load up!

Stuff we didn’t plan to use:

I filled the saddle bags with the stuff that we didn’t need to unpack and take into the motels with us. I put the raingear in the low side saddle bag since the weather report didn’t call for any rain in our travels. I put tools, tire repair kit and air compresser in the high side saddle bag. I also put the can of plexiglass cleaner and a clean rag in that saddle bag for cleaning the helmets and windshields every morning. I stuffed my collection of riding gloves on top of all that so that I had gloves for cold weather, mild weather and warm weather. I didn’t know what to expect seeing how we were heading into the moutains. I ended up using all of them.

Clothing, toiletries and other necessities:

We packed our clothes into the duffle bag with the toiletries and other items that would need to come into the motels with us in the evening. I strapped the duffle bag down across the passenger seat to the saddle bags. This way I just have to take off the two bungee cords and the luggage is ready to take into the room at night. I put a few items that I wanted to be accessable during the day into my T-bag like a short sleeve shirt if it got warm and a sweatshirt if it got cold… and a hat for my bald head. The T-bag comes off the bike easy also. It comes in the room at night like the duffle bag.

The unexpected:

I used the Harley-Davidson 18″ x 18″ 6 Hook Cargo Net Part# 98169-88T to strap my camera bag on top of my duffle bag against the back of my sissy bar. The cargo net proved invaluable as we constantly stuffed things into it on the fly. When the days warmed up and it was time to take the chaps off they got stuffed into the cargo net. Most notable were our shopping excusions into the gas station convenience stores to pick up a variety of snacks and beveridges for the road. We never knew when we were going to have our next real meal so we would stock up on danish, chips and fruit if available. We always got more water and Gatorade. we would just tie the plastic shopping bag in a knot and stuff it into the cargo net. Snacks and beverages were always easy access. Smushed food tastes the same as food that is not smushed. Also, you never know when you’re going to need your Sham-Wow! You can see I kept that handy also.

Thanks Gordy for the Cargo Net! We love it!

Tags: Technical Stuff by Jay Green
5 Comments »

I currently do not have a communication device on my motorcycle but believe that bike to bike communication is way under valued. It is my belief that in the near future bike to bike communication using compact wireless helmet mounted bluetooth technology will become the norm and we will wonder how he got along without it. Something as simple as pulling over because you got some dust in your eye could be easily communicated to your buddy or group. Instead we usually tough it out and do the best we can until the irritation goes away, unless of course you ride by yourself. In that case you do whatever you please whenever you please.

I once went on an ice cream ride with my HOG Chapter where a member from another chapter joined us. He rode without putting any eyewear on. This is illegal and dangerous. I couldn’t tell if this was the way he liked to ride or not. I kept telling myself that it was not my problem, that if he wanted to pull over and put his eyewear on, then it was up to him. There were plenty of opportunities for him to do so but because he was new to the group he didn’t speak up. If I had a CB I could have called up to the lead Road Captain on his Ultra Classic and notified him of the situation to get his oppinion. After we got to the ice cream stop it became known that it was a mistake and he should have let us know he needed to pull over. If we could all communicate I think the experience of riding with a friend or a group of friends would be a hundred times safer and ten times more fun.

Here is a post on Motorcycle Philosophy about the impact of having to take a rest stop while riding with people who don’t take rest stops. Click here to check it out and think how different it would be if these riders could communicate.

Even though I think newer technologies will become the norm, the CB Radio will be more common for quite awhile among cruisers since most touring bikes are already outfitted with them. The sportbike crowd might adapt to FRS Radio and new technologies sooner because they are all on a level playing field. For those of us in the Harley crowd, many of our friends are already outfitted with CB on their Ultra Classics. My wife has done alot of research on the Internet and has only found one handlebar mounted CB Radio specifically for motorcycle use. It is the J&M model and can be ordered as a complete system from www.CycleAccessoryStore.com in North Carolina. Diana ordered a $600 J&M CB Radio system from them for my 2008 Christmas present but; I stupidly exchanged it for two Chatterbox FRS units. The Chatterbox system was half the price of the J&M and was supposed to be voice activiated. I thought that the hands free VOX system would be better than PTT (Push to Talk). Although the FRS radios wouldn’t allow us to communicate with our friends on CB I thought it was more important that Diana and I be able to communicate. The Chatterbox units we received didn’t work well at all and I returned them directly to Chatterbox for a full refund under warranty assuming this is not the way they are supposed to function (defective). I didn’t believe that replacements would work much better. I was tempted to buy the bluetooth Scala Rider system from www.CycleAccesoryStore.com (they have great customer service). At the moment this system is limited to communication between two bikes only. It is the most compact lightweight unit I have seen. It is a little egg shaped device you clip on your helmet. “Look Ma, No wires!”

It is winter time again and I find myself surfing the Net for an affordable compact CB capable of being rigged up to a motorcycle. The J&M is considered the top of the line but it is expensive, unattractive and might not be compatable with my split view mirrors. I came across the Midland 75-822 which appears to be the second most most compact CB radio on the market. It is a complete 40 channel CB radio system in a small handheld unit. It will accept a variety of accessory headsets. The Cobra 75 WX ST is smaller but I do not know if you can attach an accesory headset to it.

The Midland 75-822 can be used as a portable (like a walkie talkie) or changes to a mobile unit. It has a belt clip, two battery attachments, a detachable antenna and the mobile attachment. The normal battery attachment holds 6 standard AA batteries. The rechargeable battery attachment holds 8 NiCad rechargeable AA batteries and comes with a plug to charge them up. It also comes with a short flexable detachable walkie talkie size antenna. The mobile attachment has connections for a base mount antenna and cigarette lighter plug. The idea is you can us this CB as a mobile unit in your car, jeep or truck and then take it with you as a portable outside the vehicle. Imagine using it to go on a camping trip. You can use it in the vehicle and then stay in touch with other users and listen to NOAA weather reports from your tent. You can use my 12 Volt Power Port to connect the cigarette lighter plug to your battery tender quick connect on a motorcycle. That means you just gotta figure out how to mount the base antenna and where to keep the radio. You might just want to clip it on your belt. It would be really cool if the little antenna worked well and you didn’t need the base antenna… but I doubt it. We’ll find out when it gets a little warmer. You can find this radio on eBay and Amazon.com for less than $90.

A company called www.HiTechWireless.com sells a motorcycle headset that is compatable with the Midland 75-822. It is called RiderComm and is made by RocketScience. You need to order it with the S1 connector. It is currently on sale for $89.95 and includes the headset with boom microphone, weatherproof PTT button and connecting cables. They told me the only customer complaint they hear is the length of the cables isn’t as long as some people would like and there are no extensions available. I bought the unit from HiTech Wireless and it arrived the next day via Federal Express. I was impressed considering there was no shipping or handling charge.

I bought the Midland CB with a Cobra 300 watt magnetic base antenna from Amazon for $101.72 with Free Super Saver Shipping and received the merchandise in about three days. Click here for more details on the Midland 75-822 CB radio at my Amazon store.

Now I am off to surf the Net for a magnetic tank bag to stash the radio in. “Hang Loose!”

Tags: Deep Biker Thoughts, Road Captain Stuff, Technical Stuff by Jay Green
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