A Right Grind

After 90,000 miles the grinding noise from the back of the car merited investigation:

The benefrit of asbestos free brake pads is that the discs appear to suffer somewhat.

£75 later a new set of discs and pads are fitted.

The trick with this job is to use a piston pusher to push the piston back into the calliper - it needs to rotate too:-

Banish the Blind Spot

Why are motorcycle mirrors so inadequate compared to the average car door mirror where blind spots are virtually eliminated?  The ideal mirror would have a wide angle and a deep view too to capture more of the road behind.  A failing with many mirrors is that they give a view through a letter box effect. 

Here at NW Lab I have tried various improvements:

 Riderscan:

First, the Riderscan.

The Riderscan is a hemispherical segment of mirror that provides a near 180 degree coverage.  Unfortunately as mounted on the GS screen it provides an excellent view of mostly me and as it sits in the middle does not provide a logical scan sequence.

SAENG stick ons:

The SAENG rabbit's ears Quick Scans.

These resemble those stick-on blind spot eliminators but have a mounting system that allows them to be stuck independently on a fairing or windscreen.

Quite good when positioned correctly  as they completely cover the blind spot.  They do tend to wobble around a lot. Quite useful on dense motorways and for overtakes as they cover the shoulder check view without losing forward vision.

Finally I have tried to reposition the standard mirrors forward on crank arms (available from Wunderlich, Hornig etc.).

Crank Arms (extenders) - This has been the best - the mirrors are positioned forward and slightly outwards and give a wider effective view.

Designers Should Get Out More

Why is the BMW specified, SHAD produced, Vario Top case 4cm to shallow to accomodate a typical full face helmet?

This is an XL Shoei XR1100

I have now sold this helmet - a Shark Speed R fits but only just if a little compression is applied.

I have also shaved off the heads of the mounting bolts that protrude  into the internal space.