• Hi everyone,

    As you all know, Coffee (Dean) passed away a couple of years ago. I am Dean's ex-wife's husband and happen to have spent my career in tech. Over the years, I occasionally helped Dean with various tech issues.

    When he passed, I worked with his kids to gather the necessary credentials to keep this site running. Since then (and for however long they worked with Coffee), Woodschick and Dirtdame have been maintaining the site and covering the costs. Without their hard work and financial support, CafeHusky would have been lost.

    Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working to migrate the site to a free cloud compute instance so that Woodschick and Dirtdame no longer have to fund it. At the same time, I’ve updated the site to a current version of XenForo (the discussion software it runs on). The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.

    Unfortunately, the new software version doesn’t support importing the old site’s styles, so for now, you’ll see the XenForo default style. This may change over time.

    Coffee didn’t document the work he did on the site, so I’ve been digging through the old setup to understand how everything was running. There may still be things I’ve missed. One known issue is that email functionality is not yet working on the new site, but I hope to resolve this over time.

    Thanks for your patience and support!

Terra-fy your Strada...

I finally had a chance to play with the fork guards today. First of all, I don't have all the hardware I need. The part number we ordered for the hardware came with two torx screws, six are needed for the job. No problem as these are easy to find.

Here is a good shot of the inboard/outboard cable routing issue.



And this screw is the reason you'll have to drop the front wheel.



The bottom line for me right now is that I don't want to drop the front wheel. My TR is running flawlessly right now, and I'm having some minor issues with the rest of the bikes. So I'm putting the fork guards on hold until I get everything else sorted out. Quite frankly, I haven't experienced any front end wobble with this bike, and I'm scared that I might introduce it by messing with the front end too much. So, I'll be sorting out my lighting project, and then doing everything at once. But first I've got to get the Triumph utility hack sorted out so I'll have a solid daily driver in the weeks to come....which is code for a solid commuter until I can get my hands on some TCI luggage racks.:D
 
I was able to get that screw in by removing the disc and abs ring from the wheel only. All while the wheel remained in place. Word of caution, though. The galvanized screws that hold the disc and abs ring in place are very soft. Do not over tighten them, I think the spec was only 5Nm? I also goofed and accidentally turned the wheel before the screws were all the way in and easily bent one, so ended up getting stainless replacements from Ace.
 
Thanks for the tip on that. I was just mocking it up quickly today before I shuffled bikes to work on the others, so I didn't put much thought into it. Now that I think about it, you hit the nail on the head with that solution. That should only take a few minutes. :applause:
 
I'm planning to change the tires but not the wheels. Most of my riding will be street. I'm wondering if anyone has installed the Terra fender and left the Strada fender on too...
 
I knew there was a pic somewhere:

Used Spare Spokes, OEM, or Woody's For My Strada?

I also left the strada fender on for about second or two after fitting the terra fender. It just doesn't seem to quite work in my opinion.

Note that I put on a red crown logo on my terra fender with my strada black body plastic. I think that really helps over the black crown logo.
 
Hmmm, I see what you mean. I may swap to the Terra fender if I find I'm doing a lot of dirt riding. TKC's look good on there too!
 
Honestly, I would prefer the low fender to the high one, even for dirt riding. Yeah, the high fender may look cool, but we've proven that a well designed low fender performs better on and off road than a high one. Heck, if Walter Colebatch can run a low fender on the Sibirsky Extreme, I think it would work just fine for my off road adventures.
 
RidingDonkeys said:
Honestly, I would prefer the low fender to the high one, even for dirt riding. Yeah, the high fender may look cool, but we've proven that a well designed low fender performs better on and off road than a high one. Heck, if Walter Colebatch can run a low fender on the Sibirsky Extreme, I think it would work just fine for my off road adventures.
Click to expand...

I think exactly the same.. much better highway running with low fender.. no shimming
 
It's too bad the strada fender wasn't designed just a little longer in the back. The way it is now, it simply doesn't block much of anything from kicking up into the radiator. That's the main reason I went with the terra fender. I, too, preferred the looks of the strada a little, but function outweighed the preference.
 
hasenpfeffer said:
It's too bad the strada fender wasn't designed just a little longer in the back. The way it is now, it simply doesn't block much of anything from kicking up into the radiator. That's the main reason I went with the terra fender. I, too, preferred the looks of the strada a little, but function outweighed the preference.
Click to expand...

Yep. It's more or less useless for radiator coverage, I too went Terra high fender early on for the protection.

P1020703-L.jpg
 
I am so happy with my Terra-fied Strada that I am considering selling my take-off parts. I intended to keep them in case I ever sold the bike or wanted to go back to the Strada configuration. However, I just don't think that will happen, and I am out of storage space in my modest garage. Anybody want to Strada-fy their Terra?
 
hasenpfeffer said:
Too bad a terra can't bolt up the strada fender. Makes for a hard sell.
Click to expand...

It would be easier than you think. Of course, the Strada fender wouldn't work with the 21" wheel. However, the mounting would be easy. If I recall correctly, the left side mounting point is just above where the caliper mounts on both models. The Terra will lack one of hte right hand mounts. However, that could easily be fabricated in anyones garage using basic tools. Or, a Terra owner could just order a Strada fork end and be done with it. That would allow them to have easy bolt on access for both fenders/wheels.
 
hasenpfeffer said:
I think the spec was only 5Nm?
Click to expand...

BTW, looking again, I think the spec is 11Nm. The manual has 11Nm for disc torque, and then a 5Nm spec for ABS ring torque. I'm thinking the 5 is for fastening the rear ABS ring since it uses separate fasteners. But the front is combined, so I'd probably use the 11Nm spec.
 
Finished my heated grip install. It was easy peasy. I looked at the way HighFive did his, and did a little variation on it. I don't have Fuzeblock yet, so I did a direct connect to the battery until my Fuzeblock shows up next week.

The whole install took me one hour. This is largely due to the fact that I didn't have any heat shrink. So here is how I did it.

First, I started with these grips from Cycle Gear. I already had them, so I figured I would make use of them. The stock grips get dry and slick quick. I didn't realize just how bad they were until I cut them off. So this install couldn't have come at a better time.



Notice the metal bars on the ends. The inside one will have to be trimmed off. I just slid it on the handlebar a bit and used a razor blade to trim it off.


Then I put on these grips. Pretty self explanatory.


Now is where the fun begins. I was all out of heat shrink. Already having pulled a few beers off my kegerator, I wasn't going to the store. So, I took 4 runs or 14ga wire I had around and made a harness using electrical tape. It isn't the greatest method, but it works. This wire has thick insulation, so damage isn't a concern. I just needed to bundle them together. So to do this, you just start and one end and spiral wrap electrical tape until you get to the other end. Once done, you're ready to run the wire. I left a bit unwrapped on each side. This helps run it because often times only one of the wires will make it through the hole. Using my super long needle nose, I can grab it and pull the rest through.



In my method, you'll only need to remove the right plastic panel, and the front of the headlight housing.

Starting from the headlight housing, start feeding the wire towards the back of the bike. In the front right of the bike (as you ride), you'll see this little hole in the Darth Vader piece. In the photo, my pliers are pointing to the gap and my wire. This is where you will run your harness.



It will come through here, but you might need a set of long pliers to grab it.


As you see, we are following the path of another harness. There is plenty of room for both.


Here, I am going to make a slight departure from the path. This serves to give my wire a little more space from the engine, and to make the path easier.


It should come out right under the rail and the tab for the torx screw that fastens the plastics. In this crappy photo, the wire is coming out from the frame and looped in my hand. Did I mention I had a few beers?


I placed everything else in the headlight housing like HF did. There is a ton of room in there.











That resistor gets pretty darn hot. After 700 miles this weekend, I don't really see myself using the low setting at all. It is pretty much useless. However, the high setting burns my hands. I consider this a win. The stock switch is ugly and cheap looking, and I clearly need some sort of PWM style switch that will work like a potentiometer and allow me to adjust the heat through a wide range of settings. A quick search shows that Hot Grips makes one for $40. This is already on order, and will replace the stock toggle switch and the resistor.

http://www.hotgrips.com/store.php?c...=0&PHPSESSID=fad53620d806a72c3a3176855289c62d

Stay tuned because tomorrow I install my new Gerbing dual heat controller. ;-)
 
Nice score on the switch...I have had those heaters for a year and have put off installing them. I think I shall order that switch and finally get it done! :cheers:
 
hasenpfeffer said:
Do not over tighten them, I think the spec was only 5Nm? I also goofed and accidentally turned the wheel before the screws were all the way in and easily bent one, so ended up getting stainless replacements from Ace.
Click to expand...


Ditto on that. I was blow away at how easily I ended up bending one of those bolts.
 
RidingDonkeys said:
I am so happy with my Terra-fied Strada that I am considering selling my take-off parts. I intended to keep them in case I ever sold the bike or wanted to go back to the Strada configuration. However, I just don't think that will happen, and I am out of storage space in my modest garage. Anybody want to Strada-fy their Terra?
Click to expand...


Donkeys did you still have your Strada wheels you're trying to get rid of? I was going to get a Strada at a dealer this weekend but they had just sold it and have a few Terra's available. I love the wheels on the Strada though! If not maybe somebody else would want to trade. Seems like more people are trying to go to spoked rims than the other way around.
 
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