Unfortunately, its not legally accessible...its a part of National Park protected area and only few chosen ones with special permissions can enter on vehicle. Usually its full of tourists and people on bicycles.
Im currently riding with 8 years old model of Knox Aegis and its super light-weight and comfortable. I cant even feel it while riding and its certainly not limiting me in any way. I've done all my snowboard learning while wearing it and it saved me every time (I had a lot of crashes during that period). The one on picture on the other hand is much heavier (like 3 times) and Im afraid it wont be the best choice for everyday use. I have to try few more to be sure what to buy next. I've picked few more candidates including Zadona, Spidi and Buse back-protectors. I will let you know my take on them later....
I made a custom smartphone / navigation holder for my bike. Its nothing fancy, but definitely fun project to do. Its currently in its prototype version. I plan on improving it and would love to hear your thoughts and tips for further improvement.
Its stainless steel holder bent to angle so it fits above handlebars, behind wind shield and its not blocking any of the gauges.
From my point of view with Asus Zenfone 2 inside.
Nice job there! Only thing i can think of that you may want to do is put in a way to charge your phone. I did this by wiring up a generic 12v power outlet and mounted that to the bar my speakers attach to or where the amp attaches, idk off the top of my head, haven't been able to get the bike out this year yet. I guess you could put something like that where you have the phone mounted then get a 12v usb adapter and wire that up to your phone, holding the excess cable back with a small zip tie.
Thank you for tip...I was thinking about getting one of these http://goo.gl/VIHZul, mounting them somewhere in the dash area and using it to charge my phone and monitoring voltage of batery (because VFR are notorious for faulty voltage regulator which causes to drain your baterry dead).
What I would love to do is to hack ECU and display information like speed, RPM, temperature etc...directly on my phone and put it inside the dash. Its cool idea, but unfortunately my skills are not even close enough to figure out how I would do it. If anyone has already done something similar or can point me in right direction to gain some knowledge about it, that would be much appreciated.
I have decided on the back protector.
Dainese Manis - I am waiting for this baby to arrive tomorrow. For sweet $135 I could not ressist :)
EDIT: Let me share with you my thoughts on this one:
All of the comparison will be based on my previous back protector Knox Ricochet 6. It was 2005/2006 model level 1 back protector. Very light, very comfortable.
Picture shows 5 plate protector, I had 6 plate
Okay, back to the Dainese Manis - first impression is that its longer and more sturdy. It covers lower part of your back which is definitely a benefit, but if you got pants and jacket that zip together, you have to put the protector inside your pants which might tighten your waist area.
When you first put it, you can definitely feel it, but once you ride, its almost not noticable. It holds you (depending on how much you tighten the straps), but does not limit your movement in any way. And I mean any way...bending over gas tank during high speeds is not a problem as well as bending sideways. All of the 6 plates are connected by a strong rubber bands on both sides that allow it to move and extend and especially come back to default position. It will also allow you to bend backwards so do not expect to have rigid metal plate on your back.
On back side are 3 layers of high density foam that will spread the impact to a larger area and also keep you comfy and well vented. There are tens of small holes that channel air to your back to keep you cool - I know, all manufacturers claim that, but you can really feel this one, even through a thermo hoodie.
Now lets talk about cons I discovered so far - seams on the velcro straps are rough and I could feel them scratching my back slightly. Shoulder straps are fron flexible material, but are not adjustable in lenght. There is a buckle that connects both shoulder straps together across your chest, it is adjustable but the way they made it leaves me wondering why its not reinforced same way on both sides - might be an issue in a long run.
In case you like to know more, let me know, I will be happy to answer your questions.
Bad
EDIT: Typos
I'm no expert here by any means but would one of these work?
Don't know anything about bikes so maybe motorcycles don't have that but in a car you can use that with an app called Torque to display pretty much everything the car knows about itself. Might do what you want.
Thats exactly what I need, but motorcycles does not have OBD2 connector. I would have to install aftermarket programmable ECU which is few hundreds worth...well I will have to look into it some day.
Time to share with you guys new gift I bought myself recently - new boots Alpinestars S-MX2
Very comfortable and precise on the bike and you can walk a mile in them if you need to. If you are looking for boots, definitely check this brand out.
I made a mount for smartphone / navigation today...this is actually version 2.0. Much better, safer, rotatable and water proof.
That looks really good. What kind of packaging did you use to hold the phone in place and make it waterproof?
Did you buy a case and fixed it on a custom stand?
Exactly... the case is what Interphone is offering for 5,5 inch smartphones, but much cheaper ordered directly from China. Then we hacked the mount that came with it and made a custom stand to fit two bolts on the gas tank.
Im really happy with the result.