I've got the power

A few months ago I wrote about my amber headlight that saved me a lot of money after a friend's suggestion to make my own. After figuring out that my Nokia XpressMusic is not only a phone, but can also function as a GPS and a mp3-player at the same time , I actually saw the benefit of using it as such. The problem with talking on the phone and listening to your favourite song while a guy with a really boring voice tells you to turn left at the next intersection, is that all this uses a lot of energy. Something my Nokia XpressMusic does not really have unless I keep charging it. So, to solve my problem I had to find a charger to do all of this on my bike. The F800GS, like many other bikes, come with a built-in power socket, but a smaller size than the common cigarette lighter you find in most cars. Finding a power plug which converts to a cigarette lighter socket was my mission for the day. After consulting the BMW website I received a couple of suggestions. This morning I went to the first shop on my list that I thought would be the one, but similar to the shock I got when I asked for the amber light cover, I had to sit down for a while to recover after hearing what it costs. Fortunately someone else suggested I make my own, which I did. This did not only save me about R250, but it also motivates me to try and make all my bike gadgets myself. Instead of feeling down because of spending money, I feel rather good now knowing that I made it myself and it is actually working. Now I can hit the road while listening to a man with a boring voice and my favourite song at the same time...

GPS back-up

OK, so I am as excited as a schoolboy going for his first sleepover at a friend's house. It is only Saturday but my bags are already packed for Monday morning. I have worked out my trip from Cape Town to Bredasdorp and then from Bredasdorp to Mossel Bay on as much gravel roads as I can possibly find. So, I am quite certain which roads to take and I know the chances of getting lost is basically zero, but don't break my spirit by telling me that. for a worst case scenario I have a map and then my new addition to my bike....my "homemade" GPS.

OK, not really a GPS, but it got me from my house to my son's school yesterday and it seemed to work. It is actually my Nokia XpressMusic with GPS software I loaded two days ago. If that does not work I can still call BMW support or even the police, but what is the fun in that? I have many concerns about my GPS, for instance that the battery will run flat before I get to my destination, or that it would get wet in the rain. But as the heading says, it is just a back-up.

Let me not discuss the shortcomings of my GPS right now, I know this will become very clear as soon as I am forced to start using it. Let me rather point out how innovative I was in attaching it to my handle bars. I happened to have brackets which were supposed to solve my previous hand guard problem. Fortunately a friend of mine was just as innovative and fixed that for me by heating the bracket and bending it to fit. Thanks for that, Roodt. So, with the unused brackets and a cell phone pouch that I received with my phone, I managed to improvise a cellphone/GPS/mp3 player (a.k.a my Nokia phone) holder to my handle bars. The pouch I never could really figure out what it was for, because once you have your phone inside it you could not press ANY buttons. So I cut the front part out which looked more like some sort of speaker cover, attached the pouch to the handguard bracket and Voila! My own GPS. The nice thing about this bracket is that when I grow up and get a real GPS that I could easily convert it to attach my real GPS bracket to it. But, as long as I am riding IN Africa and not ACROSS Africa I am sure this will do for now. Besides, I will keep my phone protected in my jacket pocket until I am really lost and forced to take it out. Why would I expose my phone to all the possible onslaught from the elements before I really need to in any case? Below are some pictures to illustrate. I know I screwed up with the carpet knife on the right hand side, but hey, this is Africa and we don't follow fashion, we just try to survive.

(And if all else fails, then I will just use it to listen to my mp3's......)