Category: Mobility

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Replaced my softail’s rear shocks

I often drag my HD Heritage softail on roundabouts when I am not paying attention just with my left and right sides across the street.

This can be solved by giving the bike a slightly higher position.

To do this, you can lengthen the front fork slightly at the front and you can also raise the rear slightly by shortening the shock absorbers slightly on my Heritage softail. This is because a softail’s shock absorbers are not PUSH but PULL versions, so shorter shock absorbers mean a higher seat. If you make the shock absorbers longer, you lower the bike.

At Midwest motors in Australia a while back, I ordered 2 new chrome shock absorbers that have a wide adjustment range.

I adjusted these shock absorbers to the shortest setting and then fitted them.

This raises my bike about 3 cm higher at the rear while riding.

All done!

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Harley Davidson Heritage lifted front fork 2 inch overstock

First, the light housing/ shroud’s rear parts are removed, the brake line to the front caliper loosened and the headlight’s internal unit has been removed.

Then,  the top BIG screws can be removed from the front fork units.  For this, I used my large socket wrench kit:

Then, I loosened the 2 bolts that clamp the front fork units in the lower steering plate.  Then, I upped the bike a bit with my Harley center lift unit:

With a little effort and use of some lubricant in the area around the lower forkplate at the place where they are munted, the forks will slide down. I let them slip down around 2 inch under the top steering plate.

The, remove the large bolts and be aware that there is quite some pressure under these bolts, due to the fork springs.  I put a steel plate between the bolt’s top and the hole where they were previously bolted.  The bolts come off with a bang.  The, they are captured by the plate.  Ater both bolts are loose and held by the steel plates, you can slowly upp the motorlift so the springs can move freely. The bolts will fall down so be arare to either catch them of prevent damage to your front fender and gastank.

NB: My HD Heritage model holds 2 identical springs so the procedure is the same for each of the fork units. In other models, you can encounter different situations like 1 spring on 1 side and no spring on the other side. This is normal.

 

Now, the new extenders can be mounted. Put them between the spring and the plate with bolt from a pulley pull-off device, as shown in the picture:

Then, drive the pulley device’s bolt through the bottom and push the spring in the fork, at the end screwing the new overstock bolt in the fork.  It should then be like this:

Secure the bolts in the foeks on both sides, push the forks up OR lower the lift and wiggle a bit until the bolt’s topsides are in the upper steering plate’s holes.

Then, put the  endbolts with new rubber rings in and mount everything back, Don’t forget the front brake’s line!  I refilled with new brake fluid, Dot 5.

So- I was searching for new 2 inch overstock shrouds but could not get them anywhere nearby.  Eventually, I ordered a new set with 4 inch overstock.  If it is too long, I will machine them down to 2 inch overstock on the lathe.  But that will be another post.

This is how it looks in real life:

And with the full package installed:

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BYD Atto 3: User experiences after 9 months and 10,000 miles

This review replaces my previous reviews of my Atto 3, as all of my desired software enhancements have been completed filled in by BYD.

Meanwhile, software version 1.4 was loaded into the car via OTA on 18-9-2023 and as far as I am concerned, the car is completely OK in terms of software.

This is of course very personal. by now I am used to the beeps and other sounds the system makes when something is signaled or detected that I do not always immediately interpret as dangerous.

I have even learned to appreciate the fact that the system intervenes in dangerous situations. The other day I was driving behind a driver who suddenly hit the brakes in the middle of the intersection for some unknown reason. Before I could brake, the car was slowed down so that no collision occurred. I had not had similar intervention from the car before and was very pleased with it. It also shows that you really only know what you need when you have (unnoticed). So at this point I’m all over the place. Safety sometimes seems patronizing but avoiding a collision is enough reason, as far as I am concerned, to learn to appreciate the safety aspects of the Atto 3.

Intervention by the car on the steering wheel when you approach the edge of the road too much I previously found very annoying, and so did the accompanying beep. But I can also keep a little more distance from the shoulder and avoid the intervention. Matter of doing.

As I had mentioned in my earlier reviews, there were quite a few things that were just not set up nicely, which made driving the car uncomfortable. These were things like faltering A/C controls, or just the wrong air freshening functions available but also things like the fact that the A/C did not remember what the last setting was and should start with that again by default next time. That’s all fixed now, though.

Also promised afterthoughts like Apple Carplay and Android auto have been around for a while. I myself use Android auto and that works absolutely great!

Issues that remained:

1) I have the tow bar, but the car is officially not allowed to tow any weight because the car is not “homologated”. That is, there is no towing weight on the car’s Certificate Of Conformity. You can never get that later, only when the car is registered. Very unfortunate, especially since we were more or less verbally promised at the time of purchase that all that would still come.

2) No standard dashcam function while the cable is just pre-mounted. The camera is not mounted off-factory (for NL). I fixed this recently

3) No rain sensor for the windshield wiper. I was not used to that at all so it was getting used to having to operate the switches myself all the time. I can fix this and ordered the parts but I haven’t started yet. Read the progress HERE .

Other topics:

I retrofitted a spare tire myself, of course you never need it but when you do… yes, exactly!

And immediately upon geting the car I had the standard summer tires replaced with all-weathers.

Driving experiences

I have liked the car from my first drive in November 2022 in terms of driving experience and handling. The software improvements have made my experience even better. The Atto 3 does not drive like a small mid-size car but behaves on the road very similar to my previous car(s), Volvo V70. Maybe an odd comparison, but I also drive other cars with regularity and with that I experience difference but between the Atto 3 and a latest version V70 so not. You could also say that a V70 is a dodgy car, but that is not my experience with the last made version V70’s. PS: My last version V70 F (BW), 2 liter gasoline/LPG had an empty weight of ‘only’ 1450 kilos, the Atto weighs empty 1825 kilos….

Anyway, I was and still am very satisfied with the Atto 3.

As far as driving experiences and the range of the car are concerned, I have also experienced a few things over the past 15,000 kilometers.

Driving an EV is very different from driving a fossil fuel car. Filling up the charge level takes longer than filling up at the gaspump.

The Atto 3 weighs 1,825 kilos. Minus point associated with a relatively heavy EV: You really have to be very careful with some speed bumps, not to always just go over them at the advised speed. Often it goes well but I now have 1 in my route where I don’t want to go faster than 40 while there is an advisory of 60. On an 80 km/h meg. driving on it is OK, but when driving off at 60km/h it’s like falling off a platform.

Consumption and charging

But, especially on the trips abroad this past year, it turned out that everything goes very well when you check in advance WHERE you can charge WHAT with which pass or app. Because the Atto3 can ‘only’ fast charge at 88 kiloWatts it does take a while to charge the car all over again. So I do that at 40-50% remaining charge. And then 15 minutes is enough to be back at 90-95%. Then you may have to stop more along the way but I don’t mind that for 15 minutes. You drive with the Atto 3 from 100% to 50% about 210 kilometers. So stopping at about 200 km after 2 hours of driving so suits me very well.

And then you come to the real difference between fossil driving or electric: Everything you do costs electricity, and with an EV, so does range. Headwind: 10% less range. Average consumption at 90 km per hour is about 14 kW for 100 km, so a full tank of 60 kWh will get you over 400 km, even 420 km WLTP. At least, in summer at 90-95 km/h on a flat road without storm, without headwind and without too much load.

I have tried a number of driving scenarios and my most notable one is on the A2 from Breukelen to Abcoude at 130 km/h with no headwind or storm, though at night with lights on. Average consumption: 35 kW for 100 km. So if you would drive 130 km/h for a longer period of time, you would get barely 250 kilometers and then the battery would be empty.

Suddenly I understood why the Atto 3, but now most new EVs are capped at 160 km/h….

If you drive mostly on county roads and/or urban and you can control your foot a bit with acceleration, you can easily stay under 15 kW/100km, I sometimes even manage to average 14 kW/100km.

Of course, it still remains a small/medium SUV and the streamline also affects consumption….

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Traction Avant 11BN art deco hood mascotte install selecteuse

Now and then I check my preferred suppliers for the availability of a so-called Selecteuse, in French.

This is a hood mascotte, originally fabricated by ROBI for a.o. Traction Avant 11BN and BL.

To my surprise, Franssen in Belgium had a new stock of these for my BN and I ordered me  one, it got delivered very fast and today I installed it.

It does only fit in 1 existing hole, so I needed to drill the front hole new.

The radiator grill needs to be removed to do this.

Behold: The Traction Avant 11BN with a Citroën ID19 4-speed gearbox!

I am very pleased with it!

It feel it matches my Traction with its repaired paint and original patina overall looks very well.

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BYD Atto3 install automatic front window wiper installation with rain sensor

After over six months of driving my Atto3, I still have 2 “residual” issues that  bother me.  (2023-05-12)

1) The climate control.

It is still not as I would like it to be. The temperature in the car still varies, despite a fixed temperature setting. But it thankfully no longer varies as much as it did when the car was delivered. I always have the car set at 19 degrees Celsius, and the interior temperature varies between 16 and 22 degrees with that. Interestingly, when driving at longer constant speeds, the temperature does stabilize after about 5 minutes at the set temperature. But when I leave the highway or get in a traffic jam, the temperature rises immediately and then it takes about 3 minutes before the temperature returns to the set temperature. If I then drive faster again for a few minutes or more, it gets about 3 degrees colder than the set temperature and only then does the temperature stabilize back to the set value.

After I figured out this “behavior” of the heat pump system, I never adjust the temperature again and learn to live with the increases and decreases because the temperature will eventually be readjusted. But the way this works is very annoying. It has been filed as a complaint with BYD Amsterdam, also because of the constant fogging on the inside of the car’s windows after parking at outside temperatures below 10 degrees Celsius.

2. The lack of an automatic rain sensitive wiper controller.

Due to the lack of automatic wiper control, I am going to fix this myself. So far I have done that with my cars on which no sensor or control of the rain sensitive automatic wiper control was installed off-factory.

Previously I used the rain tracker RT-50A kit from Hydreon/Sonic for this purpose and since it is no longer available I use similar systems that are available in the market.

 

29-07-2010 Pont de Normandie, France with the Rain Sensor sticker. The installation is neatly concealed and the sensor sits against the inside of the windshield of the DS, just behind the mirror….

install_rt-50

RT-50A_Install_xbase.cdr

Vehicle-Specific Installation Notes RT50A

Actually, I would prefer to install an OBD2 system, but so far I have not been able to find an after market system for that. And building something like that all by myself will be too much work for me, also because I am not sure if the BYD Atto3’s wipers are indeed controlled with an addressable proprietary OBD2 control module.

Therefore, I will go for the old school solution with standard wiring and an installation on the existing wiper switches. But then in the wiring harness under the dash. I know it’s not practical to “hack” such a drastic solution into the car in a relatively new auo but my irritation with the absence of this option is so high that at one point I seriously considered trading in the BYD Atto 3 for a Hyundai Kona or the like for this alone.

The standard wiring requires, in addition to the power supply from the switched 12V on-board voltage, an intervention in the connections between the wiper switches and the wiper motor. I am going for the simplest solution where I use the new module as an assistant for the existing installation. Then I can activate the new module with 1 extra switch that I neatly tuck away flat in the underside of the steering column. And then all the functions of the existing switches will remain intact. The new module then works in parallel with the original ‘single-wipe’ switch. So that means I will NOT have the ‘HIGH SPEED’ option automatically activated by the new module, and the new module will only use the default wipe speed for both single-wipe and continuous wipe.

This is the new module I ordered from FRUUGO (China):

 

As shown in the above wiring scheme for a system where the wiper motor is used in the ‘positive’ power ON way (*and the motor’s common connection is towards GROUND), the connections of the following wires need to be made in the car:

CUT the existing connection from the interim controller to the wiper switch (that is on the steering column)  AND connect the wire you just cut (that comes from the INT switch) to the new module’s BROWN wire.  This is the main connection that sends a 12V pulse whenever rain is detected by the newly installed rain sensor.

Furthermore, connect the Grey and Red wires from the new control box to the switched 12Volts so the new module receives working power supply voltage.

Also, connect the Black wire to Ground, anywhere on the car.

Tham CUT the connection between the steering column’s wiper switch that is responsible for the SLKOW connection to the wiper’s motor an conne ct both cut ends to the White and Yellow wire from the new controlmodule.  Be  aware to connect the in the right way, i.e. YELLOW towards the wiper motor and WHITE towards the wiper switch!

Lastly, the GREEN wire from the new connection box needs to be connected to the HIGH speed wiper cable.

Since there is no on/off switch in the setup, the rain sensor will always be active as long as you set the existing wiper switch to the setting where the INT (or a chosen INT position, as for the Atto3 has multiple INT settings) position is connected to the  module’s active pulse wire (BROWN).

Hopefully the wiper switch will not be based on OBD2, since this will make it a bit more difficult to get the rain sensor module installed because it will then need to be hacked into the wiring of the wiper motor directly, and will require a to be installed hardware  switch to choose between the old and new situation.

For the Atto3, I will make a dedicated wiring scheme for the above whenever I will get to install the new system,  that will probably be during my summer holidays 2023 July/ August.

All in all, this is not a difficult installation BUT if you don’t get it right, you could damage the car’s electronics and I will not hold any responsibility for any damage fiollowing my setup for this or any other install.

 

 

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Raise the HD Heritage FLSTCI (2004) 2 inches for improved ground clearance

Whenever I drive off something higher than 4 inches,, I crash into the ledge that I drive off with the frame of the bike. Also, When driving on- and off the small typically Dutch roundabouts I often crashj both the Left- and the Right hand sided floorboards and also the jiffy on the pavement.

Coming from my previous bikes (HD-FXRS and my last was a Buell Ulysses), I never experienced these problems with those older bikes.

Therefore, I decided to raise the Heritage a bit and see whether this solves my problems. If not, I’ll sell the bike and buy me something else.

For the rear opf the bike I bought me a pair of adjustable “Ultima softail 2000-UP 116=233” shocks that I hope can be adjusted to be a bit shorter than the standard shocks.

For the front, I bought me a set of Zodiac 2 inch 41mm front forks lengtheners.  See the attached photo’s:

 

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Starter motor Traction Avant (12 Volt) repair with new carbon brush

And suddenly the Traction Avant wouldn’t start.

It had been struggling a few times, as if the battery was dead but it was nicely full.

And suddenly just a click instead of a running starter motor.

I have a Paris-Rhone 12V ID starter motor in my Traction Avant

-which fits the flywheel of my long stroke Citroën ID (DW) engine once mounted in the TA.

See photo below, The starter motor is under the exhaust manifold of this engine, in the same original location as on the Traction Avant 11D engine.

You can also remove the starter motor from underneath, but putting it back in is really easier from the top. Unless you have a bridge, of course.

As a possible emergency measure I mounted the original Traction Avant 6Volt starter motor, but it does not engage the Citroën ID flywheel. So quickly removed again.

The repair:

When you remove the two M6 nuts and locking plates on the back of the 12 Volt Paris-Rhone starter motor, you then slide the aluminum back including both carbon brush holders off a bit.

The carbon brush on the armature side (+) was the culprit, it was worn down pretty crookedly. It seems that one of the connecting wires had just a little too little space to allow the brush to move straight.

I then measured and ordered the carbon brushes.

The starter motor is otherwise in fine condition, the rotor and collector also look good.

The carbon brushes are the same size (about 7×17.8 mm) , and they have the same kind of soldered wire connections.

In the end it was only necessary to replace the carbon brush on the armature side, the other carbon brush which is on the minus is barely worn.

Above with the pre-soldered wires already mounted, and below AFTER soldering, after mounting the carbon brush in the carbon brush holder.

The collector of the rotor was completely flat so having it reworked in my lathe  didn’t seem to make sense.

After cleaning and assembling it, I first tested everything using a small battery from my motor bike, gave everything a little grease, secured the back with the 2 locking plates and reinstalled the starter motor in the TA.

Immediately started and everything OK again!

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BYD Atto3 -Spare tire in the trunk

Above the original filling of the space at the bottom of the trunk of the Atto3 is shown, with a.o. the tire ‘repair kit’.

I like to drive around with a spare tire because I drive on construction sites quite often, and so far I have had 2x tire damage because of that.  And such a damage is not always fixable with a fluid repair kit.

My new spare is a home-bringer also used on a Toyota RAV4 : R17 165/80/17 tire and a 5X114.3X60.1 rim with the same circumference, pitch and center hole as the BYD Atto3.  The RAV4 weighs a bit more than the Atto3, so it should be fine.

At the bottom of the trunk the available space for a home-bringer is only 57 centimeters in diameter for a spare tire.

This means that the spare tire will be slightly higher mounted, on a mounting bracket.  Under the spare tire there is then room for the jack and the likes.

The trunk cover had 2 positions, and this shelf at the bottom of the trunk therefore only comes to one possible mounting depth, i.e. in the highest position.

So- that’s how I positioned the spare tyre (from a Toyota RAV4, 17 inch) in the boot of the car.  Not the nicest way but it works OK. The shelf that comes with the car can be positioned in the upper position no problem.  I added a hydraulic mini jack and a wheel bolt wrench, since this was not part of the car’s accessories.

To hold the tire down, I made a mounting bracket from square iron tubing 20-20-2mm with 3 holes: 2 to tie it with M6 nuts to 2 of the 4 already available threaded M6 bolts and 1 hole in the center of the square stock to carry an M10 bolt going UP with a washer and a wing nut. The M10 bolt goes through 1 of the boltholes of the rim.   I welded the M10 bolt in the center of the square steel and made the rear part almost flush with the square steel.  Then, I mounted the bracket down on the floor of the boot with 6mm tubed M6 IKEA nuts that I had lying around from an old double children’s bed.   These nuts are about 15mm in length with a large flathead on top and an Inbus insert in the top.  This is ideal, because the M6 steel bolt-ends that stick up from the boot are only around 18mm in length and don’t stick through the 20mm square stock.

BTW: I shortened the 2 not-used standing M6 bolts to the height that they just carry one M6 nut each, might be useful in the future.

After the spare tire was mounted and secured with the washer and M10 wing nut on the bracket I used the bag that came with the removable part of the pulling rod to store all loose components like the puller for the plastic boltcovers that are mounte in the wheels and o on.  This is placed in the inner part of the spare tire.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take some pictures of the setup of the spare tire mounting bracket, will do that when I can and present this here, later!

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Silencing my HD Heritage

If you look at the current rules for noise and noise pollution from motorcycles, it seems like a jungle that you can’t get through.

What is clear is: If you do not meet the noise standard, there is a chance that your motorcycle will get impounded OR your registration of the bike gets invalidated and you will no longer be allowed to drive on public roads.

Noise and older engines
For older engines it is in usually not known what the maximum noise allowance in dB(A) is.

This does not mean that you can produce an unlimited level of noise.

Therefore, general guidelines for this type of vehicles  have been drawn up  y the Dutch government.

The cylinder capacity of the motorcycle is leading in those guidelines.

These sound values are of course always dependent on engine revvs.

For example, in the Netherlands the sound of engines built before 1960 should be measured at 2000 rpm (4-stroke) or 2250 rpm (2-stroke). For motorcycles built after 1960, these rpm’s are respectively 4000 and 4500. For a Harley, at 4000 rpm it is actually only possible to stay under the standard of 106dB(A) with well damped exhausts.

Measuring motorcycle noise by the police
The Dutch police measures sound output stationary.

The microphone is placed at 50 cm from the exhaust mouth at an angle of 45 degrees (may deviate 10 degrees).

The rpm sensor is placed on the spark plug wire. If that is not possible the police measures the pulses of the ignition coil.

The RPM is entered into the measuring equipment.

The law-enforcer then turns up the gas three times and the highest noise level counts.

Just to average: If you get above 110 dB(A) with a heavy engine at 4000 RPM, it costs money.

An after market exhaust may (according to the rules) not produce more sound than the original exhaust.

But in practice, especially in the past, many open exhausts were sold and mounted.

And with such exhausts it is impossible to get below the legal noise standard with any kind of dB-killer.

 

And now what?

If you want to avoid all this misery, it is better to make your exhaust system meet the required test standard or at least the standard that applies to your bike.

This can be done in various ways:

  • Either you mount on your motorcycle an original exhaust system, as present at the original delivery and stay within the license plate related standard;
  • Or you make sure that exhausts are mounted with the E4-Dutch approval standard, appropriate to the year and type of motorcycle and stay within the vehicle’s registered standard;
  • Or if there is no testing standard for your motorcycle: Make sure the exhaust meets the ‘general’ Dutch testing standard of 106 dB(A) at 4000RPM (for engines of more than 1000cc).

 

My solution for less noise:

My 2004 HD Heritage FLSTCI originally had European approved exhausts  with E4(NL) approval when delivered.

But when I bought it in 2019 it had an aftermarket ‘real dual’ V&H eliminator 400 open exhaust system mounted without baffles:

I tried reducing the noise by mounting an original baffle set from V&H with silenced baffles, including a damping pack with fiberglass mat, rolled up around the baffles.

Then I mounted everything and indeed much less noise, but above 1000 RPM still much more noise than the allowed 106 dB(A) as stated in the licence papers of the bike.

So, this did not solve the noise level in the end.

Final solution

Finally I was able to get my hands on a used set of original HD cruiser exhaust silencers, one of E1 (German origin)  and one E4 (Dutch).

These I will mount, even though the mounting brackets have to be moved on the silencers.

Many of these silencers have been intentionally demolished internally, so you should be careful what to buy!

The bike, still with the V&H silencers mounted.

Below the existing mounting points of the Vance&Hines Eliminator 400 brackets and mufflers are shown:

With these HD Catalist E1 marked exhausts I am now in whisper mode, which is very much appreciated when driving through big cities

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Traction Avant fully electronic ignition

Really crappy, I don’t have another word for it: The old contact point ignition with its coil. I tried 3 of them on 6 volts and the combination of 6 volt battery, starter motor and points always gave me trouble, both with cold and hot starts. So I installed an electronic one, and NO 123 ignition. Just an English ignition, specially for 6 Volts OR 12 Volts. First installed with the 6 Volt installation and it worked perfectly. Still does, but now on 12 Volts.