Mark Meisner's CB

Check this beauty out!!

It's not completely finished yet, you can follow the progress on Mark's blog.

Update

Sorry for the last two posts. I need the reserve some space for non-bike related (my study) stuff. It will be useful in the future. 

I am working very, very hard on a brand new website, until it's up and running, this blog will see fewer updates. More on this soon!

The CB in motion

Still working on a video. It's more work than you might think. This is some of the raw footage I shot yesterday.

Acewell 4453: A short video of some of the functions

The title says it all. I made a short video showing some (not even all!) of the functions on the ACE-4453-AB:

One of the very, very cool other functions is the possibility to warn you when the oil temperature get's too high. You can manually select a temperature at which yuo can let the unit automatically warn you. That warning looks like this (I set it at only 60 degrees celcius for demonstration purposes):

Not something you're likely to miss.

Acewell 4453

I was planning to do a photo how-to on installing the Acewell, but it's so simple that photo's would make it look way more complicated than it is. The Acewell comes with a wiring diagram, every wire has a color and a function. For instance: The wire that goes to the Oil LED is light gray. If you look at the wire diagram of a CB750 K2, you will see that on a K2, the color of that wire is red-blue. Just connect those two. Do that for all the wires of the Acewell and that's it. You don't even need to be technically inclined to be able to do this.

Note the exhaust end cap. I realized I've not yet posted photo's that show it properly, so here it is. I welded it on to make the exhaust sound a bit more civilized. I made it out of an ashtray and it works perfectly. 

The unit is slightly larger than the mechanical tacho that used to be on the CB. I decided to move it to the middle, where I think it looks best. 

One of the functions is the volt meter, here showing 12v at approximately 1100 rpm.

The RPM needle gives the 4453 a bit more of a classic look than the 2853. A big plus in my book.

The weather is terrible and the bike is really dirty. I'll make some better photo's as soon as teh weather clears up a bit.

The mailman brought me a present

So.... What is it?

It's my brand new Acewell ACE-4453-AB!!!

I've had the Acewell 2853 on my BMW and I LOVE that unit, it is fantastic. It is all you need in one, small housing. It has a tacho, a speedo, all the idiot lights and cool functions as maximum speed, maximum RPM, 2 trip distances, gear shift warning etc... etc....

The Acewell 2853 on my BMW 

So I really, really wanted one for the CB that so far has only been sporting a simple speedometer. When Acewell brought out the even classier looking 44XX series, I definitely wanted one. It is not for sale in the Netherlands (yet?), so I got it straight of Acewell. I later found out you can also order it at Dime City.

I left the plastic on the screen for protection, that is what makes the screen look a bit pale, but it isn't. It looks fantastic, very well put together.

I just assumed it would be similar to the 2853, except form the cool  rev counter part. I was wrong. I just finished reading the manual. It's AMAZING! Here we go:

It has:

-   All the cool gadgets the 2853 has (rev counter (digital), speedo, maximum speed, ODO meter, 2 trip meters, average speed, riding time, total riding time, RPM warning indicator (shift light), clock, fuel meter and all the idiot lights. 

- Rev counter (with a needle)

- Oil temperature meter

- Air temperature meter

- 50 laptimers

- Laptimer remote (for on the handlebars)

-  "fuel gauge off mode" (I missed that a little bit on the 2853, since none of my bikes have a fuel sensor)

- adjustable background lighting color

- a way more elaborate display that allows for much more information at once than the 2853 display

- a voltage meter (I am very, very happy with that. Anyone with a Honda will be ;))

In short: I am going to love this thing even more than the 2853! Can't wait to install it on the CB. I hope the weather will clear the asalt of the roads soon, so I can test it.

    

Hanging out

Motor-magazine best readers photo of 2011

I submitted this photo for the motor-magazine best reader's photo 2011 contest:

Guess what?

That was a pleasant surprise for me, first prize! I'll get to go along with their professional photographer for a day, I'm petty excited about that since I'm always eager to learn!

90% chance of rain

That's what the forecast said. Didn't see a single drip. It was INCREDIBLY cold though. But I had a great time riding the CB :)

Found some unpaved roads again

Did a photo shoot with Vera (in this photo) and Simone. I'm used to shooting machines, animals and objects, it was a pretty new experience to work with people. It's not as easy as some people make it look. Learned a lot and we had a lot of fun.

BMW/CB 750 caferacer: video

I am gathering old (and newer) video footage of my bikes to make a short video. Biggest problem for me while making video's: Chosing appropriate background music. Suggestions are welcome :)

Cold nights

First ride of the year

It's a tradition: On January 1st I go for a ride. No matter what the weather forecast says. I got wet this year :)

Oh, and Happy new year to you all!

Went to the horses again on the CB

The horse photo's I posted last week caused a bit of a stir, within hours I had a stack of requests for similar photos, so I went back to take some more last night. 

On the way back I passed a big parking lot with a nice, big puddle of water. I thought it would make for some interesting photos.

This one is a bit out of focus, but I didn't get the time to take another one. I use very old lenses so I have to focus manually. Nearly impossible in the dark through the moderate quality viewfinder of my camera. The screen resolution of the camera is also low, causing some unpleasent surprises like this photo back home. But I really shouldn't complain.

FB-stuff timing cover for the CB 750 caferacer

The weather this morning was so much better than the forecast said (and it will get pretty bad the coming days) that I just had to take the CB out for a ride, despite a light fever. If you look at the photo's you can see a trend: I  am starting to get the hang of unpaved roads. There's a few around here that are legal to ride and they're always nice and quiet.

Two things changed on the CB. One is the exhaust. I welded an end cap on it and the bike sounds so much better now. It sounded great before, but very loud, now it's a nice, muted but warm, sound. The other is the timing cover. FB-stuff send me a clear timing cover to try on the CB. The quality of the cover is excellent, it comes with a really nice gasket and some really nice bolts. It's really cool to see the points at work. Nice. I'll post some more photos of it soon.

It's really cool to see the points at work. But now I will have to replace the dodgy screws and bolts ;)

I met up with my girlfriend in the woods. 

Foggy night

I helped a friend with his Yamaha XJ550 today. He just bought it and the engine sometimes wouldn't start or it just stalled at random moments. We managed to find the problem: The kill switch. (I just realized this sounds dumber than it was: it was an issue with an electrical connection of the kill switch)

I was On the CB and had brought all my camera gear because I wanted to try some things out in the open field. The sunset and the low fog made it look like a fairytale landscape on the way to the photo location, I was just a few minutes late to catch the right light though.

The way back was pretty scary, the fog was pretty thick. But I made it home safely.

The little light on the top left is the polar star. Unfortunately there is too much light pollution in this crowded little country to have the other stars bright enough to get them on the photo.

The last photos of last weeks shoot