PerunMoto Luggage Rack

As none of you know I got myself a brand new Husqvarna Norden 901 – 2024 year model. Along with this I purchased a set of Kriega OS Base + 2pcs of the 18Liter OS bags. I may get 1 more bag 12L to place on top, but I still have my 18L drybag I can use for time being.

Along with the Kriega gear I wanted to have a better luggage rack. My choice is PerunMoto from Belgrade https://www.perunmoto.eu/

Delivery was quick from EU warehouse and the packaging was great.
Included is some hardware, countersunk hex heads and spacers and some stickers to make your bike go faster.

I had already mounted my Kriega to the stock luggage rack, with included spacers and bolts so this had to be undone. No big deal and a few minutes later the “Husqvarna 901 Norden Billet Rack” is secured with blue Loctite and 20Nm on the bolts.

Mounting the Kriega OS base was easy. My bags are mounted on the base, partially filled with camping gear. I placed the base further forward to allow easy mount of the 2 straps around the pillion pegs, then routed the rear straps in 2 of the holes in the Rack. Standing behind the bike it is easy to tighten the 2 loops to secure the base to the bike.

Here are some pictures.
Fits Perfect, jobs done!
Fits Perfect, Jobs done!

A rack and some hardware + stickers makes you go vrooom.


Bolts and spacers.


Remove stock rack.

Remove Kriega straps.

Place the spacers, 2 in front unless you want to use pillion handles.

Drop in bolts prepared with blue Loctite.

Tighten to 20Nm.

If I need these later on I need new bolts.

Nice and secured.

A view from behind.

Left side, partially filled bag.

Right side partially filled bag.

Camera update

OK! The time has come (I think) to update my camera on my helmet.

Hero session 5 and Osmo Action 4
If u saw any of my videos on Youtube, they are recorded with the old and trusted Gopro Hero Session 5. The last Gopro offering that didn’t have the aerodynamic of a barn door. It is solid, still working flawless and on constant charge I can keep recording without overheating (At least here in Sweden)

Iv been following the scene, Gopro vs Insta360 vs DJI Osmo Action – and now I go ahead and buy a DJI Osmo Action 4.

So what are my thoughts here?
Why do I purchase a camera now?

For a long time the Session5 was my best camera, having a few older versions as well. It is pretty much running on overtime, and we don’t know when the Session5 gives up.

I have a few issues with it, like almost every Gopro user that is forced to use a stupid media mod. It stops charging and stops recording audio. A disconnect/reconnect of the media adapter solves this, but you don’t know it happened until you watch back on your videos and the fact is that you have a video that stopped due to camera running out of battery after less than an hour, you also get no audio if you have a video.


The media thingymabob is the worst part in the Gopro lineup for sure – and every vlogger is forced to use it!

So we need to look away from Gopro – we need to find better options elsewhere.

Insta360 is one of them and DJI Osmo Action is another.

I have also been looking at a few other brands, but as is they are not worth mentioning.

So here it is. The DJI Osmo Action 4. and dang what a heavy piece of camera!

Here are the numbers

Gopro Hero Session 5 is 74 grams.

Dji Osmo Action 4 is155grams

Add the cage/ frame (optional) 31 grams

Add the magnetic mount (required) 16 grams


So we end up with 171 grams on the helmet instead of 74 grams.


I can tell you that feels heavy on the helmet wearing it. My helmet is already on a heavy side and this will not help at all…

Gopro Hero 3 external microphone

The Gopro Hero3 is the camera I have been using a long time for most of my FPV videos you see on my Youtube channel. For as long as I can remember and since I bought my first Gopro camera(1st edition) I always disliked the formfactor. The major change came with the Session series. A much better formfactor for aerial use with less drag in the wind. It is also better for mounting on motorcycle helmets. There is a noticeable difference between them 2. Too bad Gopro decided to end Session series at Hero 5 level. That means they are becoming hard to get your hands on and to be honest there are not many chinese clones that can compare to this. I got a refurbished Session 5 from ebay and now I can start using the good old Hero3 for other uses like a secondary camera while riding my MTB or motorcycle. It has another major feature and that is that the USB port is accessible and hackable so I can connect external power and external microphone. I have been using this as TV-out on my DIY 250 Quad (See LKTR250 videos)

I now soldered a microphone to a connector and I can now start using that as a VLOG camera and/or comment to things that I happen to see in traffic or out and about.

Sibirsky Super Adventure Jacket and Pants

I got my items sent by Giorgos Evripidou, founder of Siimajackets on Cyprus, it is the Sibirsky Adventure Jacket and Sibirsky Adventure Pants that I have been testing for a few rides.
There are a few things I really like with them and there are a few things I think can be improved. We start from the outside…both come with an external rain layer that is 100% waterproof with Durable YKK-zippers and taped seams. The Rain jacket has a hood that you can roll up and store in the collar and it seems very solid. The colors are Black and some sort of olive green with added reflective stripes and logos. Both pants and jacket connects with Poppers or snap-fasteners at various locations.

During my test-ride today in Sweden it was between 8 and 13 degrees Celsius and rather windy. I had a specific location in mind in the forest to do a video-review and on my way there I was getting cold around my chest despite the collar on the jacket and despite my buff around my neck. I stopped to put on the rain-layer as windbreaker and it worked just fine. I used this for most time of the day.
There was no need to put on the rain-pants.

The Sibirsky Adventure Jacket itself comes with several features that are good and some that can be improved. It has adjustable cuffs, adjustable waist, a removable collar and a pocket for a 3 Liter water-bladder on the back. 4 pockets on the front and a removable pocket on the rear (i think it is to store the rain-gear)
It also has the added extra feature of a removable layer. this converts the jacket into a mesh-jacket for warm conditions. The protection is still there – EN1621-1 protection (L1) on elbows and shoulders and EN1621-2 (L2) on the back and on the ribs. When you remove this layer you still have pockets on the inside and the hydration system is still in place. The jacket has extra adjusters on the waist under this layer if you need to tighten it up around your belly.
On the elbows are also expandable material making it comfortable to wear and bending your arms are no issues at all.

The Sibirsky Adventure Pants I think has EN1621-1 protection (L1) on the hips and on the knees, but the knee-protectors also features some harder materials to protect even further. The pants has 2 large cargo pockets on the sides and 2 regular sized pockets on the front. A clever roll up ventilation on the front of your thigh and a zipped mesh ventilation on the rear should give lots of cool air when action demands. It also features some expandable material above the knees so movement is allowed without any issues.

The waist is adjustable with 2 velcro tabs and it features a single popper on the front. There are 2 removable braces included and a 360 degree zipper allows to connect jackets and pants together.
The cuffs are adjustable to fit around your boots of choice.

The thermal liner fits on the inside with some hook and loops as well as poppers and it fits quite well. I used it on both pants and jacket during my tests.

Fitwize i’m 181cm (5’9 in funny numbers) and I have XL in both pants and jacket. They fit good even tho I have long arms and me being fairly broad shouldered(no exercies) If I try pants on without my riding boots they are so long I can step on them, when I wear boots they hang nicely down there.

Lots of features, lots of cool ideas. Here are some of my pros and cons.

PROS:
Waterproof layer on the outside.
Nice color scheme.
Superior ventilation.
Built in protectors.
Comfortable.
Large pocket for water-bladder.
Durable YKK-zippers.

CONS:
Thermal layer should be more protective
Thermal layer is only secured with poppers
Thermal layer lacks wind-flaps and zippers.
Hooks and loops not sturdy enough.
No hanger(loops) for pants.
Rain-pants needs reflective areas.
Collar not enough protective against wind.
No map pocket on legs (makes you feel like a fighter pilot)

Verdict

So what do I think of this gear? I can only compare to my other gear (Scott Dualraid) and what I think works and what does not based on experience from outdoor activity in Sweden.

There are several features like the removable shell layer to convert the jacket into a mesh. The roll-up ventilation on the legs. The outer rain-layer and so on…some things went bad like the Popper on the pants will not stay closed (it needs replacement), the lack of ability to hang the pants on a hanger is slightly annoying. I broke one of the loops holding the thermal layer on the pants(no clue how tho) and the draft on my chest despite the collar. The thermal layer should be revised to get the Sibirsky label valid, as is I think my Scott gear is better on that part.

Will this be the gear of my daily rides? I think so… might not use it for the coldest season here in Sweden (last winter I was riding when it was -7degrees)
But for any warmer day it is definitely going to be my 1st pick.

Review of motorcycle clothes

Items has been shipped and they are in transit to my location. Soon I will make a review of the new outfit for my motorcycle riding. It is soon below 0 degrees celcius in Sweden and depending on weather from day to day I can go out riding or not. This will all be part of my review. I have a location where I want to do some videos but weather and time might prevent this.

Odd behaviours

For some reason I have issues with my GPS tracking system I’m working on. It works well but sometimes it drops GPS signal and sometimes it takes ages to get a position lock. If you think this has to do with cold/warm boot you are wrong. As is my rig is connected to my computer, Arduino powered from an FTDI adapter that is connected to my computer with regular USB cable. This way I can open a serial monitor and read what the status is.

When I boot my computer USB gets initialized  by Windows. This causes Arduino to reboot and when that happens (or a power cycle) the GPS loses its position (LED stopped blinking)

Yes the battery is charged, yes it had position lock just before reboot. I can do this many times and the result is the same.

This is a behaviour I do not want to have when it is mounted to my motorcycle.

A comparison…

I have the same chip (NEO 6M) connected to a NodeMCU with a small 0.96 OLED screen and it is currently being powered in my garage by solar-cells charging some 12V batteries.

This works 100% all the time, even if I reboot it is very quick to get position lock again.

To make things worse…

If for some reason the GPS module should be defect I of course swapped them over a few times and the result is the same.
I also replaced Arduino with another one and it is still the same result, as well as replacing wires. I’m running out of ideas to solve this one…

A 2nd option is of course to use the NODEMCU instead of Arduino. Storage can still be done on the SD card but then I need to compile a new NODEMCU kernel with FAT and SPI support I think.

A 3rd option is to use my old Raspberry PI…

Arduino GPS GPX SD

My current project is to make a DIY GPS tracking device.

Part list:

Arduino Pro Mini (5V)
GPS-NEO-6M
MH-SD CARD Module

All this will be neatly connected with soldered wires or headers when it is done, but for now I’m using jumper wires as all parts have soldered pins.

As many of you know an Arduino-file is called a “sketch” and that is exactly what it is – sketchy 🙂

My results from the code is not consistent.

The GPS chip works directly when I connect it to a NodeMCU-chip and a 0.96″ OLED. This little machine is generating 7 lines of output on the OLED every second – and it works 100%

 

Same chip connected to the Arduino does not work all the time so I assume it is the code (Sketch) that has some bugs in it as I merged various codes (SD card and GPS )

Troubleshooting is ongoing and I will rewrite the entire code.

The goal of the project is to generate a valid GPX-file. A track of GPS points saved into a file on the SD-card. Same sort of files can then be imported into Google Earth or a Garmin GPS (or any compatible GPS device)

Here you can now follow the track that has been generated by the GPS tracker.

 

I want to use this on my Motorcycle to log where I have been riding so I want it more or less always on.  Well, tracking must not be always on (generating the file) but the GPS-chip must be “HOT” i.e no cold boot, waiting for GPS fix signal.
That would not be user friendly having to wait 10 minutes before every ride.

In order to solve that I assume the GPS-chip must be always powered on even if the Arduino is not, well technically they can…but the logging should start when I insert a SD card into the Card holder right?

I have had this SD-card holder for a long time but I have only tested so it works i.e read/wright to and from SD-card.

Pseudo thinking:
When I go out for a ride and I want to track my ride I insert the SD-card.
IT automatically generates the log and when I’m back home I need to safely remove the card. The file is open until closed safely by Arduino (dataFile.close(); ) and how does it know that its done?

I assume I need to either use a switch to run file-ending code when pressed or using a delay where it is not open. I can use a status LED to tell me when it is open or not and I think it is enough to log GPS data every 5 or 10 seconds)
This could give me a 5 seconds window where program loops and a 5 second delay where it is paused (dataFile closed) to safely be ejected.

 

Decisions, decisions, decisions…