We are running the famed ‘Glassies Grasstrack’ again this year and it may be even better than last year.

For starters, more riders will know what it’s about and be willing to roost for the MXTV camera man who wants to make them famous.

Amazingly, some blokes last year didn’t realise that was their chance to be crowned Mr Motocross and putted around the course.

I bet they don’t make that mistake again and I’m anticipating more speed in this section.

So, to help improve safety standards, we convinced Indigo Shire to shout us a truckload of gravel at the access point to the track, so we can get a 2WD ambulance in even if it’s wet. Other than through old mate Adam’s farm, access is very dodgy and not possible from the mountain other than perhaps by air.

The access point was wet and soft.

The truck then backed in and dumped load A.

As it turned out, the tyres on the truck were made of won’t grip.

That was okay though, as while Kev the grader driver then went to work spreading the gravel, we sent Aaron to get another load in the truck.

When Aaron returned, he had a decent base to drive on now.

Kev went to work on the second load and in no time we had our all weather access. The roller on the back of the grader did an amazing job of smoothly dressing the final product.

Thanks to Aaron, Kev, their foreman Clint and Indigo Shire for helping to make our riding safer and our event more successful.

On another safety issue, I can confirm that our riding ambos are returning and most likely in greater numbers. We intend to split them up and run multiple riding Ambo gangs to further boost safety.

Pissing rain here, with the weather man predicting rain right up to the weekend, with a high right behind it. Hopefully damp but fine for this weekends coaching day and ride.

Nothing to do with rockin’ all over the world, merely an update on my injury and tour status.

The second analysis of my injury by Doctor B suggests a fracture in my radial bone only, with no new destruction of the scaphoid. Great news, as scaphoid’s take 9 to 12 weeks to heal, whereas the suggestion is that the current issue will be resolved in perhaps only five weeks from the accident date.

He did question the apparent ‘unusual’ appearance of my scaphoid, which I firmly blame on a certain failure to look where one actually wants to go and a certain gnarly old Mulga tree at Finke last year. What a dill I was for failing to have that properly repaired at the time.

Five weeks takes us to the 25th of July, a week out from the charity bash, so I’m not giving up hope of riding this year.

In the meantime, Wayno, Harro, Monty and Don will step up and shoulder a bit more responsibility at our coaching day and one day ride next weekend. I’ll still run the morning skills session , just using a demonstration rider for each drill. Just like we do at Groggin, but a bit more up market.

My injury was a good reminder of the value of registration. The TAC are going to reimburse my employer for the five weeks or so I have off, meaning I get to keep my sickies. The reporting of the accident was very simple, most of it being done over the phone. The paperwork to fill out turned up in two days, with most of the info already filled in as a result of the phone chat. I was impressed by the TAC’s performance to this stage, which is rare for a Government agency.

A reminder that if you arrive at the hospital in an ambulance, the TAC cover 100% of your costs, including the ambo ride. If however you get a private lift, you are liable for the first five hundred or so bucks worth of treatment. When in any doubt, call 000 and get the professionals to not only give you the best treatment from the outset, but also save you money.

Plenty of rain in the high country prior ensured conditions would be damp. Despite the weather man predicting ’showers’, which up high can mean anything from sun to rain, hail and snow, we had two wickedly good days for bike riding.

Luckily, not too much rain.

Of course, he should have been in the faster running shallows on the left, but a DR650 sometimes will just go where it wants to.

Notice also, that despite Scott being otherwise a very capable rider and handling the DR better than many blokes on more high performance race type bikes, his technique is flawed here.

To cross a river, you should stand up and use your slightly bent legs as shock absorbers to help you absord the bumps from the unseen rocks and remain stable. A bit of constant throttle, a little smooth clutch slipping, looking ahead.

Cousin Darryl aka The Turd Burglar braked when he should have braaapped and Brucey got him a ripper.

Laz wanted a ride on my 250X. A couple of blokes had ridden it that morning and raved about how easy it was to ride, smooth power and suspension, light weight etc. So I jumped on Laz’s KTM 250 2 stroke.

I didn’t like it much. The motor was okay, but harder to ride than my four stroke and with little more overall speed, if any. The standard suspension was very ordinary. The forks were mushy, then fell through the stroke on any bigger hit. The rear felt better, but perhaps only because it was stiffer. His ergos were quite good though and the cockpit was well set up.

Whilst Laz thought my bike was ace, he managed a minor bobble and my number plate is now somewhere out yonder. The rear guard was half torn off too, requiring rudimentary track side repairs.

I put a cable tie through the two holes I made and rode off no worries, after having to console Laz who was very apologetic. Don’t worry too much Laz, Honda have already sent the replacement parts to me.

I had a moment shortly after (caught Laz - itis?) before lunch on some clay on a mainish road, sliding then high - siding my way to a broken wrist.

We ran five guides on this tour, so I was no big loss, but I’m frustrated already with 6 weeks to go. One finger typing is ordinary.

We met some real units at the Porepunkah hotel that night.

Not real sure who this bloke was, but I think his name was either Cletus or Darryl.

We went to bed at a sensible hour to prepare for day 2 made even better by overnight rain.

Some slippery hills on Sunday tested them all, with a few that nobody could get up, which makes for great fun.

Laz showed us how to come back down in style.

He wasn’t the only one coming unstuck though.

Someone carnaged into Pete’s Husky on one of the hills.

Lunch was beside a beatiful little creek.

As usual, the girls worked hard to put a good feed together.

As usual, there was some skullduggery between the riders.

The ride ended on time and with smiles. Gotta love that, especially since Gary had flown from Darwin and Kev driven from Adelaide by himself to ride with us.

Rider feedback was very strong and reminded me that all the extra work of a new tour is worthwhile.

Treacherous tools have been wreaking havoc in our backyard and Andrew’s beloved WR 450 has been nicked.

Andrew has been on many tours with us but some turd has taken that right from him.

Please keep an ear to the ground to help recover his right to ride.

This shot really doesn’t show much of Andrew’s bike, but it’s a shameless chance to showcase the great scenery on our tours!

Here’s Andrew’s take on the matter:

Please Help.

I have just come home from one night away, to find my garage door kicked in and my motor bike stolen.

It all happened just after midnight on Saturday 13-6-09, in West Wodonga.

Please help me by forwarding this email to all the Albury Wodonga locals in your address book and passing any information you become aware of back to myself and/or Detective Senior Constable Ray Causer of Wodonga Police.

It is not easy for me to come to terms with, as my love for this bike runs deep. Anybody that shares my passion for motorbikes knows exactly where I’m coming from.

I am lead to believe this is not the only bike that has been stolen of recent times.

Helping catch these thieves can stop any more bikes/property being stolen and houses broken into. Let’s work together to keep our community safe.

A reward is being offered for information that leads to an arrest and/or return of my motorbike.

Bike Details

Yamaha 2003 WR450

Pre 24-4-09 Rego BZ906

Post 24-4-09 Rec Rego - 0604-A

VIN - JYACJ04W53A001857

Engine Number - J314E003370

Helmet - Blue Nolan

Distinguishing features

Tag alloy handle bars

B&B Bash Plate

Blue “Chain Gang” rear sprocket

Vapor trip computer

Ballard fork saver socks

2005 WR Alloy Exhaust Pipe

Thank you

Regards,
Andrew Turnbull

Ed:

May they rot in hell. After the thing with the torture.

OOT is offering free attendance at any of our coaching days or one day trail rides for anyone who provides information leading to the recovery of the bike.

Not this weekend, but the next, we’re off on a new tour. Basing ourselves at the biker friendly Porepunkah hotel, we have two different loops planned both days.

Both loops are quite different and there is plenty of terrain variety.

The weather man has been kind with plenty of rain. Forget the dust, it’s gone for now. Not too many puddles either thanks to the drought and not - too - heavy rain encouraging the soil to soak most of the moisture up.

There has been plenty of snow. From our vantage point close to the pub, we had awesome views of snow over the Alps, with Bogong/Fainter/Feathertop/Hotham one side and Buffalo the other.

We plan to try to avoid the white mud when riding, but it’s great to look at.

The tour looks like shaping as another ripper with stacks of unchartered territory for riders and of course some of our ’special’ tracks known only to a few. There will be a couple of optional difficult hill climbs which are truly challenging, as Blue and Wayno will attest.

We road tested one of the new Isuzu Dmax twin cab turbo diesel 4WD utes, courtesy of Blacklocks at Lavington. Our initial impression was very positive.

Heaps of grunt. It’s amazing how hard a 3 litre diesel will go these days. Used bugger all fuel at the same time. Isuzu are claiming 8.4 litres/100 km combined city/highway cycle! That’s better than a 4 cyl Camry.

In fact the Isuzu is the most efficient and therefore green engines of it’s class, something that attracts us here at OOT.

4WD Action magazine voted it number one in a recent shootout, even up against the Hilux at around ten grand dearer.

The thing went that good that the writing may even be on the wall for my legendary Troop Carrier. Admittedly, the Dmax will need a few bucks in the form of a bar/winch/canopy/drawers and most importantly a bit of a suspension lift and some muddies before it will be as capable as the old tojo, but with all that extra bling, you could end up with a seriously capable, comfortable and efficient bit of gear, way better than your standard Hilux and still with a couple of grand left to spend on other goodies.

I’ve got half a dozen spots left for this tour. If you’re keen, drop me a line.

You can improve the action of your forks, prolong their life and save yourself some bucks by servicing them yourself.

It’s a bit mystical to some, but in practice is not that hard to do and requires few special tools.

Your forks should be serviced (disassembled, cleaned, new oil and reassembled) at least annually. Like anything involving metal parts moving together with the help of oil, the first service is the most important.

Just like a car engine, in the initial run in period, your forks will bed in and any machining dags or imperfections are generally worn off and fall to the bottom of the fork leg or stay in solution with the oil.

I recommend doing at least a few hundred K’s, preferably a thousand or so, before you service the forks first, to give them time to properly bed in.

My son Barry recently purchased a 2002 CR250. He’s a bit of an adrenaline junkie (does track days on his GSXR 1000) and always wanted a two stroke. Of course, it had been freestyled and came with a set of mudguards that had been chopped in half by some moron. And of course, freestyle - man was a bit of a workshop dud, so Baz brought it up to OOT HQ to get some lovin’.

The first thing to do is to check and record the compression and rebound clicker settings. The compression is on top and rebound the bottom. Both are measured by ‘clicks out from full hard’, which is all the way in clockwise. Don’t try to over tighten them and make the adjustments carefully. It’s fairly easy to move two clicks in one go if you rush and you’ll get the adjustment wrong.

First up, we started pulling it apart to see what we were working with. We took the front wheel off, removed the brake caliper and plastic fork guards then removed each fork leg. Piece of piss so far.

Then, we removed the handlebars, as we wanted to check the head stem bearings as well.

Once the bars were off, I reinstalled each fork leg back into the clamps and did one of the four clamp bolts up just enough to grip the leg. I then used my rear axle/tyre lever combo tool (32mm socket) to loosen the inner chamber. I also used a trick tool made for me by Mark Waterhouse to loosen the large nut at the top of the fork leg. Both are hard to undo when the fork is out of the bike.

If you don’t have access to such a special tool or appropriate sized huge socket, in the past I’ve had success by carefully clamping the fork upside down in the vice, with the jaws very carefully gripping the large nut. Then I’ve been able to undo it by gripping and rotating the fork leg outer. The trick tool is better of course.

I then unscrewed the fork cap from the outer tube and drained the oil inside into a container for later recycling.

Then, I put the base of the leg into my pissy little vice, which I made in Engineering 101 at RMIT 24 years ago.

I used a socket to undo the nut at the bottom.

Then, I push hard on the top of the fork, compressing the spring. This makes the damper rod poke out the hole in the bottom of the fork leg. When it’s out far enough, I then used the other end of Mark’s special fork tool to lock it in place, like so.

If you haven’t got access to a trick tool, make one. I bodged one up from a sheet of duralium (road sign) years back and it still works fine. The specs for the slot size is in the manual.

Then, use an open end spanner (17mm I think it is) to hold the end of rod and a socket to undo and remove the damper control nut thingy at the bottom of the rod.

Then, remove your slotted tool and allow the damper rod to retreat back into the fork leg, take the lot out of the vice and pull the inner chamber and spring out of the outer leg.

Now use your 32 mm socket again to take the cop off the inner chamber and drain the oil. Pump the damper rod a few times to get all the oil out. Point the open end toward your drain container first! Then leave the inner chamber inverted to drain.

Now, go to your outer leg and carefully prize the dust cover with a screwdriver, in several gentle moves.

Then use the screwdriver to carefully prize out the inner circlip above the fork seal.

To remove the inner fork slider (chrome) from the outer, use them together like a slide hammer. Grab one with each hand and forcefully try to slide them apart. Don’t worry, you won’t hurt anything. If you slide them hard enough, you should end up with one in each hand in no time.

Then pull off the bushes and old oil seal from the inner leg. If you’re not changing the seal (unless it’s leaking you wouldn’t change it), then ensure you cover the sharp edges of the tube where the bush sits with electrical tape to reduce chances of damaging the seal when you take if off.

Take the removal process slowly and place the bits in the order they came off, so you don’t forget how to put them back on. I normally just line them up.

Now, go and do some cleaning. The bottom of Baz’s forks were filthy, so he used a little container of solvent and a toothbrush to get all the crud off.

To clean inside the inner and out chambers, I like to block the lower held end of the tube off with my hands (hand covers the large hole on the outer leg, but I have to insert a digit into the smaller threaded hole at the base of the inner leg), then get someone to pour some solvent inside each tube. I then swish it about to dislodged the gunk and tip it all out into my Eco container for recycling along with the oil. I find that a fair bit of crud can accumulate at the very bottom of the fork just inside from the threaded hole and it often takes a few washes to clean up nicely.

Be aware that if you use petrol here, it will ‘gas up’ and want to spurt past your sealing hands when you shake it up.

Check the chrome slider for nicks by running your fingers all over them. Stones can flick off the front wheel, onto the frame then back onto the chrome sliders, damaging them. Sometimes, those little nicks are enough to damage the rubber of the oil seal, which can result in it leaking.

To fix a nick, use something like 600 grit wet and dry sandpaper, or a stone. Just enough to make it smooth again.

To finish it off I blow them out with compressed air, but just leaving them to drain is sufficient.

To put it all back together, make sure you’ve taped the fork leg as discussed, the gently put it all back on in the reverse order. Put a little clean fork oil on the seals and bushes before you re fit them

Make sure your dust seal and fork seal are on the correct way, not upside down. Once it’s all back on, remove the tape and clean off any sticky residue with a rag.

Gently reinstall the inner slider into the outer fork leg. Wiggling a bit can help to get the new fork seal into it’s hole.

Now the only real tricky bit. Seating the fork seal is a cinch if you’ve got one of those fork seal driving tools that are like a bit of pipe cut in two that fits over the fork leg, but I don’t have one.

So I’ve made up this bodgy fork seal driver from a bit of plate steel. I fashioned a bend one end so it mirrors the curve in the seal, at least a bit. I just manipulated it gently with a dirty big mash hammer, using an old bit of railway line I’ve got as a dolly. Then I bent the other end away from the fork leg so I can hit it with another hammer.

The hammer I use for the second part is a soft hammer, to avoid damage to the fork slider.

I often have to use some other tool, mostly about a 3mm T bar allen key, to carefully push down on one side of the seal whilst using my hammer and bodged up seal driver on the other side, as the seal often refuses to go in straight if you just put pressure on one side at a time.

I find sometimes I’ve got the hit the seal frequently and with force, moving my little tool to a different location with each strike.

You have drive the seal far enough in so that you can put the circlip back in place. It lives in a groove just above the seal, as shown here.

Once the clip’s in, slide the dust seal back down into place. It often needs a little force, but should be done only using your hands.

Now, put the spring back in.

The inner chamber, which you had draining somewhere, needs some new oil. So, pull the damper rod all the way out and fill the chamber with fresh fork oil. A few inches down from the top, inside the tube, is a lip, where the diameter of the hole reduces a little. I pour enough oil to cover this by an inch or so in.

Then, you must bleed the air from the damper, by holding it upright and slowly moving the damper rod in and out. Go very slowly. You’ll have to move the rod in and out (go to the stopper in each direction each time) several times before you get a nice smooth action.

Don’t rush this bit, or your forks will not work as well when you go to ride.

When you’re happy there, put the damping control jiggy back into it’s hole.

To get it to seat, you’ll have to push down on it quite firmly. You need to force some oil through the shim stack and displace the extra unwanted oil out.

The inner chamber is made up of an outer tube and the damping rod. I place the bottom of the outer chamber against a rag on the edge of the bench and push down like mad on the control jiggy thingy until it can be threaded on. Once you’ve got it at thread stage, tighten it up, but don’t go hard, they don’t need to be very tight.

Once you’ve got it done up again, you have to purge the extra unwanted oil, by pushing down on the damper rod until it bottoms. Oil will come out of the holes in the outer tube.

Once you’ve done that, you need to drain the extra oil that’s still in the top section of the inner chamber. Take the air bleed screw out of the cap and invert the chamber to drain for a while. A few minutes at least.

Once that’s bled nicely, put the entire inner chamber back in on top of the spring in the outer fork leg.

Then put the lot back into the vice. Push down on the top, compress the spring, forcing the damper rod out the hole in the bottom again. Use your slotted tool to keep it out there.

I forgot to mention that when you were in the vice last time and pulling it all apart, you took out a little alloy tube from the guts of the damper rod. It connects your clicker control at the bottom of the forks to the shim stack in the damper rod.

Give it a clean, then put it back in the damper rod. Then slot the clicker controller into it and do it up again the same way you took it apart, with your 17mm open ender and a socket. Not too tight.

Then, push down on the spring again, remove your slotted tool, allowing the threads to line up. Do the nut up with your socket.

Now you can add the desired amount of oil to the outer chamber. A 2002 CR250 came standard with 380 ml of oil in the outer chamber. You can run between 320 and 420 ml. The more oil you run, the firmer the damping action towards the end of the stroke. Baz is a half - sucked - twistie and not an A grade rider, so I’ve gone with 350 ml for him this time.

Guide Wayno likes his forks soft runs his clickers way out at like 20 out from full hard. He now compensated for the occasional bottoming out by adding another 40 ml or so of oil to the standard amount for a CRF450 and reports that now his forks are plush and also resist bottoming.

Once the oil is added, all you’ve got left to do is to screw the inner and outers back together and re fit it all to your bike.

Don’t forget to re - set the clickers to what they were before you started, as this process has put them right out of kilter. Now go ride.

Further to the previous article, I have some more thoughts on the in helmet UHF set up production.

I’ve simplified the way I’ve attached the speaker and little boom microphone, eliminating joins. This is a major benefit, as the wires are small and fiddly. The less joining the better.

What I’ve done is spliced into the wire that leads into the boom mike and carefully picked out the green and red wires that power the speaker. I’ve soldered them to the speaker, leaving the other two wires to continue to the microphone undisturbed.

I managed to free the boom mike from it’s plastic casing, so I didn’t have to cut the wire and re join them as in the previous version.

I did however have to cut the wire that runs to the microphone, but only because it was now way too long and I didn’t want the bulk of wrapped up wire inside my helmet. So, I had to cut the lead and re - join the wires.

You can see how I’ve taped off the join in the white wire to prevent it shorting with the top wire. Then I melt some heat shrink over the top.

Remember to slide the heat shrink on before you start soldering. Sounds simple enough, but easy to stuff up!

If you do forget the heat shrink, just use electrical tape.

And thinking about heat shrink, it seems that it’s only got so much shrink in it.

I found that it’s best to take your time with the heat shrink. You can get it to shrink more if you are gentle with the flame thrower. Close application of the flame results in burning and less shrinking.

So going back to my original idea of the cheap option and just using a speaker microphone as the basis for your in helmet set up, I reckon it would work fine.

Just take the speaker out, solder on an additional length of conduit with two wires in it (or more, you just won’t use the extras) long enough to relocate the original speaker near your ear. Join the additional wire inside the speaker mike casing and run it out with the main wire.

Next, cut the springy lead at the appropriate spot and solder in a four pin plug like the ones I used to connect and disconnect it from the helmet.

Voila! So, even if you’ve paid retail price from a GME outlet, you’ve got a remote in - helmet set up for $75, plus the cost of a four pin plug, which are cheap as.

If you’ve bought one of the new state of the art TX6100 5 Watt radios, then your only cost is the four pin plug, as a speaker microphone comes with the kit at no extra charge.

I still think my PTT is better, but at near zero cost and plenty of simplicity, the above scenario with the speaker microphone is a beauty.

By the way, I had to use a bit of additional thought to capture these photos. All were taken inside and the auto focus on the camera struggled a bit to work out what I wanted in focus with the average light.

So I used a little LED torch I’ve got to light up the subject and that solved the problem.

Isn’t the net amazing? I’m still busy updating the blog article on the UHF in Helmet system and I get an e mail from someone who has identified that I’m using a measuring stick so old that it’s now disowned by Ivan the Terrible. Gregg takes it from here:

Hey Rod,

Just read your post on the old multimeter.

It looks like that one was used to check the battery on the ark before Noah set sail.

Do yourself a favour and get a digital one. You can buy some really small cheap as these days. The reason they are better for people who are not really sure what they are doing is that they are way less confusing when trying to read the bloody things. The resistance function on the digital meters doubles as a continuity function that has an audible alarm to tell you when there is contact between the two probes. This makes it much easier when doing something fiddly and your not trying to squiz at the readout at the same time. I use it every day at work when I fuck up.

Of course you may just be pretending you know nothing about multimeters to make good copy but I thought id let you know anyway!

Cheers
Gregg

(Ed: how did he know that I don’t know what I’m doing????)

Then there was more wisdom:

The Fluke brand of digital meters are the rolls royce when it comes to this sort of thing, expensive but they last forever. The cheapies are good for the ocasional user. Digital meters are just alot less confusing than analog meters when trying to teach people the basics. Most will find they make much more sense when checking simple things on their bikes like the condition of the battery or if the lights have voltage at them. Some digital meters are about the size of a deck of cards, probably small enough to carry around in a bum bag.

Another good use for the continuity function on them is for checking fuses and globes. In both cases they can appear to be OK by eye, but when you put a meter across them you get an open circuit instead of a beep to show its still intact(or 0 Ohms if using an analog meter like yours). Most people probably dont even know their bikes have fuses in them let alone carry any spare or know the consequenses of bridging them out when they have nothing to replace them with. My cousin did this on a ride in the Otways on his DRZ and set fire to it. The whole main loom melted into one big clump of plastic and copper. Not a good thing when it runs directly under the tank!

Gregg

(Ed: I value contributions like Gregg’s. Not everyone is expert at all things. I’m expert at some, good at others and downright shitful at more than the previous two combined. For instance, my version of ‘checking the condition of my battery’ is - ‘push button, bike starts, commence grinning procedure’ or ‘push button, no response, crack the shits, make eye contact with kick starter, pause, crack the shits, connect battery charger, lengthy pause, push button, no response, declare bike broken, choose another’. If you have some input of value into anything dirt bike related, feel free to contribute via e - mail and like Gregg you may well help to educate the masses. I’ll be visiting Dick Smiths to try to Fluke a bargain. Life is a constant learning curve and the whole ‘bike caught fire thing’ is something I’ve seen before and would like to personally avoid)

So you’ve gone and purchased an Aussie owned and perhaps even Aussie made GME UHF radio, a smart choice. Their products have served us well over several years and their range is awesome. Standard Communications, the company that produces the GME product, is the only Australian owned producer of UHF products.

If you’re considering buying another brand, be aware that your dollars are going offshore.

Some of you will have seen us using our in - helmet comms systems, so we can talk guide to guide whilst on the trail. This really is the shit and opens up a whole new world of safer, free - flowing riding.

Those little accessory microphones you can get for your UHF are better than nothing, but you won’t be able to hear your mate calling you when you’re riding along, which is a major setback. If you continue to ride over the hill and out of range, your radio is then near useless to you. A speaker must be mounted inside the helmet near to your ear to allow you to listen when on the pipe.

Also, the microphone is often clipped to your camelbak strap, where it lives in the weather, reducing it’s life expectancy for sure.

So, how hard is it to make your own in - helmet set up?
Well, I’m a self confessed electronics spaz and I’ve been able to do it within a reasonable time and at reasonable cost. You can do it even cheaper if you want.

For starters, if you’ve bought a TX6100, then an accessory microphone will have come as a bonus in the kit at no extra charge. That’s good, ‘cause we can either modify it to suit or butcher it for parts.

At the top of the picture is shown the two pin 90 degree plug which connects to the radio. It’s not shown very well and you can’t see the pins well, but you’ll see them later in another shot. Also shown is the circuit board with speaker attached. The other end of that springy wire has a small white plug on it, which connects to the white plug on the circuit board. The board has a key on it that lets you know which wires go where. By that I mean it’s written on the circuit board.

For example, PTT is for the Push to Talk button. Sp+ is Speaker Positive etc. The wires in this microphone use this configuration:

Red - Microphone
Black - PTT
Blue - SP+
White - SP-

The little round, dark, circular jobbie at the top left corner of the circuit board is the actual microphone. I’ve called the whole thing a microphone, but really it’s a combination of a microphone, a speaker and a push to talk button.

If you haven’t got one of these or something similar, you can buy one (Part number MC001 - retail cost $75) from a GME outlet. You could probably hunt a much cheaper version off e - bay, but ensure it runs four wires, not three like Unidens and maybe some other brands, ‘cause they won’t work for you.

You could just piggyback wires from this unit, connect a plug and run the speaker on longer wires so you can fit it into your helmet near your ear. Then, you could just use velcro to attach the microphone to the inside of the helmet, in front of your face, using it only as a Push to Talk button.

However, I reckon my set up is better, albeit a little dearer. I use an accessory headset from GME ($75) that contains a robust and compact PTT button that is very suitable.

It’s pity you have to buy the fairly expensive kit just to get to the ace PTT and boom mike, but it’s a ripper. they are both very water resistant and I’ve not had a failure yet after a few years of thrashing.

The two wire thing makes the job much easier. When I say two wires, I actually mean two black conduits containing four wires a piece. You can see them in the above photo inside the unit. One lot of wires can be connected to a female four pin plug, that will connect to it’s male counterpart you’ll fit to the other end of the springy wire with the 90 degree pin that connects to the radio itself.

When finished, the springy wire will look like this:

Of course, between the two plugs is the springy wire conduit as seen in the first photo of this article.

That leaves the other set of wires to be connected to your speaker/s and boom microphone.

You might be able to make out that the red and green wires are soldered to the speaker. I’ve used a speaker from a TX6200 uhf radio, but I reckon any cheapo little speaker should do, or the one out of your accessory microphone supplied with your 6100 kit if you go that way. Mine says 8 ohms on the back of it.
Yours should too. Dick Smiths sell this sort of stuff if you need to buy one.

Note that the speaker has a positive and negative terminal. I couldn’t work out which was which and initially soldered them arse about. I’m not sure is the above shot shows the correct or incorrect wiring. When I tested it, it made no noise, when I re soldered them, away we went.

The black wire conduit on the bottom left contains all four wires and runs to the PTT button, out of the shot. The other two wires inside it go to the little boom microphone, shown at the top of the shot. You can see them running out of that conduit to the bottom right of the shot.

I had to solder on a little extension to give me enough lead, as the wire was glued into the earphone section of the HS003 kit and I couldn’t get it out in one piece.

Remember when you are adding in a section, solder one wire, then tape it, then solder the other wire and either tape or heat shrink them together. The first bit of tape stops the solder shorting out the two wires.

The four pin plugs I sourced from GME. They are heavy duty jobs that lock down with a threaded nut. We tried some cheapie low duty models I bought from Jaycar (electronics type shop) but they were prone to routine failure. The ones I’m using are the same type that is used to connect a microphone to an in car or in boat dash mount UHF or marine radio and are commercially available.

These plugs have numbered posts for attaching your wires. I wisely recorded which colour wires I connected to each post. At the time it was to ensure that my male and female ends matched so the unit actually worked, but it came in handy later when I made another lead with different coloured wires.

Some better use of the camera in the above shot. Macro of course. I went outside to get some natural light, as when I tried it inside, the camera lens was so close to the subject that the flash shot over the top of it and the subject ended up dark.

I already had one lead working and was making a second set up.

The lead on the left is the one I was already using. GME had supplied me with a fairly heavy duty springy conduit containing four wires.

I mistakenly forgot to ask for some more of the same when ordering the last batch of bits, so I was forced to use the lead off the accessory microphone supplied with the TX 6100. When I cut it up, I found that the conduit had five wires, with slightly different colours. Shit!

I assumed that Red and Black would be Red and Black and that white might still be white and blue may mean green. I then assumed that the uncovered wire would go nowhere. The above nonsense shows just what a dimwit I am with electrickery. Didn’t stop me soldering away wide eyed though.

My new lead was junk and didn’t work at all. So, in another blaze of lack of understanding, I started to just guess and re solder wires about into different spots.

With each failure came a stress related spaz attack that eventually required a break to go read Trailrider magazine for a while, pausing to throw filthy looks at the ’stupid electrical thing’ a few times.

Then I got smart and rang the service section at GME headquarters. ‘Have you got a multimeter?’ he asked. I vaguely remembered purchasing something similar from old mate Cevat the Glenroy Pawnbroker in about 1990, for a couple of bucks. I had never used it and had no bloody idea where to start.

I scrambled round in the dingy corner of the shed and found the secretive electrickery device, assuming my first use would probably result in frustration. Did it even work? Would the batteries be flat. How do you make it go? It came without a manual. Some scrawlings made on the box by Cevat were in Arabic. I thought I was doomed.

I also discovered that it had the name ‘Ivan’ scratched into it, something I must have missed at purchase. If your name is Ivan and some druggo stole your multimeter 19 or so years ago, I’ve got a fair idea where it is now.

Of course I paid value for the item in good faith and it’s stiff shit Ivan now.

As it turned out, Ivan’s unit had no batteries to go flat. Seems some electrickery things can function without batteries? I’m not sure about all the other stuff it might measure, but I can tell you they measure resistance. If you put one electrode pointy thingy on one end of a wire and the other on the other end of the wire, if you’ve got your units set right (big dial in the middle), it will make the needle on the guage move and measure the amount of resistance the wire provides.

What that means is that you can trace wires from one end to work out where they end up at the other. This was a revelation.

So, I started at the 90 degree two pin plug on my original springy lead. The two pin plug is a sneaky sucker, as it actually controls four wires. The ‘tip’ of each pin relates to one wire, whilst the lower ’shaft’ connects to another, giving four all up.

I stuck one electrode proby thingy into one numbered hole on the male plug, remembering that I knew which colour wire connected to each numbered post. Then, I’d touch the other proby thingy to both the tip and shaft of each pin, until the OHMeter thingymagiggy needle moved.

You can see the needle in the above shot is way over to the right, meaning it’s picked up and is measuring some resistance, meaning there’s a continuous wire between the two proby thingies.

You can see the two pin plug that I referred to earlier much better in this shot. That’s the bit that plugs into the radio.

The ‘Ohmometer’ turned out to be my saviour. It worked out for me that when I said ‘green’, I actually meant ‘blue’ and when I said ‘red’, I actually meant ‘white’ etc etc.

To prevent further filthy looks in the kitchen table direction, I tested the set up this time before finishing the plug off.

The extra fifth wire, not needed, is handing off to the left. The metal plug casing can be seen dangling further down the lead.

The female plug is fitted to my helmet with sewn and glued in velcro on the inside and a cable tie.

You need two radios to test it properly. I connected it, turned it on then transmitted with another radio to make sure it was receiving. Then I did the opposite and transmitted via the helmet to ensure my warbling was audible on the other radio. Remember to turn the volumes up loud or you’ll think you need to do the ‘hate stare’ thing again.

Now it was time to finish off the plug. The plug comes with a little guillotine style clamp to hold your multi - wire conduit lead thingy in place, so you don’t put pressure on the soldered joints. The lead was a bit on the slim side though and the clamp didn’t have the best purchase or grip on the lead, so I built it up with electrical tape.

This next shot shows the clamp in place.

To finish it off, I made it more robust and weather resistant with some heat shrink.

The large sized bit of heat shrink however wouldn’t shrink enough to fit tightly on the lead, so I had to finish it off with tape anyway!

So, the in helmet bit ends up looking something like this:

I haven’t yet put the back on the PTT button. I removed the little clamp used to attach it to clothing or similar when in use by others not on motorbikes. This gives a nice flat back to which I can attach (glue using Kwik Grip) some double sided velcro to, which fixes it into place inside the helmet on the right hand side at the front. Actually, put it on whatever side you want, I just prefer the right. I use my left hand to push the button to talk.

I use double sided velcro to secure the speaker. Speaking of speakers, you can run two in stereo if you want. Just piggyback wires of speaker number one and make the wires long enough to thread around to the other side of the helmet.

Our M2R Rev X 3 helmets have removable cheek pads which help hold the wires and boom mike in place, which is fed up towards the PTT button.

What I haven’t mentioned is the soldering. These are piss ant little wires we’re working with here and good eyesight and patience are both valuable.

Also valuable is some type of bench vise to use as a third hand to hold the item you’re soldering too. In practice, you need one hand to hold the soldering iron and one hand to direct the pissy little wire. I bodgily used a set of vice grips as my third hand. Not perfect, but I made it.

I’m not going to tell you how to solder stuff, if you have no idea, google it. I bet the net is full of soldering how - to.

You can buy accessories like the one I made from some bike shops. However we have tried them and Monty found that it failed quick smart. The PTT button died and when replaced under warranty, it died again in short order.

It might seem like a bit of work, but believe me, when they are built properly (take note Don) they are a revelation for any group.

Next in the wings is some type of bluetooth set up to get rid of the wires, but currently bluetooth is too battery hungry for practical use.

For info on GME products, get onto:

www.gme.net.au