Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Go Green with Asbestos Free

After a long search, I found such a good product to replace my brake pad. Asbestos free made from a carbon, make this pad very special. It claims that this pad is work great on a wet and dry condition, and stands the heat better than the stock. And something that makes me so curious about this pad is; it cost far lower than the stock, about half the price.

Let us prepare the tools needed to plug the pad into the braking system.

1. Big sized minus (-) screwdriver
2. 12mm socket
3. 5mm hex socket

Remove the two bolts that stick the caliper onto the shock absorber with 12mm socket.

Now remove the two bolts that hold the pad with 5mm hex.

After that, remove the pad. Now I tried to clean the pad and compare with the carbon pad. This is the original pad:

This is the carbon pad:

And this is the surface of both pad:

Left one is the stock and the right one is the carbon pad. As you can see the quality of the carbon pad is good enough.

The distributor offer a replacement if the pad washed-up before six month or 15,000km. And he claims that this pad is not abrasive.

After everything is setup, on later day I try it performance. Oh no, I can stop my scooter properly, my scooter can not stop! What happen, did this pad is bad or what? I check my disc brake, and I saw something weird. The pad isn’t full contacting with the disc; signed with a dark Grey mark on the disc surface.

OK, lets wait a couple of day and see it performance, is it going better or not. After a week, my braking system is improving, but it still lacks of braking power, I need more. I check again the disc surface, now I’m so amaze that this pad still isn’t full contacting!

I should wait a little longer and be patient with the road condition.

After a long wait (almost 3 weeks), the pad indicate its true performance. The braking system is good enough, better than the stock. I can use late braking without worries. And it’s true that after using 5 month, the disc is still in good shape and smooth condition. But the side effect of this pad is, it make the disc become a dark Grey not shiny.

Hybrid System

After successful migrating into full DC system, theres is something wrong with my scooter. The battery loosing its power slowly! I must do something quick to make the battery work like before.

I tried to count electricity consume by the lighting system.
6 bulb 3.4W
1 bulb 12W/12W (brake lamp)
2 bulb 18W/18W (head lamp)
The total when it on is 80.4W = 80.4W / 12V = 6.7Ampere

Ups, this is to much for the battery, I must migrating some of it back into AC system. The Head light is the biggest battery consume, so I must migrating it as soon as possible. But only the head light not the other, because the brake lamp and the rest is sharing one switch.

Cut on there and plug in here, etc. Finished with that, I turn the key on and switch on the light. First is the twilight lamp. Yes, it turn on without the engine have to turn on, and now the head lamp. Move the switch slider again, to make the head lamp turn on, but it won’t turn on. Now I turn the engine on, and yeah, the head lamp is on.

Horay… the hybrid system is worked…!!!

This is the result, after I’m using 6 luxeon on my scooter:

And this is the speed indicator:

Testing Pulsar 180 Dts-i

I don’t know exactly when I tested this motorcycle, may be at end year 2007; quite long indeed. This motorcycle is owned by my brother. He pick this motorcycle because this is the best motorcycle based on his criteria.
1. Fuel economic about 1:50
2. Low engine vibration compared to local Japanese brand in this country
3. Best value for his money compared to the others brand that has lower capacity engine.

Based on those criteria, he was chose this motorcycle (the back one)..

Ok, I don’t want to discuss much further about this. Let me test this motorcycle performance.

1. Handling, Steering and Stability
Pulsar 180 Dts-i handling is very good, its stability and accurate handling is just the answer if you like a touring bike. If we look on the wheel based then you will know that this bike is design for stability not for a fast cornering. But with a right handling skill, it shouldn’t be any problem.
The thank is big enough (15L), but the design is not good. It should be bigger near my leg, so my leg is more comfort.
Front shock absorber is soft and the rear too soft, I should adjust it based on my criteria.

I test it on a medium ‘till high RPM on the cornering; the bike is very good, I can push the bike until I touch the curb and get out as fast as I can. But there is something that bugs me; the tire grip isn’t good enough on cornering. I should be more careful on this tire performance.

2. Riding Position
Riding position on Pulsar is like a semi sport touring bike with a medium steering (not too low and not too high). Pulsar is offer enjoy of city ride. I can not sit on the seat a little backward, because it’s not comfort on there, I should sit forward near the thank. That’s the most comfort riding position.
The seat foam is thin, I can not sit a little bit longer with it.

3. Torque and Power
Turn the engine on, and I’m ready to roll. Shifting to gear one and open the throttle. Engine power distributing to the rear wheel is very smooth, and I think this 180cc engine torque shouldn’t be like this, it should serving me with more torque on first acceleration.
I almost forget, shifting to the gear one from the second gear is a little bit difficult if I compared to the other gear.
Open the throttle minimum 5000 RPM on every gear giving me the right power on the track. Fortunately I can only go about 60kmh; the track isn’t support for a top speed. But I’m pretty satisfied with the engine test result

4. Braking System
Front and rear braking system is good; I don’t need more effort to stop this motorcycle while I’m on fast mode. The bike stop just as I want.

That is my test result on Pulsar 180. I know this is quite late, because I’m kinda busy to start writing these days.

Oh, the pulsar engine vibration is increased on medium RPM, it seem that Bajaj should fix this a soon as possible because it disturbing me. I always using medium until high RPM, and I can feel it on the seat. But I think the vibration is not as high as Japanese brand.

Rubber steering is hurting my palm, the rubber design is like a 0.5mm needle on its surfaces; should wearing my glove.