COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN

Replacing a 3.5mm Stereo Male Plug

You are on a tour, a few hundred miles from home. You park the bike in Anytown, USA, and are getting ready for a great breakfast. But, as you walk from the bike you hear the sound we all dread. Kerpluck! Your helmet has hit the floor. Of course - it has landed on the face shield as that is science. But, your custom earplugs, personalized at a hefty cost, have gotten caught in the tumble. There are now just bare and torn wires at the end and the 3.5mm plug of the, once awesome, custom earplugs still sit in the cradle … happily putting music to nowhere. As Robert Plant sang in Zeppelin’s Communication Breakdown… “Ooooohhh, SUCK!” And it does. So off you go to the local Staples, Walmart or whatever and buy a cheap set of earbuds, but you know that you are going to have to ship your ‘custom plugs’ back to the maker for a reconnection. Get your credit card ready. Or, do you? This scenario, or something close to it, has happened to us time and again. As careful as we try, we end up having a ‘communication breakdown’ every now and again. Let us tell you how to fix this at home. To start with you are going to need some specialized tools. You might think you can do this by hand, but your hands, as amazing as

they are (See October Jungle), are not precise enough for this job. So, gather the following as it will make this intricate job that much easier: Jumbo Helping Hands w/LED Light will securely hold both the three wires and the new 3.5mm plug in tiny alligator clips, freeing up your hands for everything else. We bought one from Harbor Freight for under ten bucks and it has a magnifying glass, LED lights, coiled solder pencil holder, and tray for a damp cleaning sponge. You ’ll need a soldering pencil with various tips – we found a wider and flatter tip worked better for this job. Buy good quality solder. Also gather small needle nose pliers, wire strippers and wire cutters (small), and a good set of magnifiers with a head strap – also found at local shops for around six bucks. These are a must – trust us! You can buy replacement 3.5mm stereo male plugs from various electrical stores or the internet. Buy a bundle of them as your first attempt might not be pretty or successful, but consider it the learning curve. You will get better, as you know you ’ll have to do this more than once. Before you begin practice your soldering skills. Have you ever soldered before? If not, or if you have but are questioning your skill – watch a few YouTube videos. They can not only offer helpful tips but save you time and show you how easy, with patience, this can be.

Begin by setting up all your tools for easy reach and then turn on your soldering pencil and let it get hot. While that is heating, strip off the insulation from the end of the wire to be attached. This will expose three sets of wires. In our headsets, they were red, green and a loose band of copper wires that was the ground. Although it makes no real difference which wire goes where (except if the guitar solo in your favorite song MUST be in the right ear), the important thing is the soldered connection must be small, clean, and not allow any of the three to touch the others.

To remove the insulation from the red and green wires use a tiny flame from a lighter or official Monkey with a Gun match, and just bring it to the tip of the wire. It will melt and flame… and immediately pull off the hot insulation with your fingertips. Yes – it is hot – we know. Toughen up, buttercup. With both wires now ready and soldering pencil hot it is time to make the connections. Oh, by the way, don’t touch the iron, no matter how tough you think you are. Before actually soldering them do not forget to put the wire through the end cap, as you will not be able to do this after the connections are made. Also, we wanted to make this connection a bit more durable by adding some shrink tubing as well. So, run the wire through the shrink tubing (large enough to go around the end cap’s base) and then the cap and then continue. Tin the wire lightly with solder and bring them through to the attachment points. Let’s say red to the middle and green to the side. Keep wires apart and heat the connection, not the

solder. After a few seconds put the solder to the wire and let it flow around the wire and connecting point. Do not over solder and then repeat to the other connection. The copper ground wires can be twisted a bit more cleanly and slipped into the center grounding connection and then soldered securely. You will see tabs that can be closed with pliers to hold the grounding wire in place. Before you cap it, might be a good idea to cut slices of black electrical tape and slide them between the connections to ensure they do not touch. Screw on the cap securely and then slip the shrink tubing up and over the end of the cap to about half-way, if possible double up a small bit of the wires and slip that into the shrink tubing as well to create a bit of slack inside that can help the wires from getting yanked apart when, not if, you have the next headset incident. Then use a heat gun or hairdryer to let it shrink and wrap tightly around where the wire runs through the 3.5mm plug. Let it all cool for a few minutes and plug it in. If all went well your headsets should be better than new, as we were looking to make these connections as permanent as possible, not breakable as possible. Now, rock on… Zeppelin, please!

CANCELLED AIMExpo issued the following statement from Cinnamon Kernes, vice president and general manager, MIC Events: “We have made the difficult decision to postpone the 2021 AIMExpo, the industry ’s annual trade show, and while this wasn’t an easy choice it is certainly the right one. “With local directives limiting gathering size, travel restrictions, and a myriad of other obstacles created by the pandemic, there are too many unknown factors limiting our ability to create a safe environment that will also deliver the experience and ROI our exhibitors and attendees expect. We do not want to deliver a show that doesn’t live up to their high standards. Also impacting our decision to postpone are the dealers working to rebuild their businesses after suffering devastating damage from fires, hurricanes, and floods that have hit both the East and West Coasts. “There is tremendous value in face-to-face meetings and in-person events and we believe in their ability to create irreplaceable opportunities to connect with people and businesses to drive commerce. The AIMExpo team will continue to work with key industry partners, including Tucker Powersports, to explore options that deliver relevant and important educational content for dealer attendees in 2021. Likewise, the team will be looking for opportunities to connect the powersports brands through quality networking events later this year. We look forward to bringing AIMExpo back in 2022 and will celebrate the industry of powersports and everyone that makes it great. ”

PerForMance uPgrade

Continued from Page 34 At some point, late in the day, a wave of frustration washed over me. Ken was on the radio telling me I had missed the apex again. How can I tell where the apex of the corner is, if I can’t see the end of it? And then it clicked. Find the exit first and the apex becomes readily apparent. It was like the fog had lifted. Going through the next few corners I nailed the apex and had a good line coming out. Soon though, fatigue set in and I fell back into my old habits. By the end of the day we had logged 150 miles and I was both exhausted and excited. I don’t know as I was ever “riding in the zone” for more than a few minutes, but at the end of the day, I felt more confident than before. Ken’s aim with Riding in the Zone is to share his knowledge with as many people as he can. He hopes those who learn from him will spread the word of motorcycle skill development. His website contains a wealth of information for all things related to riding better. His webinars are another incredible resource. At the end of the day, Ken handed me a memory stick with several video files of our day, complete with his commentary. The videos are from Ken’s point of view and I can watch myself making mistakes and then slowly improve as the day goes on. I’ ve been riding for forty years and thought I was a good rider. Ken showed me what good riding is really all about. My bike still has the stock exhaust system, stock tuning and stock suspension but my performance? Definitely Upgraded.

www.ridinginthezone.com • www.tonystrackdays.com