Open Water Harley Diving OW-HD :
(MOD 60fsw)
First you have to deal with air for combustion.
Now a 95cubic inch engine sucks a lot of air. So I remove my saddle bags and strap-on 4 lp120s. Then you pump them up to 3500 psi & get about 740 of air. A custom built manifold hooks them all together. On this I have two Scubapro mk25s feeding the air intake system. Basically you have to replace the air filter/ input with a custom modified demand regulator and link this to the fuel-injection system. I would like a Octo for redundancy, but havent solved the reg switching issue. (salt water does strange things to fuel-injection systems).
I find using EAN40 allows me to lean out the air to fuel ratio & get more bottom time. Minutes per foot is more of a restriction than miles per gallon.
Now on beach dives traction is the key.
I swap out my normal street tires for some radical motocross rubber and take to the sand. I have to watch out for monofilament, especially under bridges, dont want to decapitate myself (think Steve McQueen/Great escape).
Now once I get to my site I have to leave the bike running to keep water from coming into the engine thru the exhaust pipes. I have a friend working on some one-way valves to let my exhaust out but keep sea-water out, but so far it only works to 25fsw.
So I put on my tank, ride the bike to the site, swim off & explore, then return to the bike & drive back to the beach. Simple huh?
But then there is boat diving
You can drive the bike off the back of most decent dive boats, but you sink like a rock. I have made special straps to put two sets of 80# wings on each tank. Another goes behind the sissybar. A small raft modified with a typical BC type inflator/deflator hose goes under the frame. (this does effect ground clearance substantially). Two more wings on each the front forks pretty much gives me all the lift I need.
Now you think watching newbies learn buoyancy control is funny? You should have seen me try to master 13 wings & the raft, and keep the harley horizontal.
Finally I rigged up some custom inflator devices and routed everything to the left handle bar. One button controls the 9 rear wings, one for the raft, and one each for each pair of the fork wings (gotta watch that roll). I am getting pretty good at it now (video to follow).
Why the left (think clutch) handlebar you ask? Once you master neutral buoyancy the wheels are useless as is the clutch & gearshift. Basically the exhaust coming out of the rear will propel you forward. You leave the bike in neutral & just use the throttle to control the amount of exhaust. Now this would not work on the models that have both exhaust on the right, but it works fine on my Road King.
My only remaining problem to solve is getting back on the boat. I have tried to talk a couple of Captains into putting a small crane on the stern to lift me back on board, but no takers so far. So for now I am limited to drop-off the boat & drive back to shore or hire 4 local bouncers to come with us & haul the bike back on the boat.. This limits how far off-shore I can go without getting into Advanced Open Water Harley Diving AOW-HD
Advanced Open Water Harley Diving - AOW-HD
(MOD 130fsw)
Pressure related gear:
Once you start going deep you have to address another whole set of issues. Things on the bike that have air in them start getting compressed at depth. So now you need a depth-sensitive pressure regulator to keep extra air in the gas tank, the battery and of course the tires. It also has to release this extra air on assent. This is fed by a small hp80 mounted on the front fender.
On deep dives I also throw a hp120 pony on the back of the sissybar. I would hate to lose the bike cause I didnt have enough air to drive back to the boat & inflate all those wings.
Other gear upgrades:
I also recommend replacing the headlight & running lights with new HID lights. Also since I rarely feel the need to change lanes under water, I take off the turn signals and install photographic strobes synced to the camera mounted right behind the windshield.
Yes, I leave the windshield on, otherwise when you drive into a current the pressure will press on your purge valve & free-flow your reg.
I also replace the speedometer with a good self-leveling compass and inertial guidance computer. If you are into spear fishing, you can mount a 6ft gun on each side. The back gets mounted to the saddle-bag guard and the front is attached to the engine guard. The trigger is within easy reach from the normal riding position, and with a little practice you can determine each guns trajectory & draw a targeting display on the windshield. Or if you have unlimited funds buy a surplus HUD (heads-up display).
And for those that always have to push the boundaries there is always the Extreme:
Do It Extreme Harley Diving - DIE-HD
(MOD-none)
Now if you really want to Do It Extreme, you have to add a side-car. This side car will also need a raft under it like the bike (see OW-HD). You fill the side-car with industrial size O2 & air tanks to run the engine. The simple 2 reg set-up from above is replaced by a auto-mixing regulator that feed the correct EAN mixture to the bike at whatever your depth. And no, you do not go with tri-mix, Harleys are immune to DCS.
Also include a lp120 with air as an Emergency Assent Bottle.
Now that you have moved your engine gas to the side car, you have all the saddlebag area to set up your various breathing mixtures. You can have as many types of travel gas, deep gas, deco gas, suit argon, etc as you can mount. Of course we are really getting into long hose situations here and there are some very specific ways all these hoses must be run if you want to Do It Extreme. But you will have to take the DIE Fundamentals class to get that information.
I always still keep a lp120 on my back with a at-depth mix so I can set my reef-hook and leave the bike idling, and explore a little.
Also make sure your deco bottles are slung so they can be removed easily. In case the Harley hits a OOA situation, you can fill the wings/rafts with air from the EAB and send the Harley to the surface while you remain at your required deco stop.
One favorite exercise for serious DIE divers is to replace the tips of the spear-gun with PETA approved dull barbless points, then chase down Great Whites, Hammerheads, Tigers, or some other real friendly shark, and give them a little shot.
Think of it as tag, your it.
Now, I am sure some guy with one of those other bikes is reading this & thinking I can make a DIE-(fill in make) out of my bike. Well forget about it. You will die, but still not be DIE. Besides, you will scare all the fish away. They dont like the sound of rice burners any more than I do.
Epilogue:
If there is anyone at all I have not offended, I truly apologize. Ill get to you in turn.
Remember, dont try this at home boys & girls
ut:
(MOD 60fsw)
First you have to deal with air for combustion.
Now a 95cubic inch engine sucks a lot of air. So I remove my saddle bags and strap-on 4 lp120s. Then you pump them up to 3500 psi & get about 740 of air. A custom built manifold hooks them all together. On this I have two Scubapro mk25s feeding the air intake system. Basically you have to replace the air filter/ input with a custom modified demand regulator and link this to the fuel-injection system. I would like a Octo for redundancy, but havent solved the reg switching issue. (salt water does strange things to fuel-injection systems).
I find using EAN40 allows me to lean out the air to fuel ratio & get more bottom time. Minutes per foot is more of a restriction than miles per gallon.
Now on beach dives traction is the key.
I swap out my normal street tires for some radical motocross rubber and take to the sand. I have to watch out for monofilament, especially under bridges, dont want to decapitate myself (think Steve McQueen/Great escape).
Now once I get to my site I have to leave the bike running to keep water from coming into the engine thru the exhaust pipes. I have a friend working on some one-way valves to let my exhaust out but keep sea-water out, but so far it only works to 25fsw.
So I put on my tank, ride the bike to the site, swim off & explore, then return to the bike & drive back to the beach. Simple huh?
But then there is boat diving
You can drive the bike off the back of most decent dive boats, but you sink like a rock. I have made special straps to put two sets of 80# wings on each tank. Another goes behind the sissybar. A small raft modified with a typical BC type inflator/deflator hose goes under the frame. (this does effect ground clearance substantially). Two more wings on each the front forks pretty much gives me all the lift I need.
Now you think watching newbies learn buoyancy control is funny? You should have seen me try to master 13 wings & the raft, and keep the harley horizontal.
Finally I rigged up some custom inflator devices and routed everything to the left handle bar. One button controls the 9 rear wings, one for the raft, and one each for each pair of the fork wings (gotta watch that roll). I am getting pretty good at it now (video to follow).
Why the left (think clutch) handlebar you ask? Once you master neutral buoyancy the wheels are useless as is the clutch & gearshift. Basically the exhaust coming out of the rear will propel you forward. You leave the bike in neutral & just use the throttle to control the amount of exhaust. Now this would not work on the models that have both exhaust on the right, but it works fine on my Road King.
My only remaining problem to solve is getting back on the boat. I have tried to talk a couple of Captains into putting a small crane on the stern to lift me back on board, but no takers so far. So for now I am limited to drop-off the boat & drive back to shore or hire 4 local bouncers to come with us & haul the bike back on the boat.. This limits how far off-shore I can go without getting into Advanced Open Water Harley Diving AOW-HD
Advanced Open Water Harley Diving - AOW-HD
(MOD 130fsw)
Pressure related gear:
Once you start going deep you have to address another whole set of issues. Things on the bike that have air in them start getting compressed at depth. So now you need a depth-sensitive pressure regulator to keep extra air in the gas tank, the battery and of course the tires. It also has to release this extra air on assent. This is fed by a small hp80 mounted on the front fender.
On deep dives I also throw a hp120 pony on the back of the sissybar. I would hate to lose the bike cause I didnt have enough air to drive back to the boat & inflate all those wings.
Other gear upgrades:
I also recommend replacing the headlight & running lights with new HID lights. Also since I rarely feel the need to change lanes under water, I take off the turn signals and install photographic strobes synced to the camera mounted right behind the windshield.
Yes, I leave the windshield on, otherwise when you drive into a current the pressure will press on your purge valve & free-flow your reg.
I also replace the speedometer with a good self-leveling compass and inertial guidance computer. If you are into spear fishing, you can mount a 6ft gun on each side. The back gets mounted to the saddle-bag guard and the front is attached to the engine guard. The trigger is within easy reach from the normal riding position, and with a little practice you can determine each guns trajectory & draw a targeting display on the windshield. Or if you have unlimited funds buy a surplus HUD (heads-up display).
And for those that always have to push the boundaries there is always the Extreme:
Do It Extreme Harley Diving - DIE-HD
(MOD-none)
Now if you really want to Do It Extreme, you have to add a side-car. This side car will also need a raft under it like the bike (see OW-HD). You fill the side-car with industrial size O2 & air tanks to run the engine. The simple 2 reg set-up from above is replaced by a auto-mixing regulator that feed the correct EAN mixture to the bike at whatever your depth. And no, you do not go with tri-mix, Harleys are immune to DCS.
Also include a lp120 with air as an Emergency Assent Bottle.
Now that you have moved your engine gas to the side car, you have all the saddlebag area to set up your various breathing mixtures. You can have as many types of travel gas, deep gas, deco gas, suit argon, etc as you can mount. Of course we are really getting into long hose situations here and there are some very specific ways all these hoses must be run if you want to Do It Extreme. But you will have to take the DIE Fundamentals class to get that information.
I always still keep a lp120 on my back with a at-depth mix so I can set my reef-hook and leave the bike idling, and explore a little.
Also make sure your deco bottles are slung so they can be removed easily. In case the Harley hits a OOA situation, you can fill the wings/rafts with air from the EAB and send the Harley to the surface while you remain at your required deco stop.
One favorite exercise for serious DIE divers is to replace the tips of the spear-gun with PETA approved dull barbless points, then chase down Great Whites, Hammerheads, Tigers, or some other real friendly shark, and give them a little shot.
Think of it as tag, your it.
Now, I am sure some guy with one of those other bikes is reading this & thinking I can make a DIE-(fill in make) out of my bike. Well forget about it. You will die, but still not be DIE. Besides, you will scare all the fish away. They dont like the sound of rice burners any more than I do.
Epilogue:
If there is anyone at all I have not offended, I truly apologize. Ill get to you in turn.
Remember, dont try this at home boys & girls
ut:
