Another (cheap'n'gnarsty?) De-dumboing

[enzed_viffer]

After munce of research, fretting (and not on my guitar), conniving and planning, I finally removed my front confirminators. Yes, the huge and dangerously protruding DumboEars / Madonna ConeBras / Orange Boobies have been consigned to the depths of my tool cupboard (about 10cm, coz it's pretty shallow).

My criteria for the operation were as follows:

1. They had to be less protrusive
   
2. They had to be cheap
   
3. The mod had to be reversible
   
4. The had to not cost too much
   
5. I needed at least partial (grudging) approval from the WifeAccountantPorcupinePillionist.
   
6. Preferably, they needed to be clear.
   

I had several possible candidates, viz:

• Vespa ET4 / ET8 confirminators
  
• Toyota Echo/Yaris side blinker-thingies
  
• TGB 303 scooter front confirminators
  
• Some "LED indicators made by Oxford that are just right, and only NZ$35 each".
  

These were all ruled out, one-by-one. The Vespinators were a good fit and look, but the price was misquoted: they were NZ$42 each, not $22.

The Toymotor blinker-thingies were too small, too expensive ($59 each!) and had "Toymotor" deeply embossed on them.

The TGB indicators were beautiful, but mounting them was problematic, and they were $55 each - a gross rip-off, given they were made in China and the scooter only costs marginally more than that.

The "perfect LED indicators" from Oxford looked like putting irons, and were totally unsuitable.

Then I found some on TardMe (or is it "TradeMe"?) that were OK, and only NZ$42 / ~US$29.48 - (turns out I could've gone direct to the shop, and bought them for NZ$35/pair). So, I bought them, and travelled direct to the shop (about 22 miles return), and picked them up, to save $5 postage.

How to mount? Hmmmm.... I was going to buy some ABS (or scrounge some from a wrecker) and paint it to match the fairings, but (however) the paint is a two-parter: silver/blue then blue/purplish/clear, and despite 40 minutes of mixing and feeedling, the paint supplies guys decided I would be better off not painting them, and sent me on my way, paintless.

The wreckers had no plastic, but the dumpster next door had several cut-up car bumpers, so I grabbed part of one (about 10 times the size I needed). This seemed to be made of some rubbery, flexible plastic about 3 or 4mm thick, painted silver (SILVER!) on one side.

I made a template by doing a pencil rubbing of the confirminatorectomied fairing, and cut the bumper plastic very roughly to size with my teeth, before grinding it on the bench grinder and removing a few mm of thickness on the edges using the buffer wheel. By buffing an inch or two till it melted/abraded off, then scraping the effluvium with my thumbnail, I eventually got these to fit quite tightly. When I was finished, I cleaned and sharpened my teeth on the buffer.

The shiny silver blanking plates looked like shiny silver poo, and so I decided to take the Paint Guys' advice and make them black.

Ish.

I had no suitable black paint, so I cut some.... ahem.... faux carbon fibre film (sorry, Trace :rolleyes: ) to size, scraped all the silver paint off, stuck the film on, and used the heat gun to smoothey it down. I drilled a hole at the pointy end coinciding with the hole where the locating tab thingie (tech term) of the boobinators goes, and put a stainless-steel screw through it, with a washer and nut behind the fairing.

The new confirminators have a large (30mm?) stalk behind, with a plastic nut on it. I used this and a scrap of car bumper behind each plate to hold it in place.

Viola! (A small musical implement).

Wotchoothinkonit? The WifeAccountantPorcupinePillionist hates them, and thinks they're dangerously small (probably right), but at least the bike looks better/slimmer from front on, and they are less likely to trash the fairing if the bike decides to lie down for a wee snooze.

Before:

After:

[Guest]

looking goood do u have a close up from the side

[turtlecreek]

that looks great. i thought you were referring to the big orange reflectors on the fender (mine is 6th gen, yours doesn't seem to have it)

[Guest vfrrider]

Again, my usual $.02 (or less) worth.

Best method, elimination. May I suggest:

Mirror turn signals

Not what I am personally using, (this time), but better than what I've seen.

Larry

VFRrider

[Veefer800Canuck]

Ian, those look just like my Lockhart-Phillips flushmount IV signals, size large.

Are they about 4" longish? And slightly curved?

LP flushmount.jpg

[enzed_viffer]

that looks great. i thought you were referring to the big orange reflectors on the fender (mine is 6th gen, yours doesn't seem to have it)

I was going to say the bikes here don't have those, but I believe some of the VFRs from the last couple of years do.

Stupid ugly things those are! If they had been on my bike when I bought it, they would've been the first things to go.

[enzed_viffer]

Best method, elimination. May I suggest:

Mirror turn signals

I would've liked to do that, but they were too expensive. The shop I bought the confirminators from had mirrors like those, but they were (IIRC) NZ$150, so they were about $100 more than I wanted to spend.

Ian, those look just like my Lockhart-Phillips flushmount IV signals, size large.

Are they about 4" longish? And slightly curved?

Yes.

That's what I thought when I bought them, but they came from the UK, and look suspiciously like a Chinese knock-off of the LP ones.

[enzed_viffer]

looking goood do u have a close up from the side

I deliberately kept back a bit, so you couldn't see too much detail... :salesman:

And so Trace couldn't see the faux carbon fibre.... :rolleyes:

EDIT: But then I relented, and went and took one, just for you:

These are currently illegal, despite the 'E' certification/marking, as they are not visible up to 45-degrees from the opposite side at the front.

But SO WHAT!!

It's also illegal having my brakelight flasher fitted.

Or a non-OEM fitment zorst.

Or modifying one's supension without obtaining compliance certification.

And did I mention the illegality of riding at 100km/h in a 50 km/h zone?

And lanesplitting.

And undertaking cars.

And riding on the footpath.

And accelerating excessively?

Sustained loss of traction?

Having the front tyre off the road's surface?

Failing to indicate when changing lanes?

Apart from "sustained loss of traction", I've committed all these crimes today.

[SEBSPEED]

Looks great Ian, especially with the TwistyDragon to ward off any idjits that may not see your left signal from 45 degrees to the right.

[enzed_viffer]

Looks great Ian, especially with the TwistyDragon to ward off any idjits that may not see your left signal from 45 degrees to the right.

Thankyou, Sir.

And thanks once again for the TwistyDragon. And the cush rubbers, nuts'n'bolts, etc. :thumbsup:

[SEBSPEED]

Looks great Ian, especially with the TwistyDragon to ward off any idjits that may not see your left signal from 45 degrees to the right.

Thankyou, Sir.

And thanks once again for the TwistyDragon. And the cush rubbers, nuts'n'bolts, etc. :thumbsup:

Anytime, sir! Now, I need to get to your pair-o-pair plates... :joystick:

[Trace]

ARGHHHHHH....my EYES.....MY EYYYYYEEEEESSSS!! Phake, phony, faux carbon fibre!! You should have used wood grain!!

Howver (but!!) I'm so very pleased to see that you've finally de-Dumboed after all these years and years and years and years that we've discussed this slimming of the 5th Gen's OrangeBooby nose. I do believe that you've tried every possible winkilight available in NZ, chasing down various Vespas and other vehicles with possible donor organs!!

Too bad your paint matching efforts didn't wurk. But (however!) I toldja so, many, many, many, many, many years ago when I tried to getcha to buy that blue seat cowl I found for you in Canada. <_<

I just got done swapping my Dumbo blanking plates from my old orginal fairing to my new fairing, due to my bike deciding to take a horizontal snooze some weeks ago, and me with it. I slept longer than the bike, apparently, according to Sondance.

Dumbo Ear blanking plates

De-Dumboed

[enzed_viffer]

ARGHHHHHH....my EYES.....MY EYYYYYEEEEESSSS!! Phake, phony, faux carbon fibre!! You should have used wood grain!!

Sorry, Dr Trace. My bad.

Too bad your paint matching efforts didn't wurk.

I was really impressed with the amount of effort the paint matching guys went to. They could've matched it almost perfectly, IF I hadn't been a CheapAssBastid and been willing to fork out for the two (2) cans of paint at NZ$33 each. They were trying very hard to bypass the two-part paint required and come up with a New! Improved! one-part paint. The first guy tried it by mixing up the Part 1 Paint and mixing in the Part 2 Paint. Guy #2 just looked at what the paint looked like on the bike, and came VERY close to matching it. I would've been willing to accept that, but being Professional Paint Mixing Dudes, they wouldn't have none of that.

Professional Paint Supplies Distribution Truck Driver Dude took me to one side afterwards, and told me to go to Professional Bike Repair and Painting Genius Dude just around the corner, and said he'd be certain to fix it, but then this passed thru my head momentarily: $$$$$$$ and so I went to work instead.

Now that I've finally Done the Deed, I feel somewhat deflated, especially after the WifeAccountantPorcupinePillionist told me how crappy my streamlined new confirminators looked, and how I was BOUND TO get run over because of them being so streamlined and modern-looking, instead of all protruding and urglee.

I guess that's because instead of car drivers going, "GAaaahhhh!! Flee! Run away! RUN AWAY!!" and fleeing or running/driving away, they'll be so busy going, "What the...." that they'll crash into me instead.

[Trace]

"What the...." that they'll crash into me instead.

Huh? What??? You mean they'll just crash into you and that's it? Just a simple crash, with no additional calamities, chaos, horror, pain and suffering...and then more pain and suffering?

We'll have none of that! We need to hear the REAL story of what will happen with your new confirminators distract and attract the other motorists......

[vfrcapn]

Again, my usual $.02 (or less) worth.

Best method, elimination. May I suggest:

Mirror turn signals

Not what I am personally using, (this time), but better than what I've seen.

Larry

VFRrider

Are any of these mirrors going to mount to a 5th gen at the right angle? The F4/F4i maybe?

Enzed, nice job! Had planned the same thing for this weekend but got sidetracked on other projects.

[Rivcyko]

These are currently illegal, despite the 'E' certification/marking, as they are not visible up to 45-degrees from the opposite side at the front.

But SO WHAT!!

It's also illegal having my brakelight flasher fitted.

Or a non-OEM fitment zorst.

Or modifying one's supension without obtaining compliance certification.

And did I mention the illegality of riding at 100km/h in a 50 km/h zone?

And lanesplitting.

And undertaking cars.

And riding on the footpath.

And accelerating excessively?

Sustained loss of traction?

Having the front tyre off the road's surface?

Failing to indicate when changing lanes?

Apart from "sustained loss of traction", I've committed all these crimes today. wheel.gif

.....And that fake C.F. is a sin. LOL. (Sorry. .02). Other than that, they look sweet!!!

[enzed_viffer]

.....And that fake C.F. is a sin. LOL. (Sorry. .02). Other than that, they look sweet!!!

Yeah, I know.

I really didn't want to use it, but I tried the blanking plates first all shiny and silvery, and they looked worse than sinful. And I just *knew* that if I went and bought some paint, it'd end up flaking off or summat and that the extra drag would cause me to crash, the bike would explode into flames, pain, suffering, death doom and destruction, then 12 millions of years in Hell while Satan napalmed my arse and cooked marshmallows or economists over the flames. :o

I dunno. I *think* they're an improvement, but I'm not sure. I'm still trying to work out how to satisfy the BureaucraticSafetyNazis' EvilAndNefariousRules'N'Regulations without spending too much money or making the VifFerraRi look Urglee again. :idea3:

It would all be much easier if money wasn't an issue. Huh... spent $195 on a silvery bauble for the WifeAccountantPorcupinePillionist yesterday. She was delighted.

And she's discovered the evil seductiveness of TardMe auctions, and has put all sorts of expensive baubles on my watchlist.

It'd be nice to have a helmet that doesn't make my head hurt. But after test-driving an Eos a couple of weeks ago, and the arthritis steadily getting worse, I have a feeling that it'll be bye-bye Peugeot (hers) and VifFerraRi (ours) and hello Eos (in black, rather than blue, and with 18" alloys rather than 17", as a sop to me having to sell our bike to buy our car....

But first comes spending $x0,000 on a holiday to Urp. Next April or May, apparently....

[Rivcyko]

LOL. OK, you got me. LOL. Flat black, rattle can is cheap, though. LOL.

[SEBSPEED]

I have a feeling that it'll be bye-bye Peugeot (hers) and VifFerraRi (ours) and hello Eos (in black, rather than blue, and with 18" alloys rather than 17", as a sop to me having to sell our bike to buy our car....

WHAT??!?? The Eos is nice, but not that nice!! You better start putting something in her bedtime beverages so you can hypnotize her into driving a Festiva while you trick out the bike... :P