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Keep at it, Lid, and soon enough you'll have it looking the way you want.

 

The forks on my '92 (and, I think all 3rd Gen) do not have a even finish. The area facing the wheel is rougher, especially around the bosses for the caliber & mudguard. I used steel wool (#0000) and scotchbrite (can't remember what grade) and went for a 'satin' finish.  Note that the legs on my '92 still had the drain plugs which were eliminated later on.

 

Btw, the passenger bars on both my '91 & '92 3rd gens were plain alloy, no paint or clear coat.

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On 7/19/2019 at 5:40 PM, JZH said:

I was thinking, "wow, that looks fantastic".  And then I realised it wasn't your bike... :sad:

 

Ciao,

 

JZH

 

Uh huh. Well, Lorne's bike looks fantastic anyway. 🙂 I'll edit that photo caption to make doubly sure he gets the credit. 

 

(Ed. Done...I mean I edited the photo caption, see entry above)

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On 7/19/2019 at 11:56 PM, Lorne said:

Keep at it, Lid, and soon enough you'll have it looking the way you want.

 

The forks on my '92 (and, I think all 3rd Gen) do not have a even finish. The area facing the wheel is rougher, especially around the bosses for the caliber & mudguard. I used steel wool (#0000) and scotchbrite (can't remember what grade) and went for a 'satin' finish.  Note that the legs on my '92 still had the drain plugs which were eliminated later on.

 

Btw, the passenger bars on both my '91 & '92 3rd gens were plain alloy, no paint or clear coat.

 

Satin finish is my goal too, on both the forks and exhaust. Pretty much like yours, which is also close to factory original I think. Steel wool, Scotchbrite. These I have. I have some Magic Erasers to try as well. I'll go back when I find some more elbow grease...something always in short supply around this house.

 

On the exhaust especially I'm polishing to a finer finish than I actually want, but on a badly prepared surface. So the shine must be coming out brighter where the little scratches are not. And the result is blotchy. (I think?). So I gotta go back and add more uniform little scratches all over. Ack. That seems so counterproductive...

 

I had noticed the forks were cast(?) to varying grades of smoothness. By now, it probably would not come as a surprise to anybody in here that I don't know much about machining. Maybe original castings are all rough, and Showa then polishes only the parts that it um, polishes. Yes, the bits around the bosses are rougher than the more visible bits. (New word for me: boss. I had to look it up https://www.diecastingdesign.org/bosses) I'm definitely not worried about smoothing out parts I'll never see. I hadn't even noticed drain plugs, or not. I'll look next time I'm in there.

 

...and I'm purposefully avoiding all those acres of fairing plastic. That will be the biggest job of all...but I'm on it. Thanks for keeping me on track.

 

🙂

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Seat Cover, part 2

 

Okay…on to the seat cover. I should say, back to the seat cover. The seat that came on the bike is original I think. The vinyl has the standard pebbly finish. 

 

IMG_1887.jpg.5b9f4d5e68c01fcd2eb3db92f5cd783d.jpg

 

IMG_1886.jpg.935f3968ecd87be2c4c647a7e325e667.jpg

 

 

On the underside, one of the previous owners stapled in a rubber patch. It’s more or less…but not exactly…over the battery box. It’s not obvious to me why it’s there. Was PO worried about a short to the positive lead through the plastic seat pan? If anybody knows what it might be for, please let me know...

 

(Ed. According to JZH that patch is OEM, but I still don't know why it's there...)

 

InkedIMG_1886_LI.jpg.e6c8fd2f7ec0ebec6da45315e2a2dd8d.jpg

 

 

Anyway, the overall condition of the seat maintains the generally shabby standard of so many of the cosmetic bits on the bike. It’s not terminal, well, yeah, I guess it’s terminal. Several small tears on the tail make any repair pretty much impossible I think. 

 

IMG_1855.jpg.d45ad24ec9787d4f49008f27d142cab0.jpg

 

If only I could reposition the cover an inch or so to the back, I could restaple it beyond the undamaged areas. That seems unlikely. Anyway, recovering a seat will be yet another new adventure for me, like so many of these little tasks.

 

A while ago I had picked up a nice, sticky Aldi trunk liner for a few euros to try as a seat cover (see entry Sept 12, 2018, above). I liked the texture of it but after closer consideration, decided it really may not be all that well suited for a seat cover. The problem is that it turns out to be kindof fragile stuff. You’d think a trunk liner would be sturdy, right? But if I bash it a bit, even with something relatively soft like cardboard, I can damage it. Yeah. Too bad. A careless swing of a boot will scuff the top layer. I think this material would last all of about a month as a seat cover.

 

The vinyl I was really looking for is something like Slip-Not Griptex. I see lots of custom seats using similar materials. My CBR came with a beautiful custom seat made with something like this material. I got used to it. Sticky. I can get a swatch of that for about $35. It’s used on boats. This seems like a good choice to me.  https://www.seattlefabrics.com/54-Bumpy-Slip-NOT-Grip-Fabric-2195-linear-yard_p_169.html

 

For my seat cover experiments, the cost is a little steep. The shipping and handling really kill that deal… ($16.46 for the material, $18.20 s&h) It comes from Seattle. If only I lived in Seattle… No matter.

 

There’s at least one guy on Ebay making inexpensive, pre-cut seat covers. He seems to get good reviews. This will probably be my choice after I screw up doing it myself.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/HONDA-VFR750F-Interceptor-750-Seat-Cover-VFR750-1990-1991-1992-1993-BLACK/382386101278?fits=Year%3A1992|Make%3AHonda&hash=item5907fcdc1e:g:cOkAAOSwndZaazLr

 

The material he uses is standard marine grade vinyl. Good stuff, and easy enough to come by at any fabric shop. A swatch here costs 8 bucks. More than enough material for an attempt. Right. So what’s the problem with that? Well, sticky it ain’t. It’s pretty much the opposite of sticky. Slippery. This material is designed for use on boat cushions, like the griptex, Don’t boat cushions get wet? I can see this being treacherous as ice when wet. Riding the bike in the rain will be an extra adventure.

 

So where does that leave me? I’m thinking of trying the trunk liner material first. No, wait. I’m thinking about doin' nuthin first. That’s always first. And I’m thinking of gently stretching the present cover second. Does 25 year old seat vinyl stretch? The trunk liner experiment would probably be third. Then, even if that cover only lasts a short while, at least I’ll be better practiced for an attempt with marine vinyl from the EBay guy. Lastly, I’ll spring for the griptex and be happy.

 

I have to try the electric stapler anyway on the seat pan. The tutorials say ½ inch staples are long enough but even so, an electric stapler usually doesn’t have quite the power necessary to get the suckers all the way into the plastic. There must be 100 staples in the seat. That’s a lot of stapling that has to be tidy. The tutorials say that you really need a pneumatic stapler for the job. Yup. Nope. I have a basic electric one. Okay.

 

And what about extra padding while I'm in there... Whew. One more thing. Last year I thought I'd try modifying the seat foam too. I have a few scraps of closed-cell padding laying around that would do the job. And even more scraps of open cell foam. The seat comfort could always be improved but I wouldn't even know how to begin customizing it. I'm not going to make random changes just for the hell of it. I'd be better off stuffing the back of my riding pants with foam and seeing how that works. By now I've grown accustomed to the original seat padding. I get achy after a 200 mile ride but it's tolerable.

 

I’m using this link as a tutorial: http://diymotorcycleseat.com/

 

(Ed. Nope. Gone. As of 10/2019 this is a dead link. Rats. You might try a search using similar terms. Maybe it'll reappear under another address)

 

(Ed. Yup! It's back! Thanks to DannoXYZ. The diy pages are on the Internet Archive. I hadn't thought to look there... https://web.archive.org/web/20120115195023/http://www.diymotorcycleseat.com/index.php )

 

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When I bought my VF, the seat was clarty (good Scottish word that :tongue:) so bought a cheap and cheerful staple gun and an aftermarket cover.

 

IMAG2743-640x362.jpg

 

IMAG2742-768x1358.jpg

 

 

 

It took some figuring out and the odd removal and re-staple, but 4 years and 30,000km on she is holding up brilliantly.

 

 

IMG_20190626_142214.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

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On 7/22/2019 at 4:05 AM, Dutchy said:

When I bought my VF, the seat was clarty (good Scottish word that :tongue:) so bought a cheap and cheerful staple gun and an aftermarket cover.

 

Clarty. Another new word for me. My vocabulary is really expanding in here... I'll have to use it in a sentence before I forget.

 

Yes, your seat cover looks great... So, a couple questions if you don't mind.

 

Do these things come only pre-cut, or are they also pre-formed? I mean are you only getting a flat piece of vinyl in the outline of your seat pan, or are you getting a three dimensional cover that fits like a slipper? The EBay seat covers appear to be cut and sewn in three sections. But I can't see why that would be helpful unless all the edges just slipped into place, ready for stapling...

 

And, yours also looks smooth like the marine grade vinyl. I don't suppose you've found that particularly slick when wet? (that's a question) Or maybe it doesn't rain much in your part of Holland. 😉

 

As an aside, what's the BEVER lanyard for, hanging from your exhaust system?

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Seat Cover, part 3

 

So, in a moment of inspiration, I skipped right on past the do-nothing stage of seat repair and went right to the seat-stretching option.

 

First off, I found out that, No the old seat covers don't stretch. But they don't tear easily either. Also the fabric is really thin.

 

Here's what I started with. Lots of staples...

IMG_1890.jpg.9fe8f51b02c8e6efe43e991a46fab0fe.jpg

 

I pulled it back to the first um, boss(?) Clarty underneath... 🙂 You can see all the holes I need to hide.

 

IMG_1891.jpg.e1cc9decad1a0492ebc63374d0c3e97a.jpg

 

IMG_1892.jpg.a546d5391418fbe393548ceee1f79cf3.jpg

 

Even though the fabric didn't stretch, I was able to pull it tighter to reposition the tears, dragging them under the edge of the pan. I thought it would rip out right away, but it didn't. I used a lot of staples. Probably three temporary staples for every one that made the final cut. I doubt it'll last, but for the moment it's better.

 

IMG_1895.jpg.ed1e2e0a1c29412692c3386be067f8fc.jpg

 

IMG_1894.jpg.c06af34a9f30130c5d51704df7343770.jpg

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Good job LID!!!  A real Dutch trait; not spending money unless you MUST!! :goofy:

(they did tell you the meaning of the word lid in Dutch?  Lid means "member": in both meanings of the word..... :tongue:)

 

AFAIK, the seatcover did come somewhat shaped, but still required the help of a heat gun to help matters along.

 

The strap in combination with the ABBA stand, wrapped around the swingarm, keeps the front wheel of the ground so I can take the wheel out. 

 

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Looks swish.  :wink:

 

The rubber on the bottom of the seat is OEM. 

 

How are your plastic tabs?  The ones at the front that hold the front wings against the tank.  It looks like yours are still there, but it's hard to tell from the pics.  Mine broke off many, many years ago, so I fashioned some steel replacement tabs and pop riveted them to the seat.  Honda actually made a repair kit for them.  I'll see if I can find a pic...

 

Sorry, no can do.  As it is a repair kit, it may not appear in the Parts Microfiche, unfortunately.  I saw it (them, I think there were different LHS and RHS) on some French OEM parts outlet website several years ago.  So, not much help, but at least you know they exist, lol!

 

Ciao,

 

JZH

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On 7/22/2019 at 10:37 AM, Dutchy said:

(they did tell you the meaning of the word lid in Dutch?  Lid means "member": in both meanings of the word..... :tongue:)

 

(Ed. For purposes of context, my original user name was LID. Apparently it has several meanings in Dutch. So I changed it.)

 

Wait. Is that true? Nah… Really? No. Nononono. Sonofabitch. No. I mean, yes, I knew it meant 'member'. As in, ‘I'm a member of the group now’. That’s why I picked it. But not the other thing. It can’t. Nooooo. It just can’t be right. I remember the day I signed up, I asked my Dutch friend Marieke if I could take it as a user name. I just needed something short and easy. She said she thought it was perfect for me. Heeeeeey. Goddammit! You people are all evil! Very funny. Now I have to change it.

 

Hey Admin, how do you change user names around here? How about Clarty? Is that one taken? 😉
 

 

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On 7/22/2019 at 2:05 PM, JZH said:

Looks swish.  :wink:

 

 

Swish... Yet another new word for my glossary. I’m thinking from context, this is British for the opposite of clarty. Or is that from LA? At this particular moment I’m a little skeptical of unverified definitions…

 

On 7/22/2019 at 2:05 PM, JZH said:

The rubber on the bottom of the seat is OEM. 

The rubber pad on the seat is OEM? Well, what’s it for? Is there something under it that I should know about? It looks pretty tacky for OEM anything. Does it have a part number?

 

As for the front tabs, believe or not, those are intact. Not in the greatest shape, but there they are, still doing the job after all these years. Considering that most of the things that could’ve broken off this bike probably did break off at some point, I’m a little surprised to know these things are delicate. 

 

Lucky me. 🙂
 

 

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:goofy:

Lid is not used in an offensive way like "lul" is. A bit like when the body part is referred to as "male member"...

 

But then again, there is a male member of Parliament who is a cock..... :tongue: soon a premier cock....

 

 

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Well done on your seat repair. Fingers' crossed that it lasts a good long while.

 

Btw, you have some options for seat colour; I know that 3rd gen came with black, grey, and red seats depending on which market. May well be other choices, too. For example, here's a pic of my '92 with the grey seat from my '91. plain alloy passenger bars as well.

 

large.5a04ca43b41f0_1992VFR750Victoria.jpg.ff19e0ca6987de5a65768ade922db78c.jpg

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On 7/23/2019 at 1:58 AM, Dutchy said:

:goofy:

Lid is not used in an offensive way like "lul" is. A bit like when the body part is referred to as "male member"...

Too late. Too late. I am now GebruikerNotLID  (...the user formerly known as LID...) After a while I'll change to Gebruiker if it is available.  Turns out, changing a user name is pretty easy. ThankYou Admin.

 

(Ed. Done. Changed again. I will be Gebruiker. I double checked. It has no hidden meaning)

 

BTW, did you know Boris was born in NYC? That means he is eligible to be our president too. When he is done with the UK.

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On 7/23/2019 at 3:17 AM, Lorne said:

Btw, you have some options for seat colour; I know that 3rd gen came with black, grey, and red seats depending on which market.

 

As usual, you raise the possibility of good options. Your bike looks terrific with the gray seat and aluminum grab rails. I'll consider that color for a re-cover. I have a hard time imagining these possibilities. The matching gray slash decal on the rear plastic is OEM I think(?) That also helps make the tail section look sleeker.

 

I'm on it. A good thing about having lots of little rebuilding jobs...I can keep bouncing from one to another and still make progress.

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Fake RAM holder.

 

I got a RAM-type holder for my phone and/or voltmeter. They were on Ebay. Or maybe Amazon. Inexpensive. Less than $10. It looked okay online, and in real life it is just like the picture. But I haven't tried it yet.

 

Triumph Tiger 800 Motorcycle | Compare Prices on dealsan.com

 

The real RAM ball mounts are 1 inch diameter. This cheapo one, less than half that. Also, the mounting hardware is plastic. You get two mounts. One mount is designed for a normal round pipe, like the handlebar on a bicycle. The second mount is for any convenient bolt head. Neither of the two mounting options were well suited for anything I could spot within my field of view on the VFR. So I took a few minutes to make my own stem mount.

 

My general idea was to create an anchor in the stem by squeezing a rubber bit when tightening a bolt. So I poached a stopper from an Erlenmeyer flask...

 

IMG_1917c.jpg.0bc59ff86d6672047176ba870dc860cd.jpg

 


...drilled a hole through it...

 

IMG_1918c.jpg.6d80c405857cddf3587480ab03ac0e35.jpg

 

 

...and came up with this assembled part.

 

IMG_1919.JPG.ec720a3d3e507c89c3aaa5b4595efecb.JPG

 

 

And here it is on the bike...

 

IMG_1928.JPG.4c91a1196588536b6aaf738b3929a4ad.JPG

 

I haven’t quite thought it through. The viewing angle still can't be adjusted as I'd like. Plus, I don’t know yet if it’ll jiggle too much. JZH warns me that can be a problem, even on proper factory stem mounts. They work their way loose. It's doubtful this little one will hold up. I’ll give it a shot next ride. I’ll also attach a safety lanyard to make sure my phone doesn’t end up bouncing down the road without me.
 

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3 hours ago, GebruikerNotLID said:

The matching gray slash decal on the rear plastic is OEM I think(?) That also helps make the tail section look sleeker.

Yes, that is part of the original graphics on my '92. You can see both version in my post at the bottom of page-1 in this thread.

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On 7/23/2019 at 6:48 PM, Lorne said:

Yes, that is part of the original graphics on my '92

 

Thanks, yes. You covered the purple stripe with red decaling. That line makes a difference. These kinds of details really set the bike apart. 

 

BTW, I took a breath and went back to the exhaust canister with some 0000 steel wool and a scotchbrite pad, as you suggested also for the fork sliders. This is a hard thing for me to do...purposefully scuff up the shiny metal. I had left it blotchy after trying to polish it. The shiny parts were shiny, but I couldn't polish out the blemishes. It looked like this...

 

IMG_1802.jpg.a802e77f4ddb34cdffa32def8b3385a5.jpg

 

 

But after just five minutes of light scouring, it turned into this...

 

IMG_1929.JPG.74c159683b8508d237b176001923bab7.JPG

 

 

It's not great, but the pits and blotches are gone. 0000 steel wool is the finest grade available I think. But I'm not sure of the next step. Maybe the smaller scratches will now come out if I take another whack with the polishing pad. Stay tuned. 

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Headlight upgrade

 

I changed over the headlight bulbs to the standard 65 watt Philips bulbs I’d picked up cheap. Yet another job that turned out to be way more of a pain than I anticipated.

 

I’d been advised by JZH, among others, about the adaptations necessary for this little job. You take a new, regular headlight bulb, bend back the lower tabs, and insert a 2 inch wire behind them; a nail will do. The bulb will then fit into the old VFR sockets…not perfectly but close enough. Millions of VFR owners have done this without difficulty. I had plenty of difficulty. Fortunately, this job was reversible. 

 

Without removing the entire instrument cluster, or the clip ons, you can’t see very well in where you’re working. You can’t reach very well either. I tried from above and from below. Above was marginally easier. I kept shoving my phone in and taking pics to get an idea of whattheheck I was doing. And through it all I wore vinyl gloves to keep my greasy fingerprints off any glass bits.

 

For starters I couldn’t even get the old bulbs out. The plugs were on there really tight. Really tight. I was expecting some resistance in the form of rust because I had little reason to believe these had not been on there for 27 years. Because they wouldn't budge, I thought maybe there was a squeeze tab on the plug but they looked original from my phone pictures and the originals just push/pull. So after jiggling a while, I sprayed WD40 into the contacts to loosen them up. Then I jiggled some more. That did the trick. The plugs came off. Done. The boots just slip off. Easy. And then the bulb itself comes out after releasing a clip. 

 

thumbnail.thumb.jpg.15f05b280ef761f8acd211e2c6069b84.jpg

(JZH caption)

 

At this point things were going middling okay. The old bulbs appeared good as new. I don’t know what I was expecting, but not good as new. These are 27 years old? I carefully set them aside. One of my better ideas of the day.

 

IMG_1984.jpg.af10abcfcc9f4a50bda1e43ef884e9c3.jpg

(That's the old bulb on the left. New bulb with nail mod on right.)


The boots themselves are both a little melted I think.

 

InkedIMG_1991_LIa.jpg.d3310cb8ff914a243b7ba73550c37677.jpg

 

I don’t know if that deformation is normal after all this time or if they were extra hot at some point. It’s not something to worry about, right?

 

Moving along, my newly adapted Philips bulbs didn’t fit as easily as I’d hoped. I blindly jiggled but couldn’t get them to set properly, or the clip to latch properly. The idea is simple. The upper tab will find its place in its tab slot, the lower tabs (bent out of the way) would not interfere with anything since they were, you know, bent out of the way, and the clip will hold everything more or less securely. The apparent downside of this arrangement is the new lights don’t aim perfectly. Something I could live with. 

 

I got the bulbs in, sortof. At least I managed to get the locking clips on by feel, and I put the boots and plugs back in…then I tested. They worked, but something was seriously out of alignment. So I went back in and took another picture of the back of the bulbs. It’s blurry but… 

 

InkedIMG_1993a_LI.jpg.5084291a6b92ba127aceee909914a8f8.jpg

 

…sure enough, that's not right. I was hoping the installation would be foolproof. Maybe for everybody else who has ever tried it. For me, at least one bulb had got clipped into place at a pretty extreme angle. Like 20 degrees or so from true.

 

So I opened up the clip again, realigned the bulb and, get this, jiggled the nail out of place! And then it fell into the lens. No foolin.

 

Nobody had mentioned this possibility before. I may be the first person in human history to do this. Grrrr. By chance I have this little flashlight thing with a gooseneck and a magnet on the end of the light. 

 

IMG_2016.jpg.2632f8a0636a417a13162e44ef3f61ce.jpg

 

 

I think I got it for christmas a while back. How many times is a tool like this really necessary in your life? For me, this was the first time. But it actually worked. I fished the nail back out of the lens with the magnet. That much was good luck. Without this little flashlight, I’d have had to turn the whole motorcycle upside down to shake the nail out. Ain't nuthin like the right tool for the job.

 

And yet, as you see, things really were no longer going so well. Plus it was getting hot in the garage.

 

I then decided I didn’t even need the nail. The bulb would be held in place okay with just the clip ring. In it went again, this time right side up. Continuing along according to instruction, I had used silicone grease on the connectors, not Oxgard. Sorry Oxgard fans. I tested again. The new lights worked again, but still not quite. They were still out of alignment…or something.


So I unplugged again, debooted again, and took the things out yet again. This time the other bulb, not the troublemaker bulb, came out looking like this…

 

IMG_2017.jpg.e7c8921e9487d1befe2a09f4e5d0763d.jpg

 

Damn. What is this? Seriously? This is the brand new Philips bulb with maybe 20 seconds of burn time, all milky. If I hadn’t worn gloves, I’d thought I got a smudge on the glass that burned. Even with gloves, it is maybe possible I got silicon grease on it. It could’ve happened. I guess. Do grease smudges burn so fast?

 

I asked a engineer friend who had a better explanation. According to him, halogen lamps are normally filled with low-pressure argon. If a leak develops, some oxygen from the air gets into the glass envelope. That oxidizes the filament and the newly formed white tungsten oxide coats the inside of the glass. I was gentle with the bulbs. Was it defective? It’s under warranty. Let’s see if Philips replaces it for me. I won't hold my breath.

 

(Ed update. I could've held my breath. Philips sent me a new bulb FedEx. I thought they might just send some kind of coupon code for a free bulb at the local partsmart. Way to go Philips)

 

By now I just wanted to finish up. I put the original bulb back in that side. I didn’t have a spare anyway. And then, to be consistent, I popped out the other new 65 watt bulb and put the other original one back…leaving me as I had started, except disgusted that in this 20 minute job I failed completely after more than two hours.

 

I’ll rethink the whole thing once I clear my head. If/when I get better access to that space, I’ll probably try again. At least it'll go smoother next time. How many more mistakes can I make? 

 

 

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Grip glue

 

My left grip is loose. It spins when I ride. I'm probably holding too tight anyway. I think I heard somewhere along the line that you should be gentle but firm with your hands when you ride. Maybe that was in a different context. We won't go there. No matter. The grip spins. Of course, the bar end keeps it from sliding off so it's just a small nuisance.

 

I know there is real grip glue available. I don't have that. I've heard the hair spray solution. I tried once and that didn't work for me. I do have this stuff. 

 

IMG_2050.jpg.05930aa782dcf50a129789c42354a7e7.jpg

 

 

I tried it last year. It worked for a while...a year...so I'm giving it another shot.

 

Since the grip is already loose, it comes off easily without the bar end in place. The old shoe goo is rubbery. Curiously, it doesn't stick to the inside of the rubber of the grip, only to the metal, which looked like this...

 

IMG_2048.jpg.c6372548123b3951cb7d68c1de3711f8.jpg

 

But since the glue remains rubbery, it peels off the metal easily. And doesn't leave a residue. Nice.

 

IMG_2049.jpg.79567b91952b4cd8fd820b06d5240d89.jpg

 

I wiped both surfaces with alcohol just because it seemed a good idea, and then slobbered on another dose of shoe goo. I'm thinking one problem is that as you slide the grip back in place, it more or less slides most of the glue up and off. I bet 75% of the glue is wasted. But this would happen with any glue, and as you see, the old glue did cover pretty much the whole surface. I twisted the grip too, to smear the glue inside, like plumbers do when joining pvc pipe. I'm giving it 24 hours to sit. Let's see if it holds better this time. 

 

 

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You failed to take the opportunity to fit a set of heated grips......  :goofy:

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On 8/5/2019 at 4:34 PM, Dutchy said:

You failed to take the opportunity to fit a set of heated grips......  :goofy:

Surely, you must have a general idea by now of the vague intersection between my economic viability and my mechanical prowess. Heated grips? I’d be getting the $5 Chinese set, which I would almost certainly botch up at installation. Please! I can’t even get the damn glue to stick!

 

Happily I’ve never tried heated grips so I don’t know what I’m missing. I do have a repurposed Lidl 12v car seat heater that I use as a heated vest on cold days. Not only has it not caught fire on me, or even shorted out, but it works surprisingly well to keep my whole body warm. I just couldn’t deal with too much of a good thing. Please don’t tempt me with your fancy luxury ideas. 😁😒


 

 

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Fake RAM mount update. (re 23 July, above)

 

IMG_1974a.JPG.97baeacbd1448e273f4c89df8a8e728d.JPG

 


It works okay, at least for my voltmeter. As expected, JZH is vindicated. It did wobble some. I purposefully went over a few bumpy patches. These are easy enough to find in Connecticut, and I even got the unit to swing completely sideways from all the shaking. I don’t think there was any chance of it actually bouncing completely out of the stem but the design could stand improvement. I haven’t tried it with my much heavier phone yet.

 

I also found this thing in the cellar. It is clarty(!) so I'll have to clean it up some. Can anybody identify it? I mean, does anybody know its intended purpose?
 

IMG_2077.jpg.ffea45a4de23c47cd9d685c9152e144e.jpg

 

It looks to be some kind of plumbing thing. The wide end is threaded internally for a hose maybe. The small end has no thread but there is that external screw on the side that you can see. That would bite down on a pipe inserted from that end. But I doubt that end could be made waterproof. Anyway, I’m just wondering what it was for, in case anybody asks me. I'm thinking of adapting it for the homemade stem mount.

 

It’s about the right diameter for the stem, and raises the voltmeter platform another 2 inches (5cm). I almost always ride with a tank bag so that makes the sightline better than before. Plus it has the benefit of clearing the key better, so I don’t have to twist the mount out the way to get under it as I do with the present design. If I tidy it up one of these days, I’ll take a better picture. 

 

IMG_2079.JPG.89efc8a701b57d717f81b79c999179ce.JPG

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Headlight upgrade, continued

 

Philips says they’ll send me a new bulb for free. (see note above) So apparently they honor their warranties. Yay Philips.

 

I also see these now on EBay. 

 

401599728_Screenshot(17).thumb.png.89d7e649e78e9102e55bc9ded4b82b5e.png

 


From the advertising pictures, It looks like they are bright enough to light up a football field.

 

JZH has taken pains to explain to me how anything but the genuine Honda bulbs just won’t work right behind the factory lens. (Re thread beginning Sept 20 2018) Generic H4s kindof don't work because the bulb gets tilted in the fitting, causing alignment problems. But these LEDs would not only get tilted, they seem to have the light emitters in an entirely different place. Look at the photograph. They're side to side, left and right, when they should be top and bottom. I think.

 

Anyhow, I know some of you have tried the expensive LED lights with the external electronics/transformers/cooling. And you’ve had good results. Has anybody tried these yet? In case the Philips bulbs never work out...
 

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The only concern with the ones you point out is no cooling.

I've bought these:

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Nighteye-72W-9000LM-H4-HB2-LED-Headlight-Kit-Hi-Lo-Beam-Globe-Bulbs-6500K-White/252920366279?epid=6026513713&hash=item3ae33a84c7:g:noAAAOSwwvtb08nX&frcectupt=true

And I'm very happy with them.

They dont shine the light forwards, but back towards the reflector.

They also have a cooling fan and fit the 5G.

Light output is high, and low beam cut off is the same as stock bulbs.

High beams are much much better.

I do wish they wern't so white, I prefer around 4000K which is still white but I can't seem to find them.

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