RST (again), Bar blues and -1 degrees C…

So you would think after yesterday’s joyous day that today would be more of the same…oh dear, how naive can I be.

This morning started off with a wee look outside…frost. Long Johns and thermal top methinks! I get to try my new bars out today and my cutting edge smart as you like mirrors.

Well all I can say is thank goodness I didn’t opt for the professional fit, because it would have been £100 wasted. I can’t use the mirrors. They are not very good at anything other than looking great. You cannot adjust them in any way on the move. You have to stop and get the allen keys out. This means that once you are finished adjusting them to what you think is the right position, you get going only to find that you are actually looking at the ground behind you or at the top of the buildings…

So disappointment #1.

Then the bars. They are just too low. It’s like trying to steer a boat. The bar’s are so wide and low that there is little or no leverage possible. Imagine the position you assume when you are about to hug someone. Now take the arms from that, merge it with a sitting position and lean forward till you are 45 degrees over. That is the position of my new bars. Very uncomfortable and not very useful, especially going through traffic.

I actually got peeped at tonight for some reason…the bars are getting the blame.

Tonight was torrential rain. It also happened to be freezing. So take big rain drops, cool them down to just above freezing point, then fire them at someone at 80mph and you will witness what I was going through tonight. Not only that, but because my bars are so low, the rain collected on my sleeve and ran inside my Gore-Tex gloves, rendering the unbeatable Gore-Tex layer useless in seconds. Then my supposedly waterproof RST touring gear began leaking within 5 miles of leaving the office.

I put faith in this upper market RST gear and it was a stupid, school boy error. I have had so many RST items over the past year and they have all failed in one way or another…so I think the time has come to write a wee letter to RST and get some explaining done…keep your eyes peeled for that one!! HA

Anyway, I have tonight ordered some “Superbike” bars and some new mirrors which are standard jobbies…you can’t beat the old fashioned type..

I’ll post pics of those up when I get them.

Thanks for looking and I’ve added the Kawasaki ER5 & ER6 owners club to the links at the right. Check it out if you get the chance!

Gordon

The smell of victory (and £100 in my back pocket…)

HELLO!

I start writing this with 2 things. The first is a very sore head. The second is an overwhelming sense of achievement; I fitted my new handle bars myself (and with Blair and Em’s help)

After thinking about it and checking out some “how-to’s” I thought, I’m not spending £70-£100 on getting someone else to do it if I can…so off I went.

It was pretty nerve wracking as it was Sunday afternoon…if I mucked it up it was going to be an early rise to get the bus to work.

I worked at a steady pace and did everything systematically, placing every piece removed in a certain way as to know what way to put it back again. And it worked!

After about an hour we had the new bars on, complete with controls and throttle etc.

The grips were a pain to get on and I nearly pulled all my muscles in my chest with trying to twist the grip on! But again, we got there in the end!

The mirrors went on and to be honest, I wasnt really that impressed. You have to get the angle of them just right, or it means removing the mirror stock, unscrewing the grub screw and untightening the bar lock to get the cap off to rotate it round. After a short time I thought I had got it all nice and exactly where I wanted them to.

So I headed off to bed with a great sense of achievement and £70-£100 remaining in my bank!

Here are some pictures of the finished article!

I’ll let you know what they are like tomorrow!!

Long way for a short cut

This weeks commute has been tough. Extremely windy and often wet.

Yesterday when travelling to work in the morning, it was quite windy. I left quite early and made good time up until the bridge. When I got there the traffic was stopped. I had no idea why, but assumed it must have been an accident. There was a roadworks lorry blocking off both lanes and going really slow, so all the cars had lined up in the right hand lane. I went tootling along the left, until I reached the lorry. I still couldn’t see anything and by this time a number of bikers had joined me at the front.

“What’s going on?” one asked me…”I think it’s a heavy load?” I replied, but he mustn’t have heard me cause he just shrugged.

The Lorry started to speed up and I eventually made out another roadworks lorry just up ahead. As we got closer I could still see nothing. It was only once I was past the 2nd lorry I could see what the problem was:

Either a big lorry had lost it’s roof, or a cover had blown off the maintenance bogey on the bridge…either way it was a massive piece of tarpaulin spread across the left hand lane of the bridge, stretching out over to the passenger walkway! Someone will be in trouble, that’s for sure.

Today though was a really bad one. The bridge was closed to everything but cars…So I had to go the Kincardine bridge which added an extra hour and 20 minutes on to my journey.

But the thing that frustrated me most was when I got to the Barnton junction, only to see a fecking Fife bus sitting there. The bridge must have opened! Great.

Never mind!

Wee box, massively cool

Hello ya’all.

I came home today to a wee box this time. With OBERON written on it. Almost immediately I got excited. My bar end mirrors are here!

They are tiny, have a wee bit of weight and are beautifully made. Seamless springs to mind. I got them in black and i’m so glad I did, sharp curves match the jet black of the bars and they work beautifully. Couple that with the black and red grips, I think this will be a great addition to the bike, the final addition for a wee while.

So here’s some photos!

These mirrors have a great handmade feel to them, but also feel extremely precise and clinical. Really nice!

It took a wee while to figure out how they actually attach to the bar, and after the first attempt they were really loose….hmmm

But then I tried a few more ways and they are snug as a bug. I also phoned Scott Murray today to enquire about how much it would be for them to fit my bars, grips, mirrors and crash bungs and they said around £70 for the bars, but it all depends on if the throttle and clutch cables actually reach to the new positions…another £30 if they need to fabricate any cables.

That’s another £100, but if it means that I get them done properly then fair enough.

I’ve contacted Stuart Jackson in a hope that he can do it cheaper.

That’s all for tonight, and I’ll leave with this:

The Nelson Rigg tank bag was used today and it was perfect. No problems at all, it was extremely windy tonight and slightly wet, so it got the full Scottish breakfast of weathers and performed perfectly. Mega buy.

Cheerio

Gordon

Deal of the century #2

I forgot to say! In my post “First Group Ride” we went to Cupar Suzuki to buy gloves. Fair enough you say. But not just any gloves, Alpinestars Jet Road Gore-Tex gloves.

£59.99

EH?

Really comfy, ultra warm and really cool looking!

Another great buy!!

Thanks again!

Gordon