Leonardo's Workshop aka The Bunker
Tonight Adam dropped by to help me work on Rosa. Our goal was simply to replace the ugly plastic stock handguards with Acerbis rally pro aluminum-reinforced handguards. This project required drilling a hole in the end of the throttle so that the expander (to which the Acerbis handguard attaches) can be inserted inside. Before proceeding with he handguards, we glued new gel grips on with shoe glue.
Things were progressing nicely until the cone shaped nut that fits in the end of the expander popped lose inside the handlebar and fell all the way to the central dip. We ended up having to take the handlebar off and tilting it sideways to get it out. Attaching the handguard and it's attachment clamp in the right orientation proved surprisingly time consuming.
I like having the radio of my car on while I work. About two hours into the job, I noticed the radio getting quieter and quieter. Damn. I dropped what I was doing and sprinted for the car. By the time I got the door open there was complete silence. I had completely drained my battery. Sue will need a boost before she goes anywhere.
Around this time Adam called it a night and I continued for a couple more hours on my own. I did manage to get both handguards installed, as seen in the picture on the right. However, there were unintended consequences. I now have "cruise control" on my bike. Normally, when you let go of the throttle, it snaps back to the off position. After installing the new handguard, the throttle stays fixed in the on position. You can roll on the throttle, let go of the grip, and the bike just keeps going at the same speed. Not the safest feature. I'm not sure what to do about it though.
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