Tuesday 6 November 2012

Getting a Grip on These Bike Thingys

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I'd gotten a package from Cruiser Customising with a bunch of pretty shiny bike thingys for me to play with. One was the mirrors and that was the first thing that I put on the bike, I did it first because I figured it would be the easiest to do ... hahahahaha!! They went on before the trip to Canberra, and at Geurie (bout 25km) I had to stop and get out the wrench to tighten one of them. I had been afraid to tightened them too much when I first put them on, I soon learned that they need to be tight or the minute you get over 60km/h they start to wobble round.

Well after that seemingly simple task ended up being a bit of an ongoing job I was a little worried about putting on the grips.


One of the big warnings on the instruction leaflet that came with them was about not gluing up your throttle. I could see this becoming a worry. So I put it off. Then this week I have some time off work. I'd been planning to paint the kitchen, something I've been going to do for about a year or so but never gotten around to cause the ceiling is just so big, but then I hurt my shoulder and to tell the truth I just couldn't be bothered painting the ceiling this week anyway. I put on my new grips instead!!

New mirror with the old grip.

I Youtubed an instruction thingy which stated that it could be done in under 8 minutes, yeah right they've never dealt with me before.

After psyching myself up for a while I went out to the bike armed with a screwdriver, WD40 and a wrench. Lets do this!! Got the end of the clutch side off without damaging anything, then stuck the screwdriver under the rubber of the old grip easy enough. Spray that WD40 and then ...



















......... give it a couple of twists and that old grip just slid straight off. 


I was feeling pretty proud of myself by now, all this had taken me maybe 2 minutes ... wow. I had to go brag to Terry. He then came out while I was getting the end off the throttle side ... oops.

For some reason the chrome endy bit of the throttle side was actually glued to the throttle sleeve and when I tried to twist that endy bit off it snapped the end off the throttle sleeve. Eeek, it's only a little bit of plastic that doesn't seem to do anything except make you break something when you pull the end off the standard grip, so I just kept going with the hopes that things would continue to work.

I got the glue out ready to get this job finished!! The little tube of glue was hard as a rock, they gave me two little tubes of glue, I found the other tube and it was hard too. This wasn't looking too promising. What is this stuff, they keep calling it superglue on the youtube thingy, but it didn't look like it was straight out superglue. Just as Terry proudly placed the superglue he'd managed to find in our kitchen draw, onto the bench, I decided not to use superglue. It was still soft and everything. I was having visions of trying to get a grip back off because it had only gone on halfway cause the superglue had dried before I could get it all the way on the bar. Nope I wasn't going to go blindly here, I turned to the Internet.

I found nothing that said what glue to use anywhere, oh comeon this has to be a basic fact that lots of people need to know!! Right, I was feeling a bit stumped when I couldn't find my answer with Google, Google has never failed me before. Then I had a flash of inspiration ... I would call the bike shop!! I called them and they told me to use grip glue, they have tons of it, I could come down and get a tube wheneva I liked. Me and Gizmo jumped into the car (she likes visiting the bike shop cause it's somewhere that lets her in) and went got glue!!

So now for the scary part, I put glue on the bar and slid the grip on. I was worried that the glue would be pushed along the bar when I pushed the grip on and then pool near the switch housing, not such an issue with the clutch side but on the throttle side... I don't know why I worried, it didn't do anything bad. And I put the throttle side on without a hic-up and the throttle even still moves and everything. Looks awesome too.


6 comments:

  1. Looking good. Nice job getting the grips replaced. Sounds like more fun than painting a kitchen.

    We have found hairspray works in place of grip glue. Slippery to slide the new grips on and dries sticky to hold them there.

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    1. Yeah the guy at the bike shop said spray paint too .. I was having visions of over-spraying half the chrome bright red ... yeah no I dont think so, little tubes are so much easier to control :D

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  2. It does look great. So many riders like to customize their bikes. I never felt that urge and my lack of mechanical ability accounts for that. Plus, if I tried it would be an anxious struggle. Nice nail-polish, btw!

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    1. Anxiety seems to be a part of most things I do with the bike, althought that's getter better since things are starting to get easier.

      Glad you like the nail polish, the only time I get to wear it is when I'm not working .. it has to come off next week :(

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  3. Brenda:

    I like how you are teasing us with your RED polished nails. You seem like a neat painter, you would have no problems painting your kitchen but I agree, much better to work on your bike instead.

    Then you mentioned over spraying your chrome with Bright, RED paint. You must like RED.

    You did a great job with those Grips. They look nice, but are they too slippery when riding ? My grips are like a rubber compound.

    As for your mirrors, just go slower than 60 kmH and they won't wobble

    bob
    Riding the Wet Coast
    My Flickr // My YouTube


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    1. Yeah I am showing a slight tendency towards the color red in the last couple of posts arent I ... do I now mention that the new tiles in my kitchen are red too ... hmmm really my favourite color is green!!

      The grips aren't in the slightest slippery, the black bits are soft rubber, similar to the stuff the standard ones are made out of but more squishy. Very comfy to ride with and they are thicker than the standard ones which is a lot easier to grip too.

      Do under 60km/hr oh that's a great idea Bob .... hahahahahahaha .. no! :-D

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