Received my set Thursday last week and spent Friday and Saturday fitting them.
Had a problem with the right hand front mounting bolt as when trying to loosen it with the correct size hex key with an extension bar , the hex turned in the head of the bolt. The hex was a snug fit but I think with the Locktite and factory tightening it was just too much for the head.
Fortunately I had an ½ inch drive impact wrench which I had bought many years ago when working on 250 and 350 Honda’s and Yamaha’s. These motors had Phillips head aluminum screws that held motor casings and an impact wrench was the only way to loosen them (apart from a cold chisel on the edge and hammering in direction of loosening – okay if exposed but not possible in a recess).
After a flew blows on the impact wrench the bolt loosened and I was able to continue.
Put on the outer bars and tightened all up. Fitted and tightened the left side inner bar. Then came to right hand inner – no way that was going to fit. There was a hard plastic something that did not allow sufficient space for the threads to go into the hole in the main bar. So , loosened everything up , took out the back mounting rod and with much maneuvering managed to get the right inner to fit. Now the nut on the left side back mounting bolt would not engage so, took it and the spacer out and found a washer in the recess which I had not spotted when removing it originally. Took out the washer and it all came together . In between all of this , went to local hardware store for a washer under the nut to protect the powder coat
Sunday dawns and my wife and I off to a breakfast run with the club we belong to. It was her first breakfast run as she is not too happy with early mornings and this was a bit later. Arrived at the service station which was the meeting point and parked across a slight slope from left to right. Put down the side stand , turned the front wheel into the slope and tested the stability and seemed okay.
The time came to leave, my wife is quite short and was wearing her new leather riding pants which are quite tight and restrict her leg movement to mount. To overcome this , she climbed on first using my pegs and moved back onto her pegs and seat. I have an air bag jacket and the tether is attached to the right hand side bars of the back rack . They lie under her right leg and she normally just lifts her leg up to allow me to fasten the jacket. (Pause for ribald remarks) Unfortunately this time she decided to stand up which I couldn’t see as I am busy trying to attach the tether. On standing up she loses her balance and falls to the right in the direction of the down slope and – crunch - over we go. She ends up flat on her back away from the bike , I am on my hands and knees and the bike is on the bars and folded mirror having gone completely over much like the picture Ryan showed in his development thread. This , I think , is a combination of falling down the slope and with the weight of my wife taking past the tipping point
Fortunately only a few scratches on the bars , my wife laughing as she is imagining what it must look like to the rest of the club members and no injuries and me with a slight scratch on one hand but embarrassed and dented ego having done this in front of the club.
Members rush to help us up , I move the bike so its pointing up and a little across the slope from right to left and side stand down for stability
My wife insists I get on first so that I can attach the jacket , she starts to mount , slips as not used to the back bars and falls on her back again. Again members rush to help and with some assistance she is able to mount. Adrenaline pumping , she is quite amused by the whole episode as she always had had a dread of falling and now that it has happened and was not too bad, she has got that monkey off her back.
Something that I did notice when we were on the way was that the handle bars were buzzing more than normal. Was wondering whether this could have been the effect of the cages as this was the first ride after they had been fitted. However at our first stop when having a good look around the bike , I noticed that the plastic moulding at the back and top of the mirror where it had hit the ground had shifted out of position . On moving it about , it clipped back into position and the buzzing was back to normal. Not sure how this could be explained as the mirrors are quite remote from the bars.
Lesson learned. NEVER park across a slope from left to right no matter how inconvenient it may be.
Thanks to Ryan and his team from MC for a well engineered product that did exactly what it was designed to do and saved me from some potentially expensive repairs and replacement
Some suggestions on how to touch up the powder coating would be welcomed.
