Tipover Bars saved my Ride

It was back in Octobaer 2015 when a FedEx delivery truck tried to occupy the same space as my C-10 in the office parking lot.

Luckily I had a set of RIVCO tipover bars from Murph's Kits protecting her.

You can see the damage from the bike as the FedEx truck pushed by bike along on its side for 5 or 6 feet.
The mirrors and other extremities were protected from serious damage by the tipover bars.

So now I have a project to get the mounts replaced or repaired.

As I got the bars off to inspect the mounts that day, I immediately reviewed my options to ge thte bars replaced.  Murph's Kits was my first stop to see if bars were in stock.  Since they were, I ordered a set to have on hand should they be needed.

My insepction revealed the mount was badly twisted but the bars on each side were intact with some abrasions.  Whew!  What great durability!

After contacting RIVCO's sales department with my story in January, they were so impressed that they found a spare parts kit for me.  And I was even able to meet them at the Chicago verison of the Progressive Motorcycle show to pick the kit up in person.I read now that Murph's is offering the tipover bar parts kit also.

Let's compare the original parts on the right with the replacements on the left.

  
The original mount 'S' piece is rather twisted by the force of the impact.  The collar on the bolt is squashed.  And the bolt itself is bent but did not break.

The mounting brackets are not straightforward to place.  You have to mount your mid fairing to get the clearance just right.  I chose to get blue Loctite on the bolts to keep them there.

And the undersides of each tipover bar were scuffed up, one side by the pavement, the other bar fought off the delivery truck.



A bit of engine touchup paint gave each of the bars a new finish.  Not as glossy as new bars but cleaned up.

Cleaning the Black Plastics with silicon Brake Fluid?

Hello,

It was a COG forum post that got me to try out this restoration of my black plastics.

http://forum.cog-online.org/index.php?topic=63983.msg514462#msg514462

So I thought I would try it myself.  I found this bottle at AutoZone for <$11.  Not cheap.  I had been using ArmorAll products before this so I knew how long/short that treatment would last.

So while I had my fairing off to be replaced I began to treat the black plastic parts of my bike.

I used a foam 'brush' to apply drops of the fluid to each piece.  And I mean, drops.  A few drops go a long way as you sweep it back and forth across the plastics.

Here are two YouTube videos of the product in action:
Brake Fluid luggage treatment 1
Brake Fluid luggage treatment 2

Here are still pictures showing this difference between treated and untreated parts.

 




And the dash needed a wipedown also .  First, the inside area was treated.  And then the top side was dealt with but only half of it.  There you can see the difference in color between the untreated and the treated side.



  

The side deflectors got the treatment also.  Drying time for all pieces is minimal but they don't actually dry to the touch.



Of course, 'your mileage may vary' is the phrase we say to consider how your own plastics will take to this process.

Adding Stiebl Dual Horn package with Wiring Harness

One of my Winter projects has been to update the noise capability of my 2001 C-10.

I had been reading about Air horns and the installation process seemed more involved than I cared to handle.

In October 2015, my cycle was knocked over in the parking lot at work.  Since I needed to take off the fairing in order to work on horns, this accident seemed like a good opportunity to get at them.  Once I stopped riding for the season on December 22nd, I put up the bike to work on fairing replacements and new horns.

First, I ordered a replacement Fairing from PartZilla.com.  A new upper fairing took two tries from Partzilla to ship one safely.  The first fairing came with a crack in the mirror area that I was needing to fix.  Oops!  Another visit from the UPS guy delivered a second fairing with expanding foam insulation protecting this shipment. 





Second, I ordered the Dual Horn package with the Wiring Harness.
Link to Dual Horn package

Picture from website

The horns came in one box without distinguishing which was the high tone and which was the low one.

Original package

The wiring harness came with one sheet of directions, one side for using two horns, the other side for three horn or four-horn hookups.  The wiring harness is well constructed with a good relay. I cut the harness halfway to the battery so I could remove the fairing using quick disconnect plugs.  Otherwise, you'd have to disconnect the wires from under the tank to the battery if you needed to pull the fairing and fairing stay.


Once I figured out myself that four-horns set up still used one original connection and the other connection was used with the wiring harness, the only other issue was how to mount all the horns.
I mean there are four 3-inch standoff steel arms that could be used by others bikes to hold the horns but I needed pipe hanger steel to hold the horns farther away inside the fairing stay.  The hanger holes were drilled out 1/8" to accommodate the larger OEM horn screws.




This is the view of the new horns in the OEM horn position.  They needed different washers for me to hold them in place because the horn mounting screw was shorter than the OEM horns. They fit right in the same holes as the other horns.


The noise of the four horns is definitely louder in volume.  I cannot tell the tonal change with the newer horns present.

There will always be a goofy driver who will wander if front of my bike that I will have to chase away with these Loud horns.  :-)