Bar-Ends and Top Caps

I've picked up some toys for the SR from Vanem:

Fork Top Caps



Bar End Weights



And inside the packet:



A little allen key - a nice touch. Even more surprisingly, it didn't round the screws when I installed them. I'm guessing the smaller rubber is for bars with a smaller ID. Buggered if I know how to install them correctly, but I just screwed them in and that seemed to work. I'm guessing the screws squish up the rubber which expands to hold the inside of the clipon. Seems to work...



I took the bike out for a 4-odd hour run up to Flowerdale/Yea/Broadford today and the weights have made a difference. Not a whole world of change but they've certainly taken the sting out of the vibration. I think the feel would be greatly improved with some thicker grips.

The top caps just pushed in. I've seen a fair few top caps that are were heavily rusted. Next chance I get I'm going to pull the caps and put a bit of oil/grease down there to prevent this happening in the years to come. I think it makes a huge, huge difference to the look. So much so it's got me rethinking the gauges again. Ha.



For something so easy to install, there's a hell of a lot of instruction.



Maybe there's something important in there?

As a sidenote, today I was seeing how long I can last on the bike before getting some real pain, and about three hours into it I felt a stab in my upper left shoulder. This has been happening for the last year or so I've owned the bike. Before then I was doing 10-12 hours without too much pain. So I'm going to have a play and maybe try something closer to the standard seating position. Having a Cafe racer is great... but it'd be even better if I could ride the thing!