Monthly Archives: November 2009

Who Needs A Fender Extender? (Update 08-Mar-10)

It’s that time of year again. This is the state of the rear of my bike when I got to the office yesterday after 100 miles of pissing rain and English roads. I have to remove my backpack from the topbox which involves getting wet and dirty hands. Not the best way to show up for a meeting whilst trying to maintain the image of year-round bikers as anything but idiots! (What do you mean we are?)

Dirty Box

The Triumph rear fender extender is about £8 so I bought one this morning. Interestingly the front fender extender (which is much smaller) is about £20! ???

Fitting

Easy. Three socket head screws and bolts straight on (once you’ve removed the number plate and drilled the holes in the plastic rear mudguard)

Before:

Fender Extender - Before

After:

Fender Extender - After

It looks a bit weird – but does a brilliant job of keeping the crap off the topbox.

Update: 8th March 2010

I have been on the lookout for a front extender since I wrote this blog in November 2009. You see them sometimes on eBay where the seller is selling a “Front Fender” but the photo shows the Triumph extender fitted.

As this is a £20 part, I’m happy to bid on these even if I don’t need the whole piece.

I’ve also blogged about motorcycle_recycle (eBay seller) before, as they supplied the 955i engine for my Sprint. Last week, one of these came up on their shop and I got it for the only bid of £7.99

Now I have to remove the four plastic pop rivets, find some replacements and fit to my Sprint.

So What Should I Do With These Wheels? (Updated 12-Apr-10)

Not a rhetorical question; I really don’t know what to do with these wheels!

When I bought my latest Sprint ST (the one that I dropped in a previous post), I was told that the previous owner had the wheel powder coated gold because he didn’t like the standard black colour scheme.

Here they are:

Gold Wheels: Front

Gold Wheels: Rear

Now don’t get me wrong – it’s a beautiful job, but gold? I don’t think so… more like dirty custard.

Options:
1. Put up with it (cheapest)
2. Swap black wheels from my old ST (wrong tyres)
3. Get them re-coated (off the road)
4. Buy some on eBay, get them coated in a proper gold.

Update 9th March 2010

This has taken a while but “all things come to those who wait – especially on eBay!

The front wheel came up first and I secured it for £30 – bargain!

The rear wheel was £90 but came with a part-worn Bridgestone 021; again a bargain in my view when they are £400-odd new and £200+ from most breakers.

A call to my mate Gary Beresford who has agreed to run them up on his machine to check integrity, bearings and rebalance. He will also fit a part-worn Bridgestone 021 front that I picked up from a mate (swapped for a bedside cabinet!)

Update 7th April 2010

I have fitted a BT020 front tyre as I prefer the older compound to the softer BT021.

Next I have to swap the front disks from my current bike and fit the wheels…

Update 12th April 2010

Here they are fitted:

Job done…      Next.