HANDLEBARS! And the Storm Before the Calm

Now that the throttle is re-built, the first thing I wanted to do this week was get the new grip onto the throttle and fit the mirror on the right side of the handlebars.  Having done the left side of the handlebars already, I completed the right side relatively quickly.  I was so excited to have the handlebars done that I immediately took pictures.

And waved at the camera in some of them.

With the handlebars done the next step was to start taking off some of the pieces which will not be part of the bike when it is done.  I started with the back blinkers.  The wire which controls the blinkers unplugs under the seat and is pretty simple.  I also took off the back fender which will be modified to mount the new tail light and protect the new tail section.

While I was there I also removed the chain guard, which will also stay off of the bike.

I admit that I was concerned about how the bike would look without blinkers, or even the chain guard.  But seeing the bike without those items made it look much more sporty and streamlined.

The back blinkers were easy because they are simply bolted to the frame and I had removed them once before when I polished the back fender a couple of weeks ago.  The front blinkers were a totally different mess.

They are bolted onto a bracket which is in turn bolted to the frame of the bike.  We can't lose the bracket entirely because it also holds the headlight and the gauge cluster.  but we had to remove the bracket temporarily because the blinker wires run through the tubes making up the bracket and into the headlight.

For those of you who don't know, EVERYTHING is wired through the headlight.  If you take off the headlight, you see a whole spaghetti bowl of wires (not all of which are pictured below).

But I can't just start disconnecting wires because at some point I have to re-connect the wires (not including the blinkers).  So I made notes of the wires I disconnected for when I had to re-assemble.  Eventually the headlight came out and I unbolted the bracket.

Next we're going to cut the "U" portion of the bracket away from the bar going across the bottom (which used to hold the front blinkers).  Then we'll fabricate a new tab, like the one at the bottom  of the cross bar, which we will weld directly onto the "U" shaped portion.  That way we'll maintain the portion of the bracket which holds the headlight and gauge cluster, and still be able to bolt it back onto the frame, but we won't have the empty cross bar.

Here are the parts that came off today.  The blinkers and chain guard will stay off, but the headlight will go back on.

That chain guard is pretty beat up.

Since the headlight had to be removed anyway, I took the opportunity to re-paint the plastic casing which holds the headlight.  I will also sand blast and re-paint the bracket which holds the headlight and gauge cluster.  When it is done the whole front end should look clean and new.

Eric (correctly) noted that it may seem like we still have a mountain to climb, but he assures me that we are closer to complete than it seems.  Sometimes, things have to get messier before they can get clean.  Right now is the storm before calm.  The front end is disassembled and more parts are off the bike than have ever been before, but we're close to putting all those things back together, and when we do it will look better than ever.