Inspired by some of the Mod Monsters on here and their incredible build and mod threads I have taken it upon myself to share my own experience of modifying my FireBlade with you, my peers. Here is the story of...The day Ken changed his windscreen...... It was an early start, and, as a keen believer in the 6 P's methodology I spent half an hour or so selecting all the tools I believed I would recquire in my task. The break down of the existing unit recquired the removal of 7 screws in a Phillips or Pozidriv configuration. I'm never sure which is which. Here is an example of the first of the screws. Once all the screws had been removed, the nose cone and windscreen looked like this. Hardly recognisable, is it? This presented me with an unexpected problem. The plastic beneath the removed screws was dirty from 9 years of grime infiltration and my cleaning OCD would not let me proceed without addressing the issue. Fortunately, an old friend was right there to help out.
Once the fairing was nice and clean I could proceed, teasing the retaining rubber sleeved nuts from the fairing brace and pulling the old windscreen free. It was then that the inevitable occurred. Undaunted by my injury I prepared the new screen, an MRA Double Bubble from BikeHPS for insertion. First comparing it's profile with the standard unit. Only one problem occurred to me while nipping the new retaining nuts in place. The central screw sits about an inch below the top edge of the instrument cluster and the gap was too small for fingers. Luckily, I had some spring loaded tweezers, £1 for a straight nosed and an offset nosed pair at the Bike South West show two years ago. Yes, that's two for a pound, people. With the offset ones I could hold the nut in place and go and get another coffee without fear of having to take the whole nose of the bike apart to retrieve it when I inevitably dropped it. It was at this point that I had quite a shock. The new screws were neither Phillips nor Pozidriv. They were, in fact Allen headed. Yes.....I had to fetch another tool from the garage. From this point on reassembly was quite straight forward. A welcome development after the trying 30 minutes I had already spent on this massive mod, and I was cheered once I reach the edge trim fitting stage.
The Edge trim is locked off by two metal, sprung clips that are crimped onto the ends with pliers. From experience, realising that as the last part of the job remaining this would be the equivalent of inviting Mr cock-up for the weekend. So I bottled out and fetched a flannel from the bathroom. (Note to self: bin flannel before Mrs Ken comes home) One more job before road test. The instructions state that the front brake reservoir must be no closer than 20mm from the screen. Bloody hell! Will this to and fro-ing to the garage never end!!! Now I need a 10mm spanner and a ruler! Et Voila! the finished mod. If it wasn't for the road test to come I could have easily retired to my bed. Was it really 45 minutes ago that, fresh faced and eager I took on this herculean task? It just doesn't bear thinking about.
Now for the payoff. Was it worth it? I can honestly say that this is the best £70 I've spent on the bike so far. I'm only 5' 8" but the buffeting off the standard screen is really unsettling at anywhere near motorway speeds, and I can feel it pulling my helmet strap tight as it lifts my lid in quite an alarming fashion. With the MRA screen at exactly 59 mph on a national speed limit designated single carriage way and at exactly 69 mph on the motorway, the only buffet I can feel is on the sleeves of my leathers and that's sitting upright. I felt no need to even try and tuck down behind it. The fit was perfect. Once I'd got the nuts that go through the nose cone brace into position ( a tight fit without disassembling the whole front) all of the screw holes matched up perfectly. I used the optional Pro Bolt fixing as, despite being in excellent condition, extracting the original Honda ones would surely have knackered them. I've hmmed and haad about which windscreen to try and have been disappointed when trying other bikes with DB's as they haven't felt that different than the standard one, but for me, at least, the MRA one is spot on.
Yeah, so I've just been told. I'm looking into it as we speak. Odd thing is they're showing in Firefox on this machine but not on my other Firefox PC and not on my iPad. I'm trying out Postimage.org but I might have a look at photobucket. Can't make out why they're showing on this one though.
you last post with pics I tried to edit. I copied the links and they work on another page I had open but when I went to add into here they did not show up. Why not try photobucket. easy to use
I think I've sorted it with Photobucket now. I think I screwed up copying the codes from Postimage. That's why I could see them but nobody else could. Hopefully they're visible now. I can see them on the iPad anyway. Cheers Megs and Matt. I've just realised that it's taken me longer to post it than it took me to do the job!
Awesome Ken , the bike is soooooo clean as well . I love the lights on those . Whats next then mate ?
Good question. I do fancy a shift indicator (blue of course), but simplest of all I think is going to be some Osram Night Breakers, which are being sold with a set of dinky little blue sidelight bulbs for free at the moment. As I've said before, the dedication and skill of some of you guys on here with what you do to your bikes leaves me speechless but, and I say this with the greatest respect and with my tongue firmly in my cheek. How fucking fast do you want these things to go! LOL. Seriously though. I quite like the standard look and on this site it actually makes me the non mainstream one. I've still got the akra slip on on the shelf in the garage, I'm sure I'll get around to trying it some time, who knows. I'm glad you enjoyed my little joke, I was giggling to myself every time I took a picture this morning.
nice work mate! girlfiend loves that colour flannel,is it part of a set,you know towel,bath mat and that bit that goes round bottom of the bog!!!
Yeah a cheapy one. I use them for cleaning glass. I'm too anal to use cheap ones for polishing the car. You can tell the difference you know! Honest!
It's the shape of the lights that made me christen the bike 'Bill', 'cos it reminds me of Kaiser Wilhelm's moustache.
