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Front End Spring Cleaning!
Hi folks...I keep looking at my Thruxton...looking for minor things I think need improving. The bike is so good to start with, these little things are just down to personal taste and nit-picking, but I think these little changes can make a small (or larger) difference at the end of the day.
I decided it was time to clean up the front end of the bike...especially with my wanting to "raise the bar" in terms of the clip-ons. I know...I'm a wimp, but I'm old and I reserve the right to make changes for comfort's sake! I decided to place the stock clip-on's above the upper triple clamp, while at the same time eliminating the original headlight ears and mounting tubes.
I bought some after-market 'universal' headlight ears that are brushed aluminum with a clear coat (like most of the Thruxton cases and fittings) and Ice-cube after-market turn signals with the same finish.
I removed the front wheel and both fork legs (after suspending the bike from a beam above) and removed sll of the old headlight ear tubes and brackets. I then reinstalled the fork legs, and tightened the clip-ons in place. I had to flip the throttle unit 180 deg to go under the adjacent hardware, but that was pretty simple.
All told, it was a 2 hour job for me, and it cost only my labor, which is pretty cheap! I took the bike out for a spirited ride after reassembly and it felt 100% better to me. I kept the same angle of bars to forks, so it wasn't an odd feel to me at all. I even used the chrome "beauty plugs" to fill in the small holes as shown.
So...anybody thinking the stock bars are too low should do the 'clip-on rise'...not the 'flip and swap'!
By the way, I raised the fork tubes in the triple-clamps lke the second day I had the bike...I think it makes the bike steer better. Less counter-steering input from the bars to make it fall better into a corner. That's my opinion anyway.
Check out the pictures!
Cheers,
B. Light
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