With winter ready to release its grip upon my corner of the country, I decided to undertake one of a few spring projects for the Thruxton. Since buying my bike, I have always detested the factory mirrors, partially because they just don't look right on the bike (Ducati seems to get it with their new retro bikes), and partially because, with my size (6ft, 250'ish), they just don't provide very good visibility.
After a good deal of research, and a very slight amount of drooling over they way they look on Thrux-ton-up's ride, I settled on Rizoma Polished Reverse Bar End's. Once the decision was made, however, I soon discovered that Rizoma had trouble with their US distributor last year and withdrew from the US market. I continued to search hard for another couple of weeks, and after a pretty exhaustive effort, found that Mike Pijanka over at
PJ's Parts has been able to establish a relationship with the Rizoma factory in Italy. If my research is correct, he is probably the only current source for these in the US right now.
I can't begin to say enough good things about Mike and PJ's Parts. I had the mirrors in my hands less than 10 days after I ordered them, and this included transit time from Italy. Mike had excellent customer service and communicated at every step in the process. The main focus of his online store is FZ1 parts, but check out his site. You might find a gem like I did.
A few days after I got the Rizoma's in, my bar ends from
Trick Tape arrived, and I was ready to proceed with install. First, a few words about the mirrors themselves. The Rizoma mirrors are machined from billet aluminum and are quite a sight to behold in person. Engineering is top notch, and the finish is near flawless.
Install went quite well, with only a couple very minor issues. I first removed the factory mirrors and flipped the receivers over so that the stems were pointing down. This hides them for the most part. I then removed the factory bar end covers, and mounted the bar end weights/extensions. Rather than using the bolts that came with the ends (which were too big) I used the factory bolts, although not a perfect length, and made sure that they would not back out by applying a little locktite. Once both weights/ends were one, I proceeded with mounting the mirrors. This was a bit frustrating, as the clamp of the mirror is sized at a bit bigger than 1" and the bar ends were 7/8". Rizoma included 3 sets of sizer rings, none of which were a very good solution. I ended up being able to use the smallest rings, but will probably revisit this part of the install a bit later to clean it up overall and make sure I have a perfect fit.
Overall, I'm very happy with the results, but judge for yourself. Here is result. You can see all my install photos
here.
P.S. -- Cost was $180 for the pair shipping included.
Linear Mode
