Cookie Monster
noob
During my ride to Hawthorne, I found out just how uncomfortable my F4i was for long distance riding. I was dead set on selling it as soon as I got back home, but was talked into keeping it and putting some work into it to make it more comfortable. I decided to get rid of the clip ons and get some lower pegs. For the pegs, I got Buell XB9 pegs that I sanded down and bought some aluminum spacers as the XB9 pegs have a 7/16th pin hole while the Honda has an 8mm pin. That install was easy enough.
On to the LSL conversion kit. I decided on this kit as it's marketed as a plug and play kit designed specifically for each motorcycle. It also comes with longer stainless steel brake lines to make sure they reach the bar. Plus, being made in Germany, it had to be good quality, right?
Upon opening the kit, I was impressed with the quality and machining of the pieces. The clamps, mounts and bar were beefy and the hardware all looked top notch. The instructions, on the other hand, were absolutely horrible. I've bought crap from China with much better instructions than the one piece of paper that LSL provided (with one side of that paper having instructions in a different language, too). While some of the instructions were bike specific, such as how to route the brake lines and throttle/clutch cables, some of it had nothing to do with my kit. For example, the instructions told me to drill out some of the ignition screws for security after swapping the ignition to the new top triple plate. However, looking at my kit, it was obvious that not only did I not need to swap the ignition from its stock location, I didn't even get a new top triple plate (not needed for my bike, thankfully). Furthermore, their instructions for routing the throttle cables was either wrong or so poorly worded and vague that I couldn't figure out what the hell they were talking about, so I had to improvise.
Installation of the kit was pretty tough, as you could imagine with the piss poor instructions. Overall, it was a much more involved process than I had imagined, as all the controls wiring needed to be rerouted. In order to route the throttle cables as instructed, the gas tank and airbox had to come out, but ultimately, the way I routed them doesn't need any of those things to be removed, which would have saved a ton of time. The brake lines were self explanatory, but getting everything lined up just right, and checking (and re-checking) everything took a long time, especially when drilling the handlebar for the throttle tube peg.
The bike itself feels completely different now. Combined with the lower pegs, the seating position is like night and day. My knees, back and ass aren't on fire after 30 minutes, and with the wide bars you gain so much leverage that the bike is extremely nimble and flickable. The only problems are that it's harder to tuck (obviously) and you get a lot more wind in your chest, partly due to the upright seating position and partly due to the fact that you have to chop up the windshield to get full range of motion out of the bars. Also, the stock mirrors now point directly at my gloves so it's tough to see behind/to the side. I also have to be more careful while lane splitting as the bars are actually wider than the mirrors now.
Overall, I'm glad I got the bars and did the swap, but for $400 I expected to see much more in terms of instructions/support. Even then it's a lot of money for essentially a handlebar, two stainless steel lines and a couple pieces of aluminum/steel, but IMO the comfort gained is well worth it. I can't wait for the next rally now!
Pics:
Please disregard the horrible ghetto windshield cuts. I'll clean that up this weekend. I still have a bit more tidying up to do but it's perfectly rideable now.
On to the LSL conversion kit. I decided on this kit as it's marketed as a plug and play kit designed specifically for each motorcycle. It also comes with longer stainless steel brake lines to make sure they reach the bar. Plus, being made in Germany, it had to be good quality, right?
Upon opening the kit, I was impressed with the quality and machining of the pieces. The clamps, mounts and bar were beefy and the hardware all looked top notch. The instructions, on the other hand, were absolutely horrible. I've bought crap from China with much better instructions than the one piece of paper that LSL provided (with one side of that paper having instructions in a different language, too). While some of the instructions were bike specific, such as how to route the brake lines and throttle/clutch cables, some of it had nothing to do with my kit. For example, the instructions told me to drill out some of the ignition screws for security after swapping the ignition to the new top triple plate. However, looking at my kit, it was obvious that not only did I not need to swap the ignition from its stock location, I didn't even get a new top triple plate (not needed for my bike, thankfully). Furthermore, their instructions for routing the throttle cables was either wrong or so poorly worded and vague that I couldn't figure out what the hell they were talking about, so I had to improvise.
Installation of the kit was pretty tough, as you could imagine with the piss poor instructions. Overall, it was a much more involved process than I had imagined, as all the controls wiring needed to be rerouted. In order to route the throttle cables as instructed, the gas tank and airbox had to come out, but ultimately, the way I routed them doesn't need any of those things to be removed, which would have saved a ton of time. The brake lines were self explanatory, but getting everything lined up just right, and checking (and re-checking) everything took a long time, especially when drilling the handlebar for the throttle tube peg.
The bike itself feels completely different now. Combined with the lower pegs, the seating position is like night and day. My knees, back and ass aren't on fire after 30 minutes, and with the wide bars you gain so much leverage that the bike is extremely nimble and flickable. The only problems are that it's harder to tuck (obviously) and you get a lot more wind in your chest, partly due to the upright seating position and partly due to the fact that you have to chop up the windshield to get full range of motion out of the bars. Also, the stock mirrors now point directly at my gloves so it's tough to see behind/to the side. I also have to be more careful while lane splitting as the bars are actually wider than the mirrors now.
Overall, I'm glad I got the bars and did the swap, but for $400 I expected to see much more in terms of instructions/support. Even then it's a lot of money for essentially a handlebar, two stainless steel lines and a couple pieces of aluminum/steel, but IMO the comfort gained is well worth it. I can't wait for the next rally now!
Pics:
Please disregard the horrible ghetto windshield cuts. I'll clean that up this weekend. I still have a bit more tidying up to do but it's perfectly rideable now.
