Taking a nice scenic ride on Monday after Mother’s Day I managed to discover a new hazard on the roads. Roads were dry after a rain but darkness under a tree in a corner caught my attention. Rightly so it turned out as that was sap from the tree wetted by the rain. Slick!
I did my best dance to keep the bike under control but came up short. I went down hard on my left side. With help from a passing motorist we righted the bike and I found fairly minimal damage to the bike. I was hurting pretty bad but still plenty able to ride.
My left side mirror had popped off. No problem I thought; it’s mounted on pins and rubber sockets. I couldn’t get it lined up though. On the 280 mile ride home from crashing that was my biggest frustration. I never realized how often I grab a peek in my mirrors.
In order to find out why it wouldn’t go back on I started dismantling the bike. This is where I am.
First a picture showing the armature that supports the left side of the fairing and the mirrors.
I measured from that center cross section out to the pins that hold the mirrors. It turns out that the left side is pushed in by roughly 1/4″. Next is to figure out how to apply smooth controlled pressure outward on it to get it back in position.
Here’s just the left side. I can’t really see what’s bent but there’s a round arm supporting the mirror part. The bar I’m focused on is not overly visible.
Here’s the right side not quite as disassembled.
After moving the bike out where I can better get to it I got back on fixing it. I had tried a couple of different ways to push the mirror bracket back into position but finally realized the best tool for the job was my 20 year old Harbor Freight hydraulic ram set. It was the first thought but I didn’t figure out how to use it that time.
Being a little more mobile this time I dragged out a table that would allow me to set up the pump within easy reach of where I needed the ram. Stacking the right pieces helped too, and last but definitely not least was sawing up a small chunk of plywood to let me apply pressure to the right parts.
Here’s the ram in position.
Closeup of the block that kept me from distorting the smaller parts that support the mirror and some of the fairing parts.
Next after moving things just 1/4″ I test fit the mirror next to the dash. After the crash it would not push back on.
And one last picture with everything put back together.
