Piece by piece the bike is coming together. I am now able to work on some of the small odds and ends. I recommend that you keep a small box of everything you aim to polish and clean on your restoration and take it inside when you are watching TV and such. Polishing is tedious no-brain required work. I wish I was not wasting my time with it at this point in the game. I move back West in 26 days and my painter needs time to touch up the paint. The bike was due in 3 days, but I bought myself an extra week. I hope to have the bike no less than 95% complete if not 100% before it goes to the painter.
Before you install your hand grips thoroughly clean the headset bars and you can even sand with very fine sand paper the rough or rust of it. Sand perpendicular to the grips so that grips grab better. You can heat the grips up in some hot (not boiling hot) water to make them more pliable. That was not necessary for me. Use a good and rubber friendly glue and bead it from the half way point back around the whole circumference. This way you will have little to no excess glue as the grip comes to the end. Once it's al the way on check to make sure that the logo is centered in Neutral on the clutch and idle on the throttle. Now working from the midway point to the inside corner work the grip like an accordion so it will stretch out properly . Repeat for the full length of the grip now.Note: make sure that your throttle grip does not have glue on the inside end, because it needs to spin freely.
2 comments:
- "Sand perpendicular to the grips so that grips grab better".
GREAT idea! I never thought of that. Clever.
- Paul
Thanx Paul, but this one belongs to Ted. He taught me it.
On his KTM bikes (has 7) he uses compressed air to install his grips because they are so much less pliable then the after market Piaggio knock-offs. I haven't seen him do this yet. He told me since the tube on the Vespa is hollow that it would not work. On some of his bikes he has doubled up the grips so the diameter of the grip is bigger and more comfortable on the hand. He says that is a real nightmare.
I'd like to see how used compressed air to expand the grips and get them installed. I can imagine it, but seeing it work would be cool.
Jeremy
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