They look like suzuki v strom hand guards which I have researched myself in the past for my boxeye.
 If you had bar ends fitted then the open "U" shape is supposed to clip onto the bar end weights. From the pictures it looks like you do not have bar ends so that the u shape without bar ends fitted now floats further towards the back of the bike meaning that the guard also sits closer to the leaver and so bringing it clear of the fairing on full lock. And the reason you can get away with doing it like that is because you have shorty leavers. Otherwise the guards would touch the fairing even with the non OEM bars.
 Have I got that right, and going by the mirrors looks like yours a Foxeye.

I am interested to hear that they do not press in at speed despite the lack of the end fitting. Personally I am not brave enough use them like that just incase any "off" resulted in an examination of the bike and it was used as an excuse not to pay out.

Yes, it's an '03 Fox-eye. When I first got the bike back in 2012 it was fitted with standard levers, standard bars with standard bar-ends and there was still no problem with the guards on full lock, not that I noticed with it being my first bike, plus I wasn't "full locking" with any confidence anyway.  I fitted Renthal 758s with the shorty levers about 4 years ago but never got round to fitting bar-ends as the originals didn't fit, it seems to make no difference with the buzzing having ends or not to be honest.  Also as I do a lot of riding in London the wider Renthals with 2 inch bar-ends isn't a desirable combination...

I inherited my '03 with hand-guards and they seem to fit fine, it's gone through 6 MOTs and no one ever mentioned anything.  No idea of the make but they look very plasticky, I guess they 'just about' touch the fairing but it's never given me an issue.  Since I changed to Renthals they've not been secured to the ends of the bars, just on the brake/clutch bolts, but they don't flap around much. 
I can't imagine riding without them in winter, even with my heated grips... I'll try and get some photos over the weekend.

Indeed, it never occurred to me that a bit of crap could stop the valve from closing...lesson learned.

Especially galling when the study for allowing motorcycles to use Bus lanes revealed that we contribute 0.1% of the NOx in London


P37, Section 5.1.2 - http://content.tfl.gov.uk/pt-emissions-study.pdf   


"Motorcycles and mopeds make a very low overall contribution to road traffic pollution because of the relatively low numbers in operation in London. They contribute around  0.1% of NOx emissions and 0.6% of PM10 emissions occurring in Greater London"

Mine's done 45k and sounds exactly like your mate's and nothing like yours...maybe the tone changes with age as more parts wear in?

Ouch...I didn't expect this to blow up so much!


The garage in question was this one http://www.citybikeservice.co.uk/, you can see the frontpage mentions a "£50 same day MOT service"


They don't do the MOT on site, they do the check then take it to the test site in Bow, 3 miles up the road - so the same person doesn't really do the same checks twice.  Also I guess that if the seals/tyre are knackered they charge you the Pre-test fee but you save the £30 MOT fee until after the faults are fixed.


To be honest I can't really be arsed to pursue it any further, it's not worth my time, I'm just happy the bike is on the road for another year ...and still with no advisories. 


As mentioned on my first post they ripped apart my rear caliper for £20 allowing me to rebuild it instead of them and so saving £60...I'm still happy and would take the bike back there as it's 10 mins from work, I'll just make sure that I ask for the charges beforehand in future.


They still should've asked me if I wanted it done though, that goes without saying.

The MOT ran out on the 14th but there was no "rush" and it wasn't a Premium service etc., I called up last night to see if they could do it today, they said "no probs, just bring it down early and we'll get it done".

I thought nothing of it until I got the text invoice...I'll pay but question where the extra £20 comes from.

I usually take it somewhere else but that place couldn't do it as they'd bought the wrong insurance so they couldn't ride anyone's bikes to the MOT test centre they use...idiots!

Lesson learned I guess.  However they DID do a great while-you-wait job on the rear caliper though, split caliper (neither bolt would budge), removed 2 broken retaining pins, removed 2 stuck pistons, all for £20.  It allowed me to clean, rebuild and bleed myself so saved £60 labour.

Swings and roundabouts.

And you'll either need to drill location holes for the tabs on the switch gear, or tape up the area to stop them rotating. Apparently Renthal advise against drilling, but I did.

Yeah, I filed off the location tabs then used 3 or 4 layers of silver foil between the switch gear and the bars, nothing's moved in 4 years.  I didn't fancy drilling holes in mine.

Yes I know I should get a thou replacement but this is a bit of an emergency, I've snapped one of the pad retaining pins and the easy-outs I bought are made of cheese, I also tried to split the caliper but one of the bolts won't move for love nor money, I even broke my adjustable wrench trying to get it off!  The whole caliper is in a sorry state anyway, I'm sure I'd snap the nipples trying to re-bleed it.


Anyone got an old one sitting on the shelf after a thou swap?  I'll pay for postage or will pick up if in London?  My MOT runs out on the 5th so it's bit of an emergency as I say.


Cheers...Dan

I just bought a couple of fuse taps from Ebay for my 12V USB and Heated grips and stuck them in 2 of the ignition fuses - I think the headlights and sidelights.  Took about 2 mins to install.

Well that's 10 points to limax2, the lever wasn't returning fully..probably about 1/2 cm to go but enough to stop the fluid returning.


After I got back from the Alps I refitted my hand guards but omitted a couple of spacers, this narrowed the gap in the guard just enough to rub against the lever adjuster and prevent it from returning.  I've put the spacers back in and can now feel the lever click at the end of its travel, all four pots can now be pushed back in each caliper.


However the pads are still binding slightly, left disk is a lot hotter than the right so I probably still need to strip them.


Am I OK to re-use the same seals if they look fine?  A full set seems a bit steep to me, yes I know it's my life at stake and it's not really that much cash etc. etc. but is this really bad practice?

Did you top up the brake fluid recently or put new pads in?

Not topped up the level for a couple of years and I might have switched the orientation of the pads in each caliper but they're deffo not new - as I said I used to be able to push all 4 back to the caliper with ease a few months ago.  I've drilled the old screw out and ordered a couple of SS replacements.  I'll investigate the return port of the MC when I get another spare second, probably after work on Mon/Tues.

Cheers for the help!