Handlebar Bracket Cushions

[bassman]

I've noticed for a long time (well over a year) that my handlebar bracket is slightly higher on the right-side than the left (the handlebar bracket being the bracket holding the handlebars, which sits on top off the triple-trees)  After the usual 'wrestling' with rusted bolts I finally lifted the handlebar bracket.  After cleaning and greasing the the bolts, etc, I re-ssembled evrything and it was not only just as wonky, but the handlebar assembly had even more freeplay in it.  I've given the old credit card another beating and ordered 4 replacement cushions (OEM part 56240-01D00).  Bloody expensive in the scheme of things, but I don't want my (clip-on - Brit) handlebars waggling around when I'm riding.  Anybody else had experience changing these out?  Pretty boring nd dull stuff, I know, but really important from a safety point of view.  You lot out there having handling problems could find that the problem lay in worn out 'cushions', that are really 'bushes' by another name.

Bassman

[The Buddha]

Yea you want to buy these parts and then post here to show off ... especially since I have ~10 of these you could have for next to nothing ...

Kat swaps render the donuts useless, have a bunch, may have tossed em or mangled em up fitting it to a savage or generally messd up quite a few ... but I have a good many for sure.

Cool.
Buddha.

[PaviSays]

Eep, see if you can cancel the order or send them back claiming it was the wrong piece or something and get the hookup from Buddah.

[DoD#i]

The pair of your are doofuses. Shipping across the atlantic is probably a good deal more than the base cost of the part in the UK (edit - perhaps not, at $21 each from BB) - and being lying scum is the sort of thing that grows on you until it comes back to haunt you, Mr. going to be a senior in high school next year. Better not to start down that road. (no edit needed to that part.)

[PaviSays]

Lying scum you say?  How is it any different than returning something you found at one store then going to the other store to buy their product?  It's the free market system.  In this case, we just happened to have a misinformed consumer.  Now that he is informed, why should he be punished?

If it's cheaper to go the Buddah route, great, if it's not, then he can stick with the parts he bought.  We're just trying to save the man some money here, Mr. "Ride a motorcycle.  Save Gas, Oil, Rubber, Steel, Aluminum, Parking Spaces, The Environment, and Money."

[bassman]

For the avoidance of doubt, everyone, I can't go and cancel my order because one secures one's order by credit/debit card with this particular company (Granby Motors of Derby - very good company, I would add!).  No offense, Buddha, but I want brand spanking new ones that I won't have to replace again before the bike shakes off it's mortal coil and I'm riding my dream bike (whatever that is - I have dreamed it up yet!).  The thing that did for the existing cushions is age - 9 years of British weather has lead to the material the cushions are made from perishing.

Your cushions in sunny California may have faired better, but, there you go, I'm sure your business won't go down the pan just because of me!

Bassman

[The Buddha]

Dunno about sunny in Califonia, cos I am in NC for the last 8 years, but the rubber parts are holding up just fine. For some reason, rubber in the US doesn;t seem to rust.

Anyway this isn't a wear item, if it got mucked up, its cos someone did somehting to it.

I have even cut the inner sleeves shorter so you can crank the bolts down tighter on my savage to prevent wiggle and X'ing (similar to but not the same as the GS) and its still held up well. These dont wear, just like the guage carrier grommets and some others that dont get removed 100's of times.

Cool.
Buddha.

[bassman]

Sorry Buddha, I had no idea'Charlotte NC ' was North Carolina, nor that it was on the eastern side of the US! - geography was never my strong point! 'The Bay Area' sounded so Beach Boys to me I thought it's got to be some place in California

It did occur to me shorten the inner sleeves, but I'm Captain Boring and like to fix things as per the book.

Bassman

[The Buddha]

Oh, shortening the sleeves is only in that 1 situation, you dont do it to cover for a ripped rubber donut. The savage when fitted with drag bars that aren't cross braced to each other and have risers over 4-5 inches tall will cause the risers to make a nice X shape when you make turns. They flex in the donut. That donut is a close cousin of the GS donut. That I tried to remedy years ago by shortening the sleeves. Didn't work. Finally the only htings that work ...

Under 4 inch - brace em if needed. Shorter than 3 inch the bars hit the tank, but 3-4 inch you could get by with the sleeve method,
4-6 inch weld a double brace to em. Some people who have come by my house have seen this BS on both my savages. One with a square section steel tubing section welded in there and another with a bolted on dog bone style brace on the top side of the riser.
6-9 inch - Brace em, and get delrin donuts made and fitted in there. That length will let it flex forward and back even when you weld brace it.

Cool.
Buddha.