First Impressions: Richland Rick's Fork Brace and Mirror Extenders

So two weeks ago, I installed the fork brace and mirror extenders that I bought from Richland Rick, but that happened after I got back from a ride, so I didn't have a chance to take the bike out for a test spin. Today, the weather was screaming "RIDE TODAY!!" So I did.

I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical about the fork brace after reading all the rave views about it on Stromtrooper.com, but I figured the brace wasn't heinously expensive, and I could always sell it if I didn't notice any difference. Well, I think I'm going to be leaving this on the bike. As I was riding today, I was constantly hit by some pretty heavy crosswinds. Previously, I could feel the bike get pushed around a lot, and the steering could get a little sloppy. It also felt like the wheel wanted to wander a little on the long, curved freeway interchange ramps. With the fork brace, the steering does, in fact, seem to be a lot more stable and precise, just like what everyone else said. Go figure. In crosswinds, the bike pretty much tracked true, only needing to lean into the wind to offset the lateral force. I'm a believer!

The mirror extenders give me a great rear view now. Not only can I see the lanes to the side with minimal blind spots, but they now have enough overlap that I can now see right behind me. An added benefit to the improved visibility is the windblast seems to have decreased as well, although the jury is still a little out on just how much of an effect this has had since it was so windy today. Just moving my hand around at speed, it now feels like most of the wind comes from around the MRA X-creen and hits me in the body, which will probably be quite welcome once the weather returns to its typical hot, humid Texas self. I'm still thinking about giving the Parabellum windshield a try since they have a 30-day money back guarantee, but the X-creen is doing a fine job so that may sit on the back burner for a while.

So a thumbs up for the fork brace, and so far one for the mirror extenders as well. In other news, I discovered that letting the bike sit in the sun for a few minutes was more than enough to make it easy to remove the warning stickers from the tank and instrument panel. I know, it took over 1,500 miles to get to it, but it's done, and that's the important thing. The bike now officially feels like it's mine. Here it is in all its current glory, and for now, I am done with accessories. I think I just heard my wallet start celebrating...

Graphic Language Reflective Wheel Stripes, Part Deux

One of the things that I did to my previous motorcycle, the Ninja 650R, was apply reflective wheel striping to the rims to provide greater visibility at night.  It also added a lot aesthetically as the color actually matched the 650R's red frame.  Since the V-Strom's rims are all black, I thought a little color would be nice to give them a little more definition in addition to increasing nighttime visibility, so back I went to the Graphic Language website to order up a new set.  I was able to specify 19" diameter for the front wheel, 17" for the rear, and went with the orange in a 10mm width.

I won't recount the installation procedure here as it is the same as it was for the 650R, which you can find here.  The only differences this time were:

• I used an LED headband mounted lamp instead of a desk lamp (much more convenient)
• I used 409 to clean the wheels, because the build-up on the rear wheel was insane.  I think it was mostly the result of chain lube being flung off while riding.  The rear wheel took 2 hours to clean and stripe vs. 45 minutes for the front wheel.
• This time, the stripes were cut a bit better than last time in that only the vinyl stripes were cut, not the wax paper backing.  This made separating the backing from the stripes a LOT easier than last time.
• The V-Strom has lead balancing weights that clamp onto the rim as opposed to the weights that are mounted with adhesive like the 650R had.  As a result, I had to start/stop the strip at the weights.  I suppose I could have cut a small strip from the left over striping to apply to the weight, but I really didn't think it was necessary.

After finishing the installation and moving the bike out into the sun, I was very pleasantly surprised to find that the reflective orange was a very complementary shade to the V-Strom's Fox Metallic Orange.  Here's a pic:

My wife approved of the addition, and seeing as we are both alumnae of The University of Texas at Austin, and the orange is pretty darn close to burnt orange, she said I should put a Texas Longhorns emblem on the bike.  I can't say that it's beyond the realm of possibilities...

Hook 'Em!

Richland Rick's Fork Brace and Mirror Extenders

I've read on StromTrooper.com that fork braces make a world of difference in the stability of the V-Strom.  I have noticed that the bike is fairly susceptible to crosswinds and windblast from large vehicles, but I just attributed it to being taller than my old Ninja 650R and/or the fact that I've got the largest top case that Givi makes hanging out on the tail rack.  Richland Rick's fork brace got a lot of good press for being well-built and affordable, so I decided to check out his website: AdventureTech, LLC.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that it only cost $85.  I also saw that he made mirror extenders, also at a reasonable price, so I thought I might get some of those, too, but more on that later.  After trading a couple of emails with Rick, who was VERY responsive,  I decided to go ahead and pull the trigger and order a fork brace and a set of mirror extenders.  The morning after placing my order, I received an email from Gloria letting me know that they were waiting on the delivery of more braces and would ship mine as soon as they arrived.  I got them shortly thereafter.

The fork brace is exactly as it appears on his website.  It's two symmetrical halves, joined by four screws.  He has excellent installation instructions on the website, so I'm not going to repeat them here.  Suffice it to say that if you can't operate a 5mm hex driver (aka Allen wrench), then you can get this installed.  The fit and finish was very nice, although mine had a couple of nicks in the powerdercoating, but nothing I consider to be major.

Tools Used:
- 5mm hex driver
- Blue Loctite

I chose to install it with the bolts entering from the front rather than the back.  My reasoning was that the brace sites at an angle with the front higher than the rear since it's bolted to the forks, so the bolts aren't as likely to back out since they'd have to work against gravity.  I also went ahead and used Blue Loctite for good measure.  I didn't have to remove any existing parts.  The brace halves slid right into place with minimal maneuvering around the brake hoses.

Be sure to follow the instructions and tighten in longer inside bolts first.  These bolts seem primarily to hold the two halve together.  They pretty much tightened right on down with little to no "snugging" necessary; they simply stopped tightening.  The shorter outside bolts are really the ones doing the clamping, as there is a small gap between the brace halves to allow this action.  I tightened them until they were good and snug, and that was that.

Next up were the mirror extenders.  I decided to go ahead and get the extenders with threaded holes on each side so that I can install a 1" RAM mount ball to potentially mount accessories.  I don't currently have any plans to mount anything here yet, but the price was only $5/hole more than the base $33 extenders.  I figured it was a small price to pay for having some flexibility in the accessory department.

Tools Used:
- Adjustable wrenches (2)
- 8mm hex driver
- 30" metal ruler
- Blue Locktite

Again, Rick has some very good installation instructions on his website, since there's more to it that two metal halves and 4 bolts, I thought I'd add some pictures of  my installation.

The first step is to remove the mirrors.  You need to pull the rubber boot off of the base and slide it up the mirror stalk so you have access to the nuts.  The bottom nut attaches the mirror to the mounting bracket.  The top nut is the cinch nut which holds the mirror stalk in place and prevents it from swiveling around.  The cinch nut is also reverse or left-hand threaded, meaning "Righty tighty, Left loosey" does not apply.  The cinch nut loosens by turning it clockwise (right) and tightens by turning it counterclockwise (left).  I found that you don't need to loosen the cinch nut in order to remove the mirror.  I just took my adjustable wrench, tightened it to the bottom nut, and after a bit of a struggle, the mirror was turning freely, and I was able to unscrew it from the mount.  For the left mirror, you need to turn the handlebars all the way to the left and vice-versa for the right mirror.  Once you've removed the mirrors, be sure to place them somewhere safe and out of harm's way.  If you still have any chrome bits on the handlebar, you removed the cinch nut, so you'll need to remove the base nut from the handlebar mount and re-attach it to the mirror.

Left mirror partially removed

The next step is to attach the extenders.  There are two things of note here.  1)  The longer 20mm spacer goes on the left, and the shorter 10mm spacer goes on the right.  2) The long side of the extender goes to the outside for the mirror, and the short side goes inside for the 1" RAM Mount ball.  I applied a Blue Loctite to the threads and tightened the bolts using an 8mm hex driver.  I was only able to finger tighten them so far and had to use my ratchet for the majority of work.  The threads were pretty snug, but never did I feel like I was damaging them.

Long spacer on Left Extender (L) and Short spacer on Right Extender (R)
Correctly oriented with long arms out/short arms in

 Once I got them tight enough that the extenders would barely move, I used a long metal ruler and pressed the edge against the sides of the extenders so that they were both flat against the ruler.  This should reasonably make them parallel to the center of the handlebar, and place the mirrors as far out as possible.  I then tightened the extenders' mounting bolts the rest of the way until they were snug.  Unfortunately, it was very tough to gauge the "snugness" since the threads were so tight, but I got them to the point where they would resist reasonable attempts to turn the extenders.

Using the metal ruler to position the extenders

With the extenders mounted and positioned properly, it was a simple matter to mount the mirrors in the outside holes.  Before doing so, I tried to place the mirrors in as identical and neutral positions as possible, which would then only require a minimal amount of fine adjustment later.  After tightening the  base attachment nut as much as possible, I got on the bike to position the mirrors so I could just barely see the edges of my shoulders and then tightened the cinch nut.  After getting a visual reference of the mirror placement, I used two adjustable wrenches to tighten down the cinch nut to keep the mirror stalk from rotating out of position.  This step was a bit of a challenge for me as I sometimes caused the base nut to come loose while trying to tighten the cinch nut.  I think I finally got it all tightened properly.  I guess I'll find out whether or not I'm wrong if I come back from my next ride with both mirrors.  After getting the mirror stalks tightened up, slide the rubber boot down and back over the chrome nuts.

After that, it was a simple matter of fine adjusting the mirrors themselves.  I found that with the extenders, I can now see things directly behind me with a little overlap in coverage between the two mirrors.

View from the tail rack showing the width of the mirrors,
note the 1" RAM Mount balls
(Looks like the left mirror is a bit rotated up...)

Left handguard contacts MRA X-creen at full right lock

No contact on the right side at full left lock

As of this writing, I don't have a verdict on either product performance, as I was unable to take a test ride immediately after installing them, but I can definitely recommend AdventureTech.  Rick and Gloria were fantastic to deal with and very responsive.

So far, I like the expanded view while stopped that results from the addition of the extenders.  The proof in the pudding will be how images appear at speed.  I'm hoping there is no introduced vibration or anything, since that was not a problem at all in the stock position.  I'm also hoping that the airflow is somewhat improved, as it felt like the mirrors were directing some air right at me at highway speeds.  Hopefully I can sneak out for a quick ride tomorrow.

UPDATE:  Read about my first impressions of the fork brace and mirror extenders here.