Fighting a bad motorcycling habit

 This is an article about motorcycling but first let me ask a question about driving a car. 

Motorcyclists, when you are driving a car, do you check out the rear window when backing up, or do you just look at the dashboard rear-vision camera? 

Be honest. 

I ask this because I have noticed myself developing a new bad habit. Rather than twist my neck and body to look out past the headrests, and through the tinted rear window, I have begun relying on the car's back-up camera. 

Oh, I make a guilty half-glance toward the back before going into reverse; but I can't pretend that's adequate. 

This new bad habit is going to be a hard one to break. I know, because I have a different bad habit when motorcycling that I can't seem to break. 

Here it is: When I give one of my rear-view mirrors a routine check while riding, I automatically then immediately shift my vision to check the other rear-view mirror.

Doesn't sound so bad, right?

But consider this: I realize that I am not checking the view forward between glances in the mirrors.

Looking where you are going is generally going to be more important than looking at what may or may not be catching up to you.

I've never seen this addressed in any safety lecture or material.

I suppose I ought to be looking forward immediately after looking anywhere else.

Even if I am looking in one mirror while considering shifting lanes (I'll have to turn my head then, too) it is unlikely that I would be thinking of changing lanes both left and right. It's one or the other. So why do I look at both?

The additional effort in pausing to look forward is minute. It would call for me to refocus my eyeballs from the very close mirrors to look far up the road. Is that asking too much?

Seemingly so. I can't seem to break this habit, although I try.

In context, relying heavily on the automobile back-up camera for backing is somewhat justified. The camera is very good.

It's apparent that auto manufacturers have sacrificed the view out the back window to styling, streamlining, comfier seatbacks and window tinting.

Besides, they know we are too lazy to twist around.

Motorcycling, at least on a vintage motorcycle, still requires plain old eyeballs.

Look at mirror shows me my Royal Enfield is laughing

Big blob of hot glue didn't make this mirror less floppy.

Suggested motto for my old 1999 Royal Enfield Bullet:

"Your Sense of Humor — Don't Leave Home Without It."

I was only two blocks into a ride today when I reached out to adjust a rear view mirror — and the head of the mirror came off in my hand.

Regular readers of this blog know that I have a thing for rear view mirrors. Whenever I come across an old-time photo of a motorcycle I check to see if there is a rear view mirror. I'd really like to know when they became common equipment.

The mirrors on my own motorcycle have a history — of goofiness.

I've complained that the original equipment mirrors looked like Mickey Mouse ears. And I complained when their stalks refused to hold the mirrors steady. And I complained when the heads of the mirrors became too loose to hold an adjustment.

I bought after-market mirrors to replace the originals. But recently, when one of the aftermarket mirrors broke off I returned one of the original equipment mirrors to the handlebars to replace it.

This instantly reminded me how bad they were. I finally got the stalk attached to the handlebars firmly, only to find that nothing I tried seemed to cure the problem of the floppy head.

I tried painting the ball-and-socket joint with nail polish to increase friction. I tried shooting hot glue into the joint to freeze the adjustment in place. Finally, I just filled the socket with J-B Weld and glued the head solidly in place.

Mirror, taped to my toolbox upside down, with J-B Weld drying.

The J-B Weld held up fine. But the plastic case of the mirror snapped at the socket when I foolishly tried to adjust it, leaving the head of the mirror in my hand.

I shouldn't have tried to adjust it, since it was glued, but what good is a mirror that isn't aimed correctly?

I dug out the broken after-market mirror, removed its broken stalk, and attached the head of that mirror to my now naked original-equipment stalk.

If this works I will finally see a smile when I look at myself in the mirror.

A look in the mirror tells Royal Enfield owner he's cheap

Mis-matched mirrors on my 1999 Royal Enfield Bullet.
Rusting after-market on the left in this photo, limp stock one on the right.

Paul d'Orleans, author of the respected Vintagent blog, recently rhapsodized at length about his 1965 Velocette Thruxton motorcycle. (Sidelight: I love the sound of the name "Thruxton.")

What surprised me about his article: he used his prized motorcycle, with its glam fishtail exhaust, as his sole transport and daily commuter for two years. So it was no pampered baby.

I racked up the miles commuting to work for seven years on my 1999 Royal Enfield Bullet. It's no Thruxton, but I know what it's like to abuse an old-fashioned motorcycle in rush hour traffic day after day.

There was the time vibration fatigued the horn bracket to death, dropping the horn onto the pavement. By the time I'd gone back and picked it up it had been flattened by traffic. I bought a new horn.

There was the time the gearshift lever, lubricated with warm oil from leaks vibrated off and skipped along the pavement. I went back, picked it up, and put it back on. It immediately came off again. I went back, etc.

And then there was the time one of the stock mirrors started refusing to hold an adjustment, obviously worn out by vibration. I bought a set of after-market mirrors to replace the stock units and threw the one stock mirror that hadn't worn out completely onto a shelf and forgot about it.

Recently, one of my after-market mirrors, no doubt weakened by the fatigue of vibration, snapped off in my hand. My attempt to repair it failed. I had resigned myself to having to shop for replacements when it occurred to me that I still had the other, original, and still slightly functional stock mirror on the shelf.

Somewhere.

I was stunned to find it in the first place I looked, stuffed in behind more recently replaced bits and parts. It even had its mounting hardware, and went right into place.

It went right into place loosely, unfortunately. They'd always been like this. On a ride, vibration would eventually loosen the stalks to the point that they flopped forward limply at every stop and swung back — uselessly — in line with the tank on acceleration.

It had been embarrassing. I now resolved to put up with it, as having another mirror contributing to my view to the rear is so much better (and safer) than nothing.

I'll replace it as soon as I can find and fit new after-market mirrors. Right? Well... no.

In reality, I am committed to riding around like this, with mismatched mirrors, one of which is one of the stock mirrors I once derided on this blog as so big and ugly they reminded me of Mickey Mouse ears.

Have I no pride?

Well, this brings me back to Paul d'Orleans' proud paean to his Velocette Thruxton.

My Royal Enfield Bullet will never get "cracked across the Golden Gate Bridge at 4 a.m., at over 115 mph." But like his beloved machine, my Royal Enfield Bullet will continue to be ridden.

Which means all the mirrors will fall off, eventually.

I'll buy new ones then.

When Royal Enfield mirrors behave like ballet dancers

A socket won't fit but I can just barely grab this bottom nut with a 12mm wrench
while I tighten the two mirror hold-down nuts atop the plastic control module.

I had to smile the other day when someone online wrote that the one thing you can always count on with a Royal Enfield is that the mirrors will get loose and swing uselessly out in front of you as you ride.

Does any other motorcycle on earth do this? It happens from time to time on my own Royal Enfield Bullet. It's no big problem, but it looks stupid.

You don't want to stop to tighten them up. So you keep riding to your destination with your mirrors gently swaying back and forth. Every time you come to a stop they swing completely forward, like two insect antennas.

I suppose the cause of the loosening is vibration from the big single-cylinder motor.

But unanswered is this question: why do the left and right mirrors do this at the same time? You'd think they'd get loose one at a time, but they always dance their ballet in perfect unison.

Applying a product such as Locktite to the threads of the mirrors might solve the problem.

But, in fact, you never bother to do this because you're always in a hurry and let it go with a simple tightening.

The fixing nuts are obstructed by the proprietary handlebar control modules on my 1999 Bullet, so I don't go to the trouble of removing them completely, as doing a thorough job might require.

Mirror on 1947 Indian required nothing but brute strength.

Motorcyclists of old didn't worry about fitting a tiny wrench into the space left by space-age plastic controls to tighten the mirrors.

Look at these photos of the handlebar mirror fitted to a rusty, crusty 1947 Indian spotted for sale recently on eBay.

Old-fashioned and effective.

Man, that's simplicity! The owner could put a lock nut on there, grab his largest adjustable wrench and power the nut into place permanently. I'm jealous.

Mirrors for a Royal Enfield Bullet; these are outrageous

Bright color might look right on a scooter.

Would you put these rear-view mirrors on your classic Royal Enfield Bullet?

That's the question posed by reader John Sparrow, who spotted these bright yellow mirrors in an eBay advertisement selling a 2000 Royal Enfield. in Birmingham, UK.

All I can think is that the owner considers the shocking color a safety measure. Many accidents happen when motorists fail to see an oncoming motorcycle and turn in front of it.

You might prefer to avert your eyes from these outlandishly bright mirrors; but how can you?

They'll see you coming; but not whether you're turning.

What strikes me is that the mirrors are below the handlebars. They appear to be mounted where the front  turn signals (missing on this bike) are normally attached. I might not do it, but I think it's a clever idea.

On the other hand, if the owner was considering safety first, eliminating front turn signals probably is not an improvement.

There's no danger of denting the tank with these.

There is nothing to be gained in criticizing someone's taste. And you have to admit: it's different.

What's missing from these Royal Enfields?

Four brand new Royal Enfield C5 motorcycles went up for auction on eBay recently. There was one in each color: black, red, green and military Battle Green. But there was something else different about the motorcycles.

Before taking the picture the seller did something to them to make them look more appealing in the photos.

He left something off. Do you realize what's missing?

Twin City Bikerstuff in St. Paul, Minn. put the four brand new Royal Enfield C5 motorcycles up for auction. Perhaps they just didn't complete assembling the bikes, perhaps because leaving off this item makes the motorcycles easier to move and store inside the building.

The mirrors. Where are the mirrors?

The mirrors that come with the C5 are high mounted and provide a good view of what's catching up to you. They are surprisingly free of vibration blur. And they are good looking.

But there is no arguing that the motorcycle, in fact any classic motorcycle, looks better without mirrors. In our mind's eye, the top of the motorcycle should be the hand grips — sleek is always better looking.

The same goes for the rider, too, of course!

When did classic motorcycles get mirrors?

Royal Enfield motorcycles are prized in part because they look like vintage motorcycles from the 1950s. Naturally, the manufacturer has to sell them with modern safety equipment, including rear view mirrors.

In my opinion, these spoil the classic look. But what does a vintage motorcycle rear view mirror look like, anyway? And when did motorcycles start coming from the factory with mirrors as standard equipment?

Chris Bartlett responded to my first blog item on this subject by noting that "they appeared on bikes at least as early as 1950 as seen on police Harleys in the 1954 movie The Fast and the Furious. And Jorge Pullin, whose blog My Royal Enfields is always willing to solve mysteries, wrote to this effect:

"Very interesting question about the mirrors! None of the Royal Enfield catalogues I've seen, starting in 1920 all the way to the last Interceptor, ever show a mirror on a bike. They don't list them among accessories either. In line with Chris Bartlett's comment, the Royal Enfield (made) Indian delivered to the New York Police Department in the late 1950s did include mirrors.

"None of the vintage pictures of Enfields I've seen have ever shown mirrors, though many are of too poor a quality to tell for sure about a potentially small element like a mirror. If you look at the pictures of mods and rockers of the 1960s some of the mods' scooters had mirrors (most notably that one in the movie Quadrophenia), but none of the rockers bikes seem to have them.

"I've found one Honda catalogue from 1965 that shows mirrors. From the mid '70s all of them do.

"It seems attitudes towards motorcycle safety were very relaxed before the 1970s, sort of similar to the attitude some have towards bicycle riding today. Mr. Royal Enfield, Jack Gray, tells a story in his book Motorcycling Through the Thirties about going to race his motorcycle carrying his helmet hanging on the side of the bike on the way to the racetrack. This was because 'wearing a helmet while riding in the street would have been considered pretentious.'

"The bicycle analogy also helps understand why (vintage motorcycles had) horns and no mirrors. Most bicycles have bells or other forms of making noise, but very few have mirrors."

My observation is that Chris and Jorge are correct. I happened to visit the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee, Wis. over the weekend and found very few rear view mirrors on early motorcycles. The earliest example was on a 1933 sidecar outfit and, here, the mirror was clearly an accessory, along with dual spotlights on the handlebars!

The next instances of rear view mirrors in the Harley museum come on bikes prepared for the military in World War II and on police motorcycles of the 1950s. In these cases, I suspect the authorities drawing up the bid specifications required that mirrors be included.

It's my belief that some vintage motorcycles did have mirrors, but these rarely show up in advertisements of the time because they cost extra, were strictly an after market accessory or were considered too ugly to display. Jorge pointed out that even today, 2009 Royal Enfield models are shown on the Classic Motorworks web site without mirrors! Of course they come with mirrors, they just look better without them.

I have come across pictures of old motorcycles with rear view mirrors, but these were obviously recent color photographs and the mirrors may have been added to get the bikes registered for the modern road.

The ugliest thing about Royal Enfields

The least attractive feature of Royal Enfield Bullet motorcycles in recent years is not, in my opinion, the oversize "bazooka" muffler fitted to meet noise regulations. It's big, it's shiny, I can tolerate it. Owners frequently fit something smaller (and louder). I have.

The oversize turn signals and undersized headlight required in the United States, again to meet regulations, are unsightly but tolerable. Smaller turn signals and bigger headlights are popular options here, although I've left mine alone.

The one feature I can not forgive are the big, black plastic Mickey Mouse ears on stalks: the rear view mirrors. These are routinely replaced with more attractive items by owners or are simply removed in jurisdictions where police are expected to ignore their absence.

I kept mine until they wore out from frequent adjustment, then replaced them with smaller metal mirrors.

Good rear view mirrors are important safety equipment, but the overgrown appendages Royal Enfields come with instantly mar the looks and mark the motorcycle as not nearly as vintage as the rest of its appearance suggests.

In fact, what does a "vintage" rear view mirror look like? My examination of old pictures rarely brings a rear view mirror to light. It is possible they were not shown in advertisements, to make the motorcycles look more attractive. And, of course, they would have been removed from racing machines. But even pictures of motorcycles in ordinary use before the 1960s show few rear view mirrors.

This is remarkable to me because, at least in old photos from Britain, horns, often bulb operated, are generally fitted. Probably these were required to warn the unwary who somehow missed the noise of the exhaust and the clatter of valves coming. The motorcyclist didn't need to see behind because nothing else on the road could catch him.

But that's a guess. Does anyone know: when did the first rear view mirrors appear on motorcycles?

Circa 1928: Light, bulb horn but no mirrors.