99 GL1500 Aspencade, about 85,000 miles. Runs great. The left-side cover that goes over the fuses/box keeps coming off when traveling at highway speeds. This makes no sense to me. It is not damaged in any way and it seats into the pegs normally & with the same tight fit as the other side & how it's always been. It's not loose, the rubber surrounding the holes the plastic pops into is still good, not damaged or missing. There's no logical reason for the cover to keep coming off. Yet I'll be riding at 75mph and suddenly feel that the cover is coming loose. And twice now, if it wasn't for the passenger footrest being up, the cover would have slipped off and down the freeway.
Obviously, I can't just superglue the thing on. Any ideas???
Interesting, it's a shame we lost Rudy. But I can come up with something on my own using a combination of the ideas from that thread. Thank you.
It's still weird though. I understand that the rubber grommets get old eventually, wear out, etc and the things get loose. But mine aren't that way yet. They still hug tight & "pop" when I put the cover back on, just not enough to keep it steady at freeway speed, apparently. I'm surprised there's enough air resistance trying to force it loose in the first place. I would have thought the front fairing and my additional 'wings' would keep the wind wide to the bike.
Even though you say that the cover pops into the grommets I think you probably need to replace them. Unless one of the pins on the cover is broken off, it should stay in place. Mine does exactly the same thing but, because one of the pins on mine is broken off. Finally lost it.
Russell
Those who say it cannot be done should try not to interrupt those who are doing it.
I agree, even when the grommets are hardened and worn, they still "pop" - but they don't have as much retention force as they did new. They are affected by engine heat, and get hard over time. I would replace them before you lose the cover (and also rig up a retention system - those covers are expensive and hard to find!): https://www.amazon.com/Show-Chrome-Repl ... ref=sr_1_6
I did already put in an order on Amazon for the GR-600 grommet set since CycleMax was out of stock. I'm also going to start working on a system to attach/hold them to the bike with a strap like the other post just in case anyway.
Finding parts for these older wings is getting very difficult compared to even just a few years ago.
in the mean time put a little oil or even better Vaseline on the grommets. had the same problem with that once and found the secret was to keep the grommets treated with something
What I did to save my covers from blowing off was buy fishing leaders with swivels, drill hole just large enough for swivels behind grommets on covers. Then run around frame rail and hook.. 14 inch long fishing leaders is the length I used on both large side covers & both front fender covers. You can get nylon coated, stainless steel leader wire, or whatever you wish.
I have sprayed the grommets with silicone, every time I have removed the covers for whatever reason while at home in garage to keep the grommets soft for the past 23 years
Hope this helps someone
Take care
Attachments
Leader wrapped around frame showing off red HEL rear braided brake line
Zoom in to see small hole under rubber grommet
Other side. Back cable is for Battery Tender
Leader wrapped around frame thru hole under grommet
I wish I had the garage (and time) to tear apart the bike enough to install my HEL braided-steel brake line for the front-left caliper.
Even the shop that rebuilt my rear brake line & caliper earlier this year (twice) refused to do it.
I already did the front-right caliper, that one was fairly easy. I had a full set from HEL but when the shop went to do the rear section, they said that the fittings were all messed up & couldn't use my lines, so they put in custom-lines for the rear. But I'm still stuck with the original rubber for the front-left.
Had a heck of a time earlier this year. Twice after hitting a dip in the road at around 45mph, the pedal brake just bottomed out. Neither time was there any fluid leaking from the line/system and the master cylinder was full, but the pedal would still bottom out.
The second time it happened, the shop claimed that the line out from the rear caliper got completely bent after hitting the top of the wheel well, so they installed a 90-degree bend off the caliper so it can't be whacked like that again.
My brakes have always been a bit 'mushy' and not ever to my liking, but at this point, I've already spent over $1,000 on it & I'm not sure there's anything more I can do without a full teardown & buying brand new calipers for all 3 areas, which is prohibitively expensive. I did a caliper rebuild myself on the front-right & the shop did a rebuild on the front-left & rear calipers. So the seals & fittings are new at least. It helped, but not as much as I would have liked.
Can't help with the time, but there are plenty of garage spaces for things like that. Many makerspaces have automotive space with hoists and specialty tools. Urban Workshop is one I know of and I'm sure there are others. As a bonus they usually have full machine shops as well. With lots of living places being devoid of garages these places are filling that void. I used to have a condo with just a carport and they read me the riot act when I pulled the engine from my CB750 there. I always wanted to find an old van to park there to use as a bike garage, but I moved instead. No more HOA for me, EVER!!!
I'm in an apartment complex right now. I have a shared garage where I park my bike, but I can't even get the management company to give me a safe garage to park it at. We have two types of garages at my complex, a 2-car shared garage and a single-car garage. The 2-car shared garages have soft, uneven asphalt for the floor with doors that are 12" lower than normal. My garage is particularly bad with very uneven ground, so I can't put the bike on the center stand even, there's not enough level floor to pull it off on. And the places I am parking are digging holes in the soft asphalt with my 900lb motorcycle. I'm constantly worried it's going to fall over one of these days. And I 'whack' my 2 antennas every time I take the bike in/out of the garage.
Meanwhile, they have the single-car garages that have completely flat, level concrete floors and normal height doors, which would solve both of my problems. But despite the fact that they're arbitrarily assigned, they absolutely refuse to give me one, even if I paid for it. They offered to let me change apartments. The apartment it's attached to isn't even different from mine, it's just in a separate location. But the cost/logistics to move were beyond what I could pull off, especially just for a stupid garage. They'll regret it if my bike does fall over or one of the antenna breaks off as I give them the bill.
I'll look into one of those offsite garage's.. hopefully they aren't too expensive. I have a bunch of things I'd like to do, including replacing the front speakers.
