What have you done to your Himalayan today (or yesterday, or this week ...)

[Andyb]

Bought a spare chain Masterlink to fit at 5000 miles - a massive £2.50 from my local dealer complete with O rings. Cheap insurance.

 

[Seamus1504]

Just fitted a pair of Lomo panniers on. They look the business

 

[excollier]

Just fitted a pair of Lomo panniers on. They look the business

The throwovers?
I have a set, but never needed them yet, but will soon, look like they'll touch the exhaust

 

[Kiwiscoot]

Fitted a Pyramid Plastics front mudguard extension.

If I had to do it again, I think I would buy some 3M double-sided tape. Three strips of tape would be much easier than the myriad of little sticky pads in the Pyramid kit.

View attachment 16037

View attachment 16039

Looks good, but just a word of caution brother. I would uses screws. I see a serious face plant if the tape lets go. I would not like to be on that bike when it happens.

 

[hodgie]

Dis something silly yesterday. After all my years of engine fiddling…..

managed to cross thread the bloody spark plug. I was angry after a call about work and wasn’t paying attention to the initial screwing in by hand.
I’ve managed to remove it and correctly reinstall the plug but inevitably, I will have caused some longer term problems that will probably mean I need to treat my self to a new head assembly. It can want for now though.

shows we all have to be careful with our aluminium heads….

Just get a Helicoil spark plug thread repair kit. They work well, just about every small engine repair shop has and uses them. Should cost around $30.00 or less.

 

[Scott Free]

Yesterday I installed a new clutch lever. Not because I wanted to, but because the bike decided to roll off the kickstand while it was parked on the (flat, level) sidewalk and bent the lever double. The lever promptly broke when I tried to straighten it. The shop did not have an OEM lever in stock, so I bought a matched pair of CNC-machined, adjustable levers that were only a little more. Brought them home and tried to fit the clutch lever, only to find it had a big protrusion (for the clutch interlock on some other bike, maybe?) that I had to grind off:



Annoying, but not the end of the world. After I got the lever in place I discovered it lacks the protrusion that the Himalayan uses to operate the clutch interlock. This is not a big deal for two reasons: first, the way the interlock switch works, not having the protrusion on the lever just means the interlock is bypassed and the bike will start regardless of whether the lever is pulled in; second, I bypassed the starter interlocks when I installed that Ford pickup truck starter relay a couple years ago. A bigger problem is that the new lever is only slightly longer than the remaining portion of the broken original lever:



Looks like it was intended for a bike with no (or a much skinnier) switch pod. I will see if I can live with it, or if I'm going to end up putting these nifty adjustable levers on the "seemed like a good idea at the time" shelf.

Coming soon, I will have to replace the plastic storage box I had mounted to the left side tank rack, as it got shattered when the bike fell on it. As did the plastic handguard, which did not particularly surprise me as this set of handguards is mostly to keep the wind and bugs off (I call them BugBusters™).

I blame the fall-over on the Himalayan's being jealous. I came into possession of an antique (1980) Yamaha last summer, and have been spending a lot of time getting it into condition to ride to the Slimy Cruds Run this weekend. As a result, the Himalayan's been sorta neglected. Having three motorcycles is like having three women in your life: even though you can only ride one at a time, they all expect your full attention all the time...

 

[Seamus1504]

The throwovers?
I have a set, but never needed them yet, but will soon, look like they'll touch the exhaust

 

[Seamus1504]

I’ve managed to keep it off the exhaust. My home made rear rack helps.

 

[grymsr]

Installed the Hitchcocks anti-battery drain thingie on my 2019. I'm going to disconnect the trickle charger for three weeks and see what happens.

 

[excollier]

Installed the Hitchcocks anti-battery drain thingie on my 2019. I'm going to disconnect the trickle charger for three weeks and see what happens.

I'll be calling in with Hitchcock's in a couple of weeks, think I'll get that fix too.

 

[grymsr]

I'll be calling in with Hitchcock's in a couple of weeks, think I'll get that fix too.

it's much easier than replacing the rectifier. cheaper too.

 

[Scott Free]

The Hitchcocks/RE add-on harness is nice if you are not comfortable messing around in your bike's wiring, but it does add yet another couple connectors to corrode (and given RE's somewhat less-than-stellar choice of electrical parts, that's a concern). Having the necessary degrees and taken the necessary classes, I just directly connected the "mystery box" to a switched power lead--in particular, the lead coming from the relay I had installed to power my other accessories like heated grips and electric-vest socket. In the process I was able to eliminate on connector, as it appears the "mystery box" itself was a last-minute kludge when somebody at RE discovered the instrument cluster did not have an internal pull-up resistor for the gear position sensor.

 

[Hairy Potter]

Fitted a set of front panniers and a tank bag, all given as a gift for helping with friends bike restorations. They are probably better than what I would have bought myself!
Odinsburg waterproof panniers and an Induristan Sandstorm waterproof tank bag with map pocket. Road trip here we come............ or rather a bit of small adventures with my son, he can reach the footpegs now and seems to enjoy short rides. Thinking camping gear and off down the road for 10 miles and overnight by the beach somewhere, campfire and exploring.

 

[Harleyboy]

Yesterday I installed a new clutch lever. Not because I wanted to, but because the bike decided to roll off the kickstand while it was parked on the (flat, level) sidewalk and bent the lever double. The lever promptly broke when I tried to straighten it. The shop did not have an OEM lever in stock, so I bought a matched pair of CNC-machined, adjustable levers that were only a little more. Brought them home and tried to fit the clutch lever, only to find it had a big protrusion (for the clutch interlock on some other bike, maybe?) that I had to grind off:

View attachment 16646

Annoying, but not the end of the world. After I got the lever in place I discovered it lacks the protrusion that the Himalayan uses to operate the clutch interlock. This is not a big deal for two reasons: first, the way the interlock switch works, not having the protrusion on the lever just means the interlock is bypassed and the bike will start regardless of whether the lever is pulled in; second, I bypassed the starter interlocks when I installed that Ford pickup truck starter relay a couple years ago. A bigger problem is that the new lever is only slightly longer than the remaining portion of the broken original lever:

View attachment 16647

Looks like it was intended for a bike with no (or a much skinnier) switch pod. I will see if I can live with it, or if I'm going to end up putting these nifty adjustable levers on the "seemed like a good idea at the time" shelf.

Coming soon, I will have to replace the plastic storage box I had mounted to the left side tank rack, as it got shattered when the bike fell on it. As did the plastic handguard, which did not particularly surprise me as this set of handguards is mostly to keep the wind and bugs off (I call them BugBusters™).

I blame the fall-over on the Himalayan's being jealous. I came into possession of an antique (1980) Yamaha last summer, and have been spending a lot of time getting it into condition to ride to the Slimy Cruds Run this weekend. As a result, the Himalayan's been sorta neglected. Having three motorcycles is like having three women in your life: even though you can only ride one at a time, they all expect your full attention all the time...

Not sure but I’ve seen these levers for sale and some sites do ask if long or short levers required. As per picture these maybe the short option, seen on Amazon and eBay and Google search.

 

[GarethR]

Fitted a Pyramid Plastics front mudguard extension.

If I had to do it again, I think I would buy some 3M double-sided tape. Three strips of tape would be much easier than the myriad of little sticky pads in the Pyramid kit.

Looks good, but just a word of caution brother. I would uses screws. I see a serious face plant if the tape lets go. I would not like to be on that bike when it happens.

As it happens....

I wasn't happy with the sticky pads that Pyramid suppled for the front mudguard / fender extension so I reattached it with 3M exterior tape. The plastic rivets were then too short, so I bought some M3 bolts, nuts, and washers from Amazon (UK).

-- sourcing map Flanged Button Head Socket Cap Screws, M3x12mm 304 Stainless Steel Black Oxide Socket Drive Fasteners Bolts, Fully Thread Machine Screws
-- M3 Nyloc Nut 3mm Nylon Insert Lock Nuts A2 Stainless Steel
-- sourcing map M3 304 Stainless Steel Flat Washers, 3x6x0.3mm Ultra Thin Flat Spacers for Screw Bolt, Electronic Repair, Automotive

Needed a 2mm hex (Allen) key and a 5mm spanner (or a small adjustable in my case). 10mm long screws would probably have been OK.

 

[GarethR]

And, today, I pondered the age-old question: "Beak or no beak?".



I'm leaning towards no beak. Perhaps I should have bought a Scram.

 

[Scott Free]

And, today, I pondered the age-old question: "Beak or no beak?".

View attachment 16813

I'm leaning towards no beak. Perhaps I should have bought a Scram.

I also pondered this. The Himalayan’s double fender isn’t as silly as the GS “beak,” but it always struck me as redundant. The headlight and tank racks seemed too massive to properly balance just the lower fender. So I tried chopping off the front part of the lower fender, hoping the upper fender would give me more of a dirt-bike look:



Looks better (at least to me), but as it turns out the Himalayan’s upper fender is not a proper dirtbike item; lots of slop comes around it. I toy with the idea of fitting a proper dirtbike fender like the planarian-shaped one that was on my KLR. Been thinking about this for three years now, still haven’t done anything.

 

[GarethR]

I didn't watch it, but I've seen a youtube video thumbnail of a Himalayan with a motocross front mudguard.

 

[Turbofurball]

How are the short adjustable levers in use? I'd like to get a set to bring the levers a little closer to the bars and to fit inside a pair of normal dirtbike handguards I have laying around (I'm entirely nonplussed by the RE handguards that came with the bike)

 

[Roy Gavin]

The short levers will tame the fierce front brake!