Motorcycle mirrors I have known..

I have had a love/hate relationship with mirrors, ever since GRiSO took ownership of me.

The originals. Being a MY10, mine came with these horrors. Chrome. Looked shit on a black bike. I can't even remember if they worked.

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So I thought I'd "upgrade" to standard Aprilia mirrors. Buzzy things that showed blurry images of my shoulders.

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Next came what Roper lovingly referred to as "gynaecologist's speculums". Rizoma knock-offs. I was mocked mercilessly for these. However, they worked. Showed me my elbows in solid, blur free vision. They were a bit on the small side, and fellow riders would screech at me, red-faced, spittle flying, "you can't see out of those! Too small! Dangerous!"

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Then came the Brembo RCS brake & clutch master cylinders. No mirror mounts.* Time for bar end mirrors! The revelation of no buffeting from the mirrors had converted me immediately. Several varieties ensued, from speculum style to round mirrors, and even rectangular. Upside down versions were tried. The speculums were always rock solid. The round ones didn't have a large enough field of view,and the rectangular ones drooped.

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I tried other variations. I was loathe to spend any more than about $50AU on mirrors. Given my penchants for flinging myself into the weeds, I figured it would be a waste of money. I tried some more Rizoma knock-offs. Could only be adjusted with Allen keys. Useless! Lasted one ride.

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One evening, in a moment of drunken fervour, I bought some Joker Machine 'concealed' mirrors. On special, of course. Took some ingenuity to affix them. They were really too small...back to the cheapy round ones.

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After riding a V7 Racer for 5 months, I decided I liked the Napoleon mirrors. They were large and had a good field of view, and didn't vibrate. Excellent! I bought some for the GRiSO. I blanched at the $140 price tag, but valiantly forged ahead. Useless! Vibrating! Blurry! Yuck! WTF?

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After trying many ways to reduce the blur, I eventually went back to the round cheapies. They stayed on for many a month, until that fateful day last September, when I got all crashy and smashed them to smithereens.


After returning GRiSO to its almost former glory, I went all out and paid $23 bucks for some CRG knock-offs. How to fit them? During the restoration, I had had to replace the previously installed aftermarket bars, being all bent and wonky. I lashed out and bought some Jota style adjustable bars. Really good, except the internal diameter is 15.5mm. That's an odd internal size, BTW, for 22mm bars. Normally, they're 12-14mm, or 18mm. I had to use my google-fu to find adapters that would work. Why didn't you just attach them directly to the bars, you say? That's what CRG recommend. Well, my friends, as I had already been enjoying the narrow aftermarket bars, and as it turns out the Jota bars are bang on the same length, I didn't want to lose any more width to mirrors, otherwise I'd be enjoying full elbow, instead of only the tip...

..so I had to buy some CRG adapters, because they're the only ones who make inserts that work anywhere from 12 to 18mm...and being well made pieces of kit, I had to fork out the princely sum of $88 shipped for the little buggers. Heaven forfend! However, the $23 knock-offs were a case of you-get-what-you-pay-for. Useless, blurry, tiny useless, shitty, useless things. Plus, too low...

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Perhaps if I'd ponied up for real CRG Arrows? Still would be too low. I had to actually move my head to look at them. Nope.

This is where things get crazy. I once more used my google-fu to search the interwebs for a solution. Then, seduced by German engineering, I paid the obscene sum of $345 for some Motogadget glassless mirrors. WTF was I thinking? That's more than I've spent on the plethora of mirrors I've amassed to date. Egads!

Lookit:


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I'll post pics on the GRiSO when they arrive.







*You can get Brembo RCS clamps with built-in mirror mounts, but they interfer with the reservoir brackets. Too much stuffing about required.

God's Teeth! $345 for mirrors! I hope they cook you dinner and wash the dishes afterwards!

Yeah..I'm struggling with it too. That's less than real Rizoma and CRG mirrors here though...

Don't forget it's worse if you have to pony up for the adapters too...

Mirror, mirror, on the wall...

Rear camera and a dash screen ?

I did consider that, but in NSW, motorcycles built after June 1975 must have two mirrors.

Do they have to be on the bars, or can they be anywhere? Only joking.

waterbottle wrote:

Rear camera and a dash screen ?

That's just what I was thinking.

Some people have a shoe fetish with Mark it seems to be mirrors. I have never had a bike with handlebar mounted mirrors that I have been totally happy with.
At present I have on the G1100 knock off oem style chrome mirrors. Only half the mirror covers the road behind the rest is all elbow and arm, also they do blur at certain speeds, then again so did the factory mirrors.
It makes you wonder what the factory road testers tell the designers during a bike's development stage."Hey Luigi the mirrors are crap and the mapping is awful, lets get this thing into production pronto".

why do you want to look at the things you have just passed anyway???

bahamazoo wrote:

why do you want to look at the things you have just passed anyway???

You have obviously not been on a German autobahn with a couple of tons of Teutonic automotive engineering approaching rearwards at 140 mph.

that Two Tonne Teutonic Torpedo is always an Audi.
I speak from extensive field testing over a 6 year period.
no matter what you are driving, no matter how fast you are going, and no matter how much clear space you have behind you, as soon as you move into that outer lane, an Audi instantly appears flashing his 6000K HIDs at you.
So I don't drive on the autobahn anymore.
Thankfully, ballistic Audis are frowned upon down under.

The V7 came stock with the same mirrors as your fist ones - magnificent view of arms & shoulders, with glimpses of the road behind, at least until wet weather gear was required, then nothing but shoulder. Went with Napoleon bar ends for a while, until I found the CRGs - the small round HS & LS. At first moved the switch blocks inwards, later got the CRG adapters. They transferred OK to the Laverda style bars I put on (with rear sets, to emulate as best as possible, the ergonomics of the 1100 Sport). Just around the time I found the billet bar ends from Corsa Italia, I decided I wasn't happy with them - too much head movement required to view tiny images that made the cars behind look too far away & with the untrimmed bars they poked way to far out in the breeze. I replaced these with a set of Napoleon Barens mounted in the mirror mounts on the switch blocks. OK, until constant use loosened the I adjustable mirror ball so the RHS one would flop. Found the Rizoma (with adapter - some $200) for the RHS - it has been excellent, and settled for the cheaper Napoleon for the LHS. I then found that the arm of the Napoleon bend when they hit the road - oops - and if you do that often enough, they are difficult to straighten. In desperation, I put on a stock mirror - and to my surprise, I found that the low bars enabled the angle of the dangle aimed the viewing angle past the shoulders. Success.

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Good stuff Mal. I'm pleased I'm not the only one who has trouble with mirrors. I couldn't stand having two different mirrors, however!

> I was loathe to spend any more than about $50AU on mirrors

Per day on average? It's a tad too much, you really should spend more money on fuel than on mirrors. I really hope you'll enjoy the new ones, although I have my doubts

I pulled the trigger on Rizoma for my V7 and am so pleased with them that I'm saving my money to upgrade them on the GRiSO too.

beetle wrote:

Good stuff Mal. I'm pleased I'm not the only one who has trouble with mirrors. I couldn't stand having two different mirrors, however!

Yeah, it does look a little odd, but the view is good, so it doesn't worry me too much. If I win lotto, I'd likely buy another Rizoma, and I figure I've as good a chance at winning lotto without a ticket as I had have with one. In the meantime, I have a collection of spare stock mirrors.

I have found that bar ends do give a better view of your luggage - reassuring.

Aaahh! Just an idea for the stock mirrors, as the mirror stalks are threaded both ends ...................
a longer steel bar ................ cut a thread both ends ................... bit of heat and bend it ................ then get it chromed .............

dont like bar end mirrors, the handlebars are wide enough already, especially filtering here in the UK. I was going to replace the black aprilia ones i have with the same replacements, but now maybe i will wait and see.......

I have the black Aprilia ones - had some knock offs for a while but they were shit. Vibration has always been an issue on my Sport. Judicious use of bar end weight combinations, with my handguards has brought the bad vibes under (well mostly) control.

Extending anything away from the pivot point, will respond to various vibrations - takes a bit of effort to iron out these...

sidrat wrote:

dont like bar end mirrors, the handlebars are wide enough already, especially filtering here in the UK. I was going to replace the black aprilia ones i have with the same replacements, but now maybe i will wait and see.......

My bars are more narrow than stock, so it wouldn't be an issue for me. Not that I filter (lane split). No, don't ask me why. It's outside the scope of this thread.

raz wrote:

Per day on average? It's a tad too much, you really should spend more money on fuel than on mirrors. I really hope you'll enjoy the new ones, although I have my doubts

I added up all the money spent on mirrors including the latest spend. To my horror, it was $826.54!

That's only $137.75 per year. I do spend more on petrol.

I've been running the Halcyon round black bar end mirrors on stock bars. Seems fine to me.

I wouldn't call be rearward view panoramic, but good enough to see the sheriff coming up.
Plenty of time for me to pull over and wait to have a nice chat about the speed limit.

Greetings from Tasmania.
I would post some pickies of what I see in my mirrors but I'm sure you have seen plenty of inside 'elbows'
Have a great day.

I do like those Mark, unfortunately my cheap ones are still working. But they are $234us from revzilla, free shipping, hmm.

Mirrors have arrived. They are very light and extremely well made. The mirror assembly is wafer thin. These have no glass, just a polished metal surface with an SiO4 coating. Bloody brilliant!

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I would install them, but it's too bloody hot. Add 10 degrees for the temperature inside the garage.


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Look good mark. Go have another cool drink, but not too may, it's only 41!