Installing Dual Star Mirrors on a 640

Passmore asked about my mirror's over in my Installing XM Radio on a 640 thread. So in the interest of future searches for mirror threads, I thought I'd answer his question in it's own thread instead of hiding it in the XM Radio thread....make sense...

There is a lengthy discussion on mirrors up in the Index....here's a link to that thread. It was to this thread that I headed when I decided to do something about the OEM mirrors.....lots of good info hiding in amongst the banter there.

I was ordering a couple of things from Dual Star and I had them throw in a couple of their mirrors inorder for me to play around with.

People have tried them in the intended location on the bars, with piss poor results...so thanks to them I knew I had to get them farther out. I wasn't too sure I wanted them as far outboard, as on the end of the bars, like Creeper has his. The compromise location seemed to be on the hand guards. Once again, several people in the mirror thread had tried them in that location with unsatisfactory results. Thanks to their efforts I wasn't starting from ground zero, and was able to pick up some insight from their efforts.

So here's how I tweaked the "on the hand guard install".

I'll describe the steps as if I knew what I was doing, and as if I proceeded in an orderly fashion. In reality, I didn't get the install done correctly the first time, but rather kept coming back to it, until I had enough "tweaks" done inorder for the mirrors to work well.

First I reformed the handguard inorder to get the surface I'd be attaching the mirrors to at a more advantagous angle. I used a Heat Gun to evenly heat the guard and then placed a piece of wood in there to keep it located while the plastic cooled.



Because of those who tried this before me, I knew if I just bolted the mirror's to the handguard directly...all I'd be seeing was my arm. So inorder to get them further outboard, I made a small bracket out of ABS plastic. The Heat Gun is the tool of choice once again.



I bolted my plastic bracket to the handguards with a couple of stainless steel, button head bolts.



This next tweak was primarily done inorder to get sufficient length on the Dual Star mirror bolts, so they would go all the way through my plastic bracket....which is thicker than the stainless steel brackets that come with the mirrors. It also allowed me the opportunity to bevel the mounting surface inorder to get a more advantages angle on the mirrors to better see behind me....a nice dividend.

See the mount on the right....how it's angled compared to the one on the left which I haven't changed yet.



That's about it for the install. Here's another view of the finished product.



Here's the full body shot.



How well do they work?

For me, they work great...but your results may differ.
I have a better view of what's behind me than I did with the stock mirrors...and I think it takes less of a "look" to use them than it did the stockers. I found the stockers to be too "in my face" which caused me to actually have to refocus inorder to look into the stockers. Out on the hand guards...a quick glance...and I'm done.

On the downside...the Dual Stars are only a 3" diameter, while the stockers are 4 1/2" diameter. Initially it was...wow:eek1 things are way far away and awfully small back behind me. But now that I'm used to them...things behind me seem normal.

Unfortunately, this install didn't do anything towards reducing the vibes in the mirrors...that stayed about the same as with the stockers.

I've already buried the left grip in the mud once ...with no damage to the mirror...so they seem to be pretty crash proof up there on the guards.

Nice job (again ) sherpa. I am glad the banter in the mirror thread was of use to someone! I will add your mod to the list in there.

One Q: do you think that the mirrors are adequately inboard to not touch down in a low-side slide or tipover? I don't mean on every surface of course, say tarmac to gravel/dirt roads.

I agree with Meat.....your work is brilliant...

Sherpa projects never fail to inspire...

Greg

looks good robert.... Im going to order some this week, thanks for the idea..

greg

are they pretty vulnerable in a tip over???

just FYI, a friend ordered a set 6 weeks ago from Dual-Star and they still have not arrived.... :eek1

mirrors on ebay...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/10mm...ryZ35587QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

For more than the retail price....

true, but better then waiting 2 month to get it.....

Greg I waited 2 months and still no mirrors so I canceled the order. :ddog

Sherpa The mirrors look great!

I was planning on doing almost the same thing but with a quick fold over design for when I was in the dirt.

sherpa, if you still read here..
where did you get the abs plastic piece?

Hey QOS - I PM'd sherpa a while back on this issue and it turns out the setup was unsuitable. Can't remember if it was due to vibration or crash resistance, but he's since gone with a different plan.

A much nicer option has been engineered by Highway Dirtbikes...

Someone did it! Thanks for sharing Chris

Hey Chris, what brand are those handgaurds ? seems i've seen them here before but can't seem to place them now.
Also the 2 button switch ? Blinks and H.Light, i assume. What bike are you taking pics of, something different than your 640 ?

Gotta say thanks for this post. I'm going to do something like this in the near future to get rid of the lollipop mirrors and extra bracketry on the KLX if it works well enough vibration-wise.

I've bookmarked this one.

When in doubt, try Google.

http://www.highwaydirtbikes.com/HDB_Shop/

The owner Paul is a really nice guy and everybody loves his products. Definitely the best hand guard solution around.

Nice solution....... but the mirrors appear to only come with the handguards. So $145 for the handguards plus $45 for the mirrors. Add engraving and your over $200 to get a pair of mirrors. How long before you think you'll see a set on a KLR?

Yep, although it looks like they should bolt onto any stout handguard (not sure if their curves would work with any handguards however) they are only sellling them with their handguards:

http://www.highwaydirtbikes.com/HDB_Shop/index.php?app=ccp0&ns=prodshow&ref=Mirror

pushing product... maybe they will sell them as a replacement part?