Hand grips and engine shine

[digitalsam]

Just bought my first bike. 1980 XS1100 Special. Love it, but would like to change the grips to something with chrome and leather.

Question? Can you change out grips for any other grips, or are they bike specific? Also, how hard is it?

The engine is also pretty dull. How do you shine it up without dismantling the bike? Specifically the hard to reach spots?

Thanks

[bikerphil]

Grips must be for the 7/8 diameter handlebar. Measure the legnth of your grips before ordering and try to get ones close as possible to the original. Longer grips will work but will possibly require a few modifications.

As for polishing the engine's hard to reach areas, go to Sears or your local tool supplier and pick up a kit of small buffing wheels that fit into a dremel tool. The kit usually has the buffing compound(s) included. That's the easy part. The hard part will be the labor and hours depending on how nice you want it to look.

When I restored my last bike, I polished the engine covers and painted the engine itself with high temp. 1200F ceramic paint. Came out awesome. HTH

[mason79]

use paint remover or permatex gasket remover to get the clearcoat off first, then any aluminum polich would work.

brush on the paint remover mask off protected areas, worked for me.

[mro]

No Leather

Available from mikexs.com


and


Mikes also has chrome controls altho may need to mod the wiring a little.


mro
BWT,
bet some thought I'd post another pic of the Merrium