kishan wrote:fitted led tail light and led white side light bulb and metal dustcaps ha ha

metal dust caps, are best fitted with a finger smear of grease around the valve thread, that way they dont seize in place

just saying as one muppet did not have the same experience, in a thread not long ago... thats if some kid does not nick them

Mounted a luggage rack and top box. Also mounted the controller for my heated grips. To do this I ordered a second hand handlebar cover from eBay as I needed to fit a bracket and didn't want to drill my nice new plastics. It is a slightly untidy bit of plastic, but in this case it's function before style.

All set up for my Europe trip in June.

Meldrew wrote:What's with the blowtorches? All you need is one of the gas burners on your cooker and a pair of needle nose pliers to hold the washer.

Yeah, good point Meldrew but I've got an electric cooker - not that it gets used a lot for cooking. It's last major use was getting the main bearings out of an Enfield crankcase - just fitted in the oven a treat!

as long as you take the caps off regularly to check tyre pressures you should be ok

havnt done it yet but I have to ride in the rain

spent hours last week cleaning the bike and it will get dirty

Those metal dust caps that also act as valve extractors have been around for decades and I can't ever remember one seizing in place.

The metal dust caps that also act as valve extractors are made of brass, brass nut on a brass stem is fine, the ones that can seize are the nice shiny aluminium ones, aluminium nut on a brass stem can have a bi-metal reaction when whetted with water hence the need for a grease "barrier"

Yeah, good point Bern, hadn't thought of that.

Just think of an early Lotus engine, lots of dissimilar metals sitting in fluid setting up some interesting chemistry

I always run black plastic caps, they are lighter and therefore stress the valve stems less when going at huge speeds..