Tuesday, April 8, 2014

More touches to the Balita Roja

Improvements, I call them. There's always something fun to add to a bike like a Royal Enfield. This week, I decided to blow my bonus and get some things done.
  1. The heel shifter. Instead of having to use your toe to push up on the lever to shift upwards,  you use your toe to press down and downshift, and your heel to shift up. It keeps your toe from wearing out on the shoe or boot. 
  2. The seat has been re-upholstered. The fake leather had split, so it needed to be done. This time with a cool red edge thing going on, just for fun. 
  3. The drop bars. The black matte bars should help if I accidentally drop my bike at a stop or as I get on or off. Yep, it happens to the best of them. I think matte black is not so visible as chrome, but...
  4. The aluminum bars holding up the windscreen have been cut back and capped. Looks much better, although I'd still prefer to have the single-bar solution. Still, it looks better than before.





What do you think? Aside from the Balita needing a good bath and waxing...

5 comments:

  1. You've made a great looking bike even better. I really like the heel-toe shift lever and you will never be sorry to have the extra protection of those highway bars. Well done!

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  2. Looking good John. I like the gear shift lever as well. I had one on my Honda C90, my very first bike, when I first started biking. I don't see why they aren't used more now really. The seat looks great with that red edging too, a big improvement. Those improvements will really help to incourage a buyer if you ever decided to sell your baby!

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    1. I agree, Peter and Lawritz. The heel shifter is actually so easy and comfortable, and it feels totally natural. It took me about an hour to get used to it, now I wish all bikes had one!

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  3. The red striping is really exceptionally smart looking. I like it.

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    1. Thanks, David! I'd seen that piping in white before but when I saw it in red, I thought, That's for me!

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