Rubber Lever End Thingies

[redbirds_imp]

It is clear to me that the RLET's original purpose has been lost. Obviously intended as a means of protecting the lever ends while in shipping, dealers failed to read assembly instruction 99c which instructed the tech to heat the RLET and remove before delivery. Later, Honda wisely stopped applying the RLETs realizing they were an anachronism akin to whalebone corsets. The wise men who engineered the modern CB1100 would have equipped the CB with RLET's if they reasoned them necessary. I know I speak heresy here but today's heresy often becomes tomorrows orthodoxy.

Lost ? what's been lost is the polite rider who adds RLETS to the widest most part of their bike. They're obvious intent was to protect cars from getting keyed by lane splitting riders, which was very common in crowded asian and european streets (and CA highways) back in the 60s and 70s. I guess Honda didn't expect there to be many Lane Splitting geezers on CB1100s, so as to save us a couple of bucks they made them an option.

Why no RHBEWT's then? (Rubber Handlebar End Weight Thingies)

Forgive my posting so many quotes, but redbirds has hit on a couple of interesting points here. And, no, his faint and futile optimism about his heresy converting to orthodoxy is not one of them.

The first lies in his keen observation that the end weight is actually the bike's extremity. Using the end of a brake or clutch lever to 'key' a car is actually a remarkably difficult feat (God knows I've tried) and were I to want to make a habit of that sort of automative vandalism, I'd be redesigning the end weight so it ended in a serrated end that left exquisite scratches in cage doors. It would be the motorcycle equivalent of the hub nut on James Bond's Aston Martin DB5 in Goldfinger.

The second is his recollection of the alleged assembly instruction. It's nice, but it just doesn't compute. He's right that rubber prophylactic devices are commonly rolled over knobs to prevent harm. Most understand they are delightfully easy to apply and, when they have done their work, come off easily. But the RLET? Was a prophylactic device ever more difficult to apply? Read the posts on this thread. Ask anyone—maybe even redbirds himself, although I can't recall whether he was there—who witnessed no less an RLET guru than the Ferret himself try to get a couple on to ride4now's CB1100 at Robbinsville—if it's easy. It isn't.

These things were clearly designed never, ever, ever to be taken off.

But why, ladies and gentlemen? Why?

Indeed, I was there along with Lady Pamela. It was not a pretty sight nor one easily forgotten. Such sounds as I had not heard since being witness to the mating of feral swine whilst bow hunting in Blackfish Swamp. Lady Pamela, trapped in the bawdy crowd that had gathered to watch, needed retire to our rooms and was barely recovered enough to ride by next day and is still troubled by the whole seedy affair.

A keen blade doth remove them as I can attest.