I've had my 2002 'max for going on two years now. The first year, I left it stock, just to get a feel for what I had. That, and I really didn't see a need to go changing things on the bike.
Then I met Shane Hasert, the Rocky Mountain Regional Director, at a local poker run in early June of '03. His Vmax had Supertrapp exhausts, drag bars, and an incredible green flames-on-dark green paint job. The sound of the exhaust, alone, was enough to convince me to change my mind. Between that, and surfing on the Internet to see what other people were doing to their bikes, I figured something out. The Vmax is a hell of a bike, but it can be better. Better performing, better sounding, and better looking.
By midsummer, I had figured out what I "needed" to do to my bike. I had already put a set of Supertrapps on, a Corbin seat, and a Memphis Shades Shooter windscreen (my bike is my primary commuter vehicle, 45 miles a day). It still looked mostly stock, which isn't bad. But, like I said, it could be better.
The main problem I had with the bike was that the grips were angled wrong. I do a lot of computer work during the week, and I've learned about the important of ergonomics. When I would spend a lot of time on the bike, or even for the 25 minutes or so of my commute, my hands would get uncomfortable. My hands rested at an angle on the grips, and it put a lot of pressure on the outer part of the heel of my hands. So, I needed to reposition the grips so I could put my hands and wrists in a neutral position while riding. I started flipping through a Dennis Kirk catalog, trying to figure out what handlebars were going to be right. It turned out that the Flanders 31" bars with a little bit of pullback put my hands in a good spot.
So, I convinced my wife that drag bars for the Vmax were an ergonomic necessity. I don't think she really bought the excuse, but she played along. While I was at it, I figured, I'd get a pair of the Kellermann BL-1000 bar end turn signals. They looked good, and they'd let me get rid of the stock front running/turn lights. And, if I got the chrome-plated steel indicators, they would double as bar-end weights to reduce handlebar vibration. Well, I couldn't pass that one off as an ergonomic necessity. I tried.
Thanks to a bad choice of how to go about ordering the indicators from Germany, I had to wait until September or October before I had all the parts. But, when everything came together, the results were really nice.
The drag bars put my hands a little forward from the stock bar's position. They also put my hands at a much more comfortable angle for driving longer periods of time. And the new turn signals were BRIGHT. Twenty one watt halogen bulbs are real attention getters, especially at night. I've startled myself with them a couple of times while driving at night.
But, I had a problem. I had walked around to the front of the bike to look at it right after getting the bars installed and adjusted, and I realized that the Vmax's face looked a lot better with nothing sticking up above the bars. Like mirrors, to be precise. While running without mirrors is tempting, I do like to know what's behind me from time to time without having to turn around in the seat. And bar-end mirrors were out - I had spent too much money and time on those Kellermann bar-end signals, and I was not getting rid of them. So, it was back to the catalog to see what I could come up with.
It turns out that Drag Specialties makes clamp-on mirrors. I went to the local bike shop and had him order me one of the 2" x 4.25" rectangular mirrors with the 8" stem. For fifteen bucks, if it didn't work, it wasn't a big deal.
It's a good thing I got the wide drag bars. The real estate along it gets eaten up pretty fast, between the grips, the switch boxes, the clutch/brake master cylinders, the windscreen mounts, and the handlebar mounts. Now I'm adding another clamp to hold a mirror. The 8" stem was ideal for my purposes - to position the mirror right where I wanted it, close below the grip, I had to position the mirror's clamp an inch or so in from the master cylinder brackets.
Now it was time to take the bike for a little spin around the block to see how the mirror worked out. The placement of the mirror put it really close to the tank cover when I turned the bars all the way to the stop. But the mirror missed hitting the tank by about an eighth of an inch. It took a bit of time to get used to looking below my hand for the mirror. And my wrist blocked about a third of the outer part of the mirror, but lifting my wrist up cleared it out (as opposed to having a third of the mirror blocked by shoulders that really can't get out of the way). Quick glances were out of the question, as were casual looks while dealing with traffic. The mirror was a flat surface, not a curved, wide-angle mirror like the stock model, and it was now a long ways from where my attention needed to be focused while in traffic. But I liked it. A lot. On the way back home, I stopped by the dealer to order the second mirror.
I've put close to a thousand miles on the bike since I rearranged its face. The tallest part of the bike (not counting the windscreen) is now the top of the speedometer, which seems appropriate. I've gotten quite a few compliments on the bar/mirror configuration, and I still have to stop and stare at it sometimes myself. The mirrors are far enough out that my body doesn't block them, and I can still see past a passenger's knees (as long as she isn't too big). My Nelson-Rigg tail bag will block the mirrors if its side pockets are full, but I can shift my position and still see if there's anything to worry about behind me.
My Vmax's facelift is not quite through. My next step, this spring, is to replace the stock front signals, which I am now using only as running lights, with some bright LEDs. I've got a pair picked out already. Then, eventually, I'm going to replace the headlight (after doing the double relay circuit mentioned in the Summer 2003 VBoost). I might only replace the lens with something nicer looking (that projects light better), but I may replace the entire bucket, as well. And I would like to put an HID Xenon bulb in the headlight. Something really bright that might help get people's attention.
But, until then, I think this facelift has turned out really well. This one picture of the bars really doesn't do it justice. I have a few others on my website at http://www.babylonbycandlelight.com/personal/vmax/index.html
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This page was last updated 10 December 2004
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