New Swing Owner in Santa Cruz CA

Hello,

I recently got rid of my dual sport bike as have not been riding it, due to spending more time riding my trials bike.
Traffic in my parts gets pretty bad during the Summer, so I started looking for a commuter bike with a "maxi scooter" being an option.
I ran across a clean 2005 Silverwing with 13k miles on it for a decent price. Made the purchase and have been enjoying the scooter ever since...2 weeks now.
The bike came missing the handlebar cover, I replaced this, it did not fit super well, I am assuming that the bars may be slightly bent due to the fact that the bike has been on it's side at some point.
I also replaced the seat "shock" because it wasn't holing up the seat any longer.
The safety switch on the left was also acting up and not letting the bike start. I tried cleaning it with no luck, so I replaced that too.
I am always worried about drivers not seeing you on the road, so I also installed new LED tail/brake lights that flash 4 times when the brake is applied.
The clutch does squeak/howl a bit when it becomes warm. I will try the brake and throttle technique for now, and look into it a bit deeper when I replace the drive belt in a few thousand miles.

Thanks for having me,
Chad

Hello Chad. Welcome to the forum. FWIW, Yeah, those handlebar covers never seem to fit well, or well enough.

Thanks for the warm welcome.
I am curious if my bars have been cut down.
Some of the photos I have seen, it appears that there is a lot more room on the bar for lever clamps/switches compared to mine.
Do you happen to have a measurement of the width of the bars?

Thmp Thmp wrote:

Thanks for the warm welcome.
I am curious if my bars have been cut down.
Some of the photos I have seen, it appears that there is a lot more room on the bar for lever clamps/switches compared to mine.
Do you happen to have a measurement of the width of the bars?

The distance between the inside edge of the left switch housing (high beam) and the inside edge of the right switch housing (kill switch) is ~38 mm as measured point to point.

Thank you for the response, any idea how wide the bars are (end to end)?

Welcome aboard the board Chad.

There was/is an accessory I saw on one of Stephano's YouTube clips that is basically a chrome ring that fits around the bottom of the handlebars. It allows you to skip using the OEM plastic covers and IMO, the chrome ring looks pretty good. I reach out to him and he couldn't remember/didn't know where it could be bought from.

I also tried to track one down with no luck. Perhaps one of our European/overseas members knows where to get one.

Thmp Thmp wrote:

Thank you for the response, any idea how wide the bars are (end to end)?

Approximately 72.5 mm

Cosmic_Jumper wrote:

Thmp Thmp wrote:

Thank you for the response, any idea how wide the bars are (end to end)?

Approximately 72.5 mm

72.5mm or cm?
I measured mine bars last night and from the outside end of the grips it measured 25.25in (64.14cm), and from bar end to bar end it measured 26.75in (67.9cm).
If the measurement you shared is cm that would be make it 28.5in which would make me guess that the bars might be cut.
I appreciate you taking the time to take these measurements.

Yeah that’d be cm’s. And the measurement was from bar end weight to bar end weight.

Cosmic_Jumper wrote:

Yeah that’d be cm’s. And the measurement was from bar end weight to bar end weight.

Thank you for the update. From the measurements you provided it appears that my bars might have been cut down. I will pull the bar ends off and see if there is any evidence of cutting.

Hi Thmp Thmp,
I got curious and just went out and measured mine. I have an 08 SWing and they are 27 5/8" from bar end weight to bar end weight.

Dale N. wrote:

Hi Thmp Thmp,
I got curious and just went out and measured mine. I have an 08 SWing and they are 27 5/8" from bar end weight to bar end weight.

Thanks for taking the time to measure. We are very close to the same width.
There are a couple reasons I’m asking.
First, they feel very narrow, but I’m used to dirt bikes. Two, there is very little room to move the levers for personal preference. Three, I’ve seen pictures of some Silver Wings with a lot more exposed bar between the cover and switches. Wonder if there are two different bars over the years?

Welcome to the forum Thmp Thmp. Do you think somebody may have put 'different' handlebars on your bike, for some odd reason?, which have slightly different geometry.

As cosmic-jumper mentions above, those covers require some jiggery-pokery to get right. I replaced all three pieces of mine because they were slightly cracked and scratched with a couple of those plastic screw attachments missing. Even after I'd fitted the three, new OEM parts it was still a PITA to 'set it all up'.

From memory, I have very little space between the switch assemblies and plastic covers on my SW.

Loosemarbles wrote:

Welcome to the forum Thmp Thmp. Do you think somebody may have put 'different' handlebars on your bike, for some odd reason?, which have slightly different geometry.

As cosmic-jumper mentions above, those covers require some jiggery-pokery to get right. I replaced all three pieces of mine because they were slightly cracked and scratched with a couple of those plastic screw attachments missing. Even after I'd fitted the three, new OEM parts it was still a PITA to 'set it all up'.

From memory, I have very little space between the switch assemblies and plastic covers on my SW.

At first I thought that the bars may have been changed or cut do to the lack of space, feeling narrow and the strange fit of the handle bar cover.
But after looking at things a bit more it seems like the bars are bent. It appears that the right side is higher and pushed inward a bit, this would cause the fitment issue of the cover and narrow feel.
Also the first time I got on the bike something felt a little off and I think that this was it.
New bars are on order.

Well, it could be worse...