Ducati Sporting Club UK > Model Specific - Discussion, Technical Problems and Help > 851 / 888 > Little things mean a lot

[Jools]

One of the things that I hated about my 888 was the "Superbike" disgust-o-grips that it came with and the cheap white nylon end caps on the bars.

Well, after some medium compound diamond pattern Renthal grips turned up today (thanks B&C Express) to go with the DP bar ends that turned up yesterday (thanks nattyboy), I managed to take 20 minutes out of a really busy day to fit them onto the bike.

I had read that the grips could be a bit of a faff to put on. I was already aware that the throttle side was a bigger diameter than the clutch side to cater for the throttle tube (thanks to a frustrating episode with a trials bike when I got it wrong) and I read through Nattyboys thread on how to put them on. General advice was to heat them with a hot air gun to make them pliable and various lubricants were suggested - the favourite being plain water. So, being an all round smarta*** I put the heat and water theories together and popped them both in a pyrex jug of boiling water for a few minutes. I wiped the bare bar and throttle tube down with a water soaked rag (cold water) and they slid on a treat.

I had my right hand riding glove on to help hold onto the grip and twist it on without taking the skin of my hand, but I found that if you sort of hammered it on by sliding your hand along the grip and hammering the raised bit at the end it popped them on with no fuss whatsoever (but then I've had a fair amount of practise at that particular motion )

A few minutes later and the bar ends had joined their new friends and the T8 has taken another tiny step closer to how I want it to be.

Only a little thing but still cool