Motorcycle grips are essential for comfortable and safe riding, especially on long trips. If you don't have the right grips on your bike, it's time to find the perfect pair.
Benefits of Motorcycle Grips
Wrist and hand comfort. Some say that the numbness you feel in your hands is from the vibration or poor circulation. The right grips can cushion your grip and give your hands comfort.
Control. Depending on the type of aftermarket grips you buy, you can improve the control you have over your throttle. The right grips will prevent your hand from slipping.
Style. Changing out your stock grips for aftermarket ones is about more than comfort. You can choose a set of grips that can enhance the look of your bike. You could choose chrome accents or a color that matches your bike.
Types of Motorcycle Grips
ISO GRIPS
These grips are ideal for long-distance riding or bikes that have a lot of vibration through the motorcycle handlebars. They’re designed with vibration-isolating features that will relieve the pressure transferred through your hands.
BILLET RUBBER GRIPS
These are the most common types of grips with varying combinations of rubber and metal. They’re typically anodized and come in a wide variety of color schemes. These grips will give you the ideal combination of functionality and style.
HEATED GRIPS
If you like to ride in cold climates, then heated grips will be a lifesaver. These grips come with special wiring that will connect to your motorcycle battery. You can then change the temperature of your handlebar grips throughout the seasons.
How do you rebuild a carburetor?
There's heartache and joy that come with owning, and caring for, an older vehicle. It's helpful if you can sort out a number of problems on your own, it will save you cash and trips to your local mechanic. One of the more seemingly puzzling aspects of old-car ownership occurs when you drive a carbureted vehicle. Hagerty is here to demystify the deliverer of air and fuel for you.
The best way to familiarize yourself with any car part is to disassemble it. So the first part of Hagerty's two-part video guide involves a walkthrough of a carburetor teardown. There are floats, jets, needles, valves, and springs all waiting for your venture into the world of your carb. You don't need of tools to get started, just a few pliers and screwdrivers should get you moving. And a bottle of carb cleaner will get plenty of usage as well.
If you're going to tear down and rebuild your carburetor, you'll want a simple rebuild kit handy. A proper kit includes all of the diaphragms, seals, needles, seats, and more.
As you tear down the carb, you'll find parts that are either due for replacement or just need a simple cleanup. That's the beauty of a carb rebuild. Once properly addressed, and the carb rebuilt, your car will be running better than ever.
Once you have the carb completely broken down and cleaned up, it's time to crack open the rebuild kit and put everything back together. It's an entertaining puzzle, but a puzzle that makes more and more sense every time you tinker with it.
These two videos serve as a great guide for rebuilding. While we love the Hagerty time lapse videos, it's also nice to see one that's teaching us as well.
How it works: Brakes
If you've ever experienced brake fade or, god forbid, brake failure, you'll have an appreciation of just how important it is that brakes work consistently. Here are the basic principles and components for modern and by that we mean hydraulic ones, with discs not drums.
It's all about hydraulics
Modern motorcycle brakes work by transferring movement and force at the lever through an incompressible liquid to the caliper pistons, which then press the brake pads against the disc. For that force to be transferred efficiently, the brake lines must not expand, there must be no leaks and the fluid must not compress. If any of those happen, you get spongey-feeling brakes, or indeed no brakes. Gulp.
