- Some cheap ($3.29) black and yellow handgrips, to replace the cheap black and yellow handgrips I recently bought and used. I had to cut holes in the ends of the previous pair to accommodate my bar-end mirrors. The new pair already has holes in the ends, with caps to put in if you're not sticking mirrors there.
- A new custom-embroidered cloth keychain ($4.03), black with the bike's name (Olivia D) in yellow letters, to replace the previous custom-engraved cloth keychain, which is black and has a catchy move line ("But Did You Die?") on it in red letters. As you can tell from various photos, I've really leaned into the black and yellow theme. I'll use the old keychain for something else, I'm sure.
- A silverish "bubble shield" visor ($7.82) to go on my retro open-face motorcycle helmet. I bought that helmet at a thrift store about the time I got the motorcycle, because I thought the motorcycle was going to arrive before my full-face helmet did and wanted to have something more robust than the half-helmet I've had since I got the old 50cc scooter. As it happened, the full-face helmet arrived before the bike. I recently decided to paint the old helmet gold (over its original scratched-up black) and get a bubble shield for that '70s look.
On the way from Temu:
- A black and yellow seat cover ($6.73). I had another cheap seat cover that didn't fit very well and was just plain black, and I had to get my order over $20 for "free" shipping, so I decided to try this one. The other $14.14 in the order is
- A 9.5 gallon hard-shell locking trunk that can be bolted to the top of the rear rack for trips. It's black -- with yellow reflective strips! My last "luggage required" trip went well, but in addition to the saddlebags, I had a backpack cargo-netted to the top of the rear rack and while it was probably fairly secure, it didn't really feel very secure to me. The trunk may be big enough to not even need the saddle bags for some trips. If I decide I want to keep it mounted on the bike all the time, I can even put my helmet in it instead of lugging the helmet around every store I go into. But I doubt I'll want the trunk on all the time.
One the way from Amazon:
I removed the Kemimoto bar-end mirrors ($26.99) from my Amazon Wish List and bought (using some left-over gift card credit) a $14.99 pair of Refitial mirrors (not an affiliate link). Not just cheaper, but exactly what I was looking for. Instead of little clicky adjusters like the el cheapo Temu mirrors and the Kemimoto mirrors (which I could only hope would be of higher quality and less likely to come out of position in a headwind), these adjust with two ball joints. They're black with a little gold stripe (close enough to yellow!).
The mirrors should arrive in a day or two, so I'll replace the hand grips and mirrors at the same time.
Don't know if I mentioned it before, but the bike recorded its first GPS-verified 60 mile per hour speed a day or two ago. I think I may have hit 60 once or twice before the new variator setup, but I never had my GPS speedo app running to prove it. I've put about 50 miles on it since the variator mod; the mechanic told me to give it 100 miles for the belt to stretch, etc. before considering the results "final" (they should get better), so I may end up with another mile or two top speed.
One thing I regret not checking prior to the mod is initial acceleration. Anecdotally, my recollection is that before the mod, I got to about 30 miles per hour while covering the distance between my driveway and a curve about an eighth of a mile down the road. Now I'm able to hit 40. I wasn't worried about takeoff acceleration when I decided to get the mod, but it's kind of a nice peppy feel to have more of it.
FYI, I discoved I can share the Fuelly profile for the Bulldog. So if you're interested in things like gas mileage, service records, etc., here it is. I may just put that link in the sidebar!
