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There's a number of options to sort this out........a
warranty claim would seem fair but I just couldn't be bothered.
Application of a decent coating (anodising or powder coating) would
be a good idea but that involves expense! so, thanks to inspiration
by Chewy22 I went for the drill & polish fix
Chewy's bits
You'll notice that he went for the
full monty....polishing the guards, brackets and levers. I
decided to make the job a bit simpler and stick to polishing just
the faces of the actual heel guards and after playing around with
designs in Photoshop decided on larger 10mm holes. I also decided to
countersink the holes.
Removal of the heel guards is pretty straight forward so I won't bother
with that routine in detail other than a few tips on removal of the
right hand (brake) side.
-
Unbolt the brake slave cylinder whilst applying a
little pressure to the brake lever to take the strain off the
bolts
-
Undo the two bolts to the frame
-
You can now, with a bit of fiddling, get to the
split pin securing the brake cylinder/brake lever pivot
-
Once that is removed the heel guard can be moved
around enough to get the brake light and brake lever return
springs detached
Now before you start drilling holes, a few words of warning:
There are various 'lumps and bumps' on the back of
the guards left from the casting process....make sure the
positioning of your holes will avoid these or, as I did, grind them
off first if any are in the way. I also ground the threaded
mounting point off the back of the right guard that the pointless
'L' shaped steel bracket attaches to (that bracket got ditched a
long time ago)
The guards are cast from aluminium (not an alloy)
which is, as metals go, very soft - you'll need sharp high speed
drill bits to ensure clean drilling as aluminium tends to 'tear'.
And to avoid drift (...oval holes!) a jig/bench mounted rather than hand
held drill is recommended. The larger the holes you intend to drill
the more this advice will apply.
Drill and Polishing:
CopperTop's guide on
polishing stock
cans may be worth a read for a few tips.
The original paint finish will come off with
paint stripper although I think that later bikes may have powder
coated heel plates in which case it'll be down to pure elbow
grease!. You can use paint thinners or paint stripper to soften the
paint.
Before you drill your holes cover the heel guards with masking tape
so that you can mark of the positions of the holes accurately. Use a
small drill bit (0.3mm / 1/8") to drill pilot holes and then a
larger drill bit to make the final holes to whatever size you've
decided on. Use a countersink bit to add the finishing touch.
Obviously you can sand by hand but an electric
finishing sander (e.g. Black & Decker 'Mouse' sander) will make life
a lot easier. It will depend on how badly marked/scratched your heel
guards are as to how coarse a sand paper you start with. Work with
finer grades until you have a good finish that can be polished e.g.
320, 400, 600, then 1500 grit paper (Grit range: 60 grit is very
course - 1500 grip is extremely fine). A little rubbing with a soft
cloth and some metal polish (Autosol / Mothers polish) and the job's
done.
A few hours later and...........
Sorry, not the best of photos but take my word for
it they do look the 'dogs bits'
Finally.....before you go rushing out to do this
'mod' - as the guards are made of aluminium I suspect that the
polished finish is going to get scratched easily (judging by the
effect on the original painted finish, the left guard in particular
takes a fair bit of grief from the heel of your boot). I'll
post an update soon on how the new shiny bits fair.
Update 02/2005 - they're doing really well.
They scratch just as they did before but the marks don't show nearly
as badly and a quick buff up regularly keeps them looking good.
Here's another example á la
CopperTop:
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