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Motorcycle gear and accessories

This index collects my pages about motorcycle clothing, gear, and accessories. (Pages about stuff specific to a model of bike are on that bike's page.)

Heated Electric Socks
Custom earplug speakers for motorcycling
GoPro Hero3 Camera on a Motorcycle

Items too small for their own page:

TankSlapper clear film finish protectors

For my new 2014 FJR1300 (bought April 2015), I got clear film protectors for the gas tank. Without this, my cats leave parallel scratch marks when they jump up onto the tank and miss.

I got "3M Scotchguard" film from Lucas at TheTankSlapper.biz.

Read all the installation material, watch the videos, and practice with the scrap piece that they provide. It takes time and care to get a good installation. I think I did OK for my first try, but I did end up with some air bubbles under the film. Lucas says this is because I didn't use enough water - you really want to flood the area, be totally awash when you install these things.

How to remove air bubbles after installing 3M Scotchguard film

This is for the 3M ScotchGuard product, not ScotchGuard Pro. Based on advice from Lucas at thetankslapper.biz.

NEEDLE METHOD

• Find an insulin needle like diabetics use, very tiny opening.
• Fill a syringe with 3 pts water, 1 pt rubbing alcohol.
• Purge the air from the needle.
• Lean the bike so the bubble has a high side and a low side.
• With the needle almost parallel to the surface, pierce the bubble from the side.
• Inject a little fluid.
• With a partner sliding across the bubble from the top with the squeegie, pull on the syringe to extract the water+air under the film.
• Remove the needle, squeegie the film back down onto the bike.
• Water inside the cavity will evaporate through the film.

REMOVAL/REPLACEMENT METHOD

• Get a bucket of hot water, not boiling.
• Identify a corner/narrow edge of the film you want to pull up, near the bubble(s).
• Soak a towel in the bucket, then lay the towel over the film, covering the corner.
• Do this a couple of times, so the film gets soft.
• Work a fingernail under the edge. Do this very gently, very patiently.
• Keep the edge smooth, don't force it, or it will permanently wrinkle or something - see below.
• Work under the edge until you have a little of it lifting up off the surface.
• When you have 1/8" to 1/4", push the squeegie under the corner, affix the film to it, and pull sharply to rip the whole sheet of film off in one motion, like ripping off a band-aid.

The hard part of this process is getting the edge up without ruining it. It's easy to ruin the edge, make it crinkly or something, so when you go to put it back down you're unhappy with the result.

If this happens, you can still recover: Lay the part of the film with the bad edge on a scrap of (clean) Plexiglass or something, adhesive side down. Flood and squeegie it on like you're installing it on the Plexiglass. Carefully cut with an X-Acto Knife, maybe 1/16" in from the original edge, to create a new, smooth edge with the same shape and corner radius. Remove the film by pulling from the other side - the side you didn't attach to the Plexiglass.

The film will stretch when you rip it off. To return it to its normal shape: Lay the film, adhesive side up, on a flat waterproof surface. Soak it with hot water - maybe multiple times. The plastic will re-shape itself to its original size, shrinking any stretched areas. Re-install.