Ignition Lock Maintenance 101

Since I have been doing my own powder coating, I have been changing the look of my Bandit by powder coating parts that were polished in several different colors of black.

I had previously stripped smoothed, machined and polished my top triple tree, but I was tired of the glare produced by the sun hitting it while riding, so I pulled it off last week to power coat it in semi-gloss black. I had also painted the ignition lock housing also about a year ago, but the paint had gotten scratched, so I decided to powder coat it also which required completely disassembling the fork lock.

It comes apart easily and I glad I took it apart as it needed a good cleaning and lubing of the internals. While I had it all apart I completely smoothed the lock housing as well as the bottom cover, which I polished to match the already polished top key cover while just powder coating the body for a nice contrast.

I am very happy with how it turned out and how well the top triple tree and the lock housing look in semi-gloss black powder coat with the polished aluminum accents. This winter when I pull the forks off for maintenance, I will powder coat the lower triple tree also to match the top.

Really looking good Bandito... Even if it is Red and not the "Blue Streak" one.
Are the bars factory..don't look like it in the photo..different bend?
As for the lubing of the Ignition..we get a lot of rain, and I cant always protect mine..I use the spray teflon and it seems to work well when my switch gets "sticky"
I'm amazed at what you've done to make an already great bike even better.

That really does improve the look of the bike.

Shotrod said:

Really looking good Bandito... Even if it is Red and not the "Blue Streak" one.
Are the bars factory..don't look like it in the photo..different bend?
As for the lubing of the Ignition..we get a lot of rain, and I cant always protect mine..I use the spray teflon and it seems to work well when my switch gets "sticky"
I'm amazed at what you've done to make an already great bike even better.

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Those are a set of chrome Daytona bars that I powder coated semi-gloss black. The bottom section of the lock mechanism actually had grease in it from the factory, so I applied a good synthetic grease to all the moving parts as well as putting some dielectric grease on the switch contacts. Now that the top triple tree looks so good, the bottom triple tree is screaming out to be powder coated also.

Wow, that is looking good. Sigh! My top triple clamp looks like a battle zone with all the marks on it from extra keys and stuff banging and vibrating on it for the last couple of years.

achesley said:

Wow, that is looking good. Sigh! My top triple clamp looks like a battle zone with all the marks on it from extra keys and stuff banging and vibrating on it for the last couple of years.

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Thanks.

Before I take it out for a ride today I am going cut a piece of some special 3M clear protective film I have and place it around the front of the key area. I Only use the bike key with a small split ring that attaches my little round black plastic Mobil quick pay fob, so even when I had the triple tree polished It never really got marked up the finish.

I need to do that also. Heck, I got the Gorillia alarm pager, the Give saddlebag key and the Coooscase key all together with the ignition key. I was thinking I used heavy shipping scotch tape on my VStorm before I marked it all up.