Out on the NC35 yesterday. Weather hot and very sweaty inside a leather jacket. Great ride..until I hit a mega pothole Bike came through it ok but something didn't sound right. You know how it is, straining to hear where the strange noise is coming from, wondering if the engine is going to go bang.
Eventually pulled into a nursery (plant not child) carpark and walked round the bike. The rear, left indicator was in pieces and hanging on by the wires. No idea how or why the bike/pothole interface had caused it to disintegrate, unless the thump had flexed the (Tyga) exhaust can on it's bracket, which in turn thumped the very-close-by indicator.
The very kind nursery man gave me a roll of packing tape to bind it all together. Once home I rummaged through my box of spare indicator parts and found suitable replacements. However, trying to unscrew the indicator block under the tail piece is proving to be a problem. The bolt is seized. It's currently dripping with a blend of GT85 and WD40 which will hopefully do the job. Other than that, me and the bike had a good day.

As it was your rear left that disintigrated, I would suspect thatover the years it's close proximity to your exhaust has repeatedly cooked (and cooled) the plastic making it very brittle. The pot hole Impact, or something flexing to hit it, was the final straw.

At least you had a spare so you could get going again

As the indicator casing was bust anyway I used a Dremel to carefully cut away the black plastic (avoiding the bulb unit and wires) until I could get a spanner on the square nut inside. Switched to a socket set with a screwdriver bit fitted, instead of just a screwdriver, and the bolt gave in and came loose.

Then came the laborious task of removing the seat and rear bodywork in order to get to the rear section of the loom. This may have been easier if the bike was wearing OEM panels but the Tyga single-seat section needs to come off in one lump and I'm always wary of breaking lugs when this is removed or replaced. As it happens I could loosen the unit, prop it up at the rear with pieces of wood, and get access to the loom. Then it's pretty straightforward unplugging the 2 indicator wires, thread the cable out and take off the 'dangling' bulb unit. Fit the replacement casing, thread the cable back through to the loom and plug in. Then TEST it. All good. Fit the orange lens and manoeuvre the Tyga bodywork back into place through gritted teeth as the 2 rear lugs are pushed down into their 'sockets', hoping they line up because you cannot see what's happening under there. Seat on. All bolts back and tightened (I'm always impressed with how Hondas shouldered bolts can't be overtightened and crush body work). Job done. Final test. Aargh! It doesn't work!
I'm now too annoyed to do anything about it so walk away.

Next day I lifted the tail section again, reached the loom and yes, a wire had unplugged itself. All back together now and working. What a palaver, all down to a bloody pothole.

One tip I use to make removal and replacement of non-original panels easier is to coat lugs and their target holes (and grommets) with red rubber grease. They pop off and on reasonably easily.

Incidently, I'm looking for an NC35 uncut under tray if anyone has one (for some reason I can't access the Wanted section). Money waiting. Also an OEM NC29 screen.

Foxy400 wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 23, 2020 9:59 am

One tip I use to make removal and replacement of non-original panels easier is to coat lugs and their target holes (and grommets) with red rubber grease. They pop off and on reasonably easily.

exactly what i do.

cbr400rrn wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 23, 2020 10:58 pm

Foxy400 wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 23, 2020 9:59 am

One tip I use to make removal and replacement of non-original panels easier is to coat lugs and their target holes (and grommets) with red rubber grease. They pop off and on reasonably easily.

exactly what i do.

Great minds eh?

Btw. I would have responded to your comment, following my requests in the Wanted section, but for some reason I can't access that section except to post a New Topic. I can fully understand why you want to keep the original stickers and yes, replacements are not always quite the same shade of red/white/blue. But eventually a panel gets too shabby for my liking and the balance tips in favour of a respray, which is what happened to my NC35.

Yes i completely understand your reasoning.
Davez29 resprayed his panels and found the decals he purchased slightly different in size and colour(his was the rrr version type 7 so similar weird colours to mine.) But i cannot remember the damn name of the company he used but they were well known at the time for making decals in the UK.
Who did the ones you used for your nc35? How close are they to original?

Image works?

Yup it was Image Works, near Derby. I contacted them first, then took my resprayed panels down there. They did the job while I waited, except I didn't wait, I went for a walk, ate a sandwich and read a book in the car. I think it was around 3 hours. You'll find all the details of this elsewhere on this forum, I think it's under 'Tyga fairing' or something. As far as I can tell the replacement stickers are exactly the right size and the colours are spot on except for the Dionysius Blue, which is a fraction lighter. This only shows when an original and a copy are next to each other but seeing as they never will be no-one is going to point it out. I'd challenge any NC35 owner to notice. I wouldn't hesitate to use Image Works again.

richyrd5 wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 25, 2020 4:47 am

Image works?

That's the one