The other night I was winding my way home through heavy traffic. A car had pulled out of a side road but could go no further and was blocking my way forward. I slowed to a crawl and waited for it to move forward. When it did, I plotted my course round the back of it but it didn't move as far as I expected.

As I passed at about 20mph there was a stomach-churning sound of crunching plastic and my bars were thrust to the right. However nothing else happened so I carried on riding. In truth I felt a bit stupid. But the bike felt fine and I stopped a couple of minutes later, expecting to find ruined fairing, or wheel, or mudguard. But there was nothing. All I noticed was that the bar-end was angled slightly backward.

Now, if I rotate it to a particular position, it interferes with the throttle grip and I have cruise control!

I imagine the bar-end must have destroyed the car's light cluster or something. A lucky escape, in part due to good old Honda build quality!

 

Bent Bar End is binding the throttle tube. I'd fix it as there are times you will need that
throttle to blip right back and not bind - such as in emergency control situations !