alright...a while back i saw a bike that had some red tubing over SOME of his cables and what not....i thought, wow that looks sort of bad ***....got me to thinking about it and how i thought i should do that....lol (but better of course)...

he used that accordian type stuff that people use for cable management....you know where it has a slit in it and you shove the stuff in there...only problem...that is great for wire management but not really nice for aesthetic purposes....

now...i already STARTED to do this in that i got red ss lines.....and i have to say...having the red pop off the black frame and the black on the bike looks awesome...so i really would like to do the rest of the cables and such that are exposed....

now here is the dilema...i am not going to buy new clutch cables, wiring harnesses...etc....and i really only want to cover the parts that are exposed...i don't NEED to go throughout the bike...it got me to thinking....

how the heck could i re-cover the wires i want to sheath in red???...hmmmm...then it hit me today...shrink tubing...i use it all the time when i do wiring stuff.....

so i looked online and found there is 2:1, 3:1, and 4:1 shrink tubing (meaning initial size to shrunken size ratio)....

the 3:1 and 4:1 would allow me to get it over connectors but still allow it to shrink snug to the cable....if i got a spool of say 50ft...i could easily "recover" some of the cables and whatnot to give me a bunch of red wires and lines instead of the black...

soooo....what do people think of the idea....just curious...flame away...i know i will probably do it to at LEAST the clutch cable as i have the red ss lines running down from the opposite side...

oh and the tubing....$25 for 50ft....cheap easy mod that could do a lot visually if done right...

 

For $25, I say give it a try. If nothing else, you can take it back off- no harm done. But it might be just the thing you have been looking to make your bike even more unique.

Do it and then post a poll (like it, don't like it) with pics.



PS- please tell me where you purchase your shrink tubing. I am paying too much.

 

I think it would be ok if you did it right, which im sure you would. I read stuff about you modding your bike all the time, post up some pics ! Did you just get your wheels done too ?

I used the accordian type stuff with a slit in it before on computer wires, definately wouldn't put that on a bike.

But the shrink stuff, i say give a try.. see how it turns out. If you like it keep going with it !

 

What about the mesh type sleeving used on computers? I used it to clean up all my wires on a few of my cases before. You can use heat shrink on the ends to seal it.

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/37...tl=g35c175s359

 

@onarom

i just googled and looked around and i felt a website that has it bulk for cheap... http://www.buyheatshrink.com

@fuze

i think it would work out too...yeah actually the bike with accordian style stuff was on here....Rampage was the bike i think....like i said, i liked the initial idea, not the execution....yeah...i will definitely do the clutch cable first and if it works out, then get to work...lol...

and yeah i just got my wheels PC'd...i am putting rim stripes on them now....i am horribly **** so i got ONE done before my wrist cramped up and gave out on me...lol....

btw...here is a link to a pic of the rampage bike to give a VAGUE idea of what i am looking at...also i will be getting a primarily black (with some red paint job soon to give it context)

https://cbrforum.com/photo.asp?photo...=6&apage=1

 

you know i could use that...my only thing is i would like the cables to sort of look stock...just change the color....i have used that stuff too and it's neat stuff...but i think i want them to look like the covering is stock, not added...but i may have to go that route on some pieces if i can't get tubing wide enough...

i think i am going to start with the clutch cable and go from there....unfortunately i am hoping to move (have a house offer pending) which will get me a garage and most of my "new" ideas will have to wait until i have a garage as the wife is ready to kill me with storing all my "bike stuff" in our office...aka...makeshift work shed...lol

 

You will LOVE having a garage. I had a 1 car garage at my apts, but it was detached and just troublesome to work on anything in there. Now I have my house and a nice attached 2 car garage. Soooooo much better.

 

oh yeah you don't have to tell me...before i moved to my condo i had a 2-car attached garage...i worked on my Jeep Wrangler (when i had it) in there ALL THE TIME...i loved it...

it sucks because i work on my bike WAY more than i worked on the jeep and now i have a crappy underground garage at my condo....it's nice that it's heated and i don't have to really winterize my bike, but i can't really freely work on things....i can't just lay things out and leave it to the next day....plus my tools are upstairs (the little bit that aren't in storage, a whole nother problem, ugh)....

so yeah i can't wait...if and when i get the house with the garage...i will have about two months worth of rennovating to do in the new house and then it's game on for the bike...i will be able to bang stuff out and take pictures easy!

 

It don't sound like too bad of an idea and long as it turns out good. The only thing I would worry about the the heat shrinking loosing some of it color after the heat has been applied to it- I have see it happen a few times. If you do it make sure you post pix.

 

Can they be spray painted? If so, it seems like a cheap way to get the same result and if it looks like crap you can still go back to your original plan with no loss other than a few bucks for a can of spray paint.

p.s. although, above applies to tubes only, I wouldn't spray and cable like clutch etc... for obvious reasons.