Archive for the ‘Motorcycle Gear’ Category

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Now Let’s Fix This Hand Guard

Monday, March 30th, 2026

So now I needed to do something about this hand guard that broke off when I dropped the bike recently.

A bit of electrical tape and I’ve got a functioning hand guard again.

Naively, I guess, I headed down to Performance Cycle hoping they would have the item in stock. Well, no, not really. I looked around and did find a few hand guards but nothing like the one I have. So I asked for help.

After a good bit of searching and researching, the (now) two guys helping me found a system specifically designed to fit all models of the Suzuki DL650 (V-Strom). Emphasis on “system.” It consisted of brackets that would need to be installed on the handlebars, steel rod running from one bracket to the other, and then an actual shield to attach to the rod. And of course, this being a motorcycle part, I’m sure I was looking at a fairly high cost, though there was no price tag to look at.

While they were doing all this digging and searching, I was standing there thinking. First, a vague memory came back to me that perhaps this was not the first time this hand guard had come off. The end where it is secured to the handlebar has a bolt, and it was the part attached by the bolt that had broken. At the other end it was just a slot that slipped onto the bar. Previously I had just slipped the intact end onto the bar and propped the other end up onto where it broke off. Maybe I could do that again.

I told the guys what I was thinking and that maybe all I really needed was some black duct tape. “Or electrical tape,” one of them helpfully suggested. Good idea; electrical tape is thin while duct tape is quite wide. Thanks guys, I’m going to try this. If it doesn’t work you may see me again.

Going out to the bike I tried just slipping the guard back into place and it stayed pretty firmly. Great. Riding home it stayed in place.

At home I wound some electrical tape around it a couple times and I think it’s going to work fine. I know I had the headlight on my 1980 Honda CB750 Custom held together with electrical tape for many years and it did just fine. I think I’m good to go here.

Biker Quote for Today

In a world full of noise, the sound of my engine is my peace.

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Posted in Biker Issues, Motorcycle Gear, Motorcycle repair, Suzuki motorcycles, V-Strom | No Comments »

Replacing The Broken Peg

Thursday, March 26th, 2026


The old peg that broke off and the jerry-rigged buddy peg in its place.

My left peg broke off when I dropped the bike up in Estes Park last Wednesday so I needed to replace it. Looking online I found exactly what I needed on eBay for all of $12, no cost for shipping. Nice.

The set of pegs arrived a couple days ago so I set about replacing them.

First I had to remove the buddy peg Bruce had moved up and held on with duct tape, and put that back where it belonged. No problem there. Then I had to bend the bracket the peg attaches to, because in order to fit that buddy peg in place it had been necessary to bend the sides of the bracket toward each other. OK, still not a problem.

I had been surprised when this peg had broken off because I had assumed they were steel but looking at it I could see it was just pot metal. The pictures on eBay looked like the new pegs were steel but when I unwrapped them I saw they, too, were pot metal. Oh well, it is what it is.


You can see the one broken flange. You can also see how the spring is supposed to go on.

Very quickly the issue became trying to crimp the spring and slip it down in the bracket and then slip the bolt through. I tried bending the two ends toward each other and slipping it down in there but it was just not happening. So I took a look at the peg on the other side to see if that might tell me something. It did, but not what I expected.

It turned out that of the two flanges on the other peg, one of them was broken off. Next time the bike gets dropped on the right side it will probably break the other one off, too. Dang pot metal. The pegs came as a set so I could have replaced them both but I figure why bother, I’ll just throw the extra new one in the bag and if I need it I’ll have it.

But what to do about the spring? I looked at it, and its function. It appears its function is to keep the peg up if you flip it up. OK. I don’t generally have any reason to flip the peg up and because I jimmyed with the bracket it is now quite snug and if I raise the peg it stays firmly in place. Who needs the spring? Not me. I’m taking the easy way out here.

So all in all it was a pretty easy fix. And I’ll know exactly what to do when and if the other peg breaks off.

Now all I need to do is fix the hand guard. Did I mention that the left handguard also broke off when I dropped the bike? It did. I have more repair to do. Dropping the bike can be such a pain.

Biker Quote for Today

Riding a motorcycle is like experiencing life in fast forward.

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Posted in Motorcycle Gear, motorcycle mechanics, motorcycle problems, Motorcycle repair, Suzuki motorcycles, V-Strom | 1 Comment »

The Steele’s Cycle Story: Motorcycle Salvage

Monday, March 9th, 2026

Need a motorcycle part? You’ll probably find it here.

At first it was just figuring it out. Beginning in 2006, Steele’s Cycle embraced the new opportunities presented by the internet, and specifically eBay, and began the transition from junkyard to salvage operation.

“In the beginning, people would put it on the floor, on your desk, just take pictures and list it on eBay. Over time, we, like everybody, were like, we need a listing station,” Rick explained. “We need a place to put somebody to list the stuff. We tried lights. We made PVC white sheets to try to reflect. We tried to have a photo studio next door. But in the end, we just ended up with these listing stations. But that was all just over time and experimentation.”

They also used a tool called MotoLister.

“These two guys showed up in a car out front here. In the back of their car, it was called MotoLister. And they had a staged deal. It was basically, you take a picture, it’s hooked to your computer. It was software, basically. But they were the first ones. And they said, we’re looking for people to try it for free.

 Wheels? Yeah, we’ve got wheels.

“And he showed it to me and I said, yeah. Price is right. I do remember though, telling them okay, I’ll do it. But what’s going to happen in a year or two, you’re going to start charging me. And I said, I’ll do it. But you’ve got to give me free for life. And he agreed to it. I think five years ago or something, he started charging me. But they improved it immensely.”

“We also decided we needed more space, which is when we added on the 5,000 square foot addition in the south end of the building.”
By the time that addition was built the yard was overflowing with bikes. To make space, Matthew said, “I threw away 800 motorcycles. We had to clear the yard and they were just all sitting there.”

Those 800 bikes filled a lot of recycling dumpsters.

“We were filling it up, taking them away, and it was just a round robin for a number of weeks. Probably got a whole $300, $400 for each skip.”

But did they single out at least a few better bikes to salvage?

“For the most part, we didn’t really have a choice. But if there was something there that we thought was a better piece, I’m sure there were some we set aside. There was a lot of burnt bikes. We bought Fay Myers’ burnt stuff, so there was quite a bit of burnt stuff out there.” (Fay Myers Motorcycle World suffered a devastating fire at their old location on West Alameda, which resulted in their moving to their current location on East Arapahoe.)

These days Steele’s Cycle doesn’t go looking for salvage bikes, the bikes come to them.

“I get more coming in than space to put it in,” Rick continued. “It’s a big place here, but space is always an issue. So usually about once or sometimes twice a year we go through the yard and just have to make room. It’s kind of sad because parts have value. But probably the decider is the labor that it takes to take it apart. If it takes the same labor to take apart that bike that you can make $3,000, $4,000 on, or that bike that you might make $500 or $1,000 on, which one are you going to choose?”

 Brandon Steele runs the eBay operation.

Nowadays, Rick’s son Brandon, that new baby who arrived just after the business was purchased, runs the eBay side of the operation. While the guys doing the stripping of the bikes generally decide what purchase price to put on the parts Brandon does double check it from time to time.

Brandon told me that “Some of my favorite part of it is I’ll have a guy buy a motor from, oh man, Australia. Last year was a guy that bought some old BSA parts and he was in Australia and you chat a little and you learn, you know, it’s just fun to meet people from around the world that have, you know, one thing in common, which is motorcycles. Then just also to hear, what’s it like over there? What do you do?

“Chasing the deal is probably what I enjoy the most, buying and then stripping and then seeing what, everything sells for a price but it’s, you really never know what’s going to sell next. That’s the fun part about eBay. I always tell my dad it’s like gambling the opposite way.”
Today Steele’s lists about 24,000 parts on eBay, a more manageable number. Half of their total business is through eBay. On the whole, parts off newer bikes sell fastest but old parts just keep on selling, too. A sizeable portion of new bike parts go quickly and what remains might go for years before they sell.

Does there ever come a point where they throw away parts that have been data-entered and stored? Rick says no.

“No. Not really. I mean, we haven’t reached that point yet. Look at a manufacturer. He has to have every part of the bike. The difference with them is after it’s 10 years old, they just stop. So they’re going to blow everything out, cheap sell it to somebody, which we could do, but I’m not a big sale guy. Because if somebody needs a part that we have, they need a part, right?”

Biker Quote for Today

There’s only one color for a motorcycle, that’s black. Unless you want to sell it, then paint it red. – Melvin “Swede” Dunlap

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Posted in antique motorcycles, Motorcycle Gear, Motorcycle repair | 1 Comment »

The Steele’s Cycle Story: From Renting To Owning

Thursday, March 5th, 2026

The showroom holds many bikes and lots of gear.

After about 10 years, Rick Steele owned and was making a success of his business, Steele’s Cycle, but what he wanted most was to own the property, rather than continuing to pay rent. He started trying to buy the whole property, but his landlord, Fred Neuschwanger, would not sell, saying he didn’t want to pay the taxes he would incur from capital gains. Rick kept asking to buy and was told that if the time to sell ever came he would be given first shot at buying.

The thing about capital gains is that if you die holding an asset, and that asset goes to an heir, the heir’s cost basis is reset at the value at the time of death. So when Fred Neuschwanger died, and the heirs agreed they did not wish to continue dealing with the property, they could now sell without incurring a huge tax bill.

The property was finally offered to Rick.

The deal was pulled together in late 2007 and early 2008, and by that time Rick had a partner and the two of them were able to come up with the money. At the closing Fred Neuschwanger’s daughter showed up with a picture of her dad, saying she just wanted to bring her dad along because he had always promised to give Rick the chance to buy the property.

Matthew Morrison is Rick Steele’s partner.

The deal was made and a new era began at Steele’s Cycle. Rick’s first partnership did not work out, and meanwhile, in 2011, Matthew Morrison had joined the crew and he and Rick worked well together. In 2014 the deal was finalized where Matthew bought out the old partner and Rick and Matthew were in business together.

Now the clean-up/fix-up of the property got into full swing. The main building got a new roof, walls were built inside and everything got a lot cleaner and more organized. Distinctive older bikes were mounted on the walls or from the ceiling and a proper showroom was set up for used bikes. Racks were put on the walls and a wide variety of motorcycle gear was put up for sale.

“In the early days, yeah, we sold tons of parts through here,” Rick explained. “But brick and mortar’s dying a slow death. You know, where we sell stuff is, ‘I need a set of brake shoes but I need it today.’ That’s the only brick and mortar advantage anymore. Before the internet, the yard was a good thing. The yard anymore is not what it used to be. The internet’s changed all that. But like Matthew says, there is a draw to it. We have people all the time, oh, can I walk in the yard? It’s just interesting.

“The salvage yard has always been what I describe as an attractor for people to come here. But we weren’t generating much money out of the salvage yard. It was all online. So we really focused on growing that side of the business. I mean, we went bananas. We grew it to 50,000 parts listed on eBay, but it became unmanageable and we ended up cutting back.”

eBay. That’s the key word. Right around the time Rick was able to buy the property, changes in the world around them altered the entire landscape. In July of 2006, this new marketing concept called eBay had emerged and Rick had immediately seen the possibilities it presented. They could list parts on eBay and suddenly the entire world became their market rather than just the Denver area.

There are still plenty of bikes waiting in the yard to be picked over by people needing parts.


Next: Motorcycle Salvage

Biker Quote for Today

Getting to be an old Geezer is not for the TIMID!! Also its not grey its CHROME!!

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Posted in Motorcycle Gear, Motorcycle repair, vintage motorcycles | No Comments »

The Steele’s Cycle Story: Junkyard

Monday, March 2nd, 2026

Steele’s Cycle will have been in business for 40 years come this summer.

On July 20, 1986, Rick Steele was 26, about to have a second child, and was now the owner of a business on which he owed $90,000. What business? He now owned a junkyard. A motorcycle junkyard.

Almost 40 years later this former junkyard is a multi-million dollar business servicing bikes, selling used motorcycles, and breaking bikes down to sell for parts. The internet has helped transform this local business into a global operation, and customers needing that one hard-to-get part for their 40-, 50-, 60-year-old bikes are thrilled to find it at Steele’s Cycle. As are the owners of much newer bikes.

Today the main showroom is packed with a large variety of bikes for sale and the walls are covered with gear and memorabilia. The place is clean, well-lighted, well-heated, and a staff of 10, including Rick and his partner Matthew Morrison, keep the place humming. According to Matthew, storage rooms hold more than 100,000 parts from every model bike imaginable, all neatly stocked and quickly accessible, based around computerized inventory.

 Rick Steele

The conditions on that July day in 1986 could hardly have been more different. Bikes for parts were lined up outside for customers to find and remove their own parts and then bring them in to make payment. Grime coated everything. Lighting was poor. There was no running water. And Rick was scared to death.

He knew motorcycles. He had worked at several shops around town: BK Motorsports, Western Honda, Senti Yamaha. But he had never owned a business. He had seen the possibilities. No stranger to Denver Used Motorcycle Parts (the D.U.M.P.) just east of downtown Denver along Park Avenue, Rick had seen the profit to be had from used parts. Pick up a crashed bike for pennies and sell the undamaged parts for dollars. There was money to be made here. But first he had to survive as a business. The $10,000 he had put down, half loaned to him by his then-mother-in-law, was, to him, all the money in the world. What had he gotten himself into?

“The scary part was just starting that late in the season because I opened July 20th. Back then, winters were, you know, it snowed on Halloween and it stayed. You didn’t get any customers. So, I was here all by myself, just a new dad. It was what I think anybody starting a business goes through. It was like, why did I do this kind of thing? And then it was challenging. It’s always challenging in the beginning. But, there was a demand, it’s supply and demand. And there was a demand for the stuff. And people kind of knew about stuff that was here. So that first fall, I think there were a few bikes in here that I sold right away. And that kind of carried me through. But, it was touch and go that first one, for sure.”

A Utility Heart Attack
Occupying at that time only a small portion of the space that now comprises Steele’s Cycle, the space had only one electric heater. Rick ran that until he got the first electric bill. For $1,500.

“I about had a heart attack. I didn’t know. So I quit heating this. Right inside the door, there was an office. Where that window is, that was a closed-off office. And I had a space heater outside of that office. I was working in that little room in there. And then I had a kerosene heater. And that was my heat.”

The building itself was sheet metal and cinder block. And the lot was rocks. There was no pavement. It was rocks everywhere with tree shoots growing through the rocks.

Just a small portion of the old bikes are visible in this photo from 2019.

While initially the site was in pretty poor physical condition, because he was only renting the space Rick did not do a lot of clean-up and fix-up.

“When I rented it, I never really asked to fix things because I didn’t want to get my rent raised. So, I would just fix them. I fixed all the plumbing. The winter before I bought it, all pipes froze. They shut the water off. So, when I came, there was no water or anything. I didn’t fix it the first winter. I think I ended up fixing it the next summer.”

In addition to being cold, that first winter was lonely. “It was me for about the first, I think, eight months to a year. And then, my first employee was a guy named Bobby Berkler. And he worked for me for probably 20 years. It was just him and me for the first four or five years.”

Then, four or five years in, Rick got his dealer’s license so he could sell motorcycles. They had already been doing service on bikes and this opened up additional opportunities. In this manner the company existed for about two decades.

Next: From Renting To Owning

Biker Quote for Today

I may be lost, but on my bike, I’m always found.

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Posted in Motorcycle Gear, Motorcycle repair | 2 Comments »

New Helmet To Replace The One That Did Its Job

Thursday, February 19th, 2026

My old and new Shoei helmets. You can see the abrasions on the old one from just right of the middle on the chin bar and up and to the left.

My previous Shoei helmet gave its life for mine back on June 29 of last year and finally, today, February 17, I got a new one. Or more correctly, Judy did, a Christmas present, to replace the old one which she gave me as a birthday present some years ago. Thank you Judy.

Just a note: it’s not like I’ve been riding without a helmet ever since; like most motorcyclists I have several, but the Shoei was the best of the bunch.

I had looked at various helmets awhile ago and had considered different models and manufacturers but ultimately decided to just go with another Shoei RF-SR.

Judy went with me to Performance Cycle and the sales guy suggested the RF-1400 as an alternative. It cost about $150 more but he said it is quieter and a bit lighter, with the same level of protection.

I may have had some interest in that one considering that he said it comes in a yellow. The RF-SR does not. I could be interested in yellow as being more conspicuous, more visible, but they did not have any in stock. Why? He said very few people actually want a yellow helmet, but he could order it and it would be here in a week.

Judy was pushing me to go for it but quieter and a bit lighter don’t matter that much to me and I was already figuring on getting the RF-SR in white, which should be a lot more visible than my old black one. As long as the protective qualities are equal I just didn’t feel like doing the hassle of coming back when I could walk out today ready to go. Plus, I tried both of them on and the RF-SR felt more comfortable than the RF-1400.

So I went with the RF-SR in white. Then I asked them to transfer my communicator (speakers and wiring) from the old helmet to the new, which I had been told they are happy to do at no charge if you are buying either the helmet or the communicator from them. I’ve been carrying that communicator around in my jacket pocket ever since that crash. I guess I better get it out and get it recharged.

Biker Quote for Today

A true biker finds freedom even in the confines of a helmet.

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Posted in Motorcycle Gear | No Comments »

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