Most HATED Farkle or Accessory

[rbentnail]

Not really a hate so much, but I'll have to go along with grip puppies or buddies or whatever name I used. Sucked in the rain, just too large for me, made my forearms ache. Removed them and went with smaller diameter, squishier grips. Mucho gooder.

 

[SFCJCA]

I hate the bar-end throttle lock I bought to relieve wrist fatigue. Damn thing almost got me killed when it suddenly disengaged at 85 mph. I haven't used it since. Now I use a throttle rocker and am quite happy with it.

 

[UberKul]

Starcom communicator. Made me hate talking with the wife so much I wanted to scootch her off the back seat at speed. Sena saved our marriage and possibly her life.

Help me understand this, Brad. Did you hate the Starcom cuz you couldn't hear her, or cuz you could?

Could not get the VOX or volume levels right and the clarity dropped off to inaudible above 50 MPH. We both would get wicked-pissed because the other could not understand what was being said. Kind of like trying to talk with someone who needs hearing aids but won't use them, pretty soon you quite trying.

 

[Fred W]

If that was a Starcom1 Advance (analog), the First trick is to turn the VOX control all the way down to off. It was not well designed and wasn't really needed as long as you keep your music volume down to a reasonable level. If you aren't listening to music, all the better.

Second trick was to leave the volume controls and sensitivity settings at mid range or not much higher, and turn the sound source's volume up higher to an appropriate level. There is an Automatic Gain Control circuit that is supposed to increase the volume when the background noise level goes up (like at higher speeds) but that will not work if you have the Starcom1 volume up too high.

Third trick is to have the microphones directly in front of your mouth, preferably almost touching your lips (though that can be irritating if it does)

4th trick is to try to reduce the wind noise inside your helmets hitting those microphones. The mikes are essentially "open" all the time so if you have a lot of wind blowing on your partner's mike you'll hear it.

We still use out ancient Starcom1 Advance. Works better than the bluetooth headset solutions that I've tried (Cardo Scala Rider and Sena SMH10)

 

[dudeckp]

Not really a hate so much, but I'll have to go along with grip puppies or buddies or whatever name I used. Sucked in the rain, just too large for me, made my forearms ache. Removed them and went with smaller diameter, squishier grips. Mucho gooder.

Let's try to keep these straight, for the benefit of future users potentially deciding between crap and non-crap.

Grip-Puppies -> Foam, slip on thingies

Grip-Buddies -> Neoprene wrap-around + Velcro thingies

Any others I forgot about?

 

[SacramentoMike]

Um, Grip-Condoms? Thin, for extra sensitivity. Waterproof, too. You want all the protection you can get, riding a motorcycle.

 

[Harald]

It must be a Northwest thing, but I absolutely LOVE my grip puppies! I even bought a few pairs for reserve because they wear out within 2 years with my almost daily use. I also don't understand the soaking up water problem because I live in Seattle and my bike gets ridden and parked in the rain constantly and I've never even noticed a water problem with the grips. Maybe it's because it's usually cold when we get rain and therefore I'm wearing waterproof gloves?

But on topic, I'll have to vote for the passenger peg lower brackets I bought that cause the passengers foot and/or peg to drag before my feelers touch down. Not a good idea!

 

[CA G-Man]

I'll chime in here with a vote for the Givi remote control trunk latch. When it works it's one of my favourite farkles (who hasn't started the bike only to realize he still has his ball cap on his head, which is supposed to ride in the top case?). Problem is, it seems to have bad wiring. When it worked it did so only intermittently, and now it doesn't work at all. It's sitting on my bench waiting for me to get around to figuring out if anything can be done with it.

 

[rwortman]

But with all my thinking about this related stuff, I just remembered the VERY WORST farkle ever, so bad I just threw the SOB away--the "Wrist Rocker" (sold under many names), those paddle-looking rests where the weight of your hand holds the speed. Except they have this unnerving tendency to give the throttle a surprise "blip" when you least expect it, maybe shooting you into an intersection or some other ugly scenario. Absolutely DANGEROUS. There are several threads about these demonic pieces of crap, but I hope you never are tempted to try one.

This is interesting. Truly your mileage may vary. I have been using a throttle rocker on my bikes for 8 years with no ill effects and a big increase in comfort on long rides. It doesn't blip the throttle all by itself, you have to push on it.

 

[RaYzerman19]

But with all my thinking about this related stuff, I just remembered the VERY WORST farkle ever, so bad I just threw the SOB away--the "Wrist Rocker" (sold under many names), those paddle-looking rests where the weight of your hand holds the speed. Except they have this unnerving tendency to give the throttle a surprise "blip" when you least expect it, maybe shooting you into an intersection or some other ugly scenario. Absolutely DANGEROUS. There are several threads about these demonic pieces of crap, but I hope you never are tempted to try one.

This is interesting. Truly your mileage may vary. I have been using a throttle rocker on my bikes for 8 years with no ill effects and a big increase in comfort on long rides. It doesn't blip the throttle all by itself, you have to push on it.

I found the Throttle Rockers too wide and could cause some oops moments with the throttle..... trim some off will improve it. However, the best one out there IMHO is the Original Throttle Boss. Rubber, smallish but very effective, no oops moments. However, you'll not likely find one now. It's been replaced by a wider version that I'm not sure would be OK until I saw it. Prolly could trim some off the inside......

https://pinsaver.com/Wide-Universal-Throttle-Boss-XL-

 

[Lowcountry Joe]

+1 on that worthless Airhawk seat pad.

Not to mention I also dislike the word "farkle". It's a damn dice game and has nothing to do with bikes.

 

[CA G-Man]

About the word "farkle"...

I don't know its origin and I can understand the dislike or even contempt for the word, but to me it does have a certain ring to it, as in "them thar new-farkled techno mumbo-jumbo thingies..." (where's Banjoboy when you need him?).

 

[gixxerjasen]

What was wrong with the word "Mod" ? After all, they are modifications to your bike to make it more usable/comfortable/etc.

 

[CA G-Man]

What was wrong with the word "Mod" ? After all, they are modifications to your bike to make it more usable/comfortable/etc.

Could be some legal/warranty/insurance liability issues there. It's been a while since I read Yammy's warranty document, but I'm pretty sure the coverage can be affected by after-market "modifications." In my mind, a speed healer or after-market suspension are "modifications," whereas Clearwater lights and GPS units are "accessories." Maybe "Farkle" is a more general term that includes both "mods" and "accessories"?

 

[dudeckp]

About the word "farkle"...
I don't know its origin and I can understand the dislike or even contempt for the word, but to me it does have a certain ring to it, as in "them thar new-farkled techno mumbo-jumbo thingies..." (where's Banjoboy when you need him?).

Shiny things with a function...

Function + Sparkle = Farkle

 

[CA G-Man]

Shiny things with a function...Function + Sparkle = Farkle

Okay, well if that's it then we should quit using the term. Definitely more of a Harley thing... except for the "function" part of course.

 

[Mr_Canoehead]

About the word "farkle"...
I don't know its origin and I can understand the dislike or even contempt for the word, but to me it does have a certain ring to it, as in "them thar new-farkled techno mumbo-jumbo thingies..." (where's Banjoboy when you need him?).

Shiny things with a function...

Function + Sparkle = Farkle

I'd always heard that it stood for Functional Accessory, Really Kool, Likely Expensive.

 

[escapefjrtist]

About the word "farkle"...
I don't know its origin and I can understand the dislike or even contempt for the word, but to me it does have a certain ring to it, as in "them thar new-farkled techno mumbo-jumbo thingies..." (where's Banjoboy when you need him?).

Shiny things with a function...

Function + Sparkle = Farkle

I'd always heard that it stood for Functional Accessory, Really Kool, Likely Expensive.

This ^^^^ is what I'd always heard it was...especially the Expensive part!

--G

 

[dudeckp]

About the word "farkle"...

Shiny things with a function...

Function + Sparkle = Farkle

I'd always heard that it stood for Functional Accessory, Really Kool, Likely Expensive.

This ^^^^ is what I'd always heard it was...especially the Expensive part!

--G

I think that was created by some guy from NASA during some rally prep!

 

[yanktar]

It has been fun reading this!

I think the worst farkles are ones I've bought and never gotten around to installing, after having spent a bundle on them.

2 come to mind: the FJR unpainted and undrilled tire hugger that's been lying around for about 10 years, and the Kevlar ABS brakeline kit, which, with 7 or more hoses and a lot of complaints about missing connectors never got installed.

OTOH, some of the problematic farkles on my FZ1 never made it to the FJR, like the Corbin seat which was harder than stone and slippery, and NEVER broke in. Then there was the Day-Long seat. I had to send it back to them 2 or 3 times because it pushed me too far into the FZ1 tank. I finally rebuilt it myself and discovered that inside it used a 3/8" piece of plywood as a support! Now it's OK since I cut a ton of foam out of the back support and changed the angle of the seat foam, but it cost far too much to be worth it and I wasn't happy with their support. I tried a Day-Long on someone's FJR at one of the Port Jervis rides and it had the same problem as mine. It SHOULD be comfortable in theory but isn't.

The throttle paddles didn't bother me but I found they didn't work well enough to be worth it.

But the worst farkle of all was a very, very expensive intercom/phone/music system (was it Starcom?) before Blue Tooth became common. Was it StarCom? Not sure anymore. It wouldn't work with my phone--their answer was "get another phone", the helmet speakers had to press against your ears, painfully, to be able to hear them and get any audio quality. Their answer: "That's the way it's supposed to be. You'll get used to it!" The switching between my CD player and the phone (when I found a phone that worked with it) took minutes, rather than seconds. Finally, the CPU for the thing was heavy, ungainly, and wouldn't fit anywhere practical on the bike. I ended up selling it on eBay at a big loss, just to be rid of it! The Nolan built-in BlueTooth systems are far, far superior!