Close but no cigar  

I heard (so it's not gospel before anyone starts) that they were developed to keep the heat in the rear tyre during the 'unridable high-siding 500's' years. The thinking was that the sides of the tyres were cooling down the straights, and when they tapped the power on in the corners they were sliding and pitching the riders off.

Remember the 'formation high side' of I think Doohan and Chilli? I wish I could find a clip of that.

OK, new red hugger purchased (you've read the spanner episode earlier I hope) and fitted... however, it's not straight and is too close (imho) to the rear tyre on one side.

How do I align it? Would a piccie help? Driving me up the wall as I don't want to ride it like it is... and I haven't the time to keep going out and looking vacantly at it.

Tips, suggestions or just tell me to p*** off... anything really appreciated

BW, my (non gay & very macho) hugger sits VERY close to the tyre-but does appear to be central-so should yours.
if however its not rubbing then it shouldn be a problem as its fixed to the swing arm & wont move in relation to the tyre.
If you used pre-drilled holes & simply? bolted it on & it still looks out of alignment-then its either wrongly installed-did you have any little metal brackets/captive nuts that could be put on back-to-front?
Or your rear wheel could be mis-aligned? the marks on the swing arm are not very accurate in some cases.
Do you have a straight edge (length of wood-metal rod etc)
with the front end straight, place the straight edge along the edge of the rear wheel & see if it runs true with the front (do this both sides)
Or a length of string?
wrap it round the leading edge of the front wheel & pull tight.mark the string at a point on rear tyre & do the same for the other side-you should then be able to work out if the rear wheel is central.

HTH

feel free to post pics/ask more questions if this is all as clear as mud :p

Couple o years ago me an 19 other mates went down to Normandy from Zeebrugge. to save time we went on the peage, been travelling for about 1.5 hours when we pulled in to a service area due to my mate Unlucky Dave complaining of a loud noise from the rear of his CBR600, ended up with most of the gang doing a cross between a post mortem and a problem page jobby on Daves bike, me an another mates leftem to it and went for a brew.

1/2 hour later things were getting dire no one could find the problem on Unlucky Daves pride n joy, one said must be the chain, another said must be wheel bearings one said to Dave must be cos your a fat git cos its only noisey when your on it. Me n my mate Kim said bollocks, you lot go for a brew and we will fix it.

All traipsed off leaving me n Kim to do the business, 3 seconds later problem solved, we just like to see experts struggle (cos one of the group is a bike dealer), every one came back, Dave over the moon cause we'd fixed his bike, promised pots o gold (not really just loads of beer).

The moral to this tale is that if you fit a hugger and use soft luggage make sure any straps or bungees stopping the luggage from flapping around are well away from the hugger, due to the closeness of the fit any pressure on top of the hugger caused by the straps will push it on to the tyre making a horrible noise every time you hit a bump or like Unlucky Dave your short fat n 50  :laughcont:

DP! I shall go check that today. It came with all the fixings and, I need to check, they were all "non reversible" if you get my drift... even for me

XS, wtf are you on about? And that helps me how? You coming for a ride down this way... I'll happily leave you with the bike while I go for a beer if you fix it

I'll be back

Ah, not heard that one  :sniffle:

Mine's a road racing connection.

OK road racing-Hmmm, designed for BSB cos it always rains(so close to tyre water friction keeps the tyre warm?) :p

Mine sits very close to the tyre as well, the only thing you've got to watch out for is tyre growth with heat/centri wotsit force (I know it's not a force really :oops:  )


BTW, do you know why huggers were developed in the first place?

No, they should be
A. green & magenta flip flop-(at £100 a litre!)
B. any colour you like to match or contrast your bike(SEE A.)
As you can see on my hugger the only bit you can really see is the chainguard-but I know its beautiful under all that bodywork

FF- were they origionaly for 'crossers to keep the crap off the rear shock?

Rewind a minute - RED hugger?  Shouldn't all huggers be black?

Good advice about checking the wheel alignment DP - SEE!  How you lot took the peace out of me when i said every self respecting workshop should have a plank!  I remember my ZR7 feeling a bit strange and developing eliptical chicken strips on the back wheel.  Then one day I overtook EB's dad in his van and got a message later to check my wheel alignment.  I used the plank method and it was well out even though the swingarm notches were spot on.