Better mirrors?

[Morgion]

I need some tips for improving the mirrors on my pre 600. The stock mirrors do their job adequately, but it seems that they're just not designed for a 190cm/90kg (6'3"/200lbs) guy with wide shoulders wearing a size XL armored jacket. I also have pre 750 handlebars which raise the bars a further inch or so. I can see my elbows, arms, shoulders and part of the next lane. If I want to see behind me (judging distance to the car behind me, checking position of emergency vehicles etc.) I have to move around in the seat and raise my arm and peek under it. Time-consuming and unsafe.

I was thinking of some sort of bar-end mirrors like these:



But somebody on another forum told me he had those and that they pretty much sucked.

Now, I have no need to keep the mirrors anywhere near stock so bar-end mirrors, bar-mounted mirrors and all kinds of aftermarket solutions and mods are acceptable as long as I can see better what's happening behind me.

So, what kind of solutions have you guys done and what can you recommend me?

[RobertTravis]

I like those because they don't extend beyond the grips. Is it possible to make a block to space your original mirrors out a bit beyond your shoulders?

[Morgion]

I was thinking that, too. Also they look pretty decent and fit the styling of the Katana much better than some of the round ones you can see floating around. (Not to mention the round ones are usually teeny tiny little mirrors you can't see shit out of, these are actually mirror-sized.)

Fabricating some spacers would require a lot of work. To get the angle of the mirrors correct I would need to either raise them somehow (thus blocking my view straight behind my back even more) or widen them both approximately 8cm (~3") which would both look completely silly and make the mirrors the widest point on the bike. No thanks. As I said earlier, I have no emotional attachment to the stock mirrors.

I was looking into attaching some aftermarket stalk mirrors to the stock mirror mounting locations (R6, GSX-R etc.), but that seems fairly impossible or at least would require some serious fabrication skills and would require me to modify the fairing, which is a big no-no. Mirrors are cheap, fairings ain't.

[HS2020]

I use the 98+ Katana mirrors on my pre 750. Works pretty good.

[Morgion]

From looking at pictures, they don't seem to be significantly wider or higher than the pre mirrors, just a different shape. How much better are they? Can you see behind you without moving around?

[dano68]

The guy I bought mine from had 2 1/4" spacers made up out of aluminum to extend his mirrors out past his shoulders. I would send them to you, but shipping to Finland would be not be cost effective.

[rschlegel]

You can find spacers online. I ended up going to a hardware store and getting some hard plastic spacers and longer stainless hex bolts to extend my post mirrors out 1". It made a big difference. The only thing is that the rubber covers don't sit flush with the faring. My bike is for riding, not show so a small gap between the faring and rubber mirror boot doesn't bother me.

[Purplehaze]

I'm currently using custom mirror mounts that allow for through-bolt mirrors to be used. Currently running 2000 GSXR SRAD mirrors (current garage pics not up to date)

[HS2020]

From looking at pictures, they don't seem to be significantly wider or higher than the pre mirrors, just a different shape. How much better are they? Can you see behind you without moving around?

They stick out farther than the pre mirrors do. I just pull my elbows in a little for a quick glance. I tend to look over my shoulders more so than using my mirrors. I also have a small spot mirror on them which helps out a lot. The spacer idea is a good option as well. Also the 98+ mirrors fold up unlike the pre98 mirrors which if the bike falls overs breaks everything including the fairings.

[Morgion]

98+ mirrors might be the easiest and most cost-effective method because they're pretty cheap. The spacers would have to be fabricated and in that case I'd rather fab some mounts for a standard 10mm mirror bolt so that I could use pretty much every mirror out there.

Now that I think about it, fabbing a bracket for 10mm mirrors wouldn't be that hard...