Here’s Yours, Give Me Back Mine
A while back, I spent a week one day in the garage of Bikernet headquarters with Bandit. Bandit was hot to put apehangers on his shiny new Road King Classic.
Once I arrived and cooled down his “high-bar desire”, I suggested putting all the handlebar switch wires inside the bars where they would be safe from his undue attentions in the future. After a quick assurance on my part that I wouldn’t feel a thing, he okayed the idea.
With the bars off of the bike and the switch wires laid out on the bench, he started whining about “all those wires”. It was at this time I whipped out the handy dandy “wire vise” and showed him how to use it (it only took three times) to solder the wire extensions in place. While Bandit amused himself with this new toy, he asked where I found it. I explained to him (slowly) that the first time I saw one in use was at the old West Coast Choppers shop in Paramount, CA. One of the mechanics “Koon” was using the wire vise on one of the shop bikes, when I asked where he found it he replied, “some old guy showed me one.” I asked to see it up-close and personal and traced the wire vise on the palm of my hand so I could make one once I got home.
