Adventure date: 2026-05-24
The forecast was rain for days, so when I woke up (to my husband making us pancakes no less) to an overcast sky it was no surprise. But as I sat to enjoy my ‘cakes I looked out the window – it is my habit to see who is visiting the bird feeders – and noticed it was not raining. My plans immediately changed to “today I will figure out what is preventing Kestrel from shifting from 2nd to 1st, and maybe even get my new, much brighter LED headlight installed.”
My husband had been itching to go for a ride for a few days so he wanted to get out as well. We took a few minutes looking at Kestrel and determined the issue was quite likely actually the newly installed sidestand – the shifter arm was hitting the front nut when you depressed the pedal.
It seemed like a straightforward job – loosen the nuts on the through-bolt, push it slightly to the right side of the bike, and tighten it back up.
Since I am not stretchy like Mr. Fantastic, my arms do not reach over both sides of the bike. And remember, I’m working in a driveway with newbie minimal tools, not a shop with multiple options for every job lol, so it was deemed a two-person job. I didn’t want to hold up hubby from going for a ride (we both love rides for our mental health!), so I texted my friend Julie. She had a couple of things to do but could come up after, so Blair went off on his ride, and I started gathering tools and parts.
Shortly after Blair left, I got a call – he stopped for gas and his bike wouldn’t start! I headed out, remembered the jump starter/tire pump doohickey I had gotten him, went back for it, then made it our favorite gas station. We hooked it up, and the bike started without issue. For once, I got the be the rescuer! 😊 Usually it’s me learning a lesson and having to call for help.
Back at the house I pulled out my disorganized pile of tools, the box o’ headlight, and a couple of bits for a future project. (Better tool organization is on that project list too. For now, I will recommend that if you use those pocketed tool rolls, shell out the extra for the ones with labels, or at least a color that shows Sharpie.)
Julie arrived on her R1200R, having also taken advantage of the unexpected lack of precipitation. We spent some time evaluating the through bolt issue, being grateful for my shiny breaker bar, and tightening & loosening the hex nuts repeatedly, until we came to the conclusion that really, the hex nut on the shifter side just needed to not stick out so far, because even making the bolt flush with that hex nut interfered. This also explained why, when the sidestand was being installed at a recent Airheads tech day, the through bolt originally had only about one thread exposed on the left side. And now it has that one thread, the original hex nut & washer, plus the thick sidestand plate.
Another option I supposed would be to drill out part of the plate on the new sidestand to countersink the nut. That would require tools I don’t have though, and I suppose could cause other problems, so we took off in search of a slimmer hex nut. AutoZone, Harbor Freight, and Lowe’s all failed me. It looked like it could work without the washer, but I didn’t want to do that without confirming with someone with more knowledgeable, so we retightened the through bolt as it was, and I will check on that.
We moved on to the shiny new LED headlight. Shout out to EagleLights.com – it came fast and well packaged. The instructions were pretty simple, and it was listed as plug’n’play.
Thankfully, simple instructions aligned with an actually fairly straightforward job. We paid close attention to how the existing headlight was set up before we disassembled (mostly so we could reuse the parts that needed to be reuse, but let’s be honest – it was also to be able to put it back together if we failed).
There were two small wires with no where to go on the new light, so I wrapped them in electrical tape and left them inside. We did have a bit fussiness with where the tension wires should be placed inside the retention ring, but it was quickly resolved.
Blair got home from his ride just as we were reattaching the negative on the battery to test the light, so he got to see to the bright light, and the brighter high beam light. Julie & I high-fived, thrilled at our success, and we will have another project when gets a new headlight for one of her bikes! 😆
A quick finish of reinserting the underseat toolbox, popping the seat back on, covering the bike, and putting the tools away led to noticing it was 8 pm. It was a good, productive afternoon, and we capped it off with a visit to Akira Ramen for sustenance and celebration.
Grateful for the best family & friends and an awesome bike!