The unsung heroes of life are sometimes the least expensive, and despite initial reservations about the usefulness of this when it first dropped through my letterbox from Fat Skeleton, it has been on my Shovelhead for at least five years and will be staying there.
And it took persistence to realise just how good it was: well, persistence plus a big dollop of can’t be bothered to remove the bar end indicators to take it off again.
Okay, so how can a bit of bent plastic make so much difference, you’re asking – unless you’ve already got one?
Well, in my case, it’s because I’m running a Mikuni HS40 which has got a seriously strong return spring to make sure that the carburettor’s slide doesn’t jam in the body. That, combined with a smooth twistgrip, means I used to have to hold the grip tighter than I’d choose to, to prevent the spring overcoming what friction exists between a gloved hand and a smooth grip. It also felt as though I was at full throttle all the time, holding it against the stop when I wasn’t even close.
Put this on, and set it – by rotating it round the bar against the normal direction of travel, which is dead easy – and you’ve got more purchase on the twistgrip just by resting your hand against the cruise control’s ‘paddle’ than you will ever exert with a gloved hand, and you just feel more relaxed.
Okay, so it’s minor irritant when you want to go back into normal running, but you soon develop a level of dexterity that allows you to spin it round to the point where the paddle is facing down, out of the way, and the net benefits are well worth it.
And cruise assist?
No, it won’t do anything clever like maintain speed uphill or down, regardless of what gear you’re in, but it will help you to maintain a speed that you’ve set without throttle creep: get your hand resting comfortable on it at seventy and you will be doing seventy all day.
The CB4 is shorter but wider, and is available in chrome too, but this CB3 is ideal for me, leaving enough space on the grip for my XXL hands, and enough clearance to move it out of the way quickly. And in an unobtrusive black.
Highly recommended.