High vis mast fitting

[Paul]

Hi again, thanks for all the advice about extracting the pedal cranks ( waiting for tool from eBay. £3.49 p&p free )

Now my next problem.....I have bought from eBay a " genuine " high vis mast but when I tried to fit into the holes at the top of the seat the holes in the plastic brackets are to small or the poles are to big! As I have never seen a original mast I don't know the difference, the poles are steel with a grey plastic sleeve over.

Am I overlooking something?  Once again any help and advice would be appreciated.....Paul.

[danny7147]

Hi Paul, I'm the guy who made the replica ones. Firstly, does the plastic surround on your poles cover the full length or is there a short section missing at one end? I've encountered this problem before so I'm fairly sure I know what it is.

[Paul]

Hi Danny, no the grey plastic covers the hole length of both poles

[danny7147]

Right, my guess is that's your problem. With my replica poles I cut about a half inch of the heat shrink off to expose the pole (the same as someone had done to my genuine one) and they all fit perfectly. Unless someone's got some better advice I can certainly post you a short section of tube with heat shrink so that you can have an experiment before cutting your genuine ones though!

[Paul]

Thanks for the offer thats good of you.
I've already tried that by manipulating the outer plastic to expose a small amount of the steel and it would fit without the plastic sleeve.

Am I getting it wrong, I thought the mast poles were going to slide up and down through the back of the seat to raise and lower the mast but the grommets in the top of the seat are like collets with cross cuts in the ends about one inch long so they are not large enough for the poles to pass through! Sorry if this sounds like I'm a bit thick ( may be I am ) but this is the first C5 I've seen close up in detail and I'm trying to see the design logic in the mast, not even certain if the grommets are original but I think they would be the way they were seized into the back plate.

[C5 ENTHUSIAST + RESTORER]

Hi there the masts are not made to slide up and down. They where made to go down about 1" .Any photos

bye Chas

[Paul]

Hi, thanks for clarifying that for me, the reason I thought they went up and down is because I have seen pictures of C5's with the mast down so I'm now assuming they have just sat the reflector in the holes without any poles! Not to knock C5's but it does seem like a bad design because your left with two long poles to store when parked up if you don't want them nicked or vandalised, I'm talking 1985 not today.

Now I know how they are supposed to be fitted I will just ream out the grommets to a friction fit rather than cut the plastic sleeves

[danny7147]

But why do things sensibly? Think of the drawbacks of the other accessories... If you'd just spent £1000 (in today's money) on a brand shiny new bike, would you trust yourself taking a drill to the bodywork to fit the indicators? ;-)