Mirror Project for VRSCR

Problem:  I'm tired of looking at my elbows and having to tuck my arm in or move my head out to see behind me in the mirrors.  None of the aftermarket mirrors I looked at seemed to have stems long enough to make that much of a difference.  I did not want to change handlebars (and then brake lines) but I'd still like to see behind me when I ride.  I'm not a small guy, so this is a real problem for me
Solution: Find some way to lengthen the mirror bar so that I can see around me.   I looked at lots of ways of doing this and came up with self-help solution that cost relatively nothing.  This may be sacrilege to some, (golfers) but the solution I came up with to lengthen the mirrors required finding a tube or something I could use.  I do not have a machine shop, so I had to see what was around the house, or that I could get at a local hardware store.  The solution was sitting in my closest for the last 10 years, old golf clubs! Now don't freak-out is you are a golfer, but I haven't been on a course in years, and I wouldn't use the old things in my closet anyway. So here is what I did:
Tools needed:  Simple pipe cutter, crazy glue, needle nose pliers, hack saw, file, regular pliers.  You will also need mirrors and 2 golf clubs.  The mirrors were easy as I had a spare set of chrome short stem mirrors left over from my road king when I put custom ones on that bike.  The golf clubs must be the hollow aluminum type.  Pick two that are similar in size as they are tapered and it will make a difference.  If you do not what to destroy your clubs go to any thrift shop and they probably have old clubs for a buck each.
1) Cut mirror in half.  I used a hand held hack saw.  I wasn't worried about scratching it up as the entire shaft gets covered.  Best in the middle as this gives you a good lip on each side to work with.
2) Cut one Golf club only.  Start with the smaller part of the shaft and cut the golf club where you believe the size of the diameter of the club will fit nicely over the mirror shaft.   If you are not sure cut a smaller section.  If your first cut is on a section of the club that is too large, then you are screwed and will need to start over.
3) Use the needle nose pliers to open the end of cut golf club.  Cutting it with a pipe cutter probably narrowed the end and you want to remove that narrow bending to attempt to fit the morrow shaft into the pipe.
4) Golf clubs usually have sections of increasing size on the shaft so if the mirror shaft des not fit into the golf club, you will need to cut again on the next biggest section of the golf club. I had to do this more than once to get the right size section so the mirror shaft fit snuggly into the golf club shaft.   Once you are sure you have the right snug fit, then you can cut the part of the golf club that the other half of the mirror shaft will fit into.  Note: You will be using the shaft of the golf club with the narrower portion toward the mirror and the wider portion toward the handlebars.  You are therefore inserting the mirror shaft (with the mirror attached toward the handle of the golf club.
5) You can cut your golf club shafts to whatever length you want.  However, keep in mind that the longer the golf club shaft, the more of a gap will be present when you try to fit the base of the mirror shaft over it.  I went with a total length of 6.5 inches.  Any longer would have made me use another wider section of the golf club and that seemed problematic to me.   See the finished cuts in the image to the right
6) You next put tape over the base shaft of the mirror (I used electrical tape). This helps widen the base so it fits snuggly in the club shaft.  You will only need to do this on the base portion of the mirror shaft as the other half of the shaft should fit snuggly into the narrower portion of the golf club shaft.
7) Insert the base of the mirror shaft with the tape into the wider part of the cut golf club shaft.  Push the shaft in all the way until the curved portion of the mirror shaft prevents it from going any further.  It should be a snug fit with the tape.  Then mount upright with grips, or just hold upright and pour crazy glue into the other side so it runs down to the tape and the inserted shaft.  Be careful that it does not leak out the bottom onto the portion of the chrome mirror shaft that you will see.  Use glue liberally and let dry for several hours.
8) Next you re ready to insert the mirror portion of the shaft into the narrower portion of the golf club shaft. (read Afterthought below first) I recommend you test it once without glue to make sure you have a good fit.  BE CAREFUL to make sure you have the mirror head in the proper orientation so that when you mount this assembly back on the bike the mirror will be facing in the right direction.  Nothing would be worse then to get finished and notice that the mirror is pointing in the wrong direction.  Put glue inside the shaft of the club and then insert the remaining portion of the mirror shaft in.  Since it should be a snug fit, putting glue on the mirror shaft will cause it to run off as you insert it into the golf club shaft.  Liberally put glue inside the golf club shaft so that it bonds with the mirror shaft when inserting.  Again make sure you IMMEDIATELY have the mirror oriented properly before the glue has a chance to set up.
9) Do the other side the same way. I completed one side and mounted it before even starting cutting the other side.  Make sure both golf club shaft cuts are the same length, but make the first cut on the narrower side of the golf cut first, then measure out the length to be the same as the other mirror assembly you have just finished.  Let all glue
10) Mount the mirrors, adjust and ride.

Afterthought: If I had to do it over again, I would cut and insert some metal tubing or something into the golf club shaft and glue them into the tube, before gluing the top remaining portion of the mirror shaft into place.  This would add stability and reduce mirror vibration.  In my attempt there is slightly more vibration than the stock mirrors, but not nearly as much as my wife's Sportster.  The vibration only shows up at certain rpm and is not bad.  I'm not sure if it is because the shaft is longer, or because it is hollow and less sturdy.