Originally Posted by europa

I promised updates and here's the first one.

The brute is installed.
The instructions say that it's designed for traditional bars where the end of the bars is horizontal. They also say that if the end of your bars aren't horizontal, you should rotate them so the ends are. That's nice for the manufacturer, but I adjust my bars to suit me, not the manufacturer of an aftermarket component.

My bars are modern bars (the Vibe S7) and I like the top of the drops horizontal - considering I never hold the very end of the bars, I don't care where they point. In my case, the end of the bars is angled downwards and this mirror isn't happy being forced to fit them. This is a design flaw.

Fortunately, the long ends of the mirror mounts are split in four and are very flexible. By using only the top ones, I was able to pull it into right position... but they needed to be very tightly taped down. From there, I was able to pull the bottom tabs into position (both wind up partially wrapping around the bars) and to tape them into position. The instructions glibly talk about being able to make small changes once installed - that is nonsense in cases like mine, if I wan't to adjust them, I have to undo the tape, have another try and see if it worked.

As you'd expect, getting the position right is a prize sod of a job, especially if this is the first time you've used one and are learning on the fly. Someone suggested dragging their stationary trainer out into the street and upon reflection, this is really good advice. Also, set the mirror slightly high because once you wrap the bar tape, it's going to pull down a little. This happened to me and I'm not going to be able to fix it without unwrapping 4" or so of bar tape... but seeing I wrap from the bottom, this isn't going to happen in the short term.

I've only ridden it up and down the street checking the positioning... and the new bars and neck I also fitted. Actually, there's a thought, maybe a minuscule tilt of the bars will help the vertical position without upsetting the riding position. Anyways, at the moment, it's probably set a little low but you can't really test these things without a real ride.

Initial impressions are that it is indeed very small and the slight concave shape doesn't really address that. However, at low speeds, the image was dead clear. To see behind you, you also see your leg (and I've got wide bars). Like all initial impressions though, my thoughts may change with regular use.

I'll let you know how it works next weekend after a week's commuting.

And a photo of things as they are now.