I'm Gradually Succumbing to Chromophilia

Don't panic, friends. It's not a disease like hemophilia, where it'll kill you without speedy treatment. But I'm gradually succumbing to Chromophilia--also known as The Lure of the Chrome-laden Luxo Barge

It's rather insidious the way its happened too.

I remember talking to a guy named Slots (some of you may know him from HSVROC) about our Nomads and what accessories to buy, and I told him I thought the chrome bag rails looked great, but that "These bikes are already heavy enough." I wasn't about to add more weight just to improve the appearance of the bike. More weight was the enemy. Hadn't I already stripped off the stock filters and pipes and the reeds and plumbing and the lowers and that damnably offensive Goat's Bladder?

But then I did need some chrome highway pegs. That's a functional necessity, and if ya gotta have them they might as well be chrome! I couldn't pass up the used chrome passenger floorboard supports. The price was too good, and they really didn't add more weight at all...Hey, a BONUS, right! ...But I was only kidding myself. They just helped to ease my conscience about the excesses to come.

Then there was the sissy bar, which was an absolute necessity if I wanted to keep my wife from falling off. That demanded a luggage rack as well, since we did buy this bike to go touring you know.

But even with the sissy bar, there was no good place to hang on, and so the chrome passenger grab rails got installed.

I found I could not resist the chromed steel side covers when I found a set on eBay. Yeah they weighed more than the plastic ones---but they were steel! And chromed! Damn the expense (and ignore the extra weight.)

I really liked the look of those chrome brake covers too, and it was more about the fact that the stock calipers and rotors have more edges than a Swiss Army knife and were impossible to keep clean. The chrome covers hide all that ugliness and clean off with just a quick wipe. They were just too expensive to justify at first, plus they required some home-brew adapter to work on an FI bike; but then Kawi quit making the bikes they fit and the price fell like a stone. When they went from $250 to $50 I was a hooked fish!

Then the same thing started happening with the other accessories. Accessories that didn't fit the new 1600's dropped in price until they were impossible to resist, and so the chrome fender tip appeared on my bike, and then the chrome bumpers.

So now I find myself drooling like an idiot over the chrome bag rails, and chrome tail lights for the bags, and chrome top rails for the bags, and chrome spotlights, still telling myself they represent only more flash and useless extra pounds, but knowing that some additional protection would be welcome, and, well, nothing like that is without weight penalty. Ohhhh Man! what ever happened to: "These bikes are already heavy enough"?

Now I'm almost beyond caring. In fact I'm in denial. I just don't want to know how much more my bike weighs than before. I've obviously already got the dread disease Chromophilia. I can see I'll never recover. Why should I torture myself further?