2black1s
New member
- Jan 23, 2015
- 1,783
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I just took a test drive with my new G8 and BOSS pads. The route traversed one saddle bag from my 2019 Harley Ultra Limited. Obviously, I'll finish the trip over the whole bike but wanted to share my initial impressions so far.
I take good care of my bike so it's not in need of any serious correction, yet it can always benefit from a light polishing. I chose Meg's D166 as the polishing agent.
I have to say my overall impression with the G8 is good. It does exactly what you would expect and does it well. I didn't experience any limitations beyond those typical of any free-spinning polisher. And the 3-inch size was near perfect for the part I was working on. There were a few areas where a 2-inch (which is included with the G8) or even 1-inch would fare better, but not better enough for me to take the time to swap out backing plates. Whatever corners and such that I couldn't get with the 3-inch pad were simply finished by hand.
I started with the black Boss "finishing" pad. Too soft for my liking, even though I wasn't chasing defects and was only looking for a nice final finish. I did the complete bag using the black pad, then decided to try the yellow BOSS "perfecting" pad. I went over the whole bag again with the yellow pad and like it much better. If there was any compromise in the finish quality moving from a black pad to a yellow pad, it was certainly not obvious to my eyes. I also have the orange BOSS "correcting" pads but haven't gone there yet.
Since most everything has both pros and cons, here's a couple cons...
For the G8, and this is certainly no deal-breaker, I'd prefer a single, one-way, variable speed trigger throttle over the dual-pivot variable speed trigger throttle the tool has. I've never been much for "gimmicks" and the dual-pivot switch fits squarely in that category to me. I just don't see any benefit to the dual-pivot switch and would much prefer a more conventional "singular" trigger.
For the pads, I'd like to see a little foam shoulder around the edge of the velcro backing. When polishing the saddle bag lid, as you can see in the pics, there is a corner, or lip, all the way around the lid. When polishing into that corner you have to be very careful not to allow the velcro backing (or the backing plate itself) to contact the opposing surface. If it did make contact, you'd have some serious marring. A little more foam around the edges would minimize that risk. Note that with the Griot's pads and the Griot's backing plate, the velcro backing on the pad exceeds the edge of the backing plate by about 1/8" circumferentially, so it would make contact before the actual backing plate.
That's it... My initial impressions after about an hour of use.
View attachment 72337 View attachment 72338 View attachment 72339 View attachment 72340 View attachment 72341
I take good care of my bike so it's not in need of any serious correction, yet it can always benefit from a light polishing. I chose Meg's D166 as the polishing agent.
I have to say my overall impression with the G8 is good. It does exactly what you would expect and does it well. I didn't experience any limitations beyond those typical of any free-spinning polisher. And the 3-inch size was near perfect for the part I was working on. There were a few areas where a 2-inch (which is included with the G8) or even 1-inch would fare better, but not better enough for me to take the time to swap out backing plates. Whatever corners and such that I couldn't get with the 3-inch pad were simply finished by hand.
I started with the black Boss "finishing" pad. Too soft for my liking, even though I wasn't chasing defects and was only looking for a nice final finish. I did the complete bag using the black pad, then decided to try the yellow BOSS "perfecting" pad. I went over the whole bag again with the yellow pad and like it much better. If there was any compromise in the finish quality moving from a black pad to a yellow pad, it was certainly not obvious to my eyes. I also have the orange BOSS "correcting" pads but haven't gone there yet.
Since most everything has both pros and cons, here's a couple cons...
For the G8, and this is certainly no deal-breaker, I'd prefer a single, one-way, variable speed trigger throttle over the dual-pivot variable speed trigger throttle the tool has. I've never been much for "gimmicks" and the dual-pivot switch fits squarely in that category to me. I just don't see any benefit to the dual-pivot switch and would much prefer a more conventional "singular" trigger.
For the pads, I'd like to see a little foam shoulder around the edge of the velcro backing. When polishing the saddle bag lid, as you can see in the pics, there is a corner, or lip, all the way around the lid. When polishing into that corner you have to be very careful not to allow the velcro backing (or the backing plate itself) to contact the opposing surface. If it did make contact, you'd have some serious marring. A little more foam around the edges would minimize that risk. Note that with the Griot's pads and the Griot's backing plate, the velcro backing on the pad exceeds the edge of the backing plate by about 1/8" circumferentially, so it would make contact before the actual backing plate.
That's it... My initial impressions after about an hour of use.
View attachment 72337 View attachment 72338 View attachment 72339 View attachment 72340 View attachment 72341
