I never got around to painting this. A set of China fairings came up on Gumtree for $250 and I figured it was worth the fettling they'd require. The guy even gave me a free door for my ute. See the gate in the last pic? It had blown open in high wind and smashed into the door almost where it is in the pic. What's the odds of someone having the same bike and car?
Anyway, I soon found out why he'd given up on the fairings. I spent ages gluing tabs, fitting heat reflective sheet and reinforcing the headlight mounts, but when I put them on the heatshieds were out by 10 or 15mm and hit on the engine cases. I left them out. My word you notice the heat on your shins without them. The upper section is made in 3 pieces because the Chinaman's mould was too small. When they glued them together it flares the part where it joins to the side fairing. I got one side to fit, but without some serious trimming the right side will always have a gap. I didn't want to do any cutting because it would damage the paint - and the whole point of buying them was to avoid painting. The colour doesn't match, but because the tank isn't touching any other part you'd have to look very closely to spot it. The mirrors were scratched and needed painting anyway, so I did them the same colour as the dash surround.
I sold it last week to a guy who will probably only ride it for a latte on sunny days. He was happy enough with the China plastics, but I gave him all the originals as well in case he needs to put the heatshields in. Somebody else can paint them.
Posted: Sun Jun 23, 2013 10:11 pm
