Motorcycle fairings are super aerodynamic on race bikes and street bikes. And you’ll find hardly any fairing on a custom bike. The following tips will be helpful if you are ever messing around with them.
Fairing Introduction
Fairings have come a long way since the introduction of motorcycles. With the higher speeds it became more and more essential to deflect the wind around the bike to improve the performance. Most of these improvements came from the race track. Later development has made motorcycle fairings so effective that weather plays less and less influence on the motorcycle (of course I am now talking about the bigger goldwings, electra’s and bmw fairings)
Most fairings are very fragile and need to be handled with great care. Pulling at the wrong part can easily result in a crack. A motorcycle fairing is often attached to the body of the bike with screws, bolts, clips etc. Find out where exactly the piece of fairing is attached (do this with your manual instead of trail and error).
You’ll often come across side panels, access panels, lower fairing. Now you don’t need to strip of all panels for some basic maintenance. This is often why you will find access panels on a bike. Made exactly for the reason you don’t need to strip everything. Side panels are also not hard to remove just make sure you double check the attachment points. Lower and front motorcycle fairings are often large and bulk and difficult to handle by yourself.
Once you have motorcycle fairing parts detached place them away from where you are, lay them on a piece of cloth and be very careful with it. This is where often the most common scratches and breaks take place.
If your bike goes down fairings are the first to get damages. A slow speed drop can even result in some costly damage. In some circumstances you will have to take the bike to be professionally repaired. For smaller things you might be able to do it yourself. Super glue helps from the front side of the panel but use a stronger glue from the back. Even add a duck tape once finished. You can also use epoxy kit or even solder it together with a soldering iron. Work in small steps!
Useful Fairing Tips
Useful
tools for fixing damaged fairings: super glue, removal fluid, epoxy
glue (including hardener), soldering iron and duct tape.
To
repair cracks in panels use super glue on the front and epoxy glue on
the backside. Cover the backside with duct tape once finished.
Before you work on any scratches or cracks make sure you clean it well with a solvent to remove wax / dirt / crease.
If
you have scratches get the right touch-up paint sticks from your
manufacturer / dealer. Instead of wiping the paint over the scratch, let
it very gently run from the stick into the scratch. Works much better.
Then let it dry for two days before washing and waxing.