Aftermarket Fairing Kit Installation Tips
Fitting a fairing kit is not as easy as putting on your shirt in the morning, however if your follow a few simple rules then the process of installing a fairing kit will become greatly simplified. Of course this will only apply if you have purchased the correct aftermarket fairing kit for your make and model of motorbike.
Over the last few years I have personally fitted a number of different fairing kits to a variety of different motorbikes and have never been unable to fit a fairing kit to a bike. I work at a desk job during the day so I am not fitting fairing kits for a living however I am fairly mechanically minded.
As with any job that involves multiple parts you may encounter a few issues along the way such as:
- Where parts go
- Parts that don't seem to fit
- Holes that seem too small
- Holes that don't seem to align perfectly
- Missing mounting tabs
- Mounting tabs with different size threads to the original ones.
- Misalignment of panels
All of the issues above can be solved and many of them often relate to issues with the bike itself, but I will discuss each of the issues further into this article.
The motorcycle fairing fitting process requires you to be able to use a number of common tools as well as having the ability to solve simple technical problems. If you're not mechanically minded then you will need help from a mechanically minded friend or we highly recommend having your ABS road fairing's, fitted by a professional licensed motorbike workshop.
Required Tools and Materials
- Aftermarket fairing kit
- Fasteners and bolts
- Screwdrivers
- Allen keys
- Ratchet and sockets
- Small files or sandpaper
- Drill and drill bits
- Dremel (can be useful if you have one)
- Paint Pen or Marker (recommended but not necessary)
- Masking Tape (recommended but not necessary)
- Compartmental container or jars (recommended but not necessary)
Where do parts go?
All the parts in your new aftermarket fairing kit will be almost identical to the ones on your current bike. The best way to fit a new fairing kit is to take notes, and pictures with your camera, so you can quickly document how, all the parts fit together. Ideally you should also have a multi compartment container that you can label so you can place all of the bolts screws and clips into it as as you remove them from your motorbike and fairing panels.
Quick Tip: Masking tapes a good way to quickly label items and keep track of the order that parts came off your motorbike. Later when your fitting your new fairing kit you will need to be able to fit the panels in the reverse order that you removed them. You can write on the masking tape using a marker pen to number and label the parts and areas of the bike where the parts are being removed.
If you follow the step above it will greatly help to make re-assembly of your fairing's much quicker.
If you bought a bike without its fairing's or you have simply forgotten how your fairing's fitted to your motorbike then you will need to either look in a workshop manual or search online for a guide. Most sports bikes have plenty of information available online in the way of workshop guides and exploded parts diagrams. If you fail to do this step you may end up having to remove parts after you have fitted them because you fitted the parts in the wrong order.
Remove all External Parts
Begin by removing indicators, mirrors and all other external items from your bike that will interfere with the removal of the fairing panels. You can use a paint pen or marker pen to mark the wires with stripes so that re-fitting them will be as simple as re-aligning the marks on the wires or hoses.
Remove Your Motorbikes Fairing's
The next job is the remove the fairing panels from your bike. If your motorbike has a plastic tank cover begin my first removing this from the bike and then remove the lower front fairing panels and work your way up the bike removing the panels in a methodical manner. Place a piece of rug or cardboard under your bikes belly pan so any contact with the ground wont damage it as you remove it.
Quick Tip: Take time to note the types and positions of all clips and place them in clearly labeled containers as you remove them. Take pictures and written notes as you remove parts this way you will be able to see how the parts clip or fit together when you begin the installation process later.
Often the most easy thing to do with clips and other fittings is to leave them on the original parts when it's possible to do so, you can then later swap the parts over to the new aftermarket fairing panels.
When you removing the front upper fairing take your time as it often contains the headlight, speedo, and is also attached to the front fairing stay. Make sure you note the positions of all wiring and mounting points. The front upper fairing is usually one of the most complex fairing parts because of the number of items attached to it.
Once you have the upper fairing off its well worth comparing it to the new aftermarket one. With injection molded kits the upper fairing will look almost identical but often with press molded kits there will be differences. The main differences with press molded kits is that the mounting points are often not perfectly aligned and they often have different threads in the mounts compared to the original fairing's panels. If the mounting points are a little different then you will need to solve this issue now.
The best way to go about solving the differences is to sit the headlight inside the fairing and see how different the fittings actually are. Often all that's required is different size bolts but in some case's you may need to drill the mounting holes larger to give more room for adjustment or drill the holes in the front fairing stay to give more adjustment.
I have sometimes used aluminum strapping to create extra mounting points when I have required them. You can quickly bend, drill and cut aluminum strapping to your requirements and its an ideal solution when you quickly need to mount parts on compression molded kits. You can buy aluminum strap from hardware stores and its quite cheap to purchase.
Once the front fairing's have been removed from your motorbike you can then begin removing the rear fairing panels. Often the rear panels are a tight fit and you need to be careful that you don't force parts or you can end up breaking or cracking panels.
Take your time when doing this job and use just enough force to remove the parts. If you encounter trouble when removing these panels sit back and observe the areas carefully that are causing the issues.
- It may be the angle your using to remove the panel from is incorrect.
- You may have missed removing a bolt or clip
- There might still be a part in the way that needs removing.
- It might be because the bikes been in an accident and the frame or sub frames been bent
Accident Damage
Be aware if your bike has been dropped or involved in an accident often the front and rear sub frames become slightly bent and out of line. If your bike's been dropped, fitting a fairing kit will be more difficult or even impossible because the holes and mounting points will no longer align correctly.
Often motorbike sub frames become damaged even when a motorbikes been dropped from a stationary position. If one or both of your motorbikes sub frames is damaged they will need to be repaired or replaced before you attempt to fit your new aftermarket fairing kit.
Damaged sub frames are the number one cause of difficulties with fitting fairing panels and cause the panels to not align properly. Even if the frame is only bent by 10-15mm at the top this can cause the bottom fairing mounting points to be out by over an inch.
Tidy up and Pre-Fit Check
With some areas on your new fairing kits panels you may have to tidy the mounting points. There are a number of reasons this may happen such as:
- Where parts have been released from the mould.
- Where paint has filled holes where bolts need to fit
- Where parts clip together and paint has enlarged tabs
- Where bolts holes in tabs have become clogged with paint (press molded kits)
This small job can usually be done with either a small file, drill or sandpaper depending on the part and panel. Complex parts where there are lots of clip together tabs and press molded kits where tabs and holes have been produced by hand often require a little work to clean up the holes and mounting points. With most fairing kits you will have very little to do, and the parts will fit together with very little effort but it's good to know what to do when this is not the case.
Every kit can be fitted and will look great with a little work and effort on your part.
On some aftermarket press molded fairing kits not all the mounting tabs are included. The reason for this is because press molded kits are heated and then pressed under pressure into a mould with the tabs being later plastic welded onto the panels.
These types of kits are never as accurate and require more effort on your part to make them fit. However for many older bikes these are the only types of kits available and at the price we sell our fairing kits for they are still great value.
Heat Shielding
Basic heat shielding is supplied fitted to all our fairing kits however it's your responsibility to use extra heat shielding in any areas where excessive heat occurs. The heat shielding supplied should be treated as if it didn't exist because its only useful if its applied in the correct places on the kit and in a sufficient quantity to do the job. Often this is not the case and so it's better to add more. Do this before you assemble your kit.
Quick Tip: You will notice that all aftermarket fairing kits say they include heat shielding but in my opinion its often applied in the wrong places and to sparsely to be of much value.
So to be safe is far better to add more. As a general rule if your panels are within 10mms of your exhaust headers or pipe then you will need to make sure its shielded in these areas. Areas that's get hot include around:
- Exhaust Silencers
- Exhaust Headers
- Engine Casings
- Radiators
This is especially important if you have added a modified or aftermarket exhaust system to your motorbike because Fairing Solutions will not replace kits that are heat damaged due to insufficient heat shielding.
I have found that generally most people don't fit extra heat shielding to the kits they buy from us and most have no issues at all. The people that do have troubles generally have aftermarket headers and pipes installed.
But be warned kits are plastic and they will melt if they get hot enough!
Fitting your New Fairing Kit
You can now begin fitting your new fairing panels to your motorbike, fit the panels in the reverse order that you removed them beginning by fitting your tank cover if your bike has one. Take your time when fitting your new fairing panels and think about the angels your trying to fit the panels from rather than trying to force parts.
It may be necessary in some place to flex the panels to make them fit, however you should not over flex parts of you may damage parts or break them if you use too much force. Generally parts fit without requiring much flexing at all and if they don't it's probably because you're taking the wrong approach to fitting the fairing panels.
If you're unsure about how to fit panels then you can look at your notes and pictures that you took earlier and this will help you remember how the parts fitted together. Also you can use the masking tape numbers to help identify where parts went on the bike by looking at the numbers on the tape and matching it with the parts you removed.
The bolts you removed should also have been placed in the labeled container as I suggested earlier so selecting the correct bolts and clips should now be quite simple as you begin to fit your new fairing panels. You will now also be able to remove any clips, spacers or grommets from the old fairing panels and transfer these to the new fairing panels.
Quick Tip: If you don't know how your fairing kit came off your bikes for any reason, the best way to find out how the parts fit together is to search for a workshop manual or exploded parts views online. For most bikes there are a multitude of resources available online.
With some fairing kit panels you may need to be a little more proactive with fitting the parts. Sometimes it just because the kits been press molded and isn't quite perfect in some areas and other times its simply because in the copy process the new panel just isn't quite perfect. In these case you may need to dill extra holes and fit extra clips or make small brackets that will fit behind the panels so they fit nicely. With 95% of kits this won't be the case and it's never ever made a kit impossible or overly difficult to fit to a motorbike when I have been fitting an aftermarket kit myself.
When your fitting the top fairing make sure you rout and connect all the headlight, speedo, indicator and any other wires you disconnected when you began the disassembly of your fairing's. Use the marks that you put on the wires when you disassembled the parts to help you quickly connect all the wiring in the right order.
Connect External Parts
The last job is to connect all of the external parts that you disconnected such as the indicators, mirrors and all other external parts. Once this is all done make sure you check all panels for lose bolts or clips. I can't stress enough how important this is because your safety can rest on this being done correctly.
Any place where there is a lot of vibrations you should use locktight to secure the bolts so they can't rattle loose. At high speed on a racetrack, parts can fly loose if you haven't put all of the clips and bolts into your fairing kit so make sure nothing is missing before you take your bike out.
