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I have been asked a few times where I got the fairing for my bike and I also just recently ran across some pictures of the modifications I did to the fairing. I thought I would describe how it worked out.
When I got the bike, the fairing already had the Maier Sport fairing on it and so in my first paint job for the bike I just painted it the same as the rest and was kind glad that the hole was already there and I did not have to screw with in. However as some already know I wrecked in Dec 2010 (kinda ran off the road when a California Forest Service truck completely filled the road on a small one lane I was traveling as I entered a blind curve. (see "Pos Down"). The fairing was history so I needed to buy and fit another.
First this is the Fairing I bought; they are still available and are very reasonably priced. Make sure to get the Large Round Sport Fairing.
You will need to cut the 7" opening to fit the 8" train light.
The problem you deal with in doing this is that in order to create the hole for the 8" light you have to cut into areas that are curved on the fairing. So in order to get the fairing hole to match the 8" required I used a piece of flat cardboard to transfer the projection of the flat 8" disk to the curved surface of the fairing.
I "mark" the transfer of the projection using blue masking tape. This way if it did not quite work it is easy to pull up and re lay.
Started by cutting out a round piece of cardboard that was the size of the light excluding the chrome ring. Then using blue tape on the front to "tape off" the upper and lower extents of the disk projection. Once you have that completed, then from the other side uses some other tape (I used red duct tape) to hold the disk to the front of the fairing. Now with the disk/pattern in place, I used more blue making tape on the front to mask off the outline of the disk projection onto the curved surface of the fairing. If I had an 8" hole saw I could have used that but not sure if they even exist.
After completing the taping operation I used a Dremel with cutting disk to cut a smooth set of archs to match the outline of the blue tape. The cut is not perfect but then use a little sand paper to smooth out and properly round the edge around the opening to make it look like it should. If you are careful you can do this and only get the edge to have a dull finish while the rest of the fairing stays shiny black. In my case I was painting the whole thing so I did not worry too much about sanding further away from the edge of the opening. The fairing is rough sanded to get the paint to adhere anyways.
After completing the dremel cut.
One last note and I discovered this the hard way (with cracks), the fairings have a tendency to crack around the mounting bolt holes. In order to lessen the chance for cracking I found these little goodies at the Marine H/W store. They are called Barrel Nuts. They provide for a larger hole with distributed the pressure on the plastic and makes it less likely to crack; it also adds a nice finished look that is better than a slotted screw head. I also made some plastic washers to sandwich between the front and back out of some GM carpet hold downs I found at the auto parts store.
Here is a picture of the finished product. You can see the fairing is mounted with the four Barrel nuts with backed up plastic washers. It was painted to match the rest of he bike with some OEM look decals added.
One subtle thing that I noticed (If I'm not imagining things) is that you will see a bit of a recess in the light behind the opening of the fairing. Partially because of fit (the gauge pod with my added VDO gauges), I left the headlamp recessed further back than the first time the OP fitted the fairing. To my surprise I think that the small opening tends to channel air into the fairing around the headlamp. This seems to have a stabilizing effect and the front feels more stable at speed than it did before., realize that this is also after I had become familiar with the feels with the OP's fairing and my GSXR conversion. This may sound a bit far fetched but I think the more modern fairing allow air to travel through rather than trying to force all of the air around. Anyway that was a nice result of what appeared initially to be an ill fit of the light in the fairing.
When I got the bike, the fairing already had the Maier Sport fairing on it and so in my first paint job for the bike I just painted it the same as the rest and was kind glad that the hole was already there and I did not have to screw with in. However as some already know I wrecked in Dec 2010 (kinda ran off the road when a California Forest Service truck completely filled the road on a small one lane I was traveling as I entered a blind curve. (see "Pos Down"). The fairing was history so I needed to buy and fit another.
First this is the Fairing I bought; they are still available and are very reasonably priced. Make sure to get the Large Round Sport Fairing.
You will need to cut the 7" opening to fit the 8" train light.
The problem you deal with in doing this is that in order to create the hole for the 8" light you have to cut into areas that are curved on the fairing. So in order to get the fairing hole to match the 8" required I used a piece of flat cardboard to transfer the projection of the flat 8" disk to the curved surface of the fairing.
I "mark" the transfer of the projection using blue masking tape. This way if it did not quite work it is easy to pull up and re lay.
Started by cutting out a round piece of cardboard that was the size of the light excluding the chrome ring. Then using blue tape on the front to "tape off" the upper and lower extents of the disk projection. Once you have that completed, then from the other side uses some other tape (I used red duct tape) to hold the disk to the front of the fairing. Now with the disk/pattern in place, I used more blue making tape on the front to mask off the outline of the disk projection onto the curved surface of the fairing. If I had an 8" hole saw I could have used that but not sure if they even exist.
After completing the taping operation I used a Dremel with cutting disk to cut a smooth set of archs to match the outline of the blue tape. The cut is not perfect but then use a little sand paper to smooth out and properly round the edge around the opening to make it look like it should. If you are careful you can do this and only get the edge to have a dull finish while the rest of the fairing stays shiny black. In my case I was painting the whole thing so I did not worry too much about sanding further away from the edge of the opening. The fairing is rough sanded to get the paint to adhere anyways.
After completing the dremel cut.
One last note and I discovered this the hard way (with cracks), the fairings have a tendency to crack around the mounting bolt holes. In order to lessen the chance for cracking I found these little goodies at the Marine H/W store. They are called Barrel Nuts. They provide for a larger hole with distributed the pressure on the plastic and makes it less likely to crack; it also adds a nice finished look that is better than a slotted screw head. I also made some plastic washers to sandwich between the front and back out of some GM carpet hold downs I found at the auto parts store.
Here is a picture of the finished product. You can see the fairing is mounted with the four Barrel nuts with backed up plastic washers. It was painted to match the rest of he bike with some OEM look decals added.
One subtle thing that I noticed (If I'm not imagining things) is that you will see a bit of a recess in the light behind the opening of the fairing. Partially because of fit (the gauge pod with my added VDO gauges), I left the headlamp recessed further back than the first time the OP fitted the fairing. To my surprise I think that the small opening tends to channel air into the fairing around the headlamp. This seems to have a stabilizing effect and the front feels more stable at speed than it did before., realize that this is also after I had become familiar with the feels with the OP's fairing and my GSXR conversion. This may sound a bit far fetched but I think the more modern fairing allow air to travel through rather than trying to force all of the air around. Anyway that was a nice result of what appeared initially to be an ill fit of the light in the fairing.
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