Remove fairing before forks?

Haynes suggest you take off the SV650S's bikini fairing before removing forks. Is this advisable?

Does leaving the fairing in place make fork removal/installation a hassle?

Put another way, does taking it off make the process a lot easier?

I left mine on. Didn't have any problems.

[Sid Squid]

It does make access easier, but it isn't strictly necessary.

I had my forks out to swap the springs last month and left the fairing on. Didn't seem to be much extra hassle.

Might have to turn the bars to get easier access to the yoke bolts, but otherwise, no difference!

As others have said. Not required.

[Nobbylad]

Personally, I'd remove the cowl and the lowers. Doesn't take much hamfistedness to drop summat or have something fall against and damage them.

For the few mins it takes to remove them, I would think it's worth it.

[mikerj]

I've left the fairing on when I fitted emulators to two different pointys with no clearance problems whatsoever. The only thing you need to be carefull of is making sure the clip-ons don't bang against fairing and scratch the paint after you have removed the forks; tie them up to the mirrors or just wrap them in a towel and let them rest on the fairing.

[Jayneflakes]

I left my forks on when I stripped down the front end, my only tip would be to make sure that the bike is well balanced and safe before you start work on it. Getting the front mud guard off though is another issue, I thought that this was the hardest part of the job, but just getting the forks off is a doddle even with the fairing in place.

Good luck.

I can report that removing the forks without removing the fairing is easy, especially if you have a long-handled socket wrench to reach the yoke clamp bolts.

A quick tip re undoing the damper rod bolt is to do this immediately after removing the wheel (a great tip from muzikill is to use the axle to brace one fork against the other).

If oil has leaked prior to dismantling the forks wind the pre-load up to full first.