Anyone repaired a front fairing brace?

Anybody bent the brace back to shape ??

Mine has bent a bit, display unit with the speedo in is more verical than it should be i think.

Had a bit of damage to it and Neeja noticed that the whole fairing was pointing up abit.

Any suggestions to straighten it ??

Makes it a bit difficult as i have never seen what it should look like anyway! lol

Anyone want to repair for me ?? Payment included of course.

cheers

PM suicidesam.

I think he has done most of the SV ecosse guys, who have bent these.

Suicide Sam.

Quite a long trip to take it up to Suicide Sam, even though he is the cowling brace wizard!

Basically you need to apply some proper heat from an industrial torch and belt it back into the correct shape, or if it's really bent, cut it and re-weld it. An local steel fabricator should be able to sort it for you for a few quid.

i dont think it is actually bent that much, i only noticed cos the display is a bit more vertical than it should be, the display is sitting properly on the brace aswell. have had all the fairing off to have a look but to be honest i ant got a clue wot im looking at as i never seen it before bump.

Just had a quote for new fairing and brace, they were £ 272, and £ 108 .

Originally Posted by CarlosSV650S

i dont think it is actually bent that much, i only noticed cos the display is a bit more vertical than it should be, the display is sitting properly on the brace aswell. have had all the fairing off to have a look but to be honest i ant got a clue wot im looking at as i never seen it before bump.

Just had a quote for new fairing and brace, they were £ 272, and £ 108 .

I take you had an accident with the bike?

Did your fairing fit over the brace where the mirrors screw into it no bother, then once in place did all the holes line up OK at the two allen bolts either side of the fuel tank and the two decorative allen screws that screw through the inner fairing panel directly below your grips? How about your headlights, do the point in the right direction and not too high or low? If all this is OK then your nose is straight enough.

All pointy SV's that I've ridden have had a slightly squint nose.

Originally Posted by CarlosSV650S

Just had a quote for new fairing and brace, they were £ 272, and £ 108 .

I managed to pick one up for £60 a while back. I believe it'd come from a race bike, possibly having the brace replaced for something made of lighter metal. I'm not sure. But that's been sold on as it wasn't my problem.

My problem, just to give you a giggle, is that the headlight unit has two plastic tabs on it that locate into gromits. Well, I should say had, as both mine have snapped. Cost to replace the headlight unit, brand new from Suzuki? £360.

[northwind]

Originally Posted by Baph

Cost to replace the headlight unit, brand new from Suzuki? £360.

Cost to plastic weld the bits back on? Nothing



Behold! Subframe straightening:





The wooden beam up the middle is purely to give a reliable centreline, I'm sure some folks could do it by dead reckoning without a reference point but I can't. The steel bar is the lever.

There's a trick to this... The reason it's so hard to get a good result is that there's a lot of metal with bends and welds and suchlike, so when you try to bend one part it's quite common that instead, you'll bend another. For instance, if you pull on where the mirrors mount, you'll most likely bend the entire subframe at the front weld. So, you have to localise the force. I did this by attaching the lever in its centre instead of at an end, and fixing it to the specific part I wanted to bend (using jubilee clips). This way, instead of just pulling the whole thing and twisting it all over, I could push one end and pull the other so there's far less stress on the rest of the frame. Easier to do than describe!

Oh, also, using a massive lever does help, you can be much more precise when you're not working as hard. And of course, patience is key. Oh, I didn't heat the frame at all, just did it cold.

PS, check out my garage. There are things living in there, strange creatures made of rust, lost bolts and discarded cut-through cable ties.

Originally Posted by -Ralph-

I take you had an accident with the bike?

Did your fairing fit over the brace where the mirrors screw into it no bother, then once in place did all the holes line up OK at the two allen bolts either side of the fuel tank and the two decorative allen screws that screw through the inner fairing panel directly below your grips? How about your headlights, do the point in the right direction and not too high or low? If all this is OK then your nose is straight enough.

All pointy SV's that I've ridden have had a slightly squint nose.

hello m8,

yes all the holes line up ok, although you do have to manipulate one by the tank. the brackets by the tank look straight though but once the fairing is on the gap between the fairing and the tank is not the same either side.

have found a local repair centre that i will take it to and get an estimate, they know what they are looking at. Hopefully just get the fairing resparayed or something aswell.

Originally Posted by northwind

There's a trick to this... The reason it's so hard to get a good result is that there's a lot of metal with bends and welds and suchlike, so when you try to bend one part it's quite common that instead, you'll bend another

That's the trick I couldn't manage, which is why I had to take it to Suicide Sam to get heat applied (that and 'cos KG's overgrown creme brulee torch couldn't produce enough heat ). I didn't have a lever that size and wouldn't have been confident enough to try it that way without doing even more damage.

I got the three endpoints (two mirror mounts and where is bolts to the headstock) dead on using a hydraulic bottle jack, that and all looked dead on until I tried to fit the fairing cowl.

Originally Posted by northwind

I'm sure some folks could do it by dead reckoning without a reference point but I can't.

I found the easiest way to see if it's straight is to sit on the bike and look at it from behind, also as (on a pointy anyway) the mirrors bolt into this brace, you can see if your mirrors are equal both sides. As said above though, this only works if your fairing cowl is fitting OK. Mine has a very slight squint now, but you can only see it from sitting on the bike, and you'd only see it if you knew it was there. KG's is the same since he dropped his bike and the nose hit a wall, and Tiger55's old SV is the same, but squint in the other direction and his bike has never been dropped or crashed, it came like that from new, so Carlos, if it's only slightly squint I wouldn't worry about it.

well finally got this sorted,

Bought a new one last week and fitted it this morning.

Cost of £ 132 from dealer.