Lower Fairing Benefits?

I am thinking of buying the lower fairing kit for my bike.

Aside from appearence, are there any benefits or negatives from fitting this kit?

Presumably they keep your legs a bit warmer when its cold so I won't have to keep the thermal inserts in my trousers for so long?

Are there any issues with engine overheating? I assume it makes very little difference to drag? It doesn't make the bike weave more in cross winds when passing trucks etc? How much does the kit weigh?

Cheers.

how much are you looking at paying for the kit?

I am after the lower fairing kit and the rear pillion seat cowl.

I emailed that redcar place mentioned in the seat cowl thread to see what they would charge.

I will also ask the dealership where I bought the bike if they can do me a deal given that I bought the bike new from them six months ago.

I want the genuine Suzuki parts and have seen the RRP on the Suzuki website so I am basically looking to get as much off that as possible as I know the pricing on these bits of plastic is a total utter p*** take! I dare say Suzuki could flog me the lot for a hundred notes and still make a tidy profit!

At the list price I am only 50/50 sure I want them.

look nice, keeps your knees out of wind, dont show the exhaust pipes (if they are corroding)

Hi,

I fitted the lowers to my 03 curvy after about six months for the simple reason that
I think they make the bike look alot better. I cursed when I picked up my bike from new when there was the identical bike to mine kitted out with lowers.
There is little really in the way of aerodynamic protection although your lower legs are a little more protected.
The kit is relatively easy to fit and does protect the engine from some road dirt.
Downsides are that the oil level is alot harder to see - I use a magilite torch to peer in. It is also harder to keep the engine as clean as it is not so accessible now. I guess servicing costs may also be higher as the lowers have to be removed for some items.
I would not pay the Suzuki price for them mind. I searched for a while and bought mine for £140 from the sv.650.org sales forum. I thought this was a reasonable price. I'll probably remove and sell when it comes to selling the bike.

regards

I had the lowers fitted when i bought the bike in July, i did it purely because it makes it looked more finished, i dont think there are any real downsides, they come off in 5 mins, they dont affect stability & are very light, I dont know which ones Matt Prince has but with mine the oil window is still well clear.
There are no overheating issues at all, i did the unity ride last year, hot day stop & starting through london, nuff said.

[fizzwheel]

My bike had lowers on when I bought it, now it doesnt, long story....

When I removed what was left of the lowers I noticed two specific things.

1. It handled better in crosswinds and I didnt get blown about all over the road like I had been when it had lowers on.

2. It felt lighter and more manoverable at low speed, its weird I cant explain why but thats how it felt.

Personally I dont like anymore the look of the Curvey SV with lowers on, However I think the pointy looks much better with lowers on than without.

I think for what its worth they do keep crud off you and most of the bike. However it can be a bit of a pain to get at the covered up bits when you are cleaning it. However as somebody else has said it doesnt take 5 minutes to drop the lowers off to give it a good scrub

HTH

Well redcar can do me the lower fairing kit and the pillion seat cowl for £415 Inc Vat and delivery and they have them in stock apparently.

Will have to think about this.

Originally Posted by Toypop

Well redcar can do me the lower fairing kit and the pillion seat cowl for £415 Inc Vat and delivery and they have them in stock apparently.

Will have to think about this.

Well me old mate, at the end of the day it's down to you, do you want them or do you not, if you do then you would have them regardless (within reason) of cost, if you are, as it seems, a bit cautious due to the cost then maybe you would be better off spending the cash on a different mod - just a thought.
Have a good think & weigh it up against anything else you may want to be changing & see which ones seem the most important to you.

I've ordered it all.

As I've probably said before I like my SV but want a GSXR600 or SV1000SZ.

I have zero NCB and need to get to the stage where I can protect a good few years NCB before I upgrade to a larger bike though.

In the meantime I have three or four years with the SV which is great because I love it and it is plenty quick enough but I figure it will be worth making it look better if I am going to keep it that long - especially as the fairing will hide most of the Suzuki corrosion.

Showed some lads in work a few photos of faired v unfaired from the bikepics website and they were unanimous in their opinions and very enthusiastic about how much better the bike looked faired. I remember before I got my SV seeing a fully faired example in the works car park and thinking how good and sporty it looked for a budget commuter bike.

Just wondering what it will do to my insurance premium and whether it is worth mentioning it because if I drop the bike I won’t claim for the fairings anyway as a clean record and another years NCB is worth more to me! Besides these aren't really mods but standard Suzuki parts? When I got my new car the sports suspension and spoiler upgrades didn't add to the premium as they were factory/dealer fitted options so they didn't even note it down....

The thinking I had to do was merely should I hold out for a second hand set or something but I can’t be bothered.