New VFR 800 Fi '99 owner... Frame sliders and Chinese fairing kits?

[Ragaroah 1]

Hey all!

 

New (Dutch) VFR 800 Fi '99 owner here! Bought mine in December from someone, and already put about 400km on it during the cold month.

 

Now I'm looking for some stuff though, and I'm hoping someone can help me... Seeing I'm a new rider, I'd love to protect my fairings. I know about the following ones:

• R&G Racing sliders - Need to cut the fairings, not a big fan of that. Even though they will probably offer the most protection
• Lust Racing sliders - See here. These mount on the fairing holes, which will probably totally destroy the fairing when I land on those, right? They fit like on this CBR.
• Thurn Motorsport sliders - See here. Probably the most interesting to me. No cut, while they still mount to the frame. Will probably on help in tipovers. Can't find a single review or whatsoever on these though, outside of the pictures on their own site.

 

What would be my best option? R&G obviously provides the most protection, but it's quite a big sum + cutting into the fairing. Plus it won't prevent any damage in any medium speed lowside, obviously.

 

Beyond that... The previous owner dropped the bike on the left side on a parking lot, damaging the left fairing (1 bolt hole broke off, and some nasty deep scratches), the rear cowl (scratches, small cracks near the handles), and the front cowl below the blinker cracked. Making the only undamaged panel the right side. Now, talking to someone to see if he can repair this and all respray this, but in the case it gets too expensive I might look at Auctmarts, seeing they're reasonably priced and injection molded. I can't find any reviews on the fifth gen fairings though. Does anyone have any experience with those?

 

Thanks in advance all, loving the veefer!

[Duc2V4 966]

Welcome Aboard! Sorry can’t help with the sliders or panels. On the latter, I just searched the forums and eBay for the best ones I could find. There are many options when it comes to plastic repair, in fact there was some recent post about it, so you might find the post by searching through the recent post.

[MaxSwell 883]

Welcome to the asylum from The Land Of Interesting Weather. You obviously have great taste in mc's.

 

I think frame sliders are a mixed bag. I've had several with fifth gens with them. A VFRD Canadian member used to make what I though were very well designed and executed product. It did involve cutting a hole in each lower cowl. In a parking lot low to no speed tip over they may have prevented more damage but there were signs it had been over. In higher speed offs they may have prevented extensive cracking and breaking but still resulted in damage to fairings and did destroy the sliders.

 

Since you are a new rider, I'd suggest you give yourself a period with the bike as is to get used to it. Although I had ridden a mc back in the '60, the VFR was essentially starting over in 2006 for me. And at 5'7" and 140 lb. I was a little small for the 500+ pound machine. I dumped to too many times to admit. Believe me it is quite disheartening to fix or replace a fairing and then damage the new one.

 

1)Take care, 2) ride safe and 3) have fun. In that order. 

[Terry 437]

Auctmarts fairings for the 5G are compression moulded, not injection. I have a set on my 5G and they are pretty good provided you don't mind massaging a few holes. I sent them a chip of my old fairing and they did a decent colour match for me to match the tank, fender and the OEM L side panel which I retained. 

[Cogswell 1047]

This is not a 5th gen, but worth reading re: Chinese fairings.

 

https://www.vfrdiscussion.com/index.php?/forums/topic/81765-viffercrabs-chinese-fairings-build-thread/

 

 

[Ragaroah 1]

Cheers for the replies all! I won't be replacing the fairings already, but more get it as a "treat" for myself when I ride 6-12 months without dropping it. Get used to the veefer first.

 

7 hours ago, Terry said:

Auctmarts fairings for the 5G are compression moulded, not injection. I have a set on my 5G and they are pretty good provided you don't mind massaging a few holes. I sent them a chip of my old fairing and they did a decent colour match for me to match the tank, fender and the OEM L side panel which I retained. 

 

I've had some contact with Auctmarts. 

 

Sadly, they are going to discontinue their Fifth gen fairing kits. They indeed confirmed they are compression moulded (sadly). Because they've had a lot of complaints regarding the fitment, they are gonna stop selling it. My hunt for injection ones continues I guess, or get my current fairings repaired/sprayed.

 

7 hours ago, Cogswell said:

This is not a 5th gen, but worth reading re: Chinese fairings.

 

https://www.vfrdiscussion.com/index.php?/forums/topic/81765-viffercrabs-chinese-fairings-build-thread/

 

 

 

Yeah saw that one! Was fun to read the entire thing. Seems the Sixth gen fairing kits are a lot better though.

 

Just need to check out which frame sliders to get out of those 3...

[Dutchy 2599]

19 hours ago, MaxSwell said:

 

 

Since you are a new rider, I'd suggest you give yourself a period with the bike as is to get used to it.

Rest assured you will drop the bike yourself at some point....

 

 

So why spend money on her right away?  Duct tape the lot (there might be blue tape on the market) for now.

 

 

Geld uitgeven kan altijd nog.....

 

 

 

[MaxSwell 883]

12 hours ago, Dutchy said:

Rest assured you will drop the bike yourself at some point....

 

 

So why spend money on her right away?  Duct tape the lot (there might be blue tape on the market) for now.

 

 

Geld uitgeven kan altijd nog.....

 

 

 

And Dutchy knows about rescuing fellow riders with duct tape.

[kentguy55 3]

If anyone is telling you they have injection moulded fairings for a 5th generation they are lying !!

[MaxSwell 883]

On 1/8/2019 at 6:53 PM, Terry said:

Auctmarts fairings for the 5G are compression moulded, not injection. I have a set on my 5G and they are pretty good provided you don't mind massaging a few holes. I sent them a chip of my old fairing and they did a decent colour match for me to match the tank, fender and the OEM L side panel which I retained. 

That looks great. I'll have to remember (fat chance) this.

 

Well, that was a little disappointing; no yellow.

[thefleshrocket 2]

Sliders will NOT give you rash-free fairings in the event of a tipover or low-side.  Some part of the fairings will touch the ground.  My advice?  Skip the sliders altogether, and if you damage a fairing, just have it repaired.  

 

I had the R&G sliders on my '99.  A 20mph low side resulted in a small amount of rash to the upper and lower fairing.  I had the damage repaired and had the body shop fill in the holes where the sliders had gone, and I left them off.  

[fonque 28]

get the chinese fairing, the whole kit is cheap and it doesnt take all that much work to get them to fit. But no they will not fit like oem. However, the paint on them looks great and they are easily replaced, just have to wait on shipping from china. I am on my 2nd set of chinese fairings. My first set I got for $470 3 years ago. My 2nd set I got for $345 last year.

Also i have frame sliders and I HIGHLY recommend them. If you low side the bike or drop it. Its not the fairings you have to worry about, its the side mount radiators. 

If you have frame sliders, yes your fairings my still get some curb rash, but you will not smash your radiators.

[Zarquon 32]

Honda still has the matching fairing bolts. I got some recently from them.

 

Watch out parking on soft ground... these bikes tip all by themselves... consider a spare brake and clutch leaver!

 

Great colour by the way. The decals are rare.