October 23rd 2009
Well, had to happen sooner or later…
I reversed my bike out of the garage (as normal) but for some reason (that escapes me, but which I now regret), I flicked the sidestand up. Leaned the bike over onto the (non-existent) sidestand and over she went.
The most embarrassing thing about it is that there was no way that I could pick the bl**dy thing up on my own – I had to draft in a very understanding neighbour and between the two of us, we hauled it back upright.
Now the damage.
The previous owner was a bit of an engineer and made his own crash bungs. Unfortunately, he had fixed them to the fairing rather than to the frame, so all they did was bend the bracket and physically break the fairing.
Also snapped the gear linkage but this was a (relatively) simple fix – a new threaded rod from my local dealer (£8) – I suspect that the fairing damage will be a little more expensive than that!
Update 26-Oct-09
Took off the offending crash bung today and found that the underlying bracket (the one that holds the aux power socket) had just folded up. The bung had neatly punched a hole in the fairing:
Update 12-Nov-09: “How Much???”
Cost of a left hand fairing panel £250+VAT, plus £25 for the decal…
So off to eBay and found this:
Part Number (stamped inside) 2301746, which according to my dealer and a quick Google search, doesn’t exist. I know that Triumph make all the panels and paint them on-site at Hinckley (I watched them during a factory tour) and this one must have escaped the process. It is plain ABS in the original colour. £5.50 + £8.00 postage. That’s more like it. I estimate about £100 to get it smoothed and painted in Tornado Red, plus £25 for the decal.
Update January 21st 2010
Prepped, painted and “decal-ed” (at last):
Not altogether a happy ending as the (financial) damage was worse that I had estimated (and to be fair, worse than my dealer had imagined as well). Don’t get me wrong – it’s a great job and I would have gladly plugged the paintshop on here, but at £150 + VAT (£176.25) it’s not a million miles away from the price of a brand new part from Triumph.
Total cost:
Panel: £13.50
Decal: £26.97
Paint: £176.25
Total: £216.72
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All that’s required now is to cut the hole for the heated grip switch and fit the fairing panel.
Update 29th January 2010
Bought some of these to fit to my Sprint.
On the 955 Sprint, the engine mounting bolts align perfectly with the cut-out in the fairing, so no cutting required and no fancy expensive ironwork behind the fragile plastic bits!
Update 2nd February 2010
Now that I have the new panel, I have to refit the switch for my heated grips. This is the third Sprint ST955 that I’ve fitted with heated grips so thought it was about time that I shared the method…
Firstly, make sure that you are somewhere warm. It was -1ºC in my garage yesterday and there’s nothing quite like cold fingers for screwing up and scratching the nice new (expensive) paintwork!
Here we are in the kitchen…
I have fixed the template (which comes with the kit) to the panel with masking tape. Use lots of this as it is the perfect protection against a wayward drill or rats-tail file!
Small drill and a steady hand…
Remove the template. I hope you made a copy of it because it is strictly a single-use item!
Mask off the cut-out with yet more masking tape and apply rats-tail file (carefully)
Use a small flat file to cut out the shape of the switch.
Clean kitchen.
Polish panel.
Fit to bike.
Job done.
R&G’s are next…
