I'm looking at installing r&g racing frame sliders on my 2007 rwb. I am new to working on this bike, but how easy would a first timer have installing these with the help of bonemans step by step picture installation? How easy is it to dremel your fairings? How much would a bike shop charge to install them?
The hardest part of installing frame sliders on a clean bike is the mental part of drilling holes in your perfectly good fairing! I couldn't find boneman's thread. Do you have a link? Other wise I could give you a write up on what I did on my old bike ('94 CBR F2). It would be the same principles that you could apply to the VFR.
+1 to what Guj said, getting the alignment correct for the center of the hole isn't even that critical as you have to hog it out far larger than the engine stud that passes all the way through the engine, frame, and slider spools. Take your time measure twice, cut once. I hand fitted mine by having the fairing mounted on the bike and sliding the spool on and off the engine stud until I had an even and tight clearance all the way around the spool. Not "hard" at all, just time consuming, if you are comftorable with your tools and working on your bike, 1.5-2 hrs max and you're ready to ride.
You could use a jack stand with a laser pointer (duct tape / magnet/s) Take your fairing off. Put your bike on stands, or at least the center stand. Line the laser with the engine mounting bolt. Put your fairing back on. Now the laser will be pointing to the exact place where your initial hole needs to be drilled... Repeat for other side ; )
I went to Ace Hardware and picked up a 2.5" hole saw (To be honest I don't remember the diameter, but it was at least 0.5" larger than the frame slider). Doesn't have to be a good one, it's only cutting plastic, twice. Wait till you receive the frame sliders, measure them, then go out and pick up the proper hardware. Another thing to grab is silly puddy: 1. because its freaking sweet! 2. Because it can be used to mark the center location to till the hole in your fairing. Step 1. Remove either side fairing. Step 2. On the inside of the fairing - spread out the puddy in the approximate location where you think you will have to drill. Step 3. Install the bolt for the frame slider - finger tight. Step 4. Put the fairing back on BE SURE TO PUT ALL THE BOLTS FOR THE FAIRING BACK ON. They only have to be finger tight, but make sure you have them all in. If done correctly the puddy will have an imprint of the bolt head for the frame slider. That is your center for drilling. Step 5. Take the fairing off one more time. The next part is the only step I can't remember what I did. Some one please correct me if I am wrong. Step 6. Tape off the hole you are about to drill on the outside of the fairing. Step 7. Support underneath the fairing with wood, or something else you wouldn't care about if you drilled into. Step 8. Take the plunge! Be firm with the drill, but do not go too fast or too hard. (Gigitty Goo!) Step 9. Take some 200 grit sand paper to clean up the hole. Step 10. Install the frame slider on the supplied hardware, and torque to spec. Step 11. Put the fairing back on. Repeat steps 1-11 for the other side.
Thanks for the input. I like the part about taping your paint to help not chipping the paint. Would you drill from the inside of the fairing or outside? Here is the link to bonemans vfr website Boneman's VFR Site - R&G Frame Sliders
Thanks for the link. Bone man is right, a hole saw probably wont work for the VFR. The last set of sliders I put on were at a location on the fairing that didn't have compound curves. That is the one bit of information I can't remember. I am about 90% sure I drilled from the outside going in. I tried finding the old CBR-World .net thread that I followed, but apparently that site is no longer up. Hopefully one of the others chime in.
Wet blanket time. Depending on what you hope to accomplish with the addition of the frame sliders, you might be going to more work and expense than the results justify. After I threw my 2004 on it's side and scuffed the fairing a time or two, I felt I needed the sliders. In the process of researching which ones to use, it seemed that most people that had experienced drops after the sliders were installed still had considerable fairing damage. Since the primary intent is to protect the frame, the fairing still stands a good chance of sustaining damage. I decided to skip the sliders and stop dropping the bike. Just my thoughts to confuse the issue a little for you.:smile:
This is my reasoning is more protection for the fairings, but I feel for the price of sliders, this is a god investment. With that said r&g racing have a set of white sliders. Does anybody have these installed, and do you think they would match the white on my rwb color scheme? I think black would not look good, but offwhite would throw things off as well.
