I have always had R&G crash bungs on my bikes and they do what they say on the tin. I has a very low speed off a couple of weeks ago in Europe on some black ice. There was minor cosmetic damage to the bike. The R&G Aero crash bung did a great job and so did the R&G bobbin on the swing arm. I took the bike in for a full 16000 mile service, to my local Honda Centre on Thursday morning. They needed to remove the fairings but couldn't remove the damaged crash bung. The main bolt was slightly bent and no matter how hard they tried, including applying a lot of heat and two big men on a huge socket extension bar, they could not unscrew the bolt. In the end, they had to cut off the plastic bung and the head of the bolt so that they could carry on with the service. They took the bike to a local engineering company who said that they could remove the remains of the bolt but that would require the removal of the engine from the bike !! Probably £500 to do it all and put the engine back in situ ! We decided that I couldn't afford that and they are now just putting a big nut on the end of the R&G bolt to support the engine and I am left with a hole in my fairing !!! The moral of the story is that sometimes it would be cheaper to just replace a damaged fairing !! I may now be in the market for some genuine factory fairings for my black 2012 Blade. Anyone know where to get a set at sensible money?
For this reason i didnt fit any. Has been known to flip a bike on a fairing protector. I found a similar thing when i bought a GSXR 750 with crash damage. The bolt was jammed in the engine mount. I got hold of a specialist extractor a heat gun and got very lucky indeed. It came out no problem.
Indeed .. I discovered a similar problem with the end of the bolt protruding out of the back of the mount and getting rusty .. this was ruining the engine mount thread.. I am wondering if this is your problem too? But .. safe to say .. NEVER FIT R&G .. its expensive plastic crap, poorly designed, terrible arrogant customer services .. NEVER FIT R&G !!! Am thinking a if the faring is off it may be that you need a better engineer .. no matter how bent that bolt is .. I'd consult someone else .. if the tread is intact and its just the bolt .. you should be able to drill it out .. but its going to take some fair old degree of skill .. after all they're going to have to remove the bolt to get the engine out .. its going to need to be drilled anyway? Surely?
I must say that I agree with you, regarding the customer services of R&G I bought a track bike that had a little scuff on one of the aero sliders and emailed R&G to ask if I can buy just the one slider (on the 2007 cbr600rr they also come on a bracket) on its own. They didn't reply, so after a couple of weeks I emailed them again......STILL NO REPLY! It's only been 8 weeks now
There's some for a 08 for sale, I'm not sure if they're the same though sorry, a lot of parts seem to be the same on 08 and 12 blades. Good luck. 08 fireblade onwards road gear - General for sale - motoforum Andy B
Sorry to Hear your tales on R&G I had the Same problem on my SP2 I had a very slow off, yes the R&G stopped most of the fairing damage but I couldn't remove the bolt to replace the crash bung, luckily for me I went to a place where I used to work we made up a fixture to drill the bolt out needless to say I didn't refit, but had to buy some second hand panels off good old eBay as I had a great big hole left where the bung had been Although I never fitted these as they where already fitted to the bike,but I still don't get it why would you drill a hole in a perfectly good panel to fit a crash bung it just doesn't make sense to me
Clarkey ! Have you still got the fixture and did you get the bolt out without damaging the engine mount thread? I am not a happy bunny at the moment !!
Sorry I haven't as I left the fixture at my old company and the company has since folded If I can remember correctly all the fixture was a turned up diameter to sit on the outside of the shaft with a smaller diameter at the top to keep the drill in the correct position while it was being drilled out
Sorry to hear of your drama. It's one reason I won't go near frame protectors now as I'm not convinced they don't do more harm than good in a lot of cases. If they do actually save your frame then they may prevent your bike being written off, but I suspect a lot of cases ended up just like yours. Btw, I do have a set of 2012 black fairings for sale somewhere buried deep in the classifieds. Probably not as cheap as you wanted but seeing as you asked and all that.
Saw 2 bikes dropped at Blyton a couple of weeks ago. 1st - No crash bungs, fairing wrecked. 2nd - Crash bungs fitted, fairings unmarked, crash bung worn down nicely. Both had crashed at the same spot at about the same speed. Crash bungs will help in the right type of crash, admittedly they can flip bikes under certain circumstances but I have only ever seen this once in a high speed low side on a track.
And I think you hit the nail on the head there, in the right type of crash they are probably a great thing to have. In the wrong type of crash they can be a nightmare. Takes your chances and all that I guess.
Hi Silver back, can't believe that the engine has to be removed for bolt removal. We are an engineering company and do this sort of thing regularly at least once a week and have never failed to remove one yet with engine still in .Trouble is if you don't have experience in this sort of work you've got no chance. Best of luck.
Hi silverback, here was my advert for those fairings. Cheers http://1000rr.co.uk/parts-accessories-clothing/6694.htm
Thanks 73 ! Didn't realise is was the full set of plastics you were selling. Interested but need to get some loot together.
I didn't fit any to my first blade, and not to this one either. In fact I didn't have them on my 600RR either. Only on my Hornet.
Wouldn't take them off..unless you feel you have to...its the removal of the engine mount bolts and the subsequent turning g of a rusty steel bolt through an alloy thread that ruins so many engine mounts
