Hi, there's been plenty of chat regarding replacement Chinese fairings but I was wondering if anyone has had their bike wrapped. This was suggested to me by my local dealer as he felt replacement Chinese fairings weren't worth the hassle. I was quoted £500 for a TT Legends wrap on my 2014 HRC. Seems a bit steep to me considering the cost of replacement Chinese fairings. What about sticker sets? Does anyone have experience of them and are they worth it?
Hi Rich. I am one of those who recently purchased and fitted Chines fairings to my 2011 Blade in Castrol theme. Without understanding your dealer's claim of the Chinese product not being worth the hassle, I do wonder why he would say that. Is he talking about the 'hassle' to fit? Has he fitted any? You can land a good set of Chinese TT Legends here for approx £410.00 which includes approx £60.00 customs duty. I used this company as was recommended by another forum member and they have the TT Legends: https://shop.auctmarts.com/fairings/honda/cbr1000rr/2012-2016/1v42.html The advantage with this is that you can restore the bike to HRC if needed OR sell the OEM fairings. With a wrap, you're paying 100 quid more, but rip it off what do you have? A bin full of wrap and 500 quid down the drain! There is no great need for mechanical ability to fit the Chinese product, BUT, you do need an amount of patience and logical working out, especially when remembering how to replace various parts into the airducts etc. The small 'push pins' can be a bit fiddly, but I was prepared by having purchased a box of assorted sizes. The finished product is brilliant; all stickers and paint are 'clear lacquered' over and the fit was excellent. (That cannot be said for all the Chinese fairings). I am happy to offer any further advice by PM if required.
Aftermarket fairings can be a pain when assembling however you're better off going with them than vinyl wrap. Besides if you go down, I rather it be under cheap fairings rather than expensive vinyl wrap.
Have to agree with @nigelrb ......absolutely no hassle and would not consider a wrap at all, especially at £500. At least with if you get a set of Chinese and you crashed, you can put your originals back on. With a wrap, your fairings and the wrap are fucked! I paid £250 for a set of matte blacks earlier this year and paid £36 customs. You pay more customs charge the more value the package is worth.....not for weight of parcel. Race reps will be slightly dearer but not much, easy get some for under £300!
Thanks for all the suggestions and help. It looks like there's only on option open to me. I think my mechanic had some bad experiences with Chinese fairings (fixing holes not being where they should be or not being there at all etc.). I'll order them in the near future post some photos once the job is finished. Cheers.
Five hours all up. I was slow with putting on heat shield and front fender brake hose brackets. Someone more familiar with the process would probably do it in three hours. I hadn't had fairings off before, so I was really green and constantly referring to manual. The black 'push pin' fixings can be a bastard, especially in the side fairing adjacent to radiator. I made sure I had new ones just in case of tragedy. A worthwhile and rewarding process on completion though!
Hi , the fairings arrived yesterday but I wasn't at home to pay for the when postie arrived (import duties and VAT cost about twice as much in RoI as they do in the UK - not good and a rip off in my opinion). I've paid about €500 in total which is a bit steep but is mostly due to the import duties. Went to the post office to collect them this morning only to find out that the post office doesn't open on a Saturday - sh!te). Will now have to collect them on Monday morning at 7am after really looking forward to having them this weekend. I'll post some photos so you can see what they look like and if they are any good. Incidentally, I'm thinking of covering them with bodyguard as someone said that they seem to chip easily.
Shame you weren't home. I'm sure you were spewing! I didn't think anywhere could be dearer than UK for taxes and duties. I guess you have learnt to live with that and just accept it. Perhaps you'll be coming down with a virus or a resurgence of Bird Flu on Monday! (Employer won't mind)
So finally after nearly a year of procrastination, I managed to get the TT Legends fairings on the bike. Not easy but worthwhile They refresh the bike completely.