I have just bought a pair of "Carbon Side Covers" for under the seat of my 08 Blade and I'm having a problem fitting them. They are like these and are from Hong Kong. Carbon Fiber Side Covers HONDA CBR 1000 RR 08 09 10 11 | eBay The quality of the finish is fine but the slots cut out for where they attach to the petrol tank are too small. The obvious thing is to file them open a little wider until they fit but there's not a lot of material in that area so could possibly weaken and break. I was wondering what others have done as I know of a few people on here have the same item fitted to their bikes. Its a long way to return the item to Hong Kong and nothing is to say the replacement item will be any better, but saying that if I file them to fit then I cannot return so just wanted some opinions from others who may have had the same problem. Cheers for any help offered. Merry Christmas everyone
Even looking at the pics I think the tolerance for fileing will be to small, I would cut your losses leave them alone and return for a refund Then buy some from one of the uk suppliers which I am sure some of the other members will be able to fill you in on the details Sorry if its not what you want to hear, but at least you have ebay/paypal protection to get your money back
Thanks for the comment Jamie. I was thinking the same thing myself regards there not being enough material to file them out. However I m not 100% confident they will be any better fit if sourced from a UK supplier as I have received Carbon from a UK supplier that also did not fit. I telephoned the UK manufacturer and told them why they did'nt fit and even sent the original Honda item off with the return of their Carbon Fibre item so they could modify their jig but the one I got back was no better than the original badly fitting one. In fact it was exactly the same and even though they wanted my OEM Honda item to modify their tooling I don't think they actually made any changes at all in the end.
Maybe not what you want to hear but I bought carbon look film from e-bay for less than £3.00 and did my seat panels and they look ok ,not brilliant but for the money ok.I have a load of real carbon on my bike as I dont really like the carbon look thing but couldnt justify the price for the real stuff.
Personally i'd go down the return and refund route then source from a reputable UK dealer, then at least if there are any more issues you'll be dealing with someone closer to home and probably get a better out come. I have fitted several carbon parts to my bike and the only fitting issue i had was with the chain gaurd, after one return and replacement it still didn't fit right and i ended up slightly modifying the part myself, which now fits.
Is there anyone on here e.g Si with some good quality ones that do fit, maybe they could let us know who is best to buy from
NO Don't return them Just snap them off !! lol Seriously mine had slots which eventually broke off but they fit fine with out them . Honestly . some you get don't have them at all
Don't worry Steve, one of mine was a tight fit, so I just dremeled the slot out a bit and it was ok...fits brilliantly now. Carbon is strong, so shouldn't snap.
