James Burleigh
Well-known member
Well, today I installed the GSG Mototechnik sliders available from Wild Hair Accessories (Wild Hair Accessories). I admit they did take a couple months to get in from the time I ordered them, but I believe they were back-ordered and came from Germany.
All in all it was a fairly easy project, and took probably about 2 hours altogether. Following are some pics of the installation process, and comments about lessons learned.
It's easy to get overwhelmed at first with all the parts:
So you have to get organized:
I loaded up this web site, Slider Install Page, which was quite helpful, but didn't answer all my questions as I embarked on the project:
I removed the farings, and then located the two engine-mounting bolts on each side that corresponded to the mounting holes in the slider brackets:
Note that the mounting brackets are identified as being for the left or right sides by the corresponding letter stamped into the metal:
Also, the left- and right-side brackets require different-sized bolts, which come with the kit. The longer bolts both go on the left side; the shorter ones on ther right:
The kit also comes with two different-sized spacers:
At first I couldn't even figure out what the spacers were for. But I initially presumed that, because the kit comes with two of everything, one of each-sized spacer goes on each left and right side of the bike. I finally figured out that the spacers drop in below (under) the bracket to fill the recess left from removing the original factory bolts.
Each side has two similar-sized recesses. So it turns out one side (left) takes both the larger spacers, and the other (right) takes the smaller spacers. The web site link above does not say anything about this; and the kit instructions are not that clear, until you figure it out and then can find them in the diagram. So the different-sized spacers correspond to different-sized bolts:
I then removed one factory bolt from the bike, and mounted one side of a bracket. Then I did the corresponding bracket side on the other side of the engine. I repeated this till all four bracket bolts were installed. The reason for going back and forth was to ensure I did not dislocate the engine threads from the frame while removing the original factory bolts. BTW, you re-use the original foctory washers.
I was wrenching one bolt on the right side of the bike and found I couldn't get it to seat (had quite a length still sticking out). Then I figured out that I'd mixed up the bolts and inadvertently tried to insert a left-side (long) bolt in the right side. That was soon straightened out, and all came together quite easily.
I then torqued the bolts to spec. Skyway notes two posts down that you should torque the left side bolts before the right, as the engine alignment in the frame takes place on left side.
Here's what the brackets look like installed. I realized that the reason the slider bracket bolts are so substantial is not because the slider needs such beefy structural strength, but simply because the farkle is cannibalising into the existing engine-mounting holes and therefore needs to replace and maintain the original engine-mounting structural integrity.
After replacing the faring, you see that the bracket perfectly lines up with the openings in the faring, and is ready to receive the slider. The pic makes is look like one side of the circular mounting base is behind the faring; but in fact it is cut at that exact angle in line with that of the faring.
You then just have to screw on and torque down the slider itself, and voila!
Believe it or not, the part of the job that took relatively more time, effort, and frustration was removing and replacing the @#$%*! inside faring panels! :blink:
Now I'm all set for dropping the bike on its side while washing it!--or worse...???!
Jb
All in all it was a fairly easy project, and took probably about 2 hours altogether. Following are some pics of the installation process, and comments about lessons learned.
It's easy to get overwhelmed at first with all the parts:
So you have to get organized:
I loaded up this web site, Slider Install Page, which was quite helpful, but didn't answer all my questions as I embarked on the project:
I removed the farings, and then located the two engine-mounting bolts on each side that corresponded to the mounting holes in the slider brackets:
Note that the mounting brackets are identified as being for the left or right sides by the corresponding letter stamped into the metal:
Also, the left- and right-side brackets require different-sized bolts, which come with the kit. The longer bolts both go on the left side; the shorter ones on ther right:
The kit also comes with two different-sized spacers:
At first I couldn't even figure out what the spacers were for. But I initially presumed that, because the kit comes with two of everything, one of each-sized spacer goes on each left and right side of the bike. I finally figured out that the spacers drop in below (under) the bracket to fill the recess left from removing the original factory bolts.
Each side has two similar-sized recesses. So it turns out one side (left) takes both the larger spacers, and the other (right) takes the smaller spacers. The web site link above does not say anything about this; and the kit instructions are not that clear, until you figure it out and then can find them in the diagram. So the different-sized spacers correspond to different-sized bolts:
I then removed one factory bolt from the bike, and mounted one side of a bracket. Then I did the corresponding bracket side on the other side of the engine. I repeated this till all four bracket bolts were installed. The reason for going back and forth was to ensure I did not dislocate the engine threads from the frame while removing the original factory bolts. BTW, you re-use the original foctory washers.
I was wrenching one bolt on the right side of the bike and found I couldn't get it to seat (had quite a length still sticking out). Then I figured out that I'd mixed up the bolts and inadvertently tried to insert a left-side (long) bolt in the right side. That was soon straightened out, and all came together quite easily.
I then torqued the bolts to spec. Skyway notes two posts down that you should torque the left side bolts before the right, as the engine alignment in the frame takes place on left side.
Here's what the brackets look like installed. I realized that the reason the slider bracket bolts are so substantial is not because the slider needs such beefy structural strength, but simply because the farkle is cannibalising into the existing engine-mounting holes and therefore needs to replace and maintain the original engine-mounting structural integrity.
After replacing the faring, you see that the bracket perfectly lines up with the openings in the faring, and is ready to receive the slider. The pic makes is look like one side of the circular mounting base is behind the faring; but in fact it is cut at that exact angle in line with that of the faring.
You then just have to screw on and torque down the slider itself, and voila!
Believe it or not, the part of the job that took relatively more time, effort, and frustration was removing and replacing the @#$%*! inside faring panels! :blink:
Now I'm all set for dropping the bike on its side while washing it!--or worse...???!
Jb
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