Fibreglass fairings, any problems?

**TKDSKIP** · 25th September 2007, 19:09

I am looking at buying a replacement bike that has been slid down the road.It has been fitted with fibreglass fairings. Are these any good? Are there any issuses with fibreglass? Is it much heavier than factory ones? Any help would be much helpful.cheers

**arj127** · 25th September 2007, 19:17

i put a fibreglass fairing on my NC30 (after the plastic one blew into smitherines on a thursday night ride), and haven't had any problems with it. Yes they will be heavier, but i wouldn't think it would be a lot. Good thing with glass is, if you damage it and have a little fibreglass knowlege you can repair it yourself.

**lordandrevv** · 25th September 2007, 22:48

not to different really. easy to fix at home with a bit of know how (reading up on the interent is good enough). maybe a little bit more expensive to get fixed at a workshop than plastic depending on the case (small crack more expensive, but a big missing piece is easyer to remake)
As for weight depends how thick they were made, could be lighter than the plastic ones, could be heavyer. The heaver they are the more of a punch they can take.
as for painting, same thing as plastic.
btw I work in a fibreglass repair shop :-)

**imdying** · 26th September 2007, 10:36

Originally Posted by lordandrevv

As for weight depends how thick they were made, could be lighter than the plastic ones, could be heavyer. The heaver they are the more of a punch they can take.

I'd agree... I put Sharkskinz fibreglass fairing on my bike, and they're pretty light, I'd only expect to save maybe another 0.5kg tops by going to carbon. Admittedly they're different to the regular crap you get, they're made out of woven mat instead of the typical CSM fairings you see about. Apparently they're the most crashable out of the aftermarket race glasses, which is attributed again to being made out of woven mat. Interestingly, they don't use gelcoat at all, and as a result guarantee them against crazing and cracking.

**lordandrevv** · 26th September 2007, 11:14

woven roving is kind of a filler. ie it soaks up little resin for its weight and it is used to make things thick quickly and really easily and therefore not the strongest. These days i would rather go with a core material like coremat for a filler material. its also very light, and more spongey and absorbes impact better than woven roving
as for not using gelcoat: true, it won't craze. only problem with that is that when polyester resin reacts it lets of styrene vapur (the smelly stuff that makes you high if in large quantities lol) and therefore there are very small pinholes in the resin. This is not a problem until it comes to painting, when those holes have to be filled first, probably using a spray putty or hi build primer

**imdying** · 26th September 2007, 11:19

Ahh, not a woven roving, a woven fibreglass mat, the same as woven carbon fibre mat/

What about if you're using expoy or vinylester, same pinholing problem?

**Maverick** · 26th September 2007, 11:27

Hey Imdying, can you drop me a pm or email if possible? was chatting to McJim and wondered if you can help me out,

Ta

Mav

**lordandrevv** · 26th September 2007, 11:31

same idea, just in thinner version really. Its the resin that provides the rigidity, while the fibres makes it less prone to breaking (you would have seen hardened resin without any glass in it, breaks so easily). so the less resin, the less strengh kind of thing. Mind you when you drop a bike its prety ugly anyway lol.
There is another technique that makes thick glass with little resin. Forgot what they call it but this is how it goes: they put down lots of resin, csm on top of it and vacum the resin thru the glass, and leave it kinda dry. The glass will have enough resin to hold together and thickness to take a beating since its thick, but when it is damaged it goes to pieces very easily since it hasn't got any real stregh. This is used in jetskies a lot, and some boats
Epoxy wouldn't leave the pinholes, not sure about vinylester. so your fairings could be made with epoxy i supose. (i hate the stuff anyway lol)

**imdying** · 26th September 2007, 11:45

Originally Posted by Maverick

Hey Imdying, can you drop me a pm or email if possible? was chatting to McJim and wondered if you can help me out

Help you out with what?

Originally Posted by lordandrevv

same idea, just in thinner version really. Its the resin that provides the rigidity, while the fibres makes it less prone to breaking (you would have seen hardened resin without any glass in it, breaks so easily). so the less resin, the less strengh kind of thing. Mind you when you drop a bike its prety ugly anyway lol.
There is another technique that makes thick glass with little resin. Forgot what they call it but this is how it goes: they put down lots of resin, csm on top of it and vacum the resin thru the glass, and leave it kinda dry. The glass will have enough resin to hold together and thickness to take a beating since its thick, but when it is damaged it goes to pieces very easily since it hasn't got any real stregh. This is used in jetskies a lot, and some boats
Epoxy wouldn't leave the pinholes, not sure about vinylester. so your fairings could be made with epoxy i supose. (i hate the stuff anyway lol)

Yeah, haven't tried any epoxy yet, doing all my work with VER. Do you have any of the woven rovings etc? Would like to see what it looks/feels like

**lordandrevv** · 26th September 2007, 11:53

havent got any at home but i can get some from work. we never use it, unless there is a decent size repair job, and the original part had woven roving in, so we try to make it as close to original as posible.

I would also like to see your vaccum equiment you use for carbon.
I will PM you now

**Maverick** · 26th September 2007, 11:54

Originally Posted by imdying

Help you out with what?

I need someone in Christchurch who really knows their SV's to have a look at one for me if you wouldnt mind too much?

**Kflasher** · 26th September 2007, 11:56

Originally Posted by TKDSKIP

I am looking at buying a replacement bike that has been slid down the road.It has been fitted with fibreglass fairings. Are these any good? Are there any issuses with fibreglass? Is it much heavier than factory ones? Any help would be much helpful.cheers

I placed xtra piece of rubber at solid fixing points as I was warned about vibrations cracking the panels.
This was back in '91 so things prob have improved some what since then.

**lordandrevv** · 26th September 2007, 12:00

you would be surprised how little fibreglass has changed over time. oh and its still a good idea to put rubber at mounting points probably. the palstic factory fairings on my zxr250 had rubber washers around the mounting holes

**imdying** · 26th September 2007, 12:02

Originally Posted by lordandrevv

I would also like to see your vaccum equiment you use for carbon.

Not a great deal to see... a lot of component pieces making up a fairly unsophisticated whole

- Vacuum bag material (plastic sheet)
- Seal string tape for making a vacuum seal
- Breech unit for putting the vac line into the bag... stops the bag from sticking itself to the inlet and blocking the vacuum flow
- Peel ply to improve the surface texture and prevent bridging somewhat
- Perforated film to allow excess resin to flow into the...
- ...bleeder mat, it's a baby blanket type stuff that allows the vacuum to travel throughout the bag, and soaks up an excess resin
- vacuum pump
- Little oven to hold the layup at around 50 degrees whilst it cures

And that's about it!

**lordandrevv** · 26th September 2007, 12:03

Originally Posted by imdying

Help you out with what?
Yeah, haven't tried any epoxy yet, doing all my work with VER. Do you have any of the woven rovings etc? Would like to see what it looks/feels like

you seem to have PM disabled (i can't send you a PM)
maybe you can contact me ;-)