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[Justin Andrews]

Hi. Hopefully over the next couple of days I will document here a "how not to" guide as I fit the Hollywood Electrics Fairing to my SR...

As the fairing is arriving tomorrow, today is about gathering the tools required, and doing the odd job around the bike.


First things first prepping the bike for surgery...

[Justin Andrews]

Its at times like this that I think

"Hey I wonder if I can fit a Mennekies socket instead of the J1772?"

The Answer...


Probably not...

[Justin Andrews]

Tomorrow's Early Tasks

Jack the bike up
Dismantle the Triple Clamp
Hope the Fairing Arrives
Pray I didn't forget anything and need to ride out to get it...

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

Thanks for doing this! I contributed documentation but it hasn't been thoroughly tried by a new customer, so will be glad to incorporate feedback or try to help.

[Shadow]

Is that a 6.6kW chargetank?

[Justin Andrews]

Is that a 6.6kW chargetank?

Yes, though I find in practice it's closer to 6.2kW (input), so I can see why Zero advertise it as a 6kW. Into the battery its about 5.8kW.

On with the build...


Having failed to remove the security bolts I was forced to improvise, and go off script.
However this does give an option to avoid dismantling the triple clamp, so it's worth documenting. (Harlen look away!)

Basically the purpose of removing the lock is to remove the wire tidy bracket. You have to do this as the bracket will hit the fairing mount, and make steering... tricky.

So, option B is to cut away the bracket. I have a pair of hand nibblers which do the job nicely. The bracket is only Aluminium so removing it with a nibbler is really quite easy.



File away any rough edges.

[Justin Andrews]

Next fit the U collar around the headstock, tabs pointing downwards. Like this:



Then Bolt the fairing mounting, at this point READ THE INSTRUCTIONS about the wiring, because its a few steps down and it's a pain to unbolt everything to sort the wiring out.
Also MAKE SURE the dash cable is nice and untangled, because it's also a pain to undo everything a second time to untangle that from the rest of the loom.

Not that I had these problems you understand, it's just that, errr, I'd hate to see other people make this mistake.

If your install looks like this at this point,

its is wrong, and you will have to unbolt everything and start again

Next post - Putting the fairing bracket on properly?

[Justin Andrews]

Ok, if you don't know the Zero very well, and you are following Harlens excellent instructions to the letter, you will run into a problem...


The Lower Headlight bracket is not explicitly called out to be removed, so I did not remove it. This is - incorrect.
( Number of times Justin unbolted main fairing bracket = 3 (I'm getting good at this now) )


With the lower bracket removed, and the wires in the right place, everything should look more like this:



Next post. Things start to go together a lot smoother!

[Justin Andrews]

Time to start assembling things.
First off the dash.



Note these brackets are a REAL tight fit to the Fairing mount. I'd have liked about 1mm more clearance on the bolt holes on the fairing mount. But everything fitted - just...
Otherwise I'd have had to alter the holes on the milling machine. Fine for me, but not everyone has a milling machine in their workshop.



And, pop the Dash Console on, nice and easy.
Note: if you don't have a 10mm deep M8 socket to hand, then a short 8mm spanner will allow you to get the Console off and back on. Its tricker, but doable.

Fit the Left and Right Fairing supports...

*

...and the headlight (plus the lower bracket I forgot to take off earlier), and it's starting to look more like a bike, and less like the result of a head on collision.


Note, at this point I'd spotted that I needed to install the Rok Risers, that's what you get for starting the work before the fairing kit arrives in the post!
So don't forget to install the risers, as you might find it hard to steer the bike without them.

Second note.
At this point, if you are using the OEM wing mirrors. Put them on about now . It's pretty hard ( read impossible ) to put them on when the fairing is installed without removing either the fairing, or the handlebars...

[Justin Andrews]

"Run the grounding wire to the left clamp of the top triple clamp and re-attach it with a 3mm Allen key using original lower mount hardware"

That's what the instructions say. This seemed like the best place I could find. Not sure if its where Harlen meant though...



Clearences

With the Risers installed, there is *just* enough space for a chunky J1772 plug to fit into the charge tank. *phew*! Thanks for attending to that little detail Haren

[Justin Andrews]

(sorry no photos at this point, I forgot to take my phone into the workshop. )

Not much else to say, fitting the heat set plugs was a breeze, (and don't worry about the plastic splitting like in the instruction photo, just use a tiny bit more heat, a steady hand and not to much pressure and it wont split, I promise)

Drill out any extra holes for the windscreen, I recommend drilling out the extra two at the bottom. Makes everything a bit more rigid. 

Fit the tank and fairing, drill the holes for the upper mounts, and BOOM, fairing installed!


Add for some finishing touches, and its beer and pizza time.

[Justin Andrews]

POSTSCRIPT.

For GODS SAKE; make sure the Expandable Anchor bolt is properly tightened in place.

Don't let THIS...

...Happen to you on your run to work.

Thankfully I was only doing 30mph when it let go, so I was able to hear it hit the road and recover it.

I suspect the problem was that I'd had a slight problem installing it due to the allen socket in the bolt needing an imperial key, so my allen key had been unable to tighten it sufficiently. Solution, replace the bolt with a metric one, and add an additional capture washer to hold the anchor in place if it slips again.

Luckley no damage done.

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

Damn, that looks great!

I wrote the instructions, so thanks for pointing out the critical omission. I'll get that into the latest revision today.

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

POSTSCRIPT.

For GODS SAKE; make sure the Expandable Anchor bolt is properly tightened in place.

Don't let THIS...
...Happen to you on your run to work.

Thankfully I was only doing 30mph when it let go, so I was able to hear it hit the road and recover it.

I suspect the problem was that I'd had a slight problem installing it due to the allen socket in the bolt needing an imperial key, so my allen key had been unable to tighten it sufficiently. Solution, replace the bolt with a metric one, and add an additional capture washer to hold the anchor in place if it slips again.

Luckley no damage done.

I checked with Harlan and confirmed that a 4.5mm Allen key will do, and fixed that step just yesterday. Glad it didn't go too badly for you!

[Justin Andrews]

Cheers, and happy to help.


So anchor bolt failure post mortem, and my potential fix.

The problem:

There appears to be an 11mm gap between the T Bracket and the bottom of the lower triple clamp. No idea if this is intentional, but I've rechecked the instructions and the positioning of the main fairing bracket and everything seems kosher.

I'd tensioned the T bracket against the lower triple clamp, this formed a spring. The residential road I was riding along was a bit bumpy, and that naturally caused the T Bracket to spring the anchor out.


There is no physical way of lifting the fairing bracket any higher than I mounted it, that I can see.




Solution:

120 year old technology to the rescue. Using my ancient 19thC lathe (they built them to last back then!) I created a 9mm spacer out of Engineering Nylon66 that I happen to have lying around (I love my workshop)

(The stem in the chuck was cut off later of course... )

This was then used to pad the space between the T Bracket and the Lower Triple, allowing me to tension the anchor without adding any spring tension to the T Bracket.



Good idea? Bad Idea?

Thoughts?