A blog about motorcycles, motorcyclists, and motorcycle shops

Musings on riding and working on bikes, and observations as I travel and visits bikers, riders, motorcyclists, events and shops

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Monday, November 17, 2014

Kawasaki Concours Main Fairing Bracket Re-welding Time

While putting the left inner fairing piece back on my 1986 Kawasaki Concours last week, I noticed what looked like a crack in the main fairing bracket.  Sure enough, right beyond an area already re-welded/repaired once before (at least) a new crack had developed and the bar was completely "cut".  On the other side of the re-welded joint another crack was about 50% through the bar there too.  So Saturday I took the inner fairings off the bike, removed the mirrors, disconnected all the wiring to the headlight and turn signals and then removed the main fairing.  While the shop manual says to remove the main fairing and main fairing bracket as one piece, I've found it's easier to remove the main fairing separately.  This is especially true if you are doing motorcycle maintenance projects that require them to be separated anyway.  I also removed the speedometer from the bracket while it was still attached to the bike to get it out of the way of the welding work.  Once this was done it was pretty easy to get the bracket off the bike and delivered to my friend.

He's a good welder, having done the tab on my old Sportster.  He also has made his own bicycle frame before, so working with tubing won't be an issue.  Hopefully he'll be able to get it done this weekend and I can re-mount everything.  If not, I'll move some parts back over to the 1994 restoration project but this will slow my climb toward 100,000 miles on Miss Swail, the 1986 Concours.

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