Greetings all. Please allow me to show and tell. Well, in 30+ years of riding I've never suffered damage from aerial debris hitting my moto while riding, but yesterday a projectile was tossed in the air by the car in front of me in the fast lane on the 880N in Berzerkely CA. I was unhurt and kept riding to my destination, but my center left hand side cowling is toast. Kawasaki Part #5507-5287-45L is US$447. I filed a claim with Geico ($200) deductible. I figure this ABS plastic cowling is not so strong or flexible to resist much contact with anything at high speed and I wonder if any in our community has suffered this type of incident. I decided to purchase a cheap black 17 piece fairing kit off eBay and substitute the inexpensive set for the pricey clothes she's currently wearing, saving those for when she's vintage and ready for a refurbish.

I hit a traffic cone when I went off the edge of the track one time and it cracked the chin fairing but didn't break any chunks out, so I just glued it back together with ABS glue.

WOW!!! I go by there quite often, better watch it! CalTrans has really slacked off their street-sweeping.

The worst I've had is on 880N near the Oakland Broadway exit, but thankfully it was while I was in a car. The pickup in front of me kicked up a piece of rebar from the road and embedded itself in the the front bumper. I don't want to imagine what could have happened if I had been hit with that while riding.

Scary!

File a suit against the highway department, that **** could kill you.

I've always thought about it, never really been hit by much too substantial though

one of my friends got new set of wheels for his car. Hit some gruesome potholes in S.F. Had to fill out A LOT of paperwork, but at least there's procedure in place for this.

Thank you so much for your thoughts and kindness. Please allow me to carry on: I met the insurance adjuster yesterday afternoon. He agreed to pay the damages less my $200 ductable. I raced to East Bay Motorsports and ordered the part. $603. with tax. Insurance man sent the check to E.B.M. this morning.Part is in LA, should arrive end of next week/early next.

Today, I made a quick fix just to stabilize the cowl with a couple strips of 1"x14gauge aluminum and some rivets. Submitted for your review. :-)

Greetings all. Please allow me to show and tell. Well, in 30+ years of riding I've never suffered damage from aerial debris hitting my moto while riding, but yesterday a projectile was tossed in the air by the car in front of me in the fast lane on the 880N in Berzerkely CA. I was unhurt and kept riding to my destination, but my center left hand side cowling is toast. Kawasaki Part #5507-5287-45L is US$447. I filed a claim with Geico ($200) deductible. I figure this ABS plastic cowling is not so strong or flexible to resist much contact with anything at high speed and I wonder if any in our community has suffered this type of incident. I decided to purchase a cheap black 17 piece fairing kit off eBay and substitute the inexpensive set for the pricey clothes she's currently wearing, saving those for when she's vintage and ready for a refurbish.

A few years back I was traveling East on Route 80 in New Jersey in an itty biity Nissan Sentra. I was in the middle of the three lanes. A tractor trailer traveling in front of me about 10-12 car lengths tossed the tread off of one of his recapped tires. The tire carcass was airborne at about 25-30 feet in the air and appeared to be headed right for my windshield. My right hand lane was open and I moved into it. Fortunately the tire carcass hit the guardrail on the left side of the fast lane. It was only a close call but could have been a disaster. Things could have been different. It probably would have killed me on my bike.

Bill

Greetings all, thank you so much for your comments,suggestions and support. My stock replacement faring has arrived at the dealer. I'm on my way to pick up.

X-Mas came early this past Tuesday in the form of the Tremendous faring kit from Jhina. :-) The US$280 kit came with a very sweet black double bubble wind screen included free of charge and heat shield nicely applied to the lower cowling (chin spoiler) pieces The gloss black paint and clear coat looks like a very good quality finish. No defects or runs upon close inspection. Just one broken tab where an o-ring gets placed: the most vulnerable tab at the nosing of the upper front cowl between the headlights. No problem 'cuz I glued it back that day.

I am gonna take off all her W.T.E. clothing, tuck that pretty wedding dress into a box and truss her up in the slutty shiny number. I'll lay white Princeton Tiger stickers on the sides and white Kawasaki stickers on the chin spoiler/lower cowling. What a toy she is. Very practical as well. Don't be fooled by looks. :-) I'll post pictures after the conversion. Thank you again.

A few years back I was traveling East on Route 80 in New Jersey in an itty biity Nissan Sentra. I was in the middle of the three lanes. A tractor trailer traveling in front of me about 10-12 car lengths tossed the tread off of one of his recapped tires. The tire carcass was airborne at about 25-30 feet in the air and appeared to be headed right for my windshield. My right hand lane was open and I moved into it. Fortunately the tire carcass hit the guardrail on the left side of the fast lane. It was only a close call but could have been a disaster. Things could have been different. It probably would have killed me on my bike.

Bill

Awesome luck you had there. Projectile debris, isn't something to be messing around with if it can be avoided. Kinetic energy is a killer... literally! Take any given mass and speed it up enough and it can equal the power of a nuclear device. On the flip side of that is what us bikers have to worry about often enough every day, aka for a given mass, a velocity coming to a very dramatic reduction. That is going from 100mph to 0mph in an instant. Or in layman's terms, it's not the fall that kills you, it's the sudden stop at the end. I believe there is a Mythbusters episode (linked here somewhere iirc) that shows a tire tread impact to a human. I also remember seeing a piece of debris hitting a track rider and knocking him out cold, causing a down. It's worthy of your time to watch either as a possible preventative action on your part. As riders, one of our main goals while riding is to have "plan b or an escape route on tap." Now we just need the reaction and speed of Superman to avoid such things. lol

Good luck out there, glad you got some new plastics and stay safe as possible.

Awesome luck you had there. Projectile debris, isn't something to be messing around with if it can be avoided. Kinetic energy is a killer... literally! Take any given mass and speed it up enough and it can equal the power of a nuclear device. On the flip side of that is what us bikers have to worry about often enough every day, aka for a given mass, a velocity coming to a very dramatic reduction. That is going from 100mph to 0mph in an instant. Or in layman's terms, it's not the fall that kills you, it's the sudden stop at the end. I believe there is a Mythbusters episode (linked here somewhere iirc) that shows a tire tread impact to a human. I also remember seeing a piece of debris hitting a track rider and knocking him out cold, causing a down. It's worthy of your time to watch either as a possible preventative action on your part. As riders, one of our main goals while riding is to have "plan b or an escape route on tap." Now we just need the reaction and speed of Superman to avoid such things. lol

Good luck out there, glad you got some new plastics and stay safe as possible.

To this day I WILL NOT travel tucked-in behind a tractor trailer truck. Nearly all of them run recap tires.

Bill

To this day I WILL NOT travel tucked-in behind a tractor trailer truck. Nearly all of them run recap tires.

Bill

Sounds reasonable. Besides, it's turbulent back there!

Greeting to everyone. I thank you for the opportunity to post one more follow up regarding the conclusion of my chance meeting with flying freeway debris.

I've done what I set out to do upon settlement with Geico: I've tucked away all the W.T.E. farings and cowls, switching them over for the all gloss black kit from Jhina. Results are pleasing. Pictures to follow.

What I'd like to mention is that I patiently polished all the pieces with carnuba paste wax before I began deconstruction and reassembly. 4 hours. The removal and install took 8 hours. Over 75 fasteners for the 15 pieces I exchanged. Really a bit complicated. :-)

nice!

Looks great. I have no idea what half of your posts are referring to but the bike came out nice ����