Okay, so while installing my Sportisi hugger I screwed up and dropped the bike. I'm an idiot, I was rushing, etc. etc. etc.
The damage really wasn't too bad, so I've decided to repair it and live with it, at least for the time being.
When the bike falls over, the turn signal is what hits, and it overstresses the fairing and cracks it. Oddly enough, I can't find a single mark on the signal. Go figure. But here's what the damage looks like:
An interesting (and good) thing about ABS is that when it cracks, the edges tend to be really clean and they fit back together really closely. This same characteristic, though, means that it's tough to get the cracked pieces to line back up, because the edges of the cracked pieces hang up on one another and have to be popped back into place. I monkeyed around with a flatbladed screwdriver and did a tiny bit of additional damage, then I decided to use pressure, with the handle of said screwdriver:
This worked great. POP!
Now, truth be told, I could have just stopped right there. This is not a structurally significant area, and the ABS is stiff enough and the crack tight enough that the signal isn't going anywhere. But I'd bought the cement already, so what the heck.
Here's the stuff. It's nasty. WARNING: If you ingest this or inhale the fumes or do anything else boneheaded, you won't need Viagra because your d*ck is going to fall off. Get it on your skin and your face will melt. Et cetera. Just don't be stupid, okay?
Note that it's ABS cement, NOT PVC cement. It's also low-volatiles. And the label matches the bike. You can find this stuff at Home Despot.
CAVEAT CAVEAT CAVEAT: I have NO FREAKIN' CLUE if I did this right, or if I used too much or too little cement. For all I know I'm going to go out tomorrow morning and find an industrial-waste horror show, with a big melted hole in my fairing. Which will result in me buying a new fairing, which is what I was going to do anyway.
When it cures, this stuff literally becomes solid ABS, which is exactly what the fairing is made of. Therefore the repair will (in theory) be as strong as the original piece. I'm aware that I probably should have sanded the paint off, but this will probably be good enough for my purposes.
I pulled out shovels and rakes and implements of destruction (a chopstick and some toothpicks) and put a bead of goo along the crack. My objective was not to actually glue the pieces together, since as noted above they're tight enough not to need it. What I wanted to do was put a bead of solid ABS along the inside, to hold the piece together and keep it from flexing and making the crack bigger.
And now the result. This is what I'd call a good 10-foot repair... from ten feet away you cannot see it even if you're looking for it. It's almost a 5-foot repair. You have to be looking for it to see it from that distance.
So all is more or less right with the world... except....
When I picked the bike up after dropping it, this was lying in the driveway. I don't know where it came from.
Anyone got any ideas?
