Is there a place that sells "custom" fairings, not the chinese ones.

[Insane Pie]

I've been looking into getting new fairings and was curious if there is anywhere I can get custom fairings. Like different shaped ones and not the oem shaped ones. I've searched around, but haven't found anything.

[alex.s]

do it yourself. otherwise you'll be looking at many thousands of dollars. if you truly want something custom made.

seek the carbon fiber sage @choneofakind

if you just want something different look at hotbodies, airtech streamlining, there are others

[choneofakind]

I've learned what goes into making carbon bodywork at school with even a really simple wet layup. I refuse to do it for a motorcycle.

Unless you find someone who's willing to make molds and make you custom bodywork using the stock mounting tabs, you're in for a lot of elbow grease and money to do it yourself.

Steps for making bodywork:
1) model it on a computer, in this case, you'll have to know exactly where the mounting tabs are, the dimensions of the bike, the shape you want, etc. This takes time and knowledge with 3D modeling.
2a) make a male buck that is the exact shape you want, then make a female mold over this to get a negative. This takes time and material.
ORRRRRR
2b) get a female mold professionally machined based on your computer model. This takes time and material.
3) Make your bodywork out of either fiberglass or carbon, using either of the female molds from step 2. This takes time and material.
4) paint bodywork. This takes time.

Time = money. When dealing with people who specialize in large scale machining and/or making professional quality bodywork, experienced time = lots of money.

The issue I see is I don't know of anyone who already does this. That means, in my mind, that you're going to have to convince someone to do it for you as a custom job, or convince them to make a business out of it in order to recoup the money they're going to spend on making molds the first time. This takes a lot of capital. If you're doing it only for yourself, you front the money. If you're proposing a new business model, the company you're hiring is going to have to be convinced that they're going to actually make money on this endeavor.

For reference, we made our own carbon fiber bodywork for ASME's Human Powered Vehicle Competition. There was a solid group of 6 of us who all had at least 80 hours each over the span of 2 weeks. There were also another 5 people who had ~40 hours. Every spare minute of my time when I wasn't in class or at work, I was with the team, making our male buck, and at the end, laying the carbon. We even skipped the female mold and did a simple wet layup on the outside of a male buck, using a vacuum bag. If you want bodywork for your motorcycle, you won't want to go this route, as the finish is matte and bare carbon, and is not glossy or smooth at all. It's rough and crude. If you want to do this, be prepared to either put a lot of time in, or pay someone else for a lot of their time.

For reference on cost for a custom job like what we did for our bike: the carbon fabric alone was $1100; it was the inexpensive stuff, not the fancy uber thin stuff. Labor; I mentioned the shear number of man hours above. Machining; we did some talking initially, thinking we'd have a mold machined for us. It came to about $1300. We looked into (and planned on) method 2a, where we were going to make a female mold out of fiberglass over the male buck. That would have been another $200-ish in fiberglass and more labor. We chose the quick method because of time constraints that were out of our control.

That's what you're dealing with.

[Insane Pie]

Originally Posted by choneofakind

I've learned what goes into making carbon bodywork at school with even a really simple wet layup. I refuse to do it for a motorcycle.

Unless you find someone who's willing to make molds and make you custom bodywork using the stock mounting tabs, you're in for a lot of elbow grease and money to do it yourself.

Steps for making bodywork:
1) model it on a computer, in this case, you'll have to know exactly where the mounting tabs are, the dimensions of the bike, the shape you want, etc. This takes time and knowledge with 3D modeling.
2a) make a male buck that is the exact shape you want, then make a female mold over this to get a negative. This takes time and material.
ORRRRRR
2b) get a female mold professionally machined based on your computer model. This takes time and material.
3) Make your bodywork out of either fiberglass or carbon, using either of the female molds from step 2. This takes time and material.
4) paint bodywork. This takes time.

Time = money. When dealing with people who specialize in large scale machining and/or making professional quality bodywork, experienced time = lots of money.

The issue I see is I don't know of anyone who already does this. That means, in my mind, that you're going to have to convince someone to do it for you as a custom job, or convince them to make a business out of it in order to recoup the money they're going to spend on making molds the first time. This takes a lot of capital. If you're doing it only for yourself, you front the money. If you're proposing a new business model, the company you're hiring is going to have to be convinced that they're going to actually make money on this endeavor.

For reference, we made our own carbon fiber bodywork for ASME's Human Powered Vehicle Competition. There was a solid group of 6 of us who all had at least 80 hours each over the span of 2 weeks. There were also another 5 people who had ~40 hours. Every spare minute of my time when I wasn't in class or at work, I was with the team, making our male buck, and at the end, laying the carbon. We even skipped the female mold and did a simple wet layup on the outside of a male buck, using a vacuum bag. If you want bodywork for your motorcycle, you won't want to go this route, as the finish is matte and bare carbon, and is not glossy or smooth at all. It's rough and crude. If you want to do this, be prepared to either put a lot of time in, or pay someone else for a lot of their time.

For reference on cost for a custom job like what we did for our bike: the carbon fabric alone was $1100; it was the inexpensive stuff, not the fancy uber thin stuff. Labor; I mentioned the sheer number of man hours above. Machining; we did some talking initially, thinking we'd have a mold machined for us. It came to about $1300. We looked into (and planned on) method 2a, where we were going to make a female mold out of fiberglass over the male buck. That would have been another $200-ish in fiberglass and more labor. We chose the quick method because of time constraints that were out of our control.

That's what you're dealing with.

Would going down the fiberglass route be cheaper than carbon? I know someone does fiberglass work, mostly with race cars though. Haven't looked too much into it though.

[choneofakind]

From the standpoint of material, yes. Fiberglass is much cheaper. The process of needing molds and some way of applying even pressure (yes, it can cure in open air, but you're not going to do that if you want bodywork that looks half decent and is even throughout) via a male/female mold combination or a vacuum bag is the same.

A one-off job is going to be pricey, mostly because of the skilled labor involved. If you do it cheaply, it's either going to look like garbage and not be symmetrical/consistent, or it's going to take you forever. Even guys on this forum who have made custom fiberglass tailpieces for their street fighters put in a lot of hours to get the product they wanted. Luckily, those parts are usually small enough that they can do the mold work by hand and get a reasonably symmetrical shape, without any machining or giant imperfections.



Curious, what are you going for anyway with this custom bodywork?

[Insane Pie]

I'm not too sure yet, I'm just weighing my options at the moment. I wouldn't do anything too elaborate though. The Brasse street fighter post peaked my interest and I saw Ducati nose piece. Working on my bike has been a lot of fun so far and I'm really enjoying it.

[choneofakind]

Simple stuff like that street fighter piece should be a lot simpler and a lot less complex. I was under the impression you wanted to make a smaller ZX6R fairing or something and fit it to your bike so the whole think looked like a mini-ZX.

If you have a contact who does fiberglass for racecars, contact him with some ideas you're tossing around and see what he thinks is possible in terms of budget and time involved and ask if he can let you watch his work on other parts so you can get an idea of the process.

Making bodywork is so cool!

[Insane Pie]

I like the ZX6R fairing and thinking about doing something like that, so you assumed correctly. Haha.

[NinjaZX6R123]

All custom fairings from Indonesia are poorly made and you will have to do a hack job to make them fit. Adding and removing these fairings are a PITA. The shipping cost for the quality of the product isn't even worth it. Dealing with the seller is a headache because they can't speak English. In pictures they look great but once you see it in real life, so not worth it. Don't ask how I know. I have the Ducati kit sitting right in front of me and never plan to use.

I'm the guy who posted about the Brasse kit and so far Josh Brasse has been very responsive to my questions and even agreed to do few adjustments to the kit per my request. I have yet to receive the kit yet, but will update everyone in my thread once installed.

The other one I've seen is for the pre-gen 250 by Tyga. I'm assuming the fit would be good and quality is good but yet have met anyone with it.

Like others has said, you can throw in pieces together like Hotbodies, Shark finz, Tank covers, etc to make the 250 look unique, but there's not much available for a full kit.

Also, do realize any kit you go with, will cost as much as the 250 itself and that's why you don't see much people in the U.S. have them installed. So if it's worth to buy a kit that costs almost as much as your 250 or upgrade to a 600cc+?

[Insane Pie]

Originally Posted by NinjaZX6R123

All custom fairings from Indonesia are poorly made and you will have to do a hack job to make them fit. Adding and removing these fairings are a PITA. The shipping cost for the quality of the product isn't even worth it. Dealing with the seller is a headache because they can't speak English. In pictures they look great but once you see it in real life, so not worth it. Don't ask how I know. I have the Ducati kit sitting right in front of me and never plan to use.

I'm the guy who posted about the Brasse kit and so far Josh Brasse has been very responsive to my questions and even agreed to do few adjustments to the kit per my request. I have yet to receive the kit yet, but will update everyone in my thread once installed.

The other one I've seen is for the pre-gen 250 by Tyga. I'm assuming the fit would be good and quality is good but yet have met anyone with it.

Like others has said, you can throw in pieces together like Hotbodies, Shark finz, Tank covers, etc to make the 250 look unique, but there's not much available for a full kit.

Also, do realize any kit you go with, will cost as much as the 250 itself and that's why you don't see much people in the U.S. have them installed. So if it's worth to buy a kit that costs almost as much as your 250 or upgrade to a 600cc+?

I really like my 250 and have already put some money in it for new parts, unfortunately. So at this point it probably won't bring in too much if I decide to sell it. I've become quite attached to it. So, at this point personally, it's worth putting the money into it.

And I really appreciate all of the replies I have recieved so far.

[NinjaZX6R123]

Originally Posted by Insane Pie

I really like my 250 and have already put some money in it for new parts, unfortunately. So at this point it probably won't bring in too much if I decide to sell it. I've become quite attached to it. So, at this point personally, it's worth putting the money into it.

And I really appreciate all of the replies I have recieved so far.

I feel the same way.

People will think it's crazy but the 250 is a great bike not only for beginners. By the time I'm done with the 250 I will spend more money in mods than I did on the bike. I also have a ZX6R too so it's not that I'm afraid of upgrading. I just really enjoy the 250 for what it is and have a blast customizing it.

[Insane Pie]

Originally Posted by NinjaZX6R123

I feel the same way.

People will think it's crazy but the 250 is a great bike not only for beginners. By the time I'm done with the 250 I will spend more money in mods than I did on the bike. I also have a ZX6R too so it's not that I'm afraid of upgrading. I just really enjoy the 250 for what it is and have a blast customizing it.

How bad is the Ducati kit? Like a fitment issue or just overall?

[NinjaZX6R123]

Originally Posted by Insane Pie

How bad is the Ducati kit? Like a fitment issue or just overall?

Overall quality. I can't say much for fitment as I didn't try to put it on the bike. Once installed (you'll have to come up with your own screws/plugs) it'll look nice however removing the fairings for maintenance could be a pain. It also weighs more than stock/Chinese fairings. I got the front/side fairings for the kit and the seller said I need to send him $500 more for shipment for the tank cover/tail/tire hugger which I decided not to after seeing the front part in person.


Whoever lives in Southern California and wants to buy it I'll sell it for $250! Waaay cheaper than what I paid for.

[Insane Pie]

Originally Posted by NinjaZX6R123

Overall quality. I can't say much for fitment as I didn't try to put it on the bike. Once installed (you'll have to come up with your own screws/plugs) it'll look nice however removing the fairings for maintenance could be a pain. It also weighs more than stock/Chinese fairings. I got the front/side fairings for the kit and the seller said I need to send him $500 more for shipment for the tank cover/tail/tire hugger which I decided not to after seeing the front part in person.


Whoever lives in Southern California and wants to buy it I'll sell it for $250! Waaay cheaper than what I paid for.

That's disheartening haha.

[NinjaZX6R123]

Originally Posted by Insane Pie

That's disheartening haha.

Yes it is. There's really no reviews on it and the people who have ordered some parts from Indonesia like tank cover, tire/swing arm covers, front fairing light cover seemed satisified so I thought it would be good quality. Got a bit too happy with my tax return money. I felt like a kid on Christmas morning opening an PS4 box to find an Nintendo inside.

However, I have heard nothing but good things in regards to the 4.5" vrossi rims sold out of Indonesia and would love to get my hands on those, but it seems to be sold out everywhere.

[Insane Pie]

Originally Posted by NinjaZX6R123

Yes it is. There's really no reviews on it and the people who have ordered some parts from Indonesia like tank cover, tire/swing arm covers, front fairing light cover seemed satisified so I thought it would be good quality. Got a bit too happy with my tax return money. I felt like a kid on Christmas morning opening an PS4 box to find an Nintendo inside.

However, I have heard nothing but good things in regards to the 4.5" vrossi rims sold out of Indonesia and would love to get my hands on those, but it seems to be sold out everywhere.

Do you know of any other sites like those that have misc. parts? Only one I found was Sportisi, which I'm interested in their split headlamp cover,

[NinjaZX6R123]

japan webike

http://japan.webike.net/ps/#!p.m=5921&p.c=1110&p.sk=1

[Racer x]

Air tech fairings. Fiberglass that is the best.

[csmith12]

Just find a way to order the LENT body kit. It 98% transforms the 250 into something it's not.

[jkv45]

Originally Posted by Racer x

Air tech fairings. Fiberglass that is the best.

Airtech has a wide selection of unusual fairing for custom, restoration, and LSR.

http://www.airtech-streamlining.com/

[psych0hans]

Buy a ticket to Indonesia, go to Indonesia, buy Ducati fairing kit for ninja 250. Fly back to America, install. Don't forget to pickup a **** load of parts to sell in America to recoup your costs

[NinjaZX6R123]

Originally Posted by psych0hans

Buy a ticket to Indonesia, go to Indonesia, buy Ducati fairing kit for ninja 250. Fly back to America, install. Don't forget to pickup a **** load of parts to sell in America to recoup your costs

I'll sell you my Ducati kit for $250.

[CZroe]

Originally Posted by NinjaZX6R123

Overall quality. I can't say much for fitment as I didn't try to put it on the bike. Once installed (you'll have to come up with your own screws/plugs) it'll look nice however removing the fairings for maintenance could be a pain. It also weighs more than stock/Chinese fairings. I got the front/side fairings for the kit and the seller said I need to send him $500 more for shipment for the tank cover/tail/tire hugger which I decided not to after seeing the front part in person.


Whoever lives in Southern California and wants to buy it I'll sell it for $250! Waaay cheaper than what I paid for.

Too bad you didn't have this available when I was still in San Diego. Pics?

Originally Posted by NinjaZX6R123

Yes it is. There's really no reviews on it and the people who have ordered some parts from Indonesia like tank cover, tire/swing arm covers, front fairing light cover seemed satisified so I thought it would be good quality. Got a bit too happy with my tax return money. I felt like a kid on Christmas morning opening an PS4 box to find an Nintendo inside.

However, I have heard nothing but good things in regards to the 4.5" vrossi rims sold out of Indonesia and would love to get my hands on those, but it seems to be sold out everywhere.

Honestly, I'd prefer the Nintendo until the PS4 gets some good games.

[NinjaZX6R123]

As you can see in the second picture how the light fitment is, it's not plug and play and you'll have to do some wire splicing or go HID and decide what bolts/plugs you'd want to use for the fairings. That's typical of all 'kit' bikes. I never went with this project mainly because it would piss me off every time I'd have to take off the fairings to do maintenance. I'm sure the kit will look nice once installed and you'll be the only one in the U.S. with such bike.