These Things That I Do: First Impressions and Fitting the Skidmarx GPz-style Nosecone

Well, it took nigh on six weeks to arrive, but finally my GPz Nosecone (or bikini/cockpit fairing) arrived. First impressions were mixed. Packaging wise, it was reasonably well packed in a roomy box, with the fairing, screen and mounting kit all being supplied in separate bags. Both the fairing and screen are reasonably thick and feel quite sturdy. The only issue I had was that the inside of the fairing was a bit rough and I cut myself a couple of times on the rough fiberglass. The universal fixing kit was straightforward to assemble and was again made sturdily. None of the brackets felt at all flimsy.

The instructions however, left a little to be desired as they were clearly a handdrawn diagram of the fixing kit that had been photocopied. As such, it was hard to really work out anything beyond the basics. Still, as I said, the fixing kit was reasonably simple to work out and the whole assembly is hardly rocket science.

So, overall, the nosecone seemed well worth the £50-odd pounds I paid for it, it may be a bit rough on the inside, but it's robust and the outside is well finished, The sculpt is good too, to the point where it looks like it was molded from a Z1100R nosecone. Obviously, there's the matter of the six weeks I had to wait for it, but I get the feeling that was an error on the part of the place I ordered from, rather than being typical.

Now, that's the boring standard stuff out of the way. As is always the case with these things, I ran into a couple of issues fitting the nosecone to my bike. The most pressing being the fact that the 'scoops' that cover the radiator from the sides were hitting the fairing when it was trial fitted on all but the most minimal amount of steering lock. Since the scoops are one of my favorite pieces of styling on the bike, they weren't going anywhere.

As the scoops were staying, the fairing itself needed to be modified. Working with my Dad, we made up a template using the fairing's existing curvature, to keep it looking as standard as possible, and I got to work with the Dremel. I used a cutting wheel to chop down the lower part of the fairing, using the template to keep it from looking like a hack job. With one side done, the template was transferred over. By measuring the distance from the template edge to the end of the fairing (in three different places along the template) the first time, it was a simple case of making the measurements match on the other side, to keep things symmetrical. Once I was finished cutting (and the fiberglass dust had dispersed) I got busy sanding the burr off the edges. The job wasn't perfect, but then this was my first time reshaping a body panel and I'm pretty impressed with how it came out. It doesn't look like a total hack job, and once an edging trim goes on, it'll look even better.

That's before it was fully sanded, there is some discolouration to the gelcoat where I made the cut.

After that, assembly went pretty well. Holes were marked and drilled and the fairing was united with its mounting kit. My bike's idiosyncrasies weren't done with though. Good thing, too. It's boring when things just bolt together! The way the different bolts involved sat, it was impossible to fit the fairing with the headlight in place. You need to be able to reach inside the bowl to do-up the mounting bolts (as used by the fairing) and once the fairing is in place it is impossible to put the front of the headlight back on. There seems to be a provision to get around this on some of the bracketry, but in practice, once every is in place and tightened up, it would be impossible to gain access to the bolts needed. Still, this problem was easily solved by cutting the ends from two of the brackets, changing the slotted holes going the headlight into more of an open fork arrangement. This lets the fairing be mounted by backing off, rather than totally removing, the headlight bolts.