Neonmarine's Training Bike

[Shaharidan]

I won't bash Hot bodies, I think they are a good company and have great customer support.

That being said, I've tried Hot bodies and Tyga for fairings, and found Tyga to be much easier to install.
Matt and Formula 390 are fantastic, saved me from missing a race weekend about a year ago, so I don't believe you can go wrong there.

Also the factory plastics hold up pretty well, and if you go with Tyga you can still use the stock side upper and lowers, if you still have them you might save a few bucks.

Looking good!



The HotBodies pieces have had a pretty regular review of being poor quality unfortunately. That they also don't come pre-drilled is frustrating considering most of the bolt hole locations are reliably in the same locations. This isn't always the case, as I've seen some of the hand drilled locations be off by as much as a quarter inch. It's also common for folks to see that when Ramesh drilled the holes, they would all point to a single spot about where they were standing. {facepalm} I've had some customers call me when going to put the bodywork on that they holes didn't line up. I'd have them check their stock bodywork, and sure enough, the stock bodywork had the holes wallowed out to get the line up. {shrug} Bodywork is a tricky balance between strength and lightness. If you want it very strong, it's heavy. If it's light, it can be brittle. Tyga does an incredibly good job with trying to straddle this, and with kevlar backing to the stress points also adds a good feature of strength with lightness. We also try to make sure to give a little more allowance for some of the holes where the positiong might be a little more... irregular.

You're making great progress on your build. Keep us all update!

 

[Formula390]

So I tried using the Formula390 fork tool to swap springs...seems like these aren’t strong enough to bust the seal on the loctite. Yes I used a torch....

You still didn't get the Loctite hot enough. Ramesh uses Loctite RED when they put those forks together, and uses a LOT of it!!! Once it's hot enough, the cap turns off with hardly any force required. if you are putting enough force into it to egg shape the holes and bend the pin wrench, it wasn't hot enough still. You have to get it enough that the oil on the fork cap starts to smoke. Hotter than you think would even POSSIBLY be needed. There have been some guys who have not put enough heat into it and managed to strip the threads clean out of the cap or the lowers. RED holds REALLY solid. There is no middle ground tho. It's either hot enough, or it isn't. I use my oxy rig when I do them, but if you don't have one I generally recommend using MAPP gas, not just propane. You'll have a hard time getting enough heat into the cap fast enough to also not soak the heat down into the stack where there are plastic parts. I've even seen one who managed to melt the plastic parts from when they were using propane... luckily PacMan was able to get them the parts they needed... as KTM doesn't sell the internal components of the forks.

 

[ReidMcT]

Got some more goodies in the mail yesterday...replacement parts really. KTM "race" pegs ( looses the rubber on the peg is what I needed).

I hate those race pegs. Had them on my SD and found them super slippery. Replaced them with some really grippy Puig pegs, same as I put on the RC last week.

Maybe your experience will be different. They did not go at all well with my Alpinestars boots.

 

[John390]

You still didn't get the Loctite hot enough. Ramesh uses Loctite RED when they put those forks together, and uses a LOT of it!!! Once it's hot enough, the cap turns off with hardly any force required. if you are putting enough force into it to egg shape the holes and bend the pin wrench, it wasn't hot enough still. You have to get it enough that the oil on the fork cap starts to smoke. Hotter than you think would even POSSIBLY be needed. There have been some guys who have not put enough heat into it and managed to strip the threads clean out of the cap or the lowers. RED holds REALLY solid. There is no middle ground tho. It's either hot enough, or it isn't. I use my oxy rig when I do them, but if you don't have one I generally recommend using MAPP gas, not just propane. You'll have a hard time getting enough heat into the cap fast enough to also not soak the heat down into the stack where there are plastic parts. I've even seen one who managed to melt the plastic parts from when they were using propane... luckily PacMan was able to get them the parts they needed... as KTM doesn't sell the internal components of the forks.

how do you get these hot enough without damaging the black finish on the lower part of the fork?

I want to do my own spring and oil swap, but I R afeared of buggering stuff up

 

[Formula390]

HIGH heat only on the cap of the lower fork leg. You aren't heating the fork leg ,you are aiming at getting the heat on the threads.

Or just stop by the ranch and we'll knock it out. The advantage of being a local... I promise not to try and tempt you with carbon fiber parts even. LOL

 

[ReidMcT]

My approach was to heat more slowly, with a heat gun. I got it hot, but not too not to touch, over a time of about 2-3 minutes. Using a proper pin spanner with precisely fitting pins, it took some effort but came apart cleanly. Mine had been assembled with a lot of bluish greenish thread locker.

 

[neonmarine]

You still didn't get the Loctite hot enough. Ramesh uses Loctite RED when they put those forks together, and uses a LOT of it!!! Once it's hot enough, the cap turns off with hardly any force required. if you are putting enough force into it to egg shape the holes and bend the pin wrench, it wasn't hot enough still. You have to get it enough that the oil on the fork cap starts to smoke. Hotter than you think would even POSSIBLY be needed. There have been some guys who have not put enough heat into it and managed to strip the threads clean out of the cap or the lowers. RED holds REALLY solid. There is no middle ground tho. It's either hot enough, or it isn't. I use my oxy rig when I do them, but if you don't have one I generally recommend using MAPP gas, not just propane. You'll have a hard time getting enough heat into the cap fast enough to also not soak the heat down into the stack where there are plastic parts. I've even seen one who managed to melt the plastic parts from when they were using propane... luckily PacMan was able to get them the parts they needed... as KTM doesn't sell the internal components of the forks.

I'm very familiar with all grades of loctite and how to break the chemical bond. The tool was bending from the start is what I experienced. I'm not here to bash anything, just posting my build as it happens. Right now, the forks are at Livengood Motorsports (the shop that supports Westby Racing) and hopefully Brian can make something work. At this point it would have been the same to just buy a set of Andreani carts.

In other news, I got a stock fairing stay to see if it would fix the fitment issues I've been having with the nose fairing. Right now, the TYGA nose isn't matching up "perfectly" but its not terrible. I'll have the Hotbodies nose in here soon to really see what the difference is. What I can say is that the factory double bubble windscreen seems to like the stock fairing stay the best...

 

[neonmarine]

Well the Hotbodies fairings are on. I kinda like the primer grey look....

Carolina Motorsport Park on Friday!