Engine Sidecover Protection

[leithncbr400]

Has anyone ever tried bonding on side cover protection plates. i need to install side cover protection to race and wondering if anyone has bonded aluminium plates directly to original side covers. Had a quick look on google and found a product called dymax 800 looks pretty good. any assistance greatly apreciated as only a week left for me b4 next race meet

[blueflag]

Hi mate!
I reckon a good epoxy'd do. Mind, on my R6 when I went total loss and lost the rotor / flywheel thingy I just milled away the cover on an angle and Ally welded a 8mm thick slab over the hole, worked a treat
Good luck
Mike

[leithncbr400]

Thanks Mike when you welded the plate to the housing did you have any issues with distortion?

[blueflag]

Not at all mate, mind, I got my mate to weld it, my welding is a little, shall we say, untidy!
I'm about to do the same on a damaged cover off my mates ZXR 400....

[Cammo]

Don't weld them!!

It doesn't make much sense welding them when the regs only need you to have them attached via two original engine cover mounts (if I remember right).

I've seen all sorts of agricultural fixes at the track, from bent alloy bar attached to the 2 engine cover bolts to over the counter carbon jobs which cost a fair bit for what they are.

My bro took some moulds off my spare engine covers and we made some carbon/kevlar covers, didn't take very long. You could probably get away with just fibreglass to be honest, more than strong enough.

The scrutes don't really inspect too closely (probably because they reckon it's a sh!t rule too!), as long as you have something there you'll probably be right.

[blueflag]

I only welded mine because being total loss I was able to take the opportunity to narrow the overall width of the engine by quite a bit by machining it away. It was not only strong but less likely to make contact with the ground in the event of a rider / tarmac interface which I seem to be prone to......
Reading through the posts again, I take it that in Aus it's a requirement for racing?

[leithncbr400]

thanks to both of you for you valid input,will put the belly pan back on tonight and see what i can fashion up. went to most of my local auto and hardware stores and nobody has any good two pack epoxy type adhiesive. might go o combo of aluminium sheet and fibre glass wish me luck.

[Cammo]

Reading through the posts again, I take it that in Aus it's a requirement for racing?

Yep.

[Pleiades]

My bro took some moulds off my spare engine covers and we made some carbon/kevlar covers, didn't take very long. You could probably get away with just fibreglass to be honest, more than strong enough.

Cam, I dropped my NC29 at the Island on the 18th of Jan, on entry to Honda - don't worry, the screen brace is fine.

The carbon/kevlar cover did it's job to a degree, but I still lost a bit of material off the side cover. The carbon/kevlar thing came off at some stage - I found it in the grass next to the bike (it was quite a slide!). Three or four offs like that and I reckon I'd be mopping up a bit of oil.

[Cammo]

Cam, I dropped my NC29 at the Island on the 18th of Jan, on entry to Honda - don't worry, the screen brace is fine.

The carbon/kevlar cover did it's job to a degree, but I still lost a bit of material off the side cover. The carbon/kevlar thing came off at some stage - I found it in the grass next to the bike (it was quite a slide!). Three or four offs like that and I reckon I'd be mopping up a bit of oil.

Yeah I gotta admit that mine are fastened really only for meeting regs and passing scrutineering, they would probably hold up fine in a single spill, but maybe not again.

I've seen blocks of nylon attached to engine covers (using alloy bars to attach to mounting points), it would protect pretty well I reckon and you can get it cheap off ebay. Ugly as though.

Do you use crash knobs? I don't have them on my bike, maybe they would stop the engine covers touching down so bad in a spill?