RGS front fairing mount and fairing shaking?

Hi Piet

I just got back from picking up my new fairing silentblock and some other Laverda parts from Wolfgang at his daughter's place here in Calgary. When I asked Wolfgang why the silentblock was such a crappy fit, he told me that they are actually very early Laverda twin swingarm bushes, repurposed years later by Laverda for the RGS.

I'll have a look at the front and rear tank mounts as well, but I am also going to take Terry's suggestion to further sleeve the silenblock to take up all the slack, sure makes sense to me. While I am at it there is going to be some bracing welded to various points of the fairing mount assembly, I am really tired of the RGS fairing mirrors imitating helicopter rotors at 8,500 rpm........

Paul LeClair
 
At 8 1/2 grand I'd be watching out for the police in front of me, those in the mirror aren't going to catch you... :D

Correct,
the rubber bushes are actually swingarm bushes from the GT-SF models.

piet
 
Just turning up a solid aluminium version of the rubber mounted thing is the easiest fix.
 
No, Alan 'High Mileage Concourse' Cudlippp has had a solid one ( :o) on his RGS for years and his bike is still in one piece.
 
so, knowing now that the RGS fairing mounting is a bit of a factory bodge job using an old repurposed swingarm bushing, keeping in mind the silly sleeve thing stuffed inside the bushing to reduce the bushings id is also a bit of a factory bodge as the bolt used to hold it all together is too small an i.d., and keeping in mind that on my RGS at least the factory bolt is bent, here is my first step towards a solution - get rid of the silly bodged sleeve and the wimpy factory bolt, and fit a bolt the same o.d. as the i.d. of the isolator bushing! Elegantly simple, toss the stupid factory sleeve and wimpy factory bolt, just drill the mounting hole in the steering neck bracket larger to accomodate the larger bolt. See the attached photos.

I am going to brace the faring bracketry itself with some weld on bracing, and I am debating whether it would be worthwhile to weld the larger diameter bolt head to the steering head mount, for some possible further rigidty. I may also weld some bracing onto the steering neck mounting bracket.

I'll report back after I have tackled the fairing bracketry itself with a few more photos.

Paul LeClair
 

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Paul,

Please be aware these brackets are prone to cracking across the bolt bore... you have just weakened your bracket considerably.  Hopefully Wolfgang will have a spare in stock. :D

Don't think the original bolt is at all skimpy, nor do I think the boys in Breganze really did a bodge job.  The sleeve only raises the silentbloc to the height required to line up the fairing outer with the mounting holes in the tank, it is not required to otherwise locate the silentbloc.  Rigidity will not be enhanced by a thicker bolt, especially if the bracket is now the weak link.  If your mounting bolt was bent, I'd tend to think it was caused by the bike toppling over... takes quite a bit of effort to bend a M12 bolt!

piet
 
Hi Piet

yes, I can see why the mounting bracket would crack even with a stock setup. Small little bracket taking all the load of the entire front fairing/guages/headlight/etc in every direction, with the equivalent of a huge lever extending off it with a huge weight on the end rotating around in a circle and subject to sharp shocks and heavy loads. Silly, silly design!

I already thought about the the possibility of the bracket failing, I have already welded the much larger bolt to the bracket, and then welded some bracing to the back of the bracket, if that doesn't do it I'll just make a thicker and wider bracket out of plate steel, two bends and three holes, even I could probably manage that....... :D Then I'll be worrying about the two small threaded stubs welded to the steering neck to which stubs the bracket itself attaches, the threaded stubs don't look all that strong either......... :o :D

and seriously, a high end handmade Italian thoroughbred and the damn fairing shimmies and shakes while the mirrors oscillate, the fairing has been bugging me since I got the bike at 1,054 miles, it has just taken me a while to get around to trying to solve the issue :-[

Paul LeClair
 
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