SFC faring on SF1

C

chrissoz

Senior member
Location
Sydney, Australia
I have been thinking of making a few tasteful (IMHO) modifications to my 73SF1 - lots of peoples must have mounted SFC fairings to standard SF frames in the process of making SFC reps (I am just after a SF with rear-sets and fairing all in black so deffo not an SFC rep). What is the easiest way to handle the mounting - I do not really want to do anything that is not reversible and am not currently thinking about stripping it to a bare frame so I was hoping there is some alternative to welding mounts on.

Thanks
 

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For a few years, I used big U-shaped exhaust mounts around the frame headstock. Not very stable and they wound break every now and then. I tried welding one bolt onto the frame but it kept breaking. Eventually, I just welded my mount to the frame. Annoying but you can cut it off and repair it if you want later. That small weld was done with the whole bike assembled, I was worried the grease would melt out of the bearings but it was fine if you don't go nuts.
 
I mounted a Ducati SS fairing to my SF1 using simple eyeletted bolts that you can buy at any hardware. The eyelet fitted over the tank mount studs at the front inside the rubbers. The fairing bracket needs a flat steel with welded across the bracket at the head tube, with a hole on each side that the threaded shaft of the eyelets fit through. Very simple and very inexpensive and it was one there for a decade and many thousands of km with zero probs.

Be aware that with an SFC fairing you will definitely have to use clipon bars, as there isn't enough space for a higher bar. Might also limit your front end 'swing room'.
 
piranha-bro2 said:
Be aware that with an SFC fairing you will definitely have to use clipon bars, as there isn't enough space for a higher bar. Might also limit your front end 'swing room'.
Click to expand...

Although US spec SFCs wore Laverda’s adjustable bars rather than clip ons.....
Having said that, I removed my adjustable bars and installed clip ons, as they were fouling on the fairing 🥴
 
You can get adjustable hight clipons, the ones Gowys sell I think come in 3 different height ranges. I have some on my Pantah and with some fiddles, you can raise the fairing up a bit so your not in too much agony.
 
Thanks for replies - currently the bike has Brevettato bars, was probably going to see if they would fit and if not go down the clip-on route. Looking at the Laverdaparadis catalog there is an upper mount that attaches to the front of the headstock but I cannot see what the lower mount attaches to.
piranha-bro2 - do you have any pics of your setup?
 
Not really in the spirit of what you asked for ("the easiest way") but do note that the fairings on the '74 SFCs were triple rubber mounted - none of the three frame mount points were not rubber mounted.
There was a steering head rubber sleeve in the mount that set the forwards/backwards mount distance and two of the double silentblocs on the ends of a bar from the top engine mount to the bottom of the fairing wings.
From my point of view there are two significant advantages to this mounting method; reduced fairing vibration (bear in mind that the Smiths tach was fixed to the fairing) and also some flexibility in the mountings. In my case that flexibility was very valuable, on the first day that I owned my SFC and was driving it home from Italy to UK, I left it parked and someone backed into it so it fell on its side but almost no damage to the fairing then some years later I crashed it at full speed in a rain soaked race and it slid a very long way but the only damage to the fairing was removal of the color gel coat for about 18 inches on the lower edge of the fairing, no cracks or splits.
The factory style lower mount should not need any frame modifications but there are two threaded bosses as I recall (I'm a long way from it right now) on the front of the steering head of the SFC frame to hold the center of the rubber sleeve that supports the front Y shaped mount.
Before I acquired the SFC I put a fork mounted fairing on my SF2 and the mounts I made were flimsy, they held it in place OK but the vibration of the screen at speed drove me crazy and its bouncing reflected oncoming headlights like flashing strobes so much so that on one long trip I stopped, tore the whole thing off and carried it home with a bungee on the back seat - the SFC fairing mounting to the frame with its substantial rubber mounts was a whole different story.
 
My ss bevel fairing on my 3c uses rubber gromets at all mounts to help dampen the vibes as I have a couple of GSXR Suzuki mirrors mounted on it. That helps me tell the difference between Taxis and cops. It also uses a Ducati fairing wing mount from the center steering nut to the wings, that stops the screen from bouncing about. The best screen and probably fairing supplier is Home Made Fibreglass at Wentworthville.
https://www.handcraftfibreglass.com.au/motorcycle-parts/
 
arancia said:
There was a steering head rubber sleeve in the mount that set the forwards/backwards mount distance and two of the double silentblocs on the ends of a bar from the top engine mount to the bottom of the fairing wings.

The factory style lower mount should not need any frame modifications but there are two threaded bosses as I recall (I'm a long way from it right now) on the front of the steering head of the SFC frame to hold the center of the rubber sleeve that supports the front Y shaped mount.
Click to expand...
You can get a pretty good idea from this drawing from Laverda-Paradies
750-13.gif


32B is the fairing front support.

13-32B.jpg


78 are the weld-on lugs for the bracket.

13-78.jpg


39 is the fairing cross bracket.

13-39.jpg


Cheers
Jim
 
1st photo shows the bars layout on my (SF2) when I purchased it. No matter how I adjusted them I couldn't get full lock before touching the fairing cut outs.
2nd photo is after I installed clip ons and new gauges.
Tried to get the camera in to show you the other mounts....
The last couple of photos are probably the ones you're asking about.
001.JPG002.JPGIMG_1747.JPGIMG_1748.JPGIMG_1749.JPGIMG_1755.JPG
 
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No pics - although the bike can be seen with that setup in my avatar - you'll need very good eyes!! No rubber mounting, but the instruments were still mounted to the top triple clamp. You really don't need to use a std SFC fairing bracket - the crap one that came with my SS fairing looked like it was made from racing bicycle handlebars!! Fibreglass is very vibration resistant, and it wouldn't be hard to make a bracket. Mine had an M6 mounting bolt on each side of the fairing at the front, the SF1 headlight shell went into std holes for a 7 inch headlight, the brackets for the rear section were pretty flimsy and really just steadied the 'wings'. Even though my std SF1 headlight shell was solid mounted I never blew H4 globes or had issues with vibration -and it was raced and ridden very hard, often on long fast open country trips in rural Western Oz. It was a pretty nice smooth SF though.

The bracket was just a bit of angle iron that sat lengthways on the head tube, with a simple 'cross' bracket welded to that with the holes for the eyeletted bolts. The curved part for the headlight and front bracket fixing points was welded to the angle iron as well. Knowing what I know now I could make a far more elegant bracket with ease - back then I was poor and happy to use whatever - but it didn't give the impression of being a shonky fit.

One thing I don't remember is whether the steering lock (that the key went into, not the steering 'stop') got in the way or not - at some stage I've removed it, as I never ever used it anyway. But I don't think it was to enable fitment of the SS fairing.
 
My SS bracket looked like this but with the 'homebuilt' look for the part that attaches to the frame, unlike these that bolt on. You can see it's a very simple thing, as is the SFC one - only complicated thing is the welded lugs on the frame and the bracketry fro them, which is a road you say you don't want to go down (as I didn't back in '76).

Ducati SS Headlight Mounts

Ducati SS Headlight Mounts - Italian motorcycle components from Road & Race Australia, vintage bike specialists.
roadandrace.com.au
 
Although you don't really want to, it is quite easy to make and weld those lugs onto the steering head. Takes away any doubt that it might fail on a ride sometime too. I have put them onto my SF2 ready for the fairing I want to get on to it. I shaped one end of the lugs to better sit on the round headstock, the hardest part was getting them correctly in place for tacking them on, it is pox having a fairing sitting slightly skew. I have an ´81 Jota fairing bracket to go straight onto it.
 
Je l'ai fait pour ma copie 11000
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Thanks for all the replies! Now it is obvious the lower mounting is attached to the engine from mounting - that is nice and easy. I do have a mate who is a pretty good welder (the exhausts he made up for his TVR are a work of art) who could weld on the top mounts for me. He also has a lathe so we could even run them up in his workshop. Then it is just a matter of sourcing the mounting hardware and fairing. I did want this to be fully reversible but the top mounts on the headstock would not be that obvious if it was taken back to stock.

Marty - thanks mate - will be in touch.
 
When I welded my bosses on, I was paranoid about them being offline, leaving the fairing hanging off to one side.

I made up a flat bar with two holes in it to ensure I had the right spacing apart, ran a die down the end of a length of (1Mt) round bar, fitted it through the flat bar and the boss to be welded and lined it all up and pulled the trigger.

Ended up straight as.
 
Yep, alignment is the trickiest part. I reiterate that if you want more room for handlebar swing, the SS fairing is a better option than the SFC - look very similar save the little 'flaps' at the ends of the wings.
 
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