Custom snub nose F800GS

The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry, Because I am placing the KTM fender directly on the lower triple, with a small piece of 10 gauge galvanized steel as a mounting bracket (which lowers the fender 3/16 of an inch from the triple). I do not have much is any room to really accentuate the beak. It is looking now like I will bring it out just a bit and have a rather short section due to space.

This picture shows how close the fender sits

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The bolt pattern on the lower triple does not mesh with a 4 bolt (square pattern) on the KTM 690 fender. This was remedied with a piece of steal, I have to track down proper bolts and will show this setup when it is complete.

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Once I get the bracket complete etc... I will complete the front fender and begin the necessary brake line routing. I have already acquired another fork clamp like the one on the stock setup to aid in routing the brake lines. I will also be doing a slightly different setup from what I have seen. That will be posted when I get to it. I am in the R&D phase right now.

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Now I did something slightly different than what other people have done, in stead of buying MX fork guards I opted to modify the front fender (I had a spare), I lopped off the extra stuff and will be using the stock plastic as a mold for the carbonfiber guards. This alleviates the use of trying to fabricate a bracket to match the stock bolt pattern as well as retains some of the aesthetics. They will have a CF piece coming from the other bolt hole that the back part of the stock fender attached for inc stability.

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I will post pictures as I work through the phases.

Looks like you could fab a wedge shaped piece between the fender and the cowl and have a nice smooth curve with the fender forming the new "beak" without too much effort. I think it would look great.

That is most likely what will occur, I cannot bring it too low because it will impede the turning of the front wheel etc... I need to get it together soon though so I can fab it up. A point I forgot to mention earlier is that I relocated the horn up near the body work above the radiator. It is a little louder for the rider but not bad.

Well it is Friday but sadly I have a few exams next week so my recent UPS delivery will have to wait till next Friday I will hopefully finalize my nose and play with the CF and resin to figure it out before I try full production next weekend.

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For safety sake - you will need to put your original low front fender back on or reroute the brake lines. The brakeline crossover hose has been known to snag the front tire and cause a crash when the fender is missing.

The whole mod is to remove the risk of snapping the front fender and eating dirt. Brake lines will be routed solo down each fork to their respective caliper. I haven't picked them up yet as I am still determining how they will be routed. The bike is static until I complete everything anyways.

Now that I read your previous posts - I see that you were planning to reroute the brake lines. Your fender conversion is looking good!

Ebrabaek, I was considering making a CF chain guard using the stock one as a mold, any thoughts? I guess the biggest concern is whether or not any of the lubricant can mess with the resin?

You will be ok with the lube on the resin..... It does not interfere. But you most certainly will need to vacuum pack it, due to the sharp corners..... It is on my list to do... But I would make it of my own mold, as I think there will be a market for these,thus a mould necessary. You got me started thinking again about the eliminating of the low fender, with the addition of the SM fender.... But every time I see someone doing this.... I'm scarred from one inmates picture of Gonzo........ It's terrible.... I'm scarred for life.... It is a fantastic solution, but I don't feel I am there yet....in breaking the natural lines with the beak. The more I look at it, the snorkels have to go CF..... When you see them from riders perspective, the sharp top corner is hideous, and has to go at some point. My plan is to tie in a new set of CF snorkels Flow that into a new CF piece replacing the top plastic that goes fwd to the beak.... to break that line. So pieces removes, will be beak.... top plastic leading to the beak..... snorkels. Then a one piece CF will replace that.....with out the beak...of course. Sort of like a small .....less intrusive rally fairing.... with an adjustable see thru shield..... I'm exited.
Good work.

Wow that would be sweet :eek1 it is a bit beyond my skill-set I believe but none the less it would be awesome. The vacuum sealing will have to wait for now but I like your idea of the custom mold etc... It would def have a market, as we cannot stop it with the farkle. I have seen quite a few of the custom high fenders and am trying to make mine look like it was intended to be that way, the issue like you said is following the lines of the body work and that will be difficult unless you fab a completely new upper panel. If you go that route will you just eliminate the need for a high front fender and absorb all the stuff flying into your face?

What picture are you referring to? I have definitely seen some slap together mods that are functional but not aesthetically pleasing. I was tooling around on a trail about a month ago and was going slow enough that it didn't snap my front fender but the TKC picked up a rock and sucked it up, it left a good 1-2 cm gash all through the inside of the fender and I felt the bike slow down like I was hitting the brakes before I heard a slight pop and watched it spit out the rock about 15 ft in front of me. After that I was determined to complete the mod for my safety. Seeing as I usually only drive on the road to get off road it is highly beneficial for me. That and since I am running the TKCs I do not go over 80mph so I am not too worried about the wind issues from the modification.


"You got me started thinking again about the eliminating of the low fender, with the addition of the SM fender.... But every time I see someone doing this.... I'm scarred from one inmates picture of Gonzo........ It's terrible.... I'm scarred for life.... It is a fantastic solution, but I don't feel I am there yet...."

He's probably talking about my avatar. It really doesn't help that my 658 is the dark blue one, so the resemblance to Gonzo is even more striking. That and the fact that when someone asked what kind of creature Gonzo was, he was always referred to as being a "Whatever"

But I think the difference in the way the two look (stock vs raised fender) is that the beak goes more or less straight out where the raised fender has that "hooked" look to it because it's curved not straight. I would guess that it's a matter of taste as to which one looks better.

Most likely I will use a SM fender like everyone else did....But break the beak lines, as to avoid the " Gonzo Look" ...sorry...

I do offer my deepest apologies....as my earlier comment really was meant as a compliment, because of the fact that your setup got me thinking about this....again, as I dropped it last time,,,,because of,,,the ,,,ehhhhh.... Puppet thing....
I know better than to critique someone else taste.....and if you took it as such.....for that I am sorry. It is absolutely each own individuals taste..... nothing else.... I just shot my toe off.... by mentioning mine.

Didn't offend me haha and if you did I didn't notice. I cut down the "wedge" that may suffice for the snub nosed section. Will play with it on Friday!!!!!

I will also be working on the CF, I am curious after watching your videos/stalking everything you published about CF fabbing in regards to the vacuum method to remove bubbles from your resin etc... is this necessary?

Also I have seen a video published by Polymer products regarding the use of acetone sprayed on the surface after it has set for a while to get a good bubble free piece. Besides the aesthetics should I be concerned about bubbles? Also would this be a good way to get a nice finish, I imagine this only works on completely flat surfaces to self level.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PKn-59pHNM <--- Acetone at 6:28

I could answer that with a single ...yes.... But trying to be realistic... I'l change that to a perhaps. Try to pour a little cup of cool syrup in a cup before you eat your pancakes.... then pilfer a stir stick, and stir it. It will be almost impossible not to agitate the mix...or should I say aerate it a little. The bigger bubbles will get mashed out and popped with each layer of fabric, but the smaller get's trapped in there, and for your projects, most likely....all will be well. Unless you are making a rear swing arm....or anything structural. So in that case.... no .... it is not important. The moment you switch to a stronger epoxy requiring a post heat cure, that all changes, as the tiny bubbles now expands as air does while heated....and now they get big and ugly..... Just like the bully in fifth grade..... So it is desirable to de-gass the mix, before using it, and brush on the resin slooooowwwwweeeeely. How you do that, is up to you.... Heat... vacuum chamber.... de-gas dance.... your call....

Ohhhhh this is going to be awesome, love learning new stuff. Just hope my garage trial and error schooling does not cost toooooo much haha! Also since I am using the Max Clear HP should I heat cure it a bit, I havent quite gotten to the big instruction booklet they sent with it yet.

As long as you have the garage over 75 deg. F. It will cure over night. If you want to speed things up a bit, then hop over to the hardware store, and spend 15 on a 150 watt or heat lamp.... Get the matrix to about 100-125..... It'l now set in a few hrs.

Roger Doger, I already have that setup. I went ahead and built a small 4x4x4 paint booth to house the setup to keep dirst/dust out of it as well as have to heat lamps to maintain temp etc... It is starting to get cool here in MD so this will most likely be the option I utilize.

Last pressing question I have, as far as the foam mold I am utilizing. Once I have it sanded down it is still fairly porous, do I still apply wax/parrafin to get it to release or should I first coat it with resin and let it cure then use that as the base for the mold before proceeding to the CF?

Sorry for so many questions I just don't want to waste a lot of time or material learning simple things I could avoid.

Awesome! Motorcycle rhinoplasty! So you're still in med school but you're already a "practicing" plastic surgeon!