[aWanderlustSeoul]

I'd like to say this to the individuals who gravitate away from working on their own bikes: I'm a strong believer in DIY work, since it is liberating to understand the operation and intricacies of your motorcycle, having the satisfaction of accomplishment of a job well done, and achieving that visceral man/machine connection. Instead of dropping your bike at the dealer, I'd recommend getting a small quality set of hand tools and doing the simple maintenance tasks and modifications yourself. You'll learn a good bit, save some cash, and hopefully enjoy the heck out of it. The worst thing that can happen is you break something. Then you fix it and move on with life.

@Pat -- Appreciate the details/instructions on all the mods you completed. I'm not the most mechanically inclined but I'm more inspired to learn how to do some of my own mods and some basic maintenance (oil, chain, etc.). I hope to learn a lot from everyone in this awesome community.

 

[aWanderlustSeoul]

Glad that this forum has piqued your interest. Let me know if there is anything you are stuck on or have questions about.

Thanks Pat! I definitely plan to. I'm also looking forward to your wife's review once she has her license and gets some riding time. BTW I also purchased the same color and I'm hoping to get it delivered tomorrow but there's another major storm in the east coast today. This is definitely not the weather I expected for beginning of summer. I may have to move back to California sooner than later.

 

[aWanderlustSeoul]

I recommend frame sliders for any bike since it will save expensive plastics in the event of a driveway drop or low speed fall. At higher speeds, they also prevent parts of your bike from catching the pavement and causing it to flip since the slippery Delrin ends wear down as they contact the pavement.

I acknowledge the Kawasaki frame sliders are offset. Instead of transmitting a direct axial force, they transmit that force coupled with a twisting due to the offset that could potentially damage the frame in the case of severe impacts. An ideal situation is to have the sliders mounted directly into the mounting holes of the frame to avoid this issue. However, the fairing geometry prevents this, so cutting the fairing would be necessary. I'm not too worried about this for a few reasons:
1. The sliders have a long straight length which sits flush inside the hole in the frame to reduce the heel toe prying force in the case of a drop.
2. If you are crashing hard enough to damage your frame in this manner, you have other more important things to worry about.

Because this bike is for my wife and she won't be tracking it (and I really hope she doesn't crash it, much less crash hard enough to damage the frame), I don't feel the need to install perfectly axial frame sliders and cut the fairing apart.

The install is easy once all the bodywork is removed:
1. Remove the seat as described in the lithium battery install guide.
2. Remove the two bolts that hold the textured side covers on. Pop these off.
3. Remove the plastic closeout that wraps around the upper part of the fairing and joins the two sides together. This is just above the front wheel and has 4x bolts and numerous plastic clips.
4. Unbolt the 2x screws on each side of the fairing that connect to the belly pan.
5. At this point, you can remove the belly pan if desired by removing the the plastic clip holding it together at the center right behind the front wheel.
6. There are several bolts securing the fairing sides to the frame. Remove these and lightly pull at locations where there are friction fasteners. The two fairing sides should come off and you should have access to the frame location where the sliders will mount.
7. Install the frame sliders per the included instructions. It's really simple: short bolts with thread locker coupled with circular spacers mount each adapter to the frame, then install the sliders themselves with the long bolts, nuts, and washers. Installed product looks good!

@Pat -- For someone like me that has never removed bodywork/fairings, how much time and effort do you think it will take? I'm thinking at least 2 hours for me to figure everything out and then hopefully it will be much easier and faster once I know what I'm doing. Also at what torque specification do you recommend when installing the frame sliders/bolts? I need to buy a good torque wrench that's accurate but not too pricey.

 

[aWanderlustSeoul]

It's a little under an hour to pull the body work off, attach frame sliders, and reinstall on both sides. If you've never done it before I'd say 2 hours is reasonable. Take pictures before so you know where everything goes; otherwise buy the service manual but I don't think they are out yet.

Manual here for install: https://www.kawasaki.com/Content/Uploads/Accessories/999941036/ii_999941036.pdf
Torque from adapter to frame is 21 ft-lb, torque for the bolts that hold the sliders on to the adapter I believe is 19 to 25 ft-lb per the table, but you would need to double check the bolt dimensions to be sure. I think I remember it being a 10 mm fastener but measure it with calipers. Otherwise gutentight is going to work fine as you are threading into steel so there is less concern of stripping the threads. This isn't a joint that needs torque to prevent separation, the torque is purely to keep the bolt preloaded so it can't loosen. If you are paranoid about it loosening throw some blue loctite on there for secondary retention and call it a day.

Thanks Pat! Really appreciate your advice/guidance. I did not think about taking pictures and I'm sure that will really help. Once I get some frame sliders, I'll plan to spend one day over the weekend to work on it.

 

[aWanderlustSeoul]

Also to answer your question about torque wrenches, this guy should work great for most items on the bike:
https://www.amazon.com/TEKTON-24330-8-Inch-ft-lb-13-6-108-5/dp/B00FMPKAD0/ref=pd_bxgy_469_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00FMPKAD0&pd_rd_r=AHBYDYH3M5RW5B6WFJ78&pd_rd_w=rFcjZ&pd_rd_wg=wPlbv&psc=1&refRID=AHBYDYH3M5RW5B6WFJ78

As far as torque wrenches go it is good quality and inexpensive. I have the 1/4", 3/8" and 1/2". Never verified calibration but I'm sure they are fine. Definitely don't compare them to Snap-On but they are easy to use and get the job done.

Thanks! Definitely reasonable in price so I'll take a look on Amazon.

 

[aWanderlustSeoul]

Do you have a Harbor Freight close to your home, they have some fairly inexpensive torque wrenches? You can get a 3/8" torque wrench for $14.99 this weekend (19.99-25% off = 14.99)

@red09 I ended up ordering the one Pat recommended on Amazon for $38 (includes tax). I'm not familiar with Harbor Freight Tools. It looks like there's a store in Brooklyn and the Bronx. I'll definitely have to check it out especially if there's a sale this weekend. Thanks!