@#$(*@#$
Man, tonight was such an exercise of futility, I am so frustrated.
It started with all kinds of excitement. UPS delivered my new givi side luggage for the fazer, and the wolf and I rode down to town to get lunch and hit up the gym since it was a gorgeous, sunny day. Upon returning home, being the tinkering junkie I am, I locked myself in the garage with plans not to emerge until I had successfully installed luggage and could post pictures.
There are two steps to getting the carriers mounted. First, an adapter kit for the Fazer needs to be installed, then the actual side carriers themselves attach to the new mounts provided by the adapter kit. I didn't think much of the process to get the adapter kit, it was supposed to attach to the sub-frame, and there were lots of mount points on there.
Of course, what I had not considered was the fact that my fazer has aftermarket exhausts and had a fender eliminator installed. This wouldn't seem like a big deal in most cases... however, whatever idiot designed this adapter kit designed it to mount specifically to the exhaust and now non-existent fender. Complicating this mess is that, to ad-lib and work around the problem, it would be really nice to have an idea of what the end goal was. But the less-than-ikea quality of the instructions paired with even less helpful pictures of the wrong bike didn't offer much help.
With a lot of screaming, throwing things, damaging myself (I got my fingertip full force with the wirecutter portion of some pliers when they slipped... yes, I was stupid and was using them wrong) I managed to rotate the aftermarket slipons and *somehow* through a miracle get the brackets to fit snugg, the exhaust to stay in place, and the cowl to fit back over everything and look slick. I raced to get one of the side bars on, in hopes that a minor crisis had been inverted. Bolted to both the exhaust bracket and the footpeg, the new side-carrier looked pretty slick!
...until I tried to snap one of the givi luggage sets on. The brackets are rotated out about 2mm further than they should be... causing the side-carrier to sit at just slightly the wrong angle... meaning that about 1mm from the luggage snapping firmly into place, it hits the tie down rail along the passenger seat and won't mount.
I can probably fix this with a couple of washers as a spacer for the top mount, but still it was an incredibly unsatisfying and frustrating end to a long day of busting my ass to make this stupid kit work:P
I swear I am never buying anything from givi ever again:P
It started with all kinds of excitement. UPS delivered my new givi side luggage for the fazer, and the wolf and I rode down to town to get lunch and hit up the gym since it was a gorgeous, sunny day. Upon returning home, being the tinkering junkie I am, I locked myself in the garage with plans not to emerge until I had successfully installed luggage and could post pictures.
There are two steps to getting the carriers mounted. First, an adapter kit for the Fazer needs to be installed, then the actual side carriers themselves attach to the new mounts provided by the adapter kit. I didn't think much of the process to get the adapter kit, it was supposed to attach to the sub-frame, and there were lots of mount points on there.
Of course, what I had not considered was the fact that my fazer has aftermarket exhausts and had a fender eliminator installed. This wouldn't seem like a big deal in most cases... however, whatever idiot designed this adapter kit designed it to mount specifically to the exhaust and now non-existent fender. Complicating this mess is that, to ad-lib and work around the problem, it would be really nice to have an idea of what the end goal was. But the less-than-ikea quality of the instructions paired with even less helpful pictures of the wrong bike didn't offer much help.
With a lot of screaming, throwing things, damaging myself (I got my fingertip full force with the wirecutter portion of some pliers when they slipped... yes, I was stupid and was using them wrong) I managed to rotate the aftermarket slipons and *somehow* through a miracle get the brackets to fit snugg, the exhaust to stay in place, and the cowl to fit back over everything and look slick. I raced to get one of the side bars on, in hopes that a minor crisis had been inverted. Bolted to both the exhaust bracket and the footpeg, the new side-carrier looked pretty slick!
...until I tried to snap one of the givi luggage sets on. The brackets are rotated out about 2mm further than they should be... causing the side-carrier to sit at just slightly the wrong angle... meaning that about 1mm from the luggage snapping firmly into place, it hits the tie down rail along the passenger seat and won't mount.
I can probably fix this with a couple of washers as a spacer for the top mount, but still it was an incredibly unsatisfying and frustrating end to a long day of busting my ass to make this stupid kit work:P
I swear I am never buying anything from givi ever again:P