As my build thread discussed, the end goal of my project was to have a race bike. To that end, I wanted a fairing on the bike. Quick google searching reveals that Air-Tech is the obvious choice for this. Their website (while looking like it was created in Netscape) clearly stated at least a four week lead time; fair enough. I ordered the fairing on November 15, 2022. Four weeks would have put us at right before Christmas and allowing for that and Thanksgiving and New Year, I reached out after January. They finally got it to me late January - I needed it mounted and painted ready for the track by Feb 17... Not going to happen - oh well, NBD.
The fairing arrived decently packaged but with NO paperwork whatsoever other than the bill of lading.
I start looking over the parts - the fiberglass work is top notch, no doubt about it - the mounting kit, now that was a different story...
Per their website, you get this:
NT6504.jpg
I got this:
rustystuff.jpg
Rusty, nasty and not even the same shape as what they have listed - so naturally, I assume they made a mistake... A fellow Hawk racer had kindly sent me a picture of his bike, and I had zoomed in to get a closer look at what he had - he has this:
blackhawk.jpg
Looks like he got the part as advertised.
So I send them an email with this pic and my pic, where I am trying to illustrate that the part I have does not match what I see elsewhere. I laid it in place it was on top of the brake master cylinder.
interference.jpg
Their takeaway from this was to tell me that I didn't know what I was talking about and that clearly, from the previous picture, the clip-ons needed to be UNDERNEATH the top triple clamp. Oh? Wow, did not know this... Thanks for the helpful advice. I asked about why they didn't just tell me this via email; the guy says it is easier to talk people through the process than to type it out...
As someone who has worked in tech support, having a doc to send someone to saves a TON of phone calls, but hey, their business, their model.
So, I have the parts powder-coated (which was surprisingly expensive) and after I returned from Roebling, decided to try this again. I drop the clip-ons and attempt to fit the bracket. It doesn't align... WTF?
The fairing arrived decently packaged but with NO paperwork whatsoever other than the bill of lading.
I start looking over the parts - the fiberglass work is top notch, no doubt about it - the mounting kit, now that was a different story...
Per their website, you get this:
NT6504.jpg
I got this:
rustystuff.jpg
Rusty, nasty and not even the same shape as what they have listed - so naturally, I assume they made a mistake... A fellow Hawk racer had kindly sent me a picture of his bike, and I had zoomed in to get a closer look at what he had - he has this:
blackhawk.jpg
Looks like he got the part as advertised.
So I send them an email with this pic and my pic, where I am trying to illustrate that the part I have does not match what I see elsewhere. I laid it in place it was on top of the brake master cylinder.
interference.jpg
Their takeaway from this was to tell me that I didn't know what I was talking about and that clearly, from the previous picture, the clip-ons needed to be UNDERNEATH the top triple clamp. Oh? Wow, did not know this... Thanks for the helpful advice. I asked about why they didn't just tell me this via email; the guy says it is easier to talk people through the process than to type it out...
As someone who has worked in tech support, having a doc to send someone to saves a TON of phone calls, but hey, their business, their model.
So, I have the parts powder-coated (which was surprisingly expensive) and after I returned from Roebling, decided to try this again. I drop the clip-ons and attempt to fit the bracket. It doesn't align... WTF?
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