USBs

   Whilst the radiator was away for who knows how long I set about other jobs. I wanted to put USB ports in each of the fairing pockets so I could charge things. In order to get the pockets in a place to work on them the faing would have to come off. The fairng fastenings are notious for snapping so I sent off for a fastnering kit. A bag full of shiny stainless steel and plastic goodies duly turned up in the post.

   I referred to the manual the locate all the poppers, clips and bolts that held the fairing together. slowly but surely the poppers popped, clips unclipped and bolts unbolted with varying amounts of resistance. The near-side panel has a big electrical connecting block located on the fairing but it under the fairing pocket so was difficult to undo. I do not know how that will be refitted! Then there were lots of plastic panels filling up the garage, two large panels, two inner panel the belly pan, the front lower grill (which did not come off without a fight). Then the large panel had to have the fairing pocket removed. The upper dash fairing also had to be loosened to allow the pockets to be removed.

   Once the fairing pockets were off it was a resonably straight forward job to drill a 30mm hole in the front of the pocket and fit the USB units. Before final fit of the USB unit I coated the thread and both sides of the new hole with waterproof mastic. Having first remembered to fit the rubber dust cover, as I tightened up the nut to secure the unit to the pocket the mastic oozed from the joint making it watertight...I hope. I cleaned up the mastic then refitted the pocket back onto the fairing panel.

   One nice touch was I found a USB unit with a built in Volt meter. Now I can tell the state of my battery.


The lower front grill was cleaned up. The old clips were replaced with the new stainless steel items and heavily greased ready for refitting.