Kawi2strokes.com Forum

Was thinking that perhaps carbon fiber film might be nice for front fender and side pannels for a mod (i.e. rusty fender and repalcement fiberglass side panels)
Any body have any experience?
A quick eBay check looks like most of the better material is textured with a flat finish; wondered if the shiny stuff looked decent and was reasonable to work with when applying over radiused parts

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There are only two types of motor sport racing:
Nitro and everything else
(Sometimes referred to as fast and slow)

Fake, looks fake. Suzuki tried it on this years 600 and got blasted.......

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Twist the throttle, tilt the horizon, and have a great time. What triples are all about...........

Jim, there are many different "recipe's" for carbon fibre.

Years ago, when the whole racing world went bonkers over carbon for the first tme, one 250 racer with this tech, tried to build 250 Yamaha pistons out of carbon fibre. Didn't work, and he tried over 80 resin and heat setting configurations. NONE of this configurations lasted in an engine over a couple of minutes in testing.

Carbon is better today, the Ducati MotoGP bikes use a chassis made of it, but, still, even with that chassis, there are significant handling/stability issues/problems with those chassis. They don't tear themselves apart, but they don't have the stability a Delta Box type aluminum chassis have, and all of the riders, factory and satellite, don't fare will with them. There is lots of talk in chassis development there for an aluminum Delta chassis, and a couple of designers are stressing going to a ladder type chassis if very thin wall steel, like the Monster street bike have.

If you get into this, get with a person that does carbon for a living, and ask questions. One person you might approach is Kent Riches, owner of Air-Tech Streamlining, The fairing and fibreglass guy in the San Diego area, he has investigated and possibly (IF I have remembered correctly), done a bit with various carbon configurations. you might chat up some of the NASA guys if you can collar them to speak with you, they did a LOT with both composites and carbon parts, along with Burt Rutan, his shop is at the Mojave Airport, Mojave California.

I "think" Jim is talking about fake carbon fiber decal material Dave.......

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Twist the throttle, tilt the horizon, and have a great time. What triples are all about...........

Thanks Dave; interesting information.
I made a few brackets for my H2 out of carbon fiber 1/8" AND 1/4" sheet material from McMaster Carr; some worked well, others cracked.
I few years ago (pre-50) I was still strong enough to ride bicycles with some young guys at work; I could hold approx 20 MPH for 20 miles and they would continue as I went home a tired old man. I did feel a difference between the carbon, Ti, aluminum, and veriable wall thickness steel frames though (I have the latter 2). You'd think there would be no difference on a stupid bicycle but there was. The Columbus steel tubing from overseas felt like it flexed the most and the aluminum was a much stiffer ride. The thing I didn't like about carbon was that a friends bike slipped and the main frame bumped against a street sign and left a nick; there was talk that this scar could undermine the frame for a bike that cost $4-5K.

My header was regarding the go-fast looking film that is really just vinyl contact paper.
Looks like there is no good substitute for good chrome plating and time consuming paint work.

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There are only two types of motor sport racing:
Nitro and everything else
(Sometimes referred to as fast and slow)

I think there is vernier carbon fibre paper available, call Kent and ask him, he should know about it.

The Carbon-fibre look on a Triple? Doesn't seem right somehow The early triple guys might debate whether PLASTIC is acceptable!! [I know,headlight shell]

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"One day, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it's worth watching." : anon.

Modded triples can look good with some carbon. M in SC's "Frog" looks great with a carbon fiber front fender. I made a set of H1 Denco repros that had M Factory West carbon silencers, and they also looked really nice. Now a stock restoration, maybe not so good.

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If it surges, that's normal, upshift.