Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Dented Fork Shroud - Photo

Don't ask me how, but a couple of days ago I managed to drop my bike while I was cleaning it. It fell onto a wooden bench, which has put a fair size dent in the fork shroud:



Apart from kicking myself, what should I do?

1 - Leave it. It doesn't seem to effect the operation of the forks, and I can twist the shroud round so it's only noticeable if you look.

2 - Take all the shrouds off and bin them.

3 - Take it off and repair or replace.

It looks like I'll have to take the fork off the bike to remove the shroud, which I don't really want to do. Any easier method of removing it?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Sucks, dood, sorry to hear about that. I'd go ahead and take them off, sooner or later it's gonna ****** you off enough just thinking about it, so you may as well get it out of the way. Sorry to hear though.

Ouch, simonr! If you do decide to go the replacement route there's a set on ebay for a reasonable starting price.

simonr,

Well, if it were my bike I'd replace the part.

You'll need to removed the right side fork leg, - so refer to your shop manual. And, since you have to do that, go ahead and get those stylish fork-gaiters.

Regardless of what you do, the best solution is to replace the damaged part.

-BT

I'd leave it until you decide what you're going to do with it - standard, stripped, gaiter, or chrome. No point pulling it apart twice.

Matt

Here's a full set for sale on E-Bay: Shrouds.

Not much time left in the auction .......

BT - for we unfortunates w/o a shop manual, how big a deal is it to get the shrouds off? Thinking about having mine chromed...

It's not too hard, just a pain in the butt if you leave the front wheel on. That's the way I did it and here's a basic instruction set on how I went:

-Disconnect speedo cable
-Remove brake calipers from the forks
-Loosen the 4 hex bolts in the triple tree (16 and 18 mm I think)
-Unbolt the lower tubes from the lower TT
-Slide the forks out

Pull the forks a ditch the covers. The front end looks so much better with the cleaner, leaner look. Just my personal opinion since you asked.

Simonr,

I have a brand-new set of shrouds sitting at my dealers (I replaced them with the chrome ones prior to my taking delivery of the bike).

I can send you one (no cost) if you wish to go the route of replacing it.

Just let me know.

must say boogieman the shroudless forks do look cool.

Bedouin....that was really a very nice of you ! Hope he takes you up on it.

On another note, does anyone know if the shrouds are coated at all like all the aluminum bits or are they bare metal? Wanna polish mine out to look more chrome like but i don't wanna do it if they're coated.

When I polished mine they appeared to be uncoated Stainless Steel.
Took quite a while on the wheel and my fingernails were black for a few days but it was well worth it.

Bedouin - thanks very much for that offer. I've sent you an email.

You don't need to do them with a wheel. It helps, but it's not necessary. If you start sanding them with wet/dry sandpaper, starting with about a 320 grit, then move to 400, 600, 1200 and finally 2000, they will shine like a diamond with no visible scratches. It's the same method I use to sharpen my wood chisels with a jig and plate glass (for flatness). The blade shines like a mirror!