Performance Bikes — March 2018

100 PERFORMANCEBIKES.CO.UK|MARCH2018

2017 SUZUKI GSX-R1000RCHRIS NEWBIGGING

THE GARAGE / TEST BIKES

Takingabung

ChrislikeshisGSX-Rjustthewayitis.Soit’sgettingsomeprotection

‘It all looks good, but the

radshieldsneedafettle’

Not the simplest fitting

job. £23 in the swear box

Nylon sliders fitted

with minimal fuss

Machined alloy bracket

is a high-quality item

CALL ME SUPERSTITIOUS but when

the phone rings and someone offers

some crash protection to trial, I can’t

say no. You can guarantee if I refused

whatever new bike-saving gear is being

touted for review in PB, I’d find some diesel on the road,

or a nice stone travelling at the right velocity to pierce

my radiator...

It’s no hardship when what turns up is as nice as

Evotech’s crash bungs (£179.99, no fairing cuts, they

hang out of the radiator exhaust vents) and water/oil

cooler guards (£59.99, £40). The Lincs firm are a proper

engineering outfit with some trick machinery to knock

out what are fairly humdrum products, but it means the

standard of finish is as high as you’d want when bolting

them to a £16k bike.

It’s a well thought out kit. The instructions (in the

form of a digital download – very enviro-conscious) run

through all the steps to get the fairings off. Handy for

bikes with loads of crappy tabs and hidden fixings – the

GSX-R isn’t too bad but there ares some plastic push-

rivets hidden on the inner trim you could easily miss if

MONTH

EIGHT

you haven’t taken your panels off before.

The CNC-machined, aerospace-grade alloy brackets

are nice, too, and even the nylon slider has a quality

finish. And I like touches like protective foam pads

where the bracket contacts the frame.

They were no bother: they fitted as described and

look the part. Next up, the cooler guards, which weren’t

quite as easy. The water rad shield hooks over the top,

and then the open-ended lower fixing should slide into

the fixings for the oil cooler and then clamp in place.

But the hole centres between them are too wide: no

amount of huffing, swearing and palm-bashing would

see it home. I took a file to the lovely crackle-effect

finish – a few mm off each sorted it.

No such alignment issues with the oil cooler guard,

but it is an odd design. The GSX-R has a crummy steel

one as standard: does the job, but will rust eventually,

and you’d want them matching anyway. The Evotech

replacement doesn’t use the original fittings – instead, it

sandwiches in between the fairing sides and V-piece,

which are secured with plastic rivets.

And that’s the issue – a slightly fiddly operation is

exacerbated by trying to get a fixing through a greater

thickness of material than it was intended for. A last-

ditch attempt got it in place before the fastener broke.

It’s good looking gear in place, and the crash bungs

are some of the best I’ve fitted, but the radiator shield

needs a fettle, and the oil cooler guard is too much of a

pain to be useful on a bike that already has one. And it

wouldn’t work on a race fairing: best left alone.