Frame Sliders

What are frame sliders?

Call them crash protectors, crash bobbins, fairing protectors or frame sliders, all these products ultimately seek to do one thing - protect your expensive bodywork or the essential and often expensive structural parts of your motorcycle from damage in the even of a fall or tip-over. The frame slider concept is as old as the proverbial 'crash bar' and today there are as many designs and brands as there are models of bikes. The proliferation of these types of products testify to the success of the idea of providing a sacrificial item to absorb some of the damage in the event of a fall.

Sooooo...... after installing my lower fairings this spring I found out my frame sliders barely stuck out past the plastics. I called Vortex to see if they made longer pucks to mount to the base, nope. My next thought was to use a spacer and machine a longer bolt to mount the puck to the base. I was having trouble figuring out the thread with the gauge here in the shop so I called Vortex again and they told me it was a custom thread!!! UGH I did a little research and found some Nylon bar stock at Grainger that would work. I ordered a 12" piece of solid 1 7/8 diameter Nylon for $10 (CHEAP). Next I threw it on the lathe, drilled, drilled, drilled and drilled until I got the exact piece I needed. It turned out much better than I expected and everyone that sees them seems pretty impressed.







Old puck on the left, new (unpolished) puck on the right

Road Scalpel

The springs that come in the factory forks are sprung for a much lighter person than myself. So after riding it for a season and getting tired of the brake dive and drifting in the corners I decided to do something about it. I looked at my options, get Gixxer fork assembly (too much modifying) or get new springs. I decided to go the spring route to save time and money. I checked out Sonic Springs, Traxxion and Race Tech. One of the owners of Sonic Springs, Rich Desmond is very active on the SV Rider forum and after seeing how much support he provides I decided to give him my business. The whole process of changing the springs is a little time consuming, requires a couple odd ball tools and a way to lift your front end. Luckily for me a local guy on the SV forum had just done this mod the week before, so I was able to bribe him with beer to lend a hand.

Springs

Lifting the front end

Two Step Ladders

3 pieces of 2 x 4

Set of ratcheting straps

loop the straps around the frame slider base

cross fingers and start ratcheting

Here is the first fork removed

Removed the factory spring and spacer and drained the oil.

I didn't get any pics of the reverse process since my hands got pretty oily at this point. I just installed the new .85 kg/mm springs, added the 20 weight oil and installed the fork. The whole process from start to finish took about 2 hrs. And wow, what a difference it made! I could not believe how much it improved the handling on low speed cornering. I hit some twisties last Thursday night with my neighbor and damn, the bike felt like it was on rails. No wonder everyone on the SV forums say this should be your first mod.

Next I'm going to probably get a 2005 GSX-R 1000 rear shock off E bay for $35 and my suspension will be set. After that a nice pair of Michelin Power Pilots and it will corner like a dream.