Attaching bodywork

[stickman]

How do most of you attach your race bodywork to the bike? I've heard people use zip ties instead of screws or bolts. They say, in the event of a crash, the zip ties will break before the bodywork.

[ice]

Bolts

Bodywork that is not fastened securely to the motorcycle will not pass tech inspection.

They will sometimes overlook zip ties holding things together due to a crash, but if you show up to a race with zip ties everywhere on fresh bodywork, they will probably look at you funny and tell you to go find some bolts.

[Nate R]

On My SV, the front of the upper is attached by bolt. The screen area and sides are held on by zip-ties. The frame sliders stick out of the pre-molded hole. There will also be a bolt holding the lower away from the exhaust.

Will CCS pass this? If a zip tie broke, the bodywork would NOT go anywhere.

Should I use Bolts on the sides of the upper instead of zip-ties, or will they be OK as long as the bodywork doesnt go anywhere even if all the zip-ties broke?

[ice]

You will probably pass tech with zip ties as long as the bodywork is on very securely.  At tech, they will grab the bodywork and pull on it to make sure it doesn't move in the wind and possibly rip off.

Personally I use phillips head metric screws to attach all bodywork where possible.  Finding a screwdriver is generally pretty easy and bodywork comes on and off quite frequently, so it saves me from having to cut and rethread zip-ties everytime I need to service the motorcycle.

As far as zip ties breaking and saving the bodywork, I'm not sure about that one.  Generally a motorcycle will fall on its side in a crash.  When this happens, there usually is bodywork between the machine (hard) and the road (very hard) so guess what absorbs the impact?  
Unless the entire piece of bodywork rips off, I can't see how a broken zip-tie will save any plastic from becoming damaged.
But then if the bodywork rips off, you are in worse shape because now the frame, motor, and all the goodies inbetween are dragging on the road.....not good.

[FastBoy]

Most I've seen fasten the bodywork with OEM fasteners to attach the bodywork to the frame and dzus fasteners to attach the bodywork upper and lowers together and zip ties  to hold the upper to the fairing stay. Same thing for the tail section, a combination of OEM fasteners and zip ties to secure everything in place.

[Jeff]

Funny story...

Last year, I held my seat and tail section on with 4 zip ties.  It worked great and I never had a problem, until that one fateful day...

The green flag dropped and I launched the F4.  When I did, I left 2 of the zip-ties on the starting grid.  I didn't know how many I lost, only that the seat slid WAAAAAY back when it shouldn't move.

Since I was 1st into turn 1, there was no way I was stopping to look.  I held onto the seat with pure suction I tell ya, and learned my lesson.

(lesson learned?  the zip ties I use now would tow a truck out of a ditch  :P)

zip-ties & duct tape...  A racer's best friends...