Hey guys. Does anyone else have this problem? After some rides, I park my bike and get off and find that both sides of the tail have completely popped off and are only hanging on by the last screw near the front. Im thinking maybe my rubber mounting tightener thingies have become loose over the years? i dont know but i look like a fool riding around liek this without knowing

 

Those are what i call "nipples". (the book calls them "bosses") From my bike i found out that alot of what holds those rears on is the tail/center cowl/fairing because it has a locking type of connection with both rears. The tail cowl has one "nipple" which in turn holds it in place. My tail cowls "nipple" snapped on me so i just epoxied the side rears to the center rear (tail cowl) so whenever i have to take either of them off i will have to take it all off in one piece. (havent tried yet). They haven't come loose on me yet but i have not really put that many miles on it since. If you want to further secure those sides i would do it at the tail cowl. It is kinda a bizatch getting above the light but that is what i did.
You could also just go under and further secure those nips that are in the back somehow.

 

Most likley the rubber groumets have dried out that hold the side panel nipples in place.

There black round rubber O-ring type fastners called groumets and you can buy them at any on line motorcycle parts store or get them from your local Honda dealer and get prepare to be bent over and abused.

At my local Honda dealer a assortment pack of 10 was like $15.00 was not so bad because I used some of the odd ball sized ones on my Goldwing panels but IMHO thought they were very expensive...

SIRR1

 

I've had my F3 for about 5 months now and have had similar problems. From what I've been told, our bikes are notorious for having these issues with the tail fairings. I wouldn't do any kind of permanent gluing of the side covers to the rear tail fairing as I personally pull the side covers (honda's name for the side tail plastics) off on a weekly basis. Then again, I had a RR problem and have a strap mount tank bag which require seat and side cover removal. Taking these side covers off for underseat access annoys me so much that I ended up fabbing an underseat lever system to remove my seat without removing the side covers.

Anyway, I had to buy new side covers because for some reason the previous owner had side covers on my bike that were missing the rear "nipple" on each side. You're bike should have 3 of these nipples that press into the bike on each side. Getting new side covers greatly reduced this problem on my bike. I still have the right side pop slightly out now n then (maybe half an inch), but nowhere near what you're describing. I would check for the 3 nipples on each side and consider new rubber grommets (or whatever they're called) for the nipples to fit into if they seem worn.

 

thats not bad i'll have to call up my dealer

 

i do have all 3 nipples and it still pops out. this just started happening though

 

i got a cargo net on mine. holds plastics together and i can carry a pop or something stupid around

 

i put a screw and nut combo through both side of mine where they meet the center tail section and made sure that when the seat was on it hid them. worked beautifuly. simple and quick solution.

 

i had this problem i took off the side panels and bent the mounting brackets closest to the tail light out just a little bit, go easy you dont want to break them. then just make sure you push the side panels in all the way, i always hear a "pop" sound. did this when i bought my bike havent had a problem since.

 

i had this problem when i first got my 96f3 and after popping the "nipples" back in so many times, the 3 on the left side finally broke. now i just have both tail fairings strapped together with electrical tape (kinda embarassing, but does the job.) but my bike has some scratches and a couple broken brackets and what i call "acne craters" (cuz it looks like someones acne scars). i just need to save some money so i can get my body work done and get it painted for summer. soo much to do and so little time...