Okay, so I finished the installation of the Vortex Frame sliders last night with the help of 2 of my friends. I used the laser method as you can tell with the laser leveler attached to my friend's tripod. Since this was the first time I did anything like that, it took us a good 3 hours or so until we were all finished, had a bit of a slow start, then we got cracking on it.

We took the fairings off on both sides, located the engine bolts that were to be used for the frame sliders, which i used the upper engine mount bolt, took both engine mount bolts off, aim the laser dead on in the center of the cavity of the bolt, put the fairings back on making sure not to touch the tripod with the laser (we put it a few feet back as a safety precaution). After the fairing was mounted back on with only a few screws attached to 3 corners of the fairing, I marked the laser point on the fairing with a silver sharpie. Took the fairing off, drilled the pilot hole, perfectly, then proceeded to drill the bigger hole.

We installed the frame sliders successfully, though we did hit a few snags.

Now, when we drilled the bigger hole on the first fairing, we did a **** poor job because we couldn't tell if the drill was going through the fairing or not, so we stopped a few times and lifted the fairing up along with the drill to see if it went through, then after a while we applied firm pressure and surely enough it went through, kinda ****ty job on the first fairing....second fairing was a perfect cut kuz we knew what to do.

What I don't understand is, why after I installed the frame sliders, put the fairings back on...the damn sliders are not in the center of the hole on the fairings, but rather towards the edges if you look closely in the pictures. The slider puck is not equidistant from the edges of the fairings, but rather they are touching the edges of the fairings. When we took the fairings and the engine mount bolts off, we carefully pointed the laser dead on in the center of the cavity of the engine mount bolts. There was no light refraction on the inner walls of the cavity of the engine mount bolt, so we knew we were dead on in the center because we saw the laser point in the center of the hole, so we put the fairings back on and marked the point with a sharpie, and then we drilled.

why is it then that the frame slider is not in the center of the drilled hole? Has this happened before?

and BTW, after the sliders were installed, I noticed they were incredibly short, so my friends and i carefully tilted the bike down to see if the frame sliders would make any difference, and sadly enough they didn't because the sliders never touched the ground first. So I reread the packages and noticed they were shorty frame slider pucks and I read up and found out they were used for race tracks rather than the street, so I was a little upset. Went on to the vortex website and ordered the universal black puck, which I am really hoping are the longer slider pucks. The other option was the shorty slider black pucks..obviously didn't get those.

what do you guys think i did wrong?

 

From your description, it sounds like you did everything right according to what I've read recently because I am going to be doing the same job probably next weekend if my sliders arrive in time. One thing though, from the laser method, the How-to's suggest that the bike be upright (on both stands if possible) on even ground so when drilling, you aren't on an angle as the bike is, if it is on its side stand.

I wouldn't worry too much as if you don't like the way it looks, you can always get something to cover the hole of the sliders to make it look better. Yours look fine to me, but do whatever makes you happy.

As for the pucks, the normal lenght pucks are longer than the shorty pucks. On Vortex's website, there is a compare picture somewhere.

 

I didn't even really think about that, because I just put the stand on the rear swing arms and let the weight rest on the front forks. Would that have been the cause of why my puck holes were off center, even though the laser was dead on center in the engine mount bolt?

Yeah, It's really not that big of a deal to me, just as long as the vortex pucks that I ordered are the longer ones, I can interchange the short pucks out to the longs pucks, and itll be all good with me. Better to have some sort of protection than none, and hope to never have to put them to use...

 

You have to be very careful with lasers, because the angles can be changed. You need to make sure the bike is straight up, and the laser has to be perfectly perpendicular to the bolt. Any other way and it's possible that when you put the fairing back on, the dot will shot up in a SLIGHTLY different position because the fairing isn't at the same angle.

I've found the play dough method worked a lot better. But honestly, the hole alignment will bother you and you alone.

 

Yeah, I should've planned everything out before I started...stupid me... =/ But hey, it's a learning experience! woo.

I'll just have to wait and see how it is once the longer slider pucks come and after I install those...

is there anything I can use to fill up the gap? I've seen some rubber strips with a slit cut in the middle so it wraps about the slider hole..perhaps I could use that maybe?

 

what you can do is just get some rubber tubing and slice it down the middle and put it around the hole

 

Rubber tubing or a grommet is best.

 

you could try some door edge moulding from an auto parts store.

 

Yeah, I might just end up going to a bike store and ask them to take a quick look at my bike to see if they have anything for it..most likely im gonna end up putting some rubber tubing around it once I get the new vortex slider pucks installed...frick. now I really wonder what happened...

 

Does it have anything to do with the fairing not be being flat? When you drill into it you have to account for it sits on the bike.

Even the regular Vortex sliders are pretty short, but they are meant to protect your engine and frame, not your plastics.