Quote:
| Originally Posted by phillc WARNING! Thread hijack...........
I've owned a half-faired 750ss and after 2 winters I will admit that the engine started looking worse for wear. Yet, my fully fair 900ss also looks pretty tatty underneath the fairings. It's like the fairings are just hiding all the corrosion damage. Maybe what you can't see isn't as bad what you can......
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That's because the SS is aircooled so it has a gaping great hole at the front of the fairing to let the same amount of rain, spray, road crud and stuff thrown up from the front wheel as you would get with a naked bike along with the cooling air.
All ST's are water cooled (yes, even the ST2 despite the fact that magazines insist they are air cooled) as a result there is no hole at the front of the fairing, it's all blocked off with a radiator and a vee piece, so there is far less opportunity for any cack to get through.
Of course it's not completely sealed so moisture, condensation and the like does seep through. Things like plated bolt heads, jubilee clips and electrical connectors will eventually corrode, but to nowhere near the same extent or as quickly. A once a year fairings off clean and a pre winter spray about with WD40/FS365 or Waxoyl keeps things pretty tidy
Oh yes, and the ST is not appreciably wider than an SS, it's got a more upright riding position (almost multistrada like) so the view in traffic is good and the mirrors are the widest part so you'll know that you can get through a gap if the mirrors go through even with panniers on