I installed the left side panel tonight. I had a little bit of fun with this one. I decided to design and then 3D print two brackets to hold the panel to the bike. I'm equipped with a mill and lathe, and most recently a 3D printer. I prototyped the parts in plastic, and had planned to machine them from aluminum once I had the fit down. However, the plastic parts work so well, that I am not inclined to spend any time machining the metal. It won't offer me any advantage, other than, it's metal, and maybe having a plastic bracket on my awesome ST1300 is not cool. But, that being said, I'm going to use them for a while. If they fail me, I'll make some metal parts.
The right hand side bracket was a traditional L shaped bracket as others have made. I sloted the side of the bracket so I could adjust the exact position. I embedded a cylinder the diameter of the hole in the plastic tab on the body panel, so that it fits exactly onto the bracket. I drilled a hole in the plastic and fit a 3mm bolt through the front that holds the body panel to the bracket. The bracket looks like this:
I wanted to try to mount this without drilling any holes in the metal frame, and decided to try making a different sort of bracket that wouldn't require anything like that. So what I decided to do, was to create a cylinder shaped standoff, 26mm long, that would fit into the left hand side plastic mounting tab of the body panel. A self tapping screw holds the body panel to the cylinder. On the other end of the cylinder, is a 36mm x 36mm square. I used 3M industrial strength 20lb double sided mounting tape to adhere the back side of the bracket to the metal shell on the inside. The double sided tape holds the bracket extremely well. That metal is smooooooth, and a great surface for this option. No holes required. This bracket looks like this:
The two brackets hold the body panel in place firmly enough, that I don't think I need any velcro to hold the bottom of the body panel in position. It's so well held in place right now, that I think it will stay just where it is. If it turns out that it does not, then I can 3D print a bracket for the bottom mounting tabs that hold it into position. I am not worried though. I think it will hold up just fine.
Joel