So, the plastics, except the tail section, had looked fairly decent until we started peeling them off. With the exception of the rear below-the-seat side bits, every piece is cracked in some way. Bunch of busted tabs and fastening points were busted. It's incredible the amount of force the front fairing mounting bracket withstood and the engine crash bars took quite a beating. The left handle bar was bent all the way to the tank and the clutch master was leaking at the lever. However, the left plastics where slightly better than the right ones. On the surface, neither side looks too bad but the mounting bits are pretty chipped and busted up.
Despite the massive force on the handle bar, the fork is true and the bike ran down the road straight as an arrow today with a new/used left handlebar and clutch master. It was very strange riding it naked (even had the gauges off and the tip-over sensor zip-tied to the fairing mounting bracket) but cornering was good, straight line was good, shifting was good, braking was good. Houston, we have lift-off!
So, I'm now trying to decide what I want to do next.....
I've never been enamored with the ST's rear end so I'm thinking about cleaning that up with an underpan and mounting a sportier tail light (think 2002-2003 YZF R1 or ZX10 or ZX 6R tail light with integrated running, brake, turn)
I'm also really kind of thinking about leaving the bird nekkid..... :22yikes: Maybe some kind of radical, aluminum panniered, CT rear tire, knobby front tire, on/off road warrior, GS-killer monster..... mwahahaha :nuts1:
The stock headlight housing survived so I might utilize that but a buddy of mine suggested doing something rad with the windshield mechanism (which works) and creating some type of shrouded headlight that's revealed with the windshield mechanism...... hmmm
Theoretically, one could cover the headlight whilst going down rocky gravel roads and then reveal it when needed. That would be kind of cool, eh?
So....
The saga continues........