Damn, hate to hear that. Are they going to let you return them, or at least replace the broken parts?

they are letting me return them. Nothing was even close to lining up.. I was VERY upset. :(

Dubious also had alot of good to say about the Bestem stuff. Thanks for the feedback Slow

I know you needed some new fairings. What kind of weight savings would you think we could get going all CF?

I don't think the weight savings would be worth the money spent.. I weighed the carbon pieces but i've yet to weigh the stock ones. I'd say all in all, less then 5 or 6 lbs

I saved more weight in 1 piece then i did in all the CF pieces together.. The Catalyst drag seat. Holy CRAP that was 10+lbs savings by its self!

I posted a picture of the Bestem belly pan (lower) cowling, it was pretty well done. I had to open up some of the holes slightly which was no problem. I had to go like 1/16" over to be able to put the wellnuts in.

I emailed them about it, and they said they'd adjust their mold.

In any case, I've put close to a 1,000 miles on it and found no problems with the Bestem pieces so far.

I found some guys who make a lot of cf for race cars, etc. If you want to follow up on this, these guys make Indy car quality cf and might be persuaded to one-off for you, since they brag about doing that all the time. Heh. http://aliencomposites.com

* Last updated by: privateer on 6/18/2009 @ 3:08 AM *

Reply from my "contact us" email to Alien Composites about making all pieces of cowling for ZX-14s in carbon fiber :

"Thank you for contacting us, Alien Composites does love projects like this one. I've had a hard time finding someone in houston that could be without their bike for a week. If you can get someone on your forum to contact me we could go from there."

So, if you are in or near Houston, and are willing to loan them your bike for about a week so they can make molds, we here will all have access to high quality carbon fiber cowling for our ZX-14s.

It might even be worth a group buy try at some point, but my guess is at least the donor bike owner would get something in return. Which makes me wish I lived near Houston. Heh.

Use the link at the end of my post, above, and use the "contact us" link to send them a message.

* Last updated by: privateer on 6/18/2009 @ 12:02 PM *

BST makes nice CF

Hmmmmmmmm.

Im in oklahoma city.. Bout a 10 hour (or so) drive to houston.. 2x, and 2 trips.. 40 hours of driving for some carbon fiber fairings...

I might contact them. LOL.. I've been wanting to go to HRP for a long time anyways.

Hmmmmmmmm.

Im in oklahoma city.. Bout a 10 hour (or so) drive to houston.. 2x, and 2 trips.. 40 hours of driving for some carbon fiber fairings...

I might contact them. LOL.. I've been wanting to go to HRP for a long time anyways.

You are closer than I ..... lol

I think a 14 in all cf would be sick !

http://aliencomposites.com/

* Last updated by: privateer on 6/19/2009 @ 8:18 AM *

Just sent them an email.

I have the Bestem stuff. Almost everything they have for the 14. Actually everything they have for the 14 in CF. I had problems with a couple pieces, but they were amazing about taking care of it.

MATTZ14:

I have the Bestem stuff. Almost everything they have for the 14. Actually everything they have for the 14 in CF. I had problems with a couple pieces, but they were amazing about taking care of it.

I had to drill the holes where the wellnuts go in the lower (belly) pieces, due to mold shrink they were too small by just a little.

The bottom where the too pieces meet with the plastic quick rivet didn't quite match up. I used a good drill bit to fix the holes and a small file to adjust the fit at the bottom.

When I emailed Bestem about this, they emailed me back within 24 hours and said they would adjust their molds, and did I want to return the pieces. I told them no, since they were on the bike already and looked so good. :)

Too bad Bestem doesn't make cf huggers, and only one other cowling piece, which I'm not sure about because the two sides would have to be different but they say its just one piece. Never asked anymore about it.

If these guys at Alien Composites make the full set of cowling, its going to be sick. The stuff they have done for F1 cars is absolutely top notch.

* Last updated by: privateer on 6/26/2009 @ 10:58 AM *

Privateer
I have a hugger from them, along with forman grills, battery door, front fender, ram air covers, and the lowers we were talking about. I would post up some pics, but they are on the table next to the bike right now. I'm doing some graphics on the frame. The only thing about their hugger is, they don't have the bracket for the right side so you have to fab it. I talked to Mila. Just another note. I ripped out their screen on the lowers and did my own custom ones for the whole bike including the intake.

Well, Bestem doesn't seem to make cf huggers for the 14 often. I asked them, they said no.

At least Powerbronze does.

Update, i sent the fairings back. They received them thursday according to UPS.

I sent an email, but have not received anything back. No email or reimbursement.

I'll keep everyone updated.

Slow, what exactly are you talking about ?

Still curious what you are talking about Slow.

On the subject of Alien Composites, someone went to see them but aparently his bike was damaged and they couldn't use the cowling on it to make a mold, so they are looking for someone else to make ZX14 cowling molds from. If I lived near Houston I'd loan them my bike for a week, for sure.

I discussed ideas with them and they want to do the upper cowling (the piece that holds the windscreen and headlights) so I suggested a possible modification. We can't get big riser blocks under your clipons because the clipons are so close to the windscreen mount part of the upper cowling. Especially the brake and clutch resevoirs. But if they could adjust the carbon fiber cowling piece to give more clearance there someway (without changing the look of the bike too much) then Genmar and Helibar could produce bigger riser blocks with more setback, or we could stack them if we got long enough bolts.

I might even machine my own, aluminum is easy to work with, and once it is anodized it is not going to corrode.

* Last updated by: privateer on 7/15/2009 @ 8:02 PM *

forgot about this thread.

i sent the front and mids back to MDI.

They did a half ass repair on the mid that was broke, and sent a new front and the same mids back to me.

I got mad and made them fit.. lol

It looks good, i need to modify my mirror block offs to fit flush, and there were a few other problems.. But other then that i have:
CF front fender
CF front fairing
CF uppers
CF lowers
CF foremans
CF battery door
CF belly pan

Everything on the front half is CF

Thanks for the info, Slow. I found the eBay store for MDI, and I see the front and upper sets. I guess since they are vacuum bagged instead of wet laid they are pretty thin and flexible ?

I'm probably going to get those pieces from them eventually since you like them.