As this part/accessory keeps popping up I figured I had better set the record straight! as I purchased one before finding a genuine Yamaha Belly Pan.
And it looks like CC are doing something about all the issue's raised above so we will have a very good alternative to the yamaha om unit. And dont forget that colour-matching will add to the cost etc.
- [size=1em]The finish and prep is good-to-adequate[/size] - when I got mine painted a bunch of prep-work had to be done.
- The tolerances are upto 5mm of in some places - jigging the BP when on the bike partially addressed this annoyance.
- All the mounting brackets have a really thin layer of paint so will rust up within a few weeks - my solution was to get them all powder coated.
- The foam buffers present on the original Yamaha BP are missing, this means the two halves rest directly on the frame tubes which would rub through the paint!!! - I had to buy some double sided self-adhesive thick rectangular foam pads from the local car spares shop and build them up in layers to achieve the same size and thickness as originals.
- The two bottom half's are different thickness's, so when bolted together via the two front brackets the halfs don't line up - I had to bend the brackets into a shallow stretched s-shape to compensate and it still isn't perfect.
- Where the bottom halves meet under the top half there is a big gap - which is made worse by the above bracket issue, but my fix means that they at least line up.
- The GRP is very thin on the top mounting holes where the bottom halves bolt to the front frame brackets which meant I managed to cracked one side!!! - the Yamaha BP is the same thickness throughout so can withstand the crushing pressure etc (Fyi I have spent a very very long time trying to find some flanged dome-head M6*12/15mm bolts with a 5mm shank to get around this issue but with bugger all success)
- The sides of the two halves are to close to the frame rails (even with my diy dense foam pads) - so I was forces to use a bunch of plastic washers to space them out etc .
- The two halves needed springing out an inch to mount to the front frame brackets - Im guessing this is down to being forced to mod the lower brackets due to the thickness issue.
- The bolts on the front mounting brackets foul the rad houses - never got around to finding the short flange-head dome bolts, see above
- And lastly the rear mounting brackets are missing the rubber protectors, so will scratch/rub through the frame rail paint - I carefully wrapped the CC brackets in insulating tape(but need to find thicker tape as its already started to rub the paint on the frame rail)
And it looks like CC are doing something about all the issue's raised above so we will have a very good alternative to the yamaha om unit. And dont forget that colour-matching will add to the cost etc.