GKAPPIND.

[Lucasind]

.... Hello my fellow voyagers , so at the rally, I purchased a GKAPPINDUSTRIES XII crossbar from the ava vendors/registration room. I hear from a reliable source that it was the only one there ,and that was evident by all of the handprints all over it ,as it was handled and carefully examined by many before me. I was told that this is the proto- type and will soon be made available as orders are received.
My first observation is that this is a high quality piece ! (no bathroom towel rack here) approx 17 inches long, and weighing in at a few pounds, and ends turned down to slide perfectly into existing right/left XII crashbars. I've been putting this job/installation off for some time now because for my situation I knew this would be no quick easy job. The previous owner of my bike had a low speed spill ,bending the left front case guard upward and tying the two pieces together with a straight bar, will take a little doing. Here is a shot of the mis- match.



As you can see here, the far side has a nice inch of clearance under the radiator cover,and nearly none to this side.This is where the project begins..... of course I could have asked Carl to send me a straight one, but what would be the challenge in that

Pull out the black seal plugs and slide in the bar to see where your at.



Ive hung the bent case guard on the new cross bar here to show the dings and dents to the underside that in my bikes past,perhaps saved my engine cases , but... are causing some grief when trying to apply a simple rule of geometry


More later on this as I am having some issues here with me old laptop
...............................tony

[cushman eagle]

Tony,you have enough fork lift power to bend that guard anywhere you want it .Anyway.I heard on the radio today that you got your water back

[debron]

I saw that bar on Gene's table and was waiting for him to come back so I could buy it. By the time we connected, it was already sold! I wondered who the thief was who stole it from me!

[Mr Jensee]

I am watching this with great expectation. I too have a slightly bent left bar and I want to see how he straightens it and how the fit goes. I may want one in the future.

[Lucasind]

....So the old laptop has stopped smoking and cooled down , and can now continue. Off to the bench vise goes the piece to see if a big set of channel locks and/or big pipewrench will do the job. I scrapped this idea rather quickly as not much success was had attempting this "cold" had I put the heat to it I'm sure things would have been different .




So back on the bike goes the piece and and bolts put back in , for another attempt at bending it straight. No success there either, UNTIL I took out one of the two fasteners and had at it with my biggest pipewrench ,and Brad holding
the bike against my force. The one bolt at a time method seems to be doing the trick . I got it close enough that applying a small spacer on the backside /top squared things up and I got the desired results of approx . one inch consistant under the radiator cover on both right and left sides.






The allen screws are tightened, and a test wiggle is given. Very pleased with how installing the cross bar has solidified the case guards, I mean those puppies are now SOLID !

As a side note, when your bike is dropped ,the fastening tab on the inside of the fairing lower may also become cracked or damaged as mine was. To repair this , I scuffed up the surface with some coarse grit sand paper, Then mixed up some fiberglass resin and hardener,cut some small strips of fiberglass cloth and applied this.... after that dried overnight, I then mixed up some two-part epoxy
( I used JB Weld ) then coated the whole repair with that. I left a lead-light shine on it all day (about 10 hours) the heat from the bulb hardened the repair very nicely. When completed the repair is very strong, and should last for years.
This is a shot of the damage as I inherited it,...............................tony

[chevyman1]

I have some inserts made to go in the tapered hole at the bottom of the lower fairing to repair them when they brake, even when you patch them they seem to crack and brake again.
The inserts take the stress off the bottom of the hole.
Anybody interested in them PM me

[Lucasind]

Tony,you have enough fork lift power to bend that guard anywhere you want it .Anyway.I heard on the radio today that you got your water back

Hello C.E., Yes we have "officially" got the green light on using "tap water" again ! but..... I don't know a single person that is using it ! Our family certainly is not . It will be a long time before we use anything other than bottled water in these parts ! thanks to all that offered to send us a case !
tony

[voyager55]

Come on!! obama said it's safe. You don't trust your gov't?

[Lucasind]

....NO

[EZdriver]

Well, I'm stumped. I can't find where to buy the crossbar. GKNAPPINDUSTIES is located where?

[Scott-(Altoona, PA)]

Well, I'm stumped. I can't find where to buy the crossbar. GKNAPPINDUSTIES is located where?

Try this link, Gene doesn't have a "brick & mortar" location like you may be thinking of. Go to his info page and pm or email him with your questions/needs and he'll answer/get back to you as soon a as he can.
http://www.amervoyassoc.org/forum/membe ... file&u=398

[cranky]

I have some inserts made to go in the tapered hole at the bottom of the lower fairing to repair them when they brake, even when you patch them they seem to crack and brake again.
The inserts take the stress off the bottom of the hole.
Anybody interested in them PM me

chevyman1 / Gene.. just installed the crossbar you shipped and it's a GREAT add to stiffen up the
crashbar... and that is a joke, swear I could bend the D$)%!$%!)$*mn thing with my hands!!!! Geez...

Anyway installation was a piece'a $*)%!#$%*!#)$%*) stuff... yes, I'd like to get the lower broken hole repair
you offer, mine was busted out...

I'm cursed, to begin with... sigh... I have a running lite/road peg on my bars so there are tethered, NOT a help!!!!
.... getting everything loose,. the side air louvers piece, airdam, and getting the right crashbar off...
yes even that #$_(%!$#%!#$(_ing little bracket that provides for a screw mount for the airdam that fell off,
that was bent to #$)%#$%*!)#$LL, yes, it is now among the "mission pieces" of my scoot.. piece'a !#$)*%!#$%*!)

Got the rubber stoppers outta the ends of the crash bars, crossbar no-go, sigh, put my finger in there, apparently
water and stuff likes to settle in there, dry and rust... 1/4 round file and WD40 out... got 'um both cleaned out
so it would fit, and then tried for an hour to get that stoopid bracket in under the crashbar for the airdam,
and finally said %^*)@$%)^%^)*@$%^)* it... I'll do without it!!!!

Got 'er done after about 3 hours and much $*)!#$)$)^!**&@)$^#_ing....

How do I go about getting a "fix" for the broken lower plastic screw mount part? It was a mess waiting for me, sigh...
... did I say I was cursed???!!!! Geez.... if it wasn't for bad luck, I'd have NO luck at all!!!! GBG

[Lucasind]

I can relate ...and feel ur pain there cranky ! my installation did not go smoothly by any stretch of the imagination either ! seems that it might be a whole lot easier to install.....the day the bike came off the show room floor ! (as opposed to previous owners "rearranging things" )