I mentioned a couple of days ago that my fairing was back up at Dragonfly for repair. I'm happy to say it's back and better than ever. (literally)

I bought my fairing off ebay last fall. It was an older, all fiberglass one, with the round 6 inch speakers. It had apparantly been sitting around for several years not mounted on a bike. It had a stereo half-azzed mounted, but it needed to be properly done. I took the stereo out as soon as I got it and mounted the fairing on my bike. It was a very tight fit, but it went on.



I called the company looking for a recommendation for a shop in my area to do the stereo install. I'd thought about doing it myself, but I'd never done any kind of automotive stereo work, and I wanted it done right. Since I live about an hour from Dragonfly's shop, they suggested I bring it up to them. This turned out to be a very good idea.

It was January, lousy weather for riding, so I took the fairing off my bike and drove it up to their shop. I pointed out to Kevin (the owner) there were a couple of cracks adjacent to the mounting brackets. He told me that the fiberglass brackets had likely shifted position, probably from sitting too long on a shelf. He thought the cracks probably wouldn't get worse, but when ever I got around to painting the fairing, I should have them repaired.

I was getting ready to change the tins on my bike, so I told him to go ahead and do the repair and paint the fairing blue and black. I also asked him to make sure and test fit the fairing before it went to paint, and offered to bring my bike up to the shop. Kevin told me he'd be able to fit it up on another bike in the shop, and I didn't need to bring mine up.

About 3 weeks later, it was ready for me to pick up. I changed out my tins, and mounted the fairing, and..... still too tight! It went on, but I heard the mounting brackets cracking as I levered the fairing in place. Again, once on, it was solid as a rock, but I knew that there was still a problem. And the seams between the outer and inner fairings were no longer even, suggesting the torque loads on the brackets were shifting things out of position.


I called the shop, and told Kevin I'd need to bring the fairing and bike up to him to look at. I rode up the next day, and we took the fairing off, and sure enough the cracks had reappeared. He apparantly did not have a RK in the shop when they were laying up the fiberglass for the brackets, so it was not test fitted before it went to paint, as I had asked. We measured the brackets, and they were too narrow by about 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch. Just enough to cause a problem. Kevin assured me he would fix it right, and asked me to leave my bike and the fairing.

About two weeks later, I got a call that it was ready for pick up.




Rather than try to fix the fiberglass brackets again, he hooked me up with a new 6x9 fairing. It's got the new style stainless brackets, which won't shift. It's also lighter, and has an upgraded stereo cover and speakers.

I wish all companies had that type of attitude about customer service, Kevin never tried to blame me for the cracked brackets, he just took care of it.

 

Can't ask for a better outcome than that! One nice thing about living here in WA, we have lots of winter to work on our bikes One of these days, I'll have mine back together.........

 

Great write-up, It is allways good to here about a company that provides service after the sale. I have heard good things about DragonFly fairings and this just proves it. By the way, I like the looks of the new fairing better than the old one.

 

Looks great..Smoothed contours.. I'd shouldve gotten the same as you.. Did you convert you Police style saddlebags to stock?

 

That's great to hear. Dead Center has been great for me as well. Nice to know there are still that kind of Company out there to serve us. The MoCo could take a serious lesson.

 

Good customer service is the best and cheapest form of advertisement there is. A story like this even though it cost the price of a faring (What it cost them to make it) will return to them many new customers.

It only makes sence to take care of your customers, one good story is worth hundreds of customers. One bad story with cost you thousands.

It to bad that the Ethics of American business has gone so far down hill. But, It is nice to see there are some out there that do business the right way

Treat others how you would like to be treated!!!!!!!

 

Yeah, the new fairing is better in every way. They changed from hand laid fiberglass to injection molded composite a few years back. The old fiberglass fairings were stout, but heavy. These new ones are constructed like the newer saddlebags and lowers from H-D. They're cured at 300 degrees, and are dimensionally very stable. The brackets are unique to Dragonfly, and extend up through the inner fairing and give it an unmatched rigidity, imo.


The guys that have Dead Center fairings are very positive about their experiences, but I don't think they've caught up with Dragonfly quite yet.


There's no cheap way to add a batwing to a RK. 900 to 1300 bucks to buy one (without stereo or paint) from a quality manufacturer. It costs 500 to 700 bucks to paint the outer and inner fairing. Add some decent stereo gear, and you'll have about 2K tied up in one. It's a very expensive add-on, and I want to know mine is going to last. You could buy a cheap ebay fairing, but you'd still spend over a grand in stereo gear and paint. You might save 500 bucks on the initial purchase, but it's a false economy. We've heard from several forum members recently who tried to save by buying a Tsukayu or Invicta fairing, but were disappointed in the quality.

 

maybe its just me, but it seems to me that while you ended up with a new fairing and you're happy about that, there is a downside to this story as well.

if they didn't have a test bike to fit it to, and knew that there was a problem to start with, why did they even bother having it painted? hoping you wouldn't notice?

like i said, i'm glad you're happy but it seems like they really had no other choice than to hook you up.

 

He knew there was a problem with the brackets, but he believed he'd addressed it the first time. He only missed it by about 1/4 of an inch. He could have re-did the repair. In fact, I left my bike with him the second time so he could do just that. For whatever reason, he felt this was a better solution for both him and his customer. I agree.

A lot of other companies would have re-did the repair, and then told their customer if it broke again, they were on their own. Or blamed the customer for the problem to begin with. This was not a warantee repair, I was the second owner, and paid for the repair work. What he ultimately did for me though, was going above and beyond.

I guess someone is always gonna find the cloud surrounding the silver lining.

 

I never look a gift horse in the mouth. And my skin grows ever thicker..............