Your bikes beauty marks...

[busa-boy33]

Lets talk beauty marks on your bike. Seems that no matter how hard you try your not going to keep that bike in show room condition.

I learned this the hard way. The busa for me was the ultimate bike for me to own, and one I thought I would never get to own. Well the day came and I walked out of the bike shop a proud new owner of a busa.. (joy and rapture)

Now we've talked about all the different ways to keep that bike shiny like a new dime. (down Tricker..) But inevitably those dings and scratches happen. Now I can live with the minor stuff on the bike but now a few things are beginning to bother me.

I ordered one of those tribal chrome kick stands a few weeks back.. installed it on the bike no problem. As I was doing my routine bike cleaning I notice that the chrome has chipped and broken away in some parts... wtf?!?!

So I guess I will take it back off and put the stock one back on it now. Sucks!! I guess I can get some of that chrome paint some place and try to repair it and we all know how thats gonna look..



SO.. what dings, scratches, or scrapes has your bikes suffered.. AND.. do you plan to repair them or leave them as battle scars and beauty marks?

[KD57]

Since my Dad backed the car over my Harley, I have a few scratches, I left them, and fixed only the broken parts like levers, turn signals and windshield.
One day I went down to the shop to get something and the Harley had decided to take a nap on it's own. It was laying on it's side puking oil everywhere, and the only thing it did was bend the ISO grip a little, and pop a turn signal lens out. BTW, Harley kickstands suck. They also call it something different, but the name escapes me at the moment.

[Apertureguy]

Well it's been a little over 2 years and nearly 20k miles....but there's only one mark on mine & it came that way.

There's a very small imperfection on the front fender....it's like a line of some sort in the plastic.

I've never dropped, scratched, dinged, hit or in any other way did something which would mark the bike. She looks as good as the day I brought her home.

[Smurf]

I have scrape marks all along the bottom side of everything,,,,, except the frame [that's next].

[Clint]

I have wear marks from using soft bags to ride around Lake Superior in 2005. I also dropped the bike backing it out of my shed last year, so it has a scuff on the right engine case. It also has wear marks on the upper fairing from tiedown straps from when I trailered it to Montana. They've been touched up and are not noticeable.

All of them remind me of experiences on the bike. I don't mind them at all.

[DrBob]

I normally ride 30,000+ miles a year, so everything I own has its share of beauty marks and I have completely given up hope of ever keeping a bike clean and scuff-free. LOL! I'll be painting my Harley this weekend, but no doubt there will be scratches and dings soon enough. My Intruder 800 is getting to the point where even I mind, as it has a dent of the front fender from a garage door, hail damage on the tank, and more minor scratches than I can count. It only has 60,000 miles on it, so I might go ahead and paint the tins to make it pretty again.

[inspiron]

Sheesh. It's a vehicle. It's going to get scratched, dented and such.

My bike has drop damage on the right side exhaust, and some scratches on the engine oil cover. After that first drop, I mounted the engine bars, and the next time I dropped it, it landed on the bars instead of the oil cover.

In addition, there are scratches on the tail from my soft luggage and from throwing my foot over the tail (sometimes I just scrape the grip behind the seat).

But, like I said, it's a vehicle. I use it to get around and to enjoy myself. If I wanted something that just shines and takes up space in my garage, I would have bought an Italian bike.

[ORBrit]

there's stone chips on the front, and I'm sure the pegs have some wear on them, but you can't really see that, so I don't care.

I haven't washed my bike since September, so that hides the minor imperfections!
Never dropped so it's in pretty good shape still.

[tricker]

i'm only missing a cap that covers the mirror screw in front.. and some random dents in the exhaust and i think a scratch on a cover on the engine.. not noticeable unless pointed out

[kay]

I've got "beauty marks" on each side on my GSX-R as well as Duc. But I know I'll do it again, sometime.....so for now, I haven't repaired it. If it gets really noticeable, I might.

I did have to renew my Duc mirror tho, since I cracked the whole thing when I fell on it once.

What sucks is that my Duc has these fancy mirrors that have embedded turn signal lights and Duc parts are EXPENSIVE!!! I almost fainted when I was told that one mirror costs more that 300 bucks!! I've never broken it since then. I guess the shock made me a better rider.....??????

[artistic_gore]

I have a nasty scratch on my lower cowl and a tear in the seat from dropping the bike off of the ramp when I brought it home from the dealership. I also have some rash on the left mirror, signal, bar end, and exhaust from a parking lot spill when some jerk flew out of a spot right in front of me. The scratches don't bother me much but I would like to get the seat fixed.

[MikeHump]

I have a few beauty marks on my bike. Although I installed some frame sliders, I fell while coming to a stop at a stoplight when I was learning how to balance the bike at a stop. I happened to fall onto a curb, so the frame slider didn't quite work so well hahaha. I sanded the scratches down and touched them up with some model paint. I should have taken the fairing off and spray painted it, the model paint is a little lighter in color (even though it's black). On the left rear cowling there's also a scratch from when I was backing my friend's bike out of my garage and his front brake lever got caught on my bike's plastic. I think I might eventually get some new plastics, but I'm not sure. For now, the touch up paint works.

[frostbitevinnie]

No scratches or dents yet but my son did decide to paint some of his car parts 3' from my bike 2 months after I bought it. Yep, total over spray. He covered everything!!

I had planned on painting it this winter but funds got a bit short so maybe next winter.

Here is the theme I plan on having painted. Keep the bike black and paint the ice dragon over.

[Mavi]

My bike is covered in dirt and road grime, does that count?

[battypup]

Mine has little marks on it rub spots and wear spots. It also has some scratches on the chrome engine cover that I'm real sentimental about. My Pup when he was only a couple months old got jealous of me cleaning my bike instead of playing with him and proceeded to chew through the wiring harness. That was my first real repair job on the bike had to resolder the wires together and rewrap the harness.

[amvince]

I have a rock chip in my front forks, a couple of minor scratches that will buff out, some scratches on my black rims (touched up of course), and I have 2 little Eagle stickers hiding the scratched chrome on the mounts of my sissy bar. I don't want to look too much or I will find more.

[cycloptic1dr]

mine came with twin matching mark on either side of the tank and the rear turns. org owner droped it twice within 200 miles then parked it for 5 years then i bought it and have already double the miles on the clock

[omegajim]

some of us call that "character"

my old scoot has tons of character.

[jprisme]

gas tank scratches. as doin some over speeding i noticed that i will get a few flying debris scratches and a few button scratches on the gas tank. so sad

[clockdaddy]

I've got a dent on the gas tank about the size of a silver dollar. It 's is a location that that's pretty visible but I'll NEVER take it out. Years ago when I came back to riding, I was practicing slow manuevering on a country road and hit the front brake too hard. I went one way and the bike went the other! Then dent is my constant reminder of my stupidity!

If scraped knuckles, elbows, shoulders and knees count, then I've got lots of character marks!!

CD