Dominator Rear Hugger

[SquarePants]

I'm now on my 3rd set of silencers and 2nd rear shock in 32,000 miles so I thought I'd try and prolong them by adding a rear hugger. It's taken a while to find one that will fit but I'm quite pleased with the overall result. It's from a Kawasaki ZX-6R J1 and with minimal hacking and drilling it seems to work a real treat. It should keep most of the wet weather off the silencers in a bid to keep them from looking like a rusty sieve in just a couple of years. I'm not sure I'd take a pillion or go off road with it on as it will probably catch on the silencers but as I do neither of those any way it's not going to be a problem.

The lhs is all bolted on nicely to the original chain guard brackets but I haven't got round to doing the rhs properly so it's held on with the bikers no. 1 friend the good old zip tie. The rear brake hose bracket should suffice - I've just got to work out the best way to fix the hose and the hugger to it and then it'll be finished. It's been on for a couple of hundred miles so far without any problems.

Hopefully you can see it clearly in these pictures.

[kenny1950]

I like it well done
May have a go with mine

Ken

[kiriakost]

Personally I dislike this concept .

It brings to my mind the balky " V strom ".

Secondly , its dangerous , for the specific type of tires .

Third and last , there is rear mud flaps ( From KTM ) , that are very cheap as 7 EUR .. ( the ones that cover the suspension )

[SquarePants]

Personally I dislike this concept

I have the same thought about taxes ... but like the hugger I guess they have their advantages. I'm really jealous of your temperate climate but in the UK we suffer a bit during the winter, not so much from the elements themselves, mainly from the road salt which eats away at anything metal. If it doesn't turn it to rust it furs it up and looks bad. I have tried a crap flap like you suggested but with no luck as the spray from the road gets everywhere and eventually rots the pipes and the rear shock. I admit the hugger would be useless off road as there isn't enough clearance between it and the tyre and would soon get clogged up with mud but on the UK's pot-holed, wet, salty tarmac it's proving ideal.

[kiriakost]

Well if what bothers you most are the health of the rear suspension,
there is on the market , waterproof covers , that works as rain coat.

At salty places , nothing can save you .

But throw away the zip ties , they are not trustworthy .

[crp47]

Hey I like the look of the hugger, will give it some thought as I am doing up an old Dommie. I see you have no plastic fork protectors on yours. Did you take them off? Not sure whether to replace mine or not. Any opinions? Regards Clive.

[SquarePants]

Cheers -

Mine's a '97 Dommie and I think they'd stopped the front fork/disk protector by then. The forks were quite badly tarnished so about 4 years ago I took them off and sanded them down before respraying them silver (I had to use a special aluminium undercoat first) but it seems to have done the trick. They still look really good after 4 winters.
The whole finish of the later Dommies is a little bit suspect (I think it coincided with when they shifted the manufacture to Italy) and if you ride them through a UK winter you really have to keep on top of the cleaning. I've learnt my lesson the hard way and have had to do a fair bit of work to get it back to something fairly reasonable. The hugger is hopefully going to save the rear end from any more corrosion.

[crp47]

Hi Square Wotsits, I believe my 95 is also I Ti. so therefore not as good build quality as the usual expected from Mr. honda. I think the engine is not I Ti., I hope. Having taken the plastic off it does show some deterioration that said however I rather liked the look with the plastic also it is a medium for colour especially as I wish to do the bike in 'London Wasps' colours. Ah Well time will tell. regards Clive.