Hi again - I have removed all the perimeter screws holding both upper and lower right fairing. The whole piece doesn't want to lift away and I'm reluctantant to pull too hard. Do I have to 'free' the nose fairing to give the side fairing more wiggle room? All this to replace the battery! Many thanks, steve
iirc, on STs you’ve got to remove the mirrors, then remove the nose fairing before you can remove the side fairings . The fairing system on STs is a real PiTA and for that reason many do a conversion so the side panels are fixed with Dzus fasteners and can be removed without prior removal of the nose fairing. There are a few threads somewhere in here about it.
Thank you Paul. The handbook wasn't clear about mirrors and nose fairing - perhaps it thought I had already moved them in preparation! I'll take another look later today.
I had to give up and re-fasten the right side fairing - my garage is just too cold for periods of minimal activity (great for securing parked bikes though). I'll revisit fairing removal when the sun is shining and my fingers aren't so stiff.
Well - what a performance! I removed the 2 black plastic covers by the instrument cluster, then the screen, then the mirors, then the top fairing and eventually got the right side fairing off the bike. I'd guess that took me over an hour because I didn't want to damage any tangs or lose any well-nuts or allen headed bolts. Battery replacement would have been straighforward except I had a battery too big for the cradle . . . that'll teach me to do better research. Replacing the fairing pieces took even longer due to challenges lining-up the 2 bolts at knee level and squeezing the screen back into the nose fairing pieces. I think I learned something from the exercise and need to find some 'new' long well-nuts for the knee level fixings. No breakages; no silly velcro and the job doesn't rattle.
On the later STs you are supposed to be able to remove the sides without the front fairings. The ST3s would be the newer design. I have only ever owned the earlier design that indeed is a pain. There is always the dzus conversions.
Desmophil you are so right - the fairing right lower does appear to be a separate unit but after failing to remove it on its own, I resorted to removing the whole right side! When I next need to access the right lower of the engine (and battery) I will be more persistent.
