Moto411, Moto 411

Sunday, July 01, 2007

Part Review: Motovation "No-Cut" Frame Sliders

Quality: ++++-(4 out of 5)
Functionality: +++--(3 out of 5)
Appearance: ++++-(4 out of 5)
Value: ++---(2 out of 5)
Overall: +++--(3 out of 5)
Pros:
  • excellent fit & finish
  • easy installation
  • no bodywork modification required
Cons:
  • expensive
  • prices on replacement parts are insulting
  • no-cut bracket causes fairing damage on impact
  • sales staff hard to reach to answer questions

Introduction

Anyone who's crashed, downed, dropped, or otherwise abused a motorcycle in the past at some point considers purchasing frame sliders. It is useful to remind even the most "seasoned" of us that frame sliders are called frame sliders (and not "engine cover sliders", "fairing sliders" or "muffler sliders") for a reason: they are not meant to protect anything in earnest except for the frame. That being said, one tends to incur much less damage to one's engine covers and fairings in a low-side with frame sliders than without them. However, if you're considering the possibility of a crash while wanting to preserve the newness of your stock fairings, then I suggest removing them and keeping them in the garage, no matter how many frame sliders you own.1

Impression

My initial impression when I ordered these suckers was, "they'd better be darn good," since I paid about US$220 for my set (frame sliders, clutch slider and swing-arm spools/sliders). I will say that they met those expectations, but didn't exceed them. Don't get me wrong, they are quite nice. They are made of high-quality materials with a good attention to detail. The designers even went so far as to taper the left-side frame slider so that it wouldn't require it's own bracket, but could still be mounted without cutting the fairings. To my knowledge, Motovation is one of the few companies to do this (TSR is another).

Installation

Installation was fairly obvious. The only thing to note is that the torque specs on the 2005 YZF-R6 engine bolts is fairly low. The right-side no-cut bracket mounts to the frame via a single bolt and there is not much keeping the bracket from articulating on that mount point.

To be fair almost everyone's designs are similar in this regard. I have seen one (and only one) maker of frame sliders who actually makes no-cut mounting brackets with two mounting points for the bracket, and a third for the slider. I wish I could recall who that is, but I can't as of this writing.

Mmm, sliders:

Use

Normally, I don't like to down my bike just to test a product, but this seemed an appropriate occasion, so we went to dump at Streets Of Willow to see if these sliders would perform as well as they look. I picked the right side, since there was more to damage (exhaust and all) and it would give an opportunity to test out the clutch slider as well.2

Ooo, that's gotta hurt:

Clutch slider (turned upwards):

After executing a textbook low-side, I had plenty of data to evaluate the sliders. As you can see, the sliders did their job and held up quite nicely. As predicted, the right frame slider did rotate on the engine mount point and was crushed right into the fairing. The fairing lost. Luckily, I had my fiberglass track fairings on at the time (which seemed prudent given where I was at the time), so a repair wouldn't be that difficult.

Back on the track at Thunder Hill after "testing" the sliders (and replacing the exhaust can); note the crack in the fairing below the frame slider:

When I purchased the sliders, Motovation had not yet made replacement parts available for purchase. They constantly ignored my e-mails and phone calls to replace my rashed parts. Perhaps this was because they knew they were eventually going to make extra spools and things easy to purchase via their website.

Well, they finally did, and I have to say I was astonished at the cost of a replacement spool. I was already somewhat put off by the cost of the slider kits to begin with, but this was ridiculous. They wanted US$45 for a right-side replacement spool and another US$65 for a replacement clutch slider!

Conclusion

I liked how the Motovation sliders held up in a crash, but I never expected them not to. They looked great, but their cost was high and got even higher post-crash. I especially didn't like the fact that I would be spending more in replacement parts than what most other makers charge for entire sets. And, although not many of us like to crash or think about it too much, I ultimately decided to sell what was left of the Motovation sliders and try a different (less expensive) brand which wouldn't leave me high and dry after my next...uh..."incident".

1. bigpuss is up to two sets on his F4i.

2. What lugnut means to say is that he is an idiot and was lucky enough to have any frame sliders when he decided to throw the bike into a right-hander while trying to trail brake like he was Noriyuki Haga.

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