I picked up the black restyle kit, and am replacing a black UFO kit. I've had a couple different brands of aftermarket plastics now. All require a degree of fitment in my opinion. The first thing I did notice (its hard to capture in an image) is even considering my bike has just been sitting in the garage the UFO plastics are still shinier than the Polisport ones.
All of the panels have required fitment. Some of them though have just been weird. I'm going to use that same battery panel as an example. Notice the ridge connecting to the two tabs that is only present on the Polisport panel? Your battery will be in the way of that the ridge. Sure you can force it down and bolt it in place. However it fits much better if you remove most of that ridge. Also notice the foam tape on the UFO plastic. These foam pieces are present on multiple pieces of UFO plastic, no where on the Polisport plastics though (They do come with the heat shield for the exhaust side).
Also note fitting these panels will make things much easier too. As notice that little extra tab on the Polisport panel in the top left on the panel above. It makes putting the panels on a little more tricky. That being said it does make them line up really nice. Notice the rear fender and battery cover line up very nicely.
Back to that included heat shield. Notice the UFO piece includes large pre-cut pieces for the kit, that definitely cover all of the plastic. The Polisport kit, came with a heat sheild piece but it appears to be a piece left over from another one of their kits? I had the Mrs. (she's the puzzle expert) look at this and she agreed it's not meant to fit this panel either. Again you'll notice the UFO panel came with some foam tape and a rubber grommet. You'll need your own rubber grommet for the Polisport kit. I went to the hardware store and just picked up a new one.
Those looking closely at these pictures might have also noticed all the holes in these panels are enlarged and oval shaped, rather than round like the stock, or regular panels. I believe this is done on purpose though, as since these panels need to slide and lock together, I believe this is to aid in installation.
I will say be prepared on an S / SM model, to trim the rear fender a bunch. Not just in the cut out areas. If you look closely you'll notice the bolt holes for the rear fender are in the "body lines."
I had an incident with the radiator scoops. During the fitment I had to sand back where they bolt to the tank. As the lower mount point was a little long, like I'm going to rub the paint off your tank long. So I felt better clearance it some. Normally with all my previous plastics, if I scuff them with my boots are something, I polish them no big deal. After sanding the edge, I figured I would polish it up. A little bit of polish got on the front of the new plastic. It was like I sprayed it with acetone, it took all the sheen off of it. I tried a couple of my tricks to polish again, and decided to cut my losses. Not sure what's different here, but be careful.
I realize most people would probably just bolt these one exactly how they come. That's fine. They would likely work with just some trimming to the rear fender for the S/SM. Some of the changes made to these make these more difficult to fit, and seem like odd choices to me.
I don't want to sound like this is all negative, as it's not. Once fitted, honestly the rear fender I feel fitted better than my UFO fender. The panels line of very nicely. I don't have all the panels fitted yet, and its already starting to look sharp.
TLDR:
Cons:
- The kit doesn't come with the extras other kits do, foam insulation pieces.
- It comes with a heat shield, but it's not for this kit, so be prepared for arts and crafts time.
- The fitment is a bit worse than other kits, I've had, at least in some places.
- The finish is a bit worse than other kits, I've had. That being said, the finish is not sub par, or bad.
- Its very annoying to put together. The exhaust side panel, I gave up and had the Mrs. come out as an extra pair of hands to help. That being said I will admit, I have noticed once I've gotten the panels to finally pop together a time or two (as they did need fitting) they did go on and off "easier".
- Those radiator scoops needed a bit of trimming in my opinion to get them off of the tank.
Pros:
- It does look good. Good enough that the other issues, you'll likely forget once it's all done and installed.
- The panels line of very nicely to themselves.
Conclusion:
All plastics require a bit of fitment, and tweaking. Especially if you're kind of picky like me. There are just a few tweaks that could make this a bit nicer (like including a heat shield that is cut properly). The big thing here is I don't want this to be taken entirely negative. This kit does look sharp when installed. It was a bit frustrating during the install. However the bottom line is, I would buy it again.
Sorry, it's currently -3 degrees out, and snow on the ground, so no better pictures until it warms up some.
