we just bought a 97 gs500e that had about 2600 mi. on it. Everything on it looks good except for where the plastic on the front fender is melted. The melted spot is on the back, near the exaust. The previous owner told us that it happened while idling in traffic and that it is common on this model of bike. Is this a common problem with the gs500e because I haven't seen any others with melted fenders.

I have never had a problem with that on either of my GSs. If you'd like, I've got a red front fender in good condition, if you need a different one.

Quote from: Mr.7.. Is this a common problem with the gs500e..

It is not unheard of, but not a "common" problem. I bought a fender off eBay and it had heat blistering on it. My 90 project bike has sun fade, but no heat blistering.

I guess it could happen if the bike sat long enough with air moving from the rear to the front of the bike. It would be interesting to see a show of hands out there that have seen this.

I've seen it......I've had in my possesion 8 different Gs500e's and I've had one that had the fender melt  problem.....So I've seen it...

My guess is maybe the bike is just a tad lean and running hot...or it sat just right idling too long on too hot a day...or a combination of the two...

Anyway...

exhaust leak possibly? maybe a small one?

i don't have much experience in this area but i can't see how the heat would melt the fender...it would roast your legs/or other parts of the bike first?

mine is melted. It happened when I was tuning the bike in the garage. I forgot to put a fan in front of the motor....

when I bought mine, the fender was already melted.

Bought mine used and it had a melted one too.  1998.

Yeah my '97 was melted when I bought it.

Since I'm not the first one with a melted fender, I was wondering if you had any good ideas on how to fix it. I've looked for replacement fenders but can't seem to find any. I think this winter I'll just put some fiberglass on it and paint the back half of the fender black or silver.

    A carbon fiber fender would be beast though :mrgreen:

mines not melted, wait i dont have one on my bike, i think it looks cooler without it.

I have seen some that were melted ... lean jetting and of course excessive traffic sitting are the cluprits.
Cool.
Srinath.

Quote from: Mr.7I think this winter I'll just put some fiberglass on it

I don't think the glass and resin would be a good fix. Depending on the type of damage I would sand/trim to normal contour and then use JB Weld. Sand it to contour after cured and then prime/paint.

Quote from: Mr.7A carbon fiber fender would be beast though :mrgreen:

Yeah! Maybe dgyver could be talked into it? I have the spare to pull a mold from and then I would also insert the nut plates during the layup process and then... wait a minute, I've got too much to do now to start a CF fender business. Besides, if the resin binding the CF got hot enough, it would discolor.

Sounds like it is time for a heat shield mod.

For those of you who haven't seen a melted fender, they look kinda like this:

The parts bike I bought had a distorted fender. My old race bike had a slightly distorted fender too. Not much just a small depression. Nothing like Kerry's.

As for a cf fender, I have made one mold but did not like the way it turned out. Still working on the mold making process. I just made a mold for an 03+ SV fender and it turned out great. Looks like I will be prepping the GS fender again.

---> Please do not contact me about the fenders. I will post when they are ready.

My 04 F has heat tape on the underside of the fairing, and it seems to do an excellent job (the fairing is much closer to the headers than the fender). You could stick some of that on the fender, but, unfortuately, I don't think they make any color except highly reflective silver.

Quote from: dgyverThe parts bike I bought had a distorted fender. [...]  Nothing like Kerry's.

That fender was never on my bike - I bought it online in '01 or so, from a guy who was parting out a '99.  I assumed the bike had been wrecked and caught on fire ( ) until I heard about melted fenders from other people.

I bought the fender to replace the one I broke when I hit the cow, but I never did mount it on the bike.  (Mine was broken, and ground down to a not-too-terrible shape, on the front tip.)





I kept the melted one in my shed until a few months ago, when i sold it to a fellow GStwinner.  I decided to keep the original "cow catcher" as a badge of courage ... or something like that.

Wow. I had no clue that fender melting would even be an issue with these bikes. Ya learn something every day.

Wow, I never noticed that black piece on a GS fender before (the back side of the fender).  Mine is just the painted part - guess the PO lost/broke/took it off (I was gonna post one day to ask what the two holes in the fender were for!!!)  That is why my engine gets all kind of dirt all over it!!!

I actually kept "that black piece" and the mounting hardware when I sold the fender.  I intended to slip those parts to bates68, who is a local GStwinner in the same situation as you.  But he hasn't collected them yet.  :dunno:

Bates?  Going ... going ...