meowculpa;35701 wrote: hopefully this response won't stir up a storm. [ i write this so that future beginners like myself getting to the sport would also benefit]
disclaimer - i'm a newbie so i can always pretend ignorance!
i do believe that, of late, most of the body work fit, the bikes they are designed for, splendidly. if and when they do differ, it's in the composition/ weight/ flexibility and "crash worthiness" [mild lowsides]. these qualities, even collectively, do not merit a person shelling twice to thrice the amount required for a decent set [the shipping costs 40-60 $ extra, mind you !]. and then comes the issue of paint..oh! in the case of an R6 they might need after market exhausts as well [not applicable in your case] suddenly the costs acquire an astronomical feel. .
[and you haven't crashed ..yet!]
Barring a slow speed lowside [in which the higher end body work fare better], all brands are essentially trashed necessitating further monetary investment.
it's worthwhile going for sharkskinz/ armor bodies/ attack/ hotbodies only when it's a used set [therefore cheap] with no accidents [ yes! you can still find them] and is also painted !! all other cases - go with optimal [, but the cheapos don't seem to be in the neighborhood of fitting on the newwer gsxr's and r6's. If you don't mind spending an entire weekend cutting and drilling and stretching, bending, and cracking, only to end up with a sub-par fit that is a huge pain in the ass to take on and off everytime you change oil, or work on electronics (dozens and dozens of times per season) then by all means the cheap bodywork is worth the savings.
If your bike does a dozen cartwheels at 80+ mph then yes, all brands of bodywork, and probably even your forks and fame will be destroyed. However, as all of us know, lowsides and even moderate highsides happen all the time. Sharkskinz is very survivable in a lot of semi-serious crashes. I can often times repair sharksinz that has been down going pretty fast for about $100 - $150 including fixxing the paint, and then you just bolt it back up with the rest of your good stuff.
More importantly than that though, if you've already spent $1000+ to drive to Barber or VIR for a full weekend of trackdays and you crash early-on, its makes all the difference in the world if your bodywork is still good enough to ride out the rest of the weekend so you don't lose your whole weekend. Imagine lowsiding in the morning of your first day. Sharkskinz would probably have a little rash and maybe a small crack, which you could throw a piece of duct tape on and go full throttle for the rest of the weekend. If you saved $200 - $300 on the cheap bodywork which would've shattered like an eggshell, and then you miss the whole day and the day after watching your friends ride, and basically wasted a whole weekend, trackday fees, and all the money to drive down there, hotel, ect. Still think the cheapo bodywork was worth it?:notsure: And that is just an example of one weekend.
Its not just crashing that wears the stuff out as well. Right now I've got a couple hotbodies tail sections back from one of my AMA clients. The Superbike tails never crashed or down at all, but just the constant pressure/stress from ridding it all season has all the bolt holes completely ripped out and cracked up, and there are cracks all over the bodywork. I see bolt holes tripple in size, windscreen ears crack up, and most commonly the holes were the uppers and lowers meet wear through and drop the lowers off on the cheap stuff all the time on bikes that never crashed. That doesn't happen on Sharkskinz, Attack, Armour Bodies ect.
