Well a bit of a marathon this afternoon, but 4 hours on the job is done.
Taking the fairing assembly off was easy (much easier than I expected) and then 2 hours of thinking and prising and eventually the beak was off! About 20 minutes to fit the new nose. Plastic trim removal tools were essential.
One tiny tang broken off the colour coordinated panel round the lights on the way off and the other side broken on the way on ........... they are the least important and from what I read often get broken. Nothing of consequence was damaged ........ very happy with how it went and how it looks. I didn't swear once in the whole process .......... trust me that's something!!
I have no problem with beaks as such, but on this model it is clearly an afterthought, but on bikes where it was part of the plan at inception it works much better. In theory they keep the nose down as you race across the desert.
Meanwhile a quote from Fat Rat in 2019
Free v-strom.co.uk Gel decals to anyone who removes the beak from their V-Strom and posts photographic evidence.Perhaps he could buy it mount as a trophy at the campsite