Fixing cosmetic drop damage?

[100thidiot]

Hi blokes,

Finally got it over and done with - I dropped my bike and fell off for the first time ... so, now I need some advice re fixing cosmetic damage.

Apart from a slightly bruised ego and slightly scratched and scuffed bike all is good - I fell off mid low speed u turn on a road that was a bit steeper than it looked, and the added bonus - in front of a big gang of people!  Well, at least they were able to help me pick the beast back up heh...

The first thing that went through my mind was - oh no... my beautiful wee, now I've gone an trashed it!  But I bought the wee with the engine bars and hard guards, and boy, I was really chuffed at how well the Wee took it    

But I'm left with a a scuff on my engine bars, down to to the metal, and a seriously scuffed hand guard.

Can anyone here talk me through repainting the bars?  Can I just get some paint and kind of fill in the gaps, or is there more to it than this?  And for the plastic handguard - can I sand this down so it looks smooth(ish) again?  Or will I just make it look worse.

If it would help I can post some pictures of my toughnut-drop-proof (almost) wee to show the damage.

I'm a bit reluctant to just go for it as I don't really know what I'm doing, and don't want to make it look worse!  Also, not willing to take it back to the Suzuki dealers as they will probably charge me a fortune for little bit of paint and would probably try and sell me a new handguard!

[jonH]

don't know about the bars, I've dropped mine 3 times now and the bars are still fine.. (body work is a different story.. stone walls ftw)

I'd be tempted to leave the handguard as it is - why remove more plastic and weaken it further?? besides, it's battle damage - you can make up any old codswhallop on how it happened!

[Eric The Viking]

So long as the hand guard isn't cracked / broken, I'd smooth off the rough edges with a medium or fine abrasive paper to disguise it.  The finish is rough anyway, then use some boot polish, back to black or bumper paint spray to finish it off.
As for the crash bars, light file off of the rough edges if any, light rub down with fine wet & dry around the damaged area and a coat of primer then black gloss.  Or you could just black smooth Hammerite it.
Don't try too hard to put it all right as you'll probably only make work for yourself and you'll not be happy with the result.

Good luck