I normally have either a rad guard or fenda extender. Only ran the blade without them for 2 months or so and bam, a stone right through the rad. Coolant spewing everywhere and a duff rad. Lesson learnt Luckily I have a spare radiator in the shed, being fitted tomorrow!
Put a bullet hole through my bro's bike.... was bad! luckily we had the scals on and Dave could warn him from behind as coolant pissing all over the bike at not so "hanging around" speeds.... Got new rad now but not a cheap fix!! always put a guard on mine....
Luckily bought a spare a while back, irony is I have 2 rad guards sat in the shed and a fenda extenda, since my crash I hadn't bothered refitting...... doh!
Not sure about rr12+, but rr8 are only to remove the lower rad bolt, fit in the guard then replace bolt and zip tie the top. No drilling or fairing removal. ABS slightly more fiddly to fit due to extra plumbing. The fenda extenda, IMO is essential on a road bike (up to you if you wish to use with rad guard) as it will reduce the amount of crud build up on the rad. This does require drilling of the front mud guard.
I've used Sikaflex 291i (a marine adhesive) to fix fenda extenda's in the past. It works well and even fills the inevitable gap between the extenda and MUDGUARD ( not fender) lol. A tip if you go this route is to run some tank tape along the extenda before applying the adhesive so that the tape takes the weight off the extenda while the adhesive cures (about 24 hours).
probs be selling off the old radiator as scrap/repairable, maybe £30-40 to cover postage and my gym membership! shout for first dibs!
Found the culprit, my recent crash bent the left fan causing it to slightly touch the radiator wearing the core. It's a minute hole easy fix for someone in the know.
The hole in the cross bar could possibly be fixed by some solder and a soldering iron/small gas blow torch!
Don't think you'll find many radiator manufacturers using copper in the manufacturing process, to expensive.
