So, Saffa, one of our brothers in the UK was comparing photos of my 82 katana to alot of those in the UK and noticed a difference in the tail fairings.
If you look at my 82 tail fairing and then at Steve's UK Katana in the second image, you'll see that the area surrounding the taillights are different. Mine starts at the bottom of the tail light and extends to the top of the fairing. Steve's (and every other UK kat I've seen) starts about half way up the taillight.
![](http://www.formdbs.com/KRImages/1157R/Left%20Side.jpg)
![](http://www.matthewcastor.com/gsx1157r/IMG_1663.jpg)
Then Saffa asked me if I had a flip up lid on my tail fairing which completely puzzled me until he showed me this image of a tail fairing he got his hands on in the UK
![](http://www.matthewcastor.com/gsx1157r/kattail1.JPG)
![](http://www.matthewcastor.com/gsx1157r/kattail2.JPG)
So...I had to investigate. Pulled the tail on my 82 and found this...
![](http://www.matthewcastor.com/gsx1157r/North%20American%20tail%20perhaps.jpg)
![](http://www.matthewcastor.com/gsx1157r/Hinge%20and%20pin.jpg)
While mine appears to be "hinged," there are some pins with push on clips on the underside of the top if the fairing that secure the add on panel to the fairing. The clips are not meant to be removed repeated thus making me think this was an add on for the North American market for some reason. Anyone have any ideas??? If I removed the hinged cover, my tail would look like the UK tails.
![](http://www.matthewcastor.com/gsx1157r/Retaining%20pins.jpg)
An just to see if my US kat was odd...I checked the Canadian 82 kat750 sitting next to it and the tail on the canuck kat is the same as mine.
![](http://www.matthewcastor.com/gsx1157r/Tail%20on%20Canadian%20gsx750s.jpg)
So anyone have any insight into why there is a difference???
If you look at my 82 tail fairing and then at Steve's UK Katana in the second image, you'll see that the area surrounding the taillights are different. Mine starts at the bottom of the tail light and extends to the top of the fairing. Steve's (and every other UK kat I've seen) starts about half way up the taillight.
![](http://www.formdbs.com/KRImages/1157R/Left%20Side.jpg)
![](http://www.matthewcastor.com/gsx1157r/IMG_1663.jpg)
Then Saffa asked me if I had a flip up lid on my tail fairing which completely puzzled me until he showed me this image of a tail fairing he got his hands on in the UK
So...I had to investigate. Pulled the tail on my 82 and found this...
![](http://www.matthewcastor.com/gsx1157r/North%20American%20tail%20perhaps.jpg)
![](http://www.matthewcastor.com/gsx1157r/Hinge%20and%20pin.jpg)
While mine appears to be "hinged," there are some pins with push on clips on the underside of the top if the fairing that secure the add on panel to the fairing. The clips are not meant to be removed repeated thus making me think this was an add on for the North American market for some reason. Anyone have any ideas??? If I removed the hinged cover, my tail would look like the UK tails.
![](http://www.matthewcastor.com/gsx1157r/Retaining%20pins.jpg)
An just to see if my US kat was odd...I checked the Canadian 82 kat750 sitting next to it and the tail on the canuck kat is the same as mine.
![](http://www.matthewcastor.com/gsx1157r/Tail%20on%20Canadian%20gsx750s.jpg)
So anyone have any insight into why there is a difference???
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