Topic: Fairings: pros/cons, styles and styling!

[BallAquatics]

I'm not a big fan of fairings, but for me it makes the difference of riding or not during the off-season here in Ohio.  My National Cycle Plexifairing™ Windshield Fairing offers great protection and goes on or off in about 2 minutes.  It also uses the same mounts that my summer time Fly Screen uses!

[pjlogue]

I'm not a big fan of fairings, but for me it makes the difference of riding or not during the off-season here in Ohio.  My National Cycle Plexifairing™ Windshield Fairing offers great protection and goes on or off in about 2 minutes.  It also uses the same mounts that my summer time Fly Screen uses!

Out of curiosity, what is a summer fly screen? 

-P.

[BallAquatics]

Out of curiosity, what is a summer fly screen? 

-P.

A motorcycle fly screen is essentially a small windshield. Primarily, it's meant to increase rider comfort by reducing wind blast, especially at higher speeds.  It's shown in the second photo of Blue, my 1974 CB550.

I prefer no screen at all, but the small screen is very nice on long trips where it keeps the majority of wind buffeting off your body while still allowing plenty of air flow.

[HondaMan]

We use to call them "June bug smashers".
Once when my college roommate wanted to try riding on the back of my SuperHawk, we went out on a road near the river, buzzing along about 65 MPH. I saw a June bug coming and dodged it just by moving my head: Gary caught it full in the left side of his prescription glasses, next to my left ear. Boy, was that LOUD! He bounced off my sissybar, glad I had it back then or he'd been clear off the bike!

Those things are hard at 65 MPH...

[newday777]

We use to call them "June bug smashers".
Once when my college roommate wanted to try riding on the back of my SuperHawk, we went out on a road near the river, buzzing along about 65 MPH. I saw a June bug coming and dodged it just by moving my head: Gary caught it full in the left side of his prescription glasses, next to my left ear. Boy, was that LOUD! He bounced off my sissybar, glad I had it back then or he'd been clear off the bike!

Those things are hard at 65 MPH...

I had several June bugs over the years in the 70s hitting my face above and below my glasses. I remember seeing stars......
I don't see them anymore around here in NH.

[HondaMan]

Bugs...in early summer 1972 (it might have been 1973?) I rode from central Illinois to central Missouri to visit my brother so we could ride some of the coolest bike roads Missouri has (had?) back then. It was the "Year of the Locust hatch" in Missouri, and they were everywhere, and about 3" long. On the way home I was buzzing fast up Hwy 63, down to the left peg, and when I was coming up I ran right through a road-level swarm of the monsters. I entered the stream of them at just over 60 MPH and held steady, but the bike was slowing and the Vetter windshield became opaque from them all splatting on it. I came out the other side of the huge swarm at around 40 MPH, dropping gears to get back on cam. About 1/4 or 1/2 mile later the engine starting overheating and sputtering: I looked down and the whole front of it was packed inches deep with the bugs. I couldn't see out the windshield, either. Just then on the right I spotted a self-serve 'quarter car wash' (they were a new thing then) and I turned right to it, but the engine was dying and I couldn't keep going. I think I coasted into the stall with the engine off, overheated, in Neutral. Those things were down my neck, in my jacket and shirt, and the bike was packed a couple inches deep with them.

It still gives me the shivers...

[Kelly E]

That's wild stuff! I can't come close to that.
I have taken a yellow jacket down the shirt at speed on my 82' V45 Sabre. I screeched to a halt without crashing and ripped my shirt out of my waist band and thought I saw the bee fall out so I put myself back together and went about my day. About 3 hours later I got home and had to go. I dropped my pants in the bathroom and the dead bee fell out on the floor. I couldn't believe I didn't get stung, that would have hurt just a bit.

[Don R]

  It was 1973, I had a new CB500 and was commuting the 15 mile trip to work. I had a blue and silver boat flake Arthur Fullmer helmet with a snap-on bubble shield. A Bumble Bee hit me in the chest and went up inside my shield, he did two or three laps inside before he fell out.
  This was shortly after a local doctor died from a bee sting inside his airplane, I couldn't help but think of that, even though I knew I wasn't allergic.

[HondaMan]

Yeow, bees!
Once (again, on that SuperHawk) I got one that blasted into my helmet, right in between the folds of the (right side) forehead padding and the side padding. I could hear it buzzing around in there, trying to get out: I skidded to the dirt on the side of the road and ripped off the helmet just as it was freeing itself from the padding. Then I hit it with the back of my hand, sent it buzzing away, whew!

Fairings forever!

[Kelly E]

Fairings forever!

The fairing on my 94' Kawasaki ZG 1000 Concours is shaped very much like a Vetter Windjammer, especially looking at it from the front. My friend and I rode through a 90 minute thunder and lightning storm in eastern Montana on the way to Sturgis in 2019. With pouring rain and 60+ mph wind gusts. My buddy was on his FJR and told me that my bikes fairing punches a big enough hole in the wind and rain that he was staying dryer while drafting me. 

[jlh3rd]

one of the selling points back in the day for purchasing a windjammer was that it was frame mounted , not fork mounted. Windjammer claimed no steering inputs from wind turbulence. Made sense to me.
And back in the day with my color matched Vetter and hippo hands on my new '76 blue 550F, I could go anywhere, anytime.

[willbird]

one of the selling points back in the day for purchasing a windjammer was that it was frame mounted , not fork mounted. Windjammer claimed no steering inputs from wind turbulence. Made sense to me.
And back in the day with my color matched Vetter and hippo hands on my new '76 blue 550F, I could go anywhere, anytime.

Indeed, I want nothing to do with fork and or handle bar mounted stuff.

Bill

[Don R]

 Here is my 78 GL dresser as purchased, I removed most of the excess chrome and the trunk. I did put a rack on it from the bike parked behind it. The trunk lives on a shelf and is filled with my spare Goldwing stuff.
 The other one was a black and gold 79 and sold naked easier than when it was dressed. I found it on a Facebook site advertised as original miles with a 78 speedometer on it. I was forced to comment. It was gorgeous though.

[Gman]

Ha - this thread brings back (mostly) good memories.  Right after college, a buddy rode out to CA to grab me and we rode back to MN together for a friend's wedding.  When my buddy first rode in, it was dusk and in the last few miles before my house, he had ridden through one of those clouds/swarms of something that had just hatched or come out for the night or ??  They were small and green and when he rode up, it looked like he was covered in green carpet.  Shins, chest, helmet, everything.

My first bike was a 1988 Honda Shadow 800cc and it was my first real road trip.  Great bike - like a couch on wheels.  I had a National windscreen and the air over the top made a perfect cocoon for the body.  Never had an issue with bugs.  Legs, on the other hand...

And, I too, had a lovely run in with a yellow jacket.  It went up my sleeve at about 60mph and ended up just past my elbow.  Stung me about 5 times before I was able to stop and throw off my jacket.  I'm very cognizant of the wind going up my sleeves now - try to keep my gloves over the opening to reduce the chances of that happening again.

[HondaMan]

Here is my 78 GL dresser as purchased, I removed most of the excess chrome and the trunk. I did put a rack on it from the bike parked behind it. The trunk lives on a shelf and is filled with my spare Goldwing stuff.
 The other one was a black and gold 79 and sold naked easier than when it was dressed. I found it on a Facebook site advertised as original miles with a 78 speedometer on it. I was forced to comment. It was gorgeous though.

Wow, Don! Now, imagine all that Vetter stuff on a 1979 CB650 my brother's follow-on to his CB500. He called the 650 the "Rolling Vetter ad". While he had a Vetter on his 500 too, he, in the end, decided the 500 was the better bike as the 650 is geared quite low and its engine noise in the face from the Vetter he found annoying on the road. He said the 500 was "much quieter" than the 650 in the end. Then he bought a Gold wing Interstate. After he sold that one and bought an Aspencade, he one day told me he missed the Vetters, said they were better than Honda's own fairings.