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

[Kelly E]

Clearview Windscreens told me that you should be able to see a 2x4 on the ground just above the edge of the windscreen 50' in front of the bike.

[grcamna2]

Thought I'd post a pic of my K1 with the refinished fairing installed...



... As mentioned above, my original windscreen suffered a catastrophic mishap (after 30 years of safe storage), but I was fortunate to find a very nice NOS 18" Wixom windscreen for a smidgen over $100.  The replacement windscreen was pre-drilled, (for what I'm not sure) and unfortunately, the holes did not match the holes in my fairing.

My solution was to make a cardboard template of the bottom of the screen... then slide the template up until the bottom edge was above the existing, badly placed holes.  After taping up both sides of the windscreen, I marked the new cut line and removed a little more than 1" from the bottom of the new windshield.

I made the cut with a saber saw and a 13 TPI, Bosch Plexiglass blade which worked great and made a nice smooth cut.  I practiced a bit before hand on the broken windshield and found the operation worked best, by holding the work in hand while applying just enough pressure to let the saw blade do its thing.

The next operation was drilling the new holes.  I started by laying out the new center hole and mounting the windscreen on the refinished fairing with just the center screw... and gently pulled the outer edges of the windscreen to match the curvature of the top of the fairing with rubber footed clamps.  I then drilled the first two holes immediately outboard of the center and installed those screws before re-clamping the outboard edges, and marking the next two holes, working outboard from the center until the last two screws were installed.  By the time I got to the last two corner screws, the previously installed screws were holding windshield up against the entire curvature of the fairing, so no clamping was needed to properly mark the holes for drilling.

I considered springing for a specially shaped "acrylic drill bit but, after watching a few YT videos, I decided to try my HF step drill.  After, once again, practicing a few holes in the broken windshield, I used the step drill to drill the new holes as described above.  As before, holding the windshield with one hand and the drill in the other, provided the best tactile feedback while drilling.

I'm still undecided on how much, if any, to cut off the top of the windshield, but I am confident I can accomplish that when the time comes.

I'm currently experimenting, with the piece of blue tape you can see above in the pic, to determine the new desired height of the windscreen.  The tape works fine for a strictly visual analysis, but I wish there was a way to evaluate the amount of increased buffeting or new airflow effects after cutting down... without doing it in 1" steps, to find the sweet-spot height.  Suggestions or recommendations are welcome.

Windshield mods are likely routine for many here but, hopefully, the above will help anyone trying such a windshield mod for the first time, like me.

ZT

Thanks for sharing your work and procedures

[ZTatZAU]

Clearview Windscreens told me that you should be able to see a 2x4 on the ground just above the edge of the windscreen 50' in front of the bike.

Thanks Kelly!  I like that.

[ZTatZAU]

Thanks for sharing your work and procedures

The pleasure is all mine!  Hope it helps someone.
ZT

[jlh3rd]

congratulations, nice.

[ofreen]

Nice work.

[BenelliSEI]

Tom….. If you want to test different height wind screens for buffeting, find a small bit of 1/“4” marine plywood and make up a dummy screen. Cut it down a bit at a time and see how the incremental reductions perform.

[MauiK3]

If the 1/4" marine isn't flexible enough you could try a door skin, closer to 3/16" (I think). Of course it depends on if it's metric material.
A piece of acrylic might be a good test too but it's also not cheap stuff, fairly easy to work with though.
Nice job! great paint match.