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

[ZTatZAU]

When I bought by K1 new in 1971, it only took a week or two to decide I needed to add some wind protection.  I looked at the Wixoms and Windjammers and even road a friend's 750 with a Jammer 2 but didn't like the windshield NOT turning with the handlebars.  I installed a red metal-flake Wixom (109?) instead and, other than repainting the bike and fairing gold in the 80's, road my K1 like that until parking the bike in the mid 90's when I started riding the Goldwings.

I soon got used to the fairing not turning with GW's bars and so always kept an eye out for nice Windjammer thinking I'd try a  "big boy" fairing if I ever got my 750 back on the road.

Well I've now put about 100 miles on my recently resurrected K1...



...and once again I'm thinking it's time for some protection from the wind.  I was fortunate to pick up a very nice Windjammer II some years back and more recently a correct Vetter mounting bracket for my K1.  (Thanks Mark!  Thanks Don!)



But I now find myself second-guessing the Jammer.  First because of how nice the bike is looking again, I'm thinking the Jammer just covers up too much of it.  I've wracked my brain trying to come up with a complementary ruby red and gold paint scheme for the Jammer; but to be honest, I really believe this Jammer is too nice to paint over the original finish.

I also can't stop thinking about something Ofreen posted here on the SOHC4 forum.  The phrase that stuck in my mind was something like...

"...at sustained highway speeds 65+ while pushing that Windjammer..." (through the air)...

has me wondering if I really want to add that much weight, bulk, and frontal area to my recently resurrected 750?

So I started brainstorming what I might do with the old Wixom that wouldn't detract from the original look of the bike.  I found tons of posts on fairings but none save one, by DonR (Wide gold wedges on a black Wixom), that dealt with paint schemes that might complement the OEM Honda styling.  Does anyone have any pictures or ideas on Wixom paint schemes for a stock 750?

Here's what I've come up with so far and it is truly still a work in progress...



I'm considering trying the VMR Honda Candy Ruby Red aerosol paint kit to do something similar to the original tank design... i.e. Candy Ruby Red with gold & black striping.  The stripe mask in the picture above still needs a bit of tweaking but hopefully you get the idea.  I'm wondering about the scale and whether the whole stripe should maybe be a bit thicker (wider) and more prominent.

I will appreciate your thoughts, comments, opinions, and suggestions on any or all of the above.
ZT

[BenelliSEI]

I like the Wixom with your stripe! A very low “lip screen” from a strip of Lexan would look best?

[ZTatZAU]

I like the Wixom with your stripe! A very low “lip screen” from a strip of Lexan would look best?

Thanks John!  I have the old Wixom 18" windscreen and it's still in quite nice condition except for a 3" scratch in the top 3" of the windscreen; so I'd have plenty of good plastic to work with.  You're likely describing something that's only 8 or 10 inches high. Eh?
ZT

[Don R]

  I also have a wixom hanging in the shop, the windshield was toast and I was going to make a short one from some lexan I had left from a project. I don't seem to have a bike that wants it. We used to think a fork or handlebar mount fairing required a steering stabilizer.
  Someday the nostalgia will be back, and the windjammer will be cool again. I'd also love to know which fairing has the worst co-efficient of drag. I've been a tickle under a hundred mph on my GL, it was a pretty smooth ride.
  My old Vetter equipped GL1000s got a lot of nice comments at Sturgis both times I rode one there. Of course I didn't take it to the buffalo chip. 

[BenelliSEI]

I like the Wixom with your stripe! A very low “lip screen” from a strip of Lexan would look best?

Thanks John!  I have the old Wixom 18" windscreen and it's still in quite nice condition except for a 3" scratch in the top 3" of the windscreen; so I'd have plenty of good plastic to work with.  You're likely describing something that's only 8 or 10 inches high. Eh?
ZT

Yes. Nicely tapered down on both sides and about 8” in the middle would look great.

[HondaMan]

  I also have a wixom hanging in the shop, the windshield was toast and I was going to make a short one from some lexan I had left from a project. I don't seem to have a bike that wants it. We used to think a fork or handlebar mount fairing required a steering stabilizer.
  Someday the nostalgia will be back, and the windjammer will be cool again. I'd also love to know which fairing has the worst co-efficient of drag. I've been a tickle under a hundred mph on my GL, it was a pretty smooth ride.
  My old Vetter equipped GL1000s got a lot of nice comments at Sturgis both times I rode one there. Of course I didn't take it to the buffalo chip. 

Even though my 750 with Vetter is cosmetically challenged these days, it stills draws onlookers whenever I take it shopping. When I have the Lowers on it (mountain rides, usually) we'll come out of a restaurant and find people looking at it who never saw those before, but remember the 750 and the Vetter. It's like a magnet?

[Tracksnblades1]

Rode a full dressed 750automatic with a complete Vetter with rear bags.
I had never rode an automatic or ridden a 750 with a vetter before..
I kept looking to see if I left the emergency brake on..🤫

[newday777]

Rode a full dressed 750automatic with a complete Vetter with rear bags.
I had never rode an automatic or ridden a 750 with a vetter before..
I kept looking to see if I left the emergency brake on..🤫

😃
Yup they were turds without a faring and bags

[MRieck]

Rode a full dressed 750automatic with a complete Vetter with rear bags.
I had never rode an automatic or ridden a 750 with a vetter before..
I kept looking to see if I left the emergency brake on..🤫

0 to 60 in 2.3 days.

[newday777]

Rode a full dressed 750automatic with a complete Vetter with rear bags.
I had never rode an automatic or ridden a 750 with a vetter before..
I kept looking to see if I left the emergency brake on..🤫

0 to 60 in 2.3 days.

🙃

[MauiK3]

I had a fairing for a bit but I went back "naked".
My 75 Wing didn't have a fairing either.

[Don R]

 I rode behind A Windjammer in the rain all day once, I found myself wishing I had the lowers on it too. My Wolverine work shoes got so wet they dyed my socks brown.

[ZTatZAU]

Yes. Nicely tapered down on both sides and about 8” in the middle would look great.

Does anyone have suggestions, advice, on cutting down and shaping an old windscreen?
Thanks, ZT

[Don R]

   We used an air tool with a small abrasive wheel. Cover both sides of the area with good masking tape first. It will melt the plastic and load up the wheel, adjust speed accordingly.
   If you saw it, use a saber saw with the finest tooth blade you can find, coarse teeth are prone to breaking it. When done, sand the edge by hand to suit. 

[scottly]

I've had the best results using a coping saw. The blades have very fine teeth, and it's smoother cutting by hand than with a saber saw, which can also melt the plastic, allowing it to weld back together behind the blade.

[pjlogue]

Back in the mid '70's the windjammer fairing was the ultimate accessory for a bike, in my opinion.  I always wanted one.  Many trips from home to college was done in either rain or cold temperatures.  5.5 hrs.  One trip I started out at 75 F, 30 min into the trip the weather changed, and I was stuck riding in 45 F with misting rain.  By the time I reached college I could barely move my leg muscles they were so cold.  It took a long time to bring my body temp back up to where I wasn't shivering.  Jump forward  42 years and I snagged a windjammer lll off e-bay for my GL1000.  It was in almost pristine condition, including the cassette player!  LOL.  I bought a mounting bracket to fit my '76 750 so I could swapp the fairing if I wanted.  I have yet to blast and powder coat the 750 bracket.   I have many memories of the '70's and wishing I had the fairing back then.  I used to use the engine heat on long rides to heat up cans of beef stew I bungee corded behind the cylinders.  Made for a nice warm dinner on cooler rides.

The fairing on the GL1000 is very stable in wind.  Where I live now (NC) the logging trucks on the back roads haul ass and many go 70-80 mph.  The first shock I got living down in the south was having a logging truck pass me going the other way on a 2 lane road.  The air blast from the truck 8' away nearly pulled me off the seat on the 750.  With the GL1000 and the fairing, the blasts are much reduced.  The fairing takes the brunt of the blast and the bike does not lean nearly as much as the 750 with out fairing.

I would like to get another fairing for the 750 but finding one in nice condition will take time.  The one I bought off e-bay for the GL1000 was a rare find.  Almost pristine with mounting bracket and lowers.  $100! 

The great thing about SOHC forum is that so many of us are people that grew up with these machines.  We are now getting older (and body worn) but these bikes keep running!  At some point I will no longer be able to ride (hopefully I can make it into my 80's) but these machines, with care, will keep running.  The other great thing about SOCH is we, elderly owners, can pass on the knowledge to younger people interested in these bikes.

My thought's about fairings are they are a good investment if you do long haul riding.  The Vettor fairing which is frame mounted is very stable.  I have no experience with that move with the steering head.

-P. 

[kyle750]

A good friend who is back in Germany sent me these photos today.  Old Gold Wing with Windjammer found in a barn. 

Late Edit:  No it can't possibly be.   Is that a pop-up cup holder in the gas tank?

[newday777]

A good friend who is back in Germany sent me these photos today.  Old Gold Wing with Windjammer found in a barn. 

Late Edit:  No it can't possibly be.   Is that a pop-up cup holder in the gas tank?

Not a cup holder.
Tool kit holder/tool tray is the official name.
The lid opens to fill gas and replace/clean the air cleaner

[HondaMan]

Everyone probably already knows this, but...I won't ride without a Windjammer anymore (or at least a Quicksilver, if I ever get my 350F running again). Mine has stopped so much wind blast, rain, sleet, HAIL (it was 4" diameter before I stopped!), crosswinds and just plain cold air that it's never been off my bike but for servicing something. When I got the bike, my former Honda mentor and close friend of Craig Vetter (Jim Chamberlain) asked if he could keep my OEM headlight for a spare part for other customers. I asked him, "What if I want to go back to riding without the Vetter?" - to which he [wisely] replied, "Won't happen, trust me." He was dead right. Every time I test-ride someone's bare CB750 that I just rebuilt, I hear Jim again...

[Don R]

 I put my large drink in the bottom of the left fairing pocket. Just unsnap the lower two snaps and tuck in the cover, it's handy but only when stopped.
 The "gas tank" is commonly called the shelter, since the actual tank is low under the front of the seat. To remove it you take the rear wheel off and it goes out the back.

 I don't think a Windjammer takes much more power to "push" than a naked bike, or
 a batwing fairing. I know I couldn't have done the four 14-hour days when I went to Sturgis and back twice without the Windjammer.
 I looked but did not find any evidence about drag co-efficient with and without fairings. 

[ZTatZAU]

   We used an air tool with a small abrasive wheel. Cover both sides of the area with good masking tape first. It will melt the plastic and load up the wheel, adjust speed accordingly.
   If you saw it, use a saber saw with the finest tooth blade you can find, coarse teeth are prone to breaking it. When done, sand the edge by hand to suit.

I've had the best results using a coping saw. The blades have very fine teeth, and it's smoother cutting by hand than with a saber saw, which can also melt the plastic, allowing it to weld back together behind the blade.

Thanks Don!  Thanks P!

I'll keep your suggestions in mind and do a little testing/experimenting first, if I decide to cut down my Wixom windscreen.

ZT

[HondaMan]

I put my large drink in the bottom of the left fairing pocket. Just unsnap the lower two snaps and tuck in the cover, it's handy but only when stopped.
 The "gas tank" is commonly called the shelter, since the actual tank is low under the front of the seat. To remove it you take the rear wheel off and it goes out the back.

 I don't think a Windjammer takes much more power to "push" than a naked bike, or
 a batwing fairing. I know I couldn't have done the four 14-hour days when I went to Sturgis and back twice without the Windjammer.
 I looked but did not find any evidence about drag co-efficient with and without fairings. 

Yep, the Windjammer was Craig's design following the Phantom, which was a full-length fairing with a big rectangular hole in front of the engine. It looked a little bit like a black sheet of plywood mounted to the front of the bike! The Windjammer was tested for fit on all the touring bikes of 1970 with the idea of the Lowers coming after he figured out how to make a zillion different frame mounts for the 'Jammer. The Lowers are much more universal, being notched out here and/or there for different bikes. Mostly they will fit any bike, but if they came from one different from yours you may need to add a notch here or there. Mine are 'customized' a bit because of something I have on mine that most don't, and because I have a 'Jammer from before they became numbered (like Windjammer II or III types), so the Lowers weren't guaranteed to fit. They are close, though.