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Fairing Question? Looks or function?

jimfj

jimfj

Forum Mentor
I am wanting opinions of the cafe style half fairings for sale on Ebay or JC Wittney. I like the looks of them but am wondering if they have any real function? What type of effect and at what speeds.

The bike is a 79 GS425. I have installed a different set of handlebars that make me lean over the front wheel more than stock. Not clubman, but not upright either. This has improved the handling a great deal because it shifted more weight up front.

Basically I want something that looks cool and blocks some of the wind at highway speed. If it makes any difference I wear a full face helmet.

Thanks in advance,

Jim
 
Hey Jim...Lots of those lil bullet fairings will do a half decent job of keeping windblast off of your chest, which will make you less tired on long rides...
 
they do the job, in my experience. especially at higher speeds.
you do need to play with the adjustment a little so you get the optimum results.
the forward position of your handelbars should help too.
however, i don't like the looks most of the times and am looking at taking mine off, unless i'm off to a really long ride...
 
Any type of fairing will deflect some wind - even the small 750E-type fairing that just covered the guages offers some wind protection.

Surprisingly, the narrow windscreen on my 750ES fairing provides quite a bit of protection - way more than you'd think just by looking at it.

As for the cafe bubbles - they do a great job at deflecting wind from your body, and your head depending upon the height the fairing is mounted, and how tall the rider is. I ran one on my 750 for a bout a year, and it was a huuuge improvement over the standard "E" fairing

My advice is to buy some aftermarket universal headlight mounts. The brackets that come with the cafe fairing attach the fairing to the headlight mounting bolts. With the aftermarket headlight mounts, you can raise or lower the headlight allowing you to "fine-tune" the fairing height to improve the wind protection based on your height and riding position. As for me, I had no choice but to go with aftermarket headlight mounts - as my 750 had a square headlight (I used a spare light from my KZ while running the cafe fairing).

Depending on which fairing you buy, the optical quality of the windscreen can be really good. On my 750, I had the fairing mounted in just the right position that I could lay on my nicely stuffed tankbag, tucked behind the fairing and looking through the windscreen on long, straight stretches of superslab. Blocking the wind and wind noise can really help reduce fatigue on long trips.

I like the Maier screen - just be advised that some mfr's optics can be funky enough to distort your depth perception when tucked behind the fairing.

Give it a try, though - I think you'll like it. And you can't really go wrong for ~50 bux!

As for looks, I'd recommend getting chin "scoop" fairing to go along with that cafe fairing - really balances the look, IMO. You can get universal ones from JC Whitney and Maier - among other places.


-Q!
 
I have a quarter fairing on my bike and I love it. On those warm days in summer it gives just the right amount of breeze on your body verses wind deflection to keep you comfortable. Also the faster you go the more wind deflection the fairing gives. At 110 km and above there is virtually total wind deflection, Ted
 
knotzilla said:
I have a quarter fairing on my bike and I love it. On those warm days in summer it gives just the right amount of breeze on your body verses wind deflection to keep you comfortable. Also the faster you go the more wind deflection the fairing gives. At 110 kand above there is virtually total wind deflection, Ted
Click to expand...

I woulda swore it was 8track's bike in your sig when I clicked on the pic.... Guess that's a popular paint scheme
 
jimfj said:
I am wanting opinions of the cafe style half fairings for sale on Ebay or JC Wittney. I like the looks of them but am wondering if they have any real function? What type of effect and at what speeds.

The bike is a 79 GS425. I have installed a different set of handlebars that make me lean over the front wheel more than stock. Not clubman, but not upright either. This has improved the handling a great deal because it shifted more weight up front.

Basically I want something that looks cool and blocks some of the wind at highway speed. If it makes any difference I wear a full face helmet.

Thanks in advance,

Jim
Click to expand...
This is the one I used:
<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd180/ericzx7/GS700E/Street-Fighter-no-Signals.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"></a>

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd180/ericzx7/GS700E/DSC01620.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"></a>

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd180/ericzx7/GS700E/DSC01610.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"></a>

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd180/ericzx7/GS700E/DSC01607.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"></a>

As you can see, I had to fab brackets for it. Decided to mount to the bottom of the bolts on the Guage mount.
It's on a GS700E by the way.
 
fairing options

fairing options

ericzx7, that is a cool fairing. Where did you get it?

I have been planning to put buy this fairing on my GS1000. It is distributed by Hap Jones and available from 1977 Mopeds. Also available from Speed Moto. As far as I can tell it is different than the Emgo/Viper cafe fairings, but I can't be sure. It is $55-$60 plus shipping.

Maier seems to make nice stuff but their website doesn't make it easy to find stuff for a vintage bike.

Regards,
Lyle
 
Think you'll find that's the same as the Emgo one with the 7" hole.

Eric's one came from Ebay, have a look at the thread he put up called "my wife's bike" or similar.

Dan :)
 
Thank you all for the advise and opinions. Based on research, my wallet and what you all have said I am thinking the Ebay $55.00 route is the one I'm going to go with. I will probably change out the stock front signals for something a little sleeker.

I rode a friend's GFS600 Bandit for a couple of days after replacing his stock windscreen with a taller aftermarket one and it made a huuuuge difference. The bandit at 70 feels like my bike at 45-50. I don't know how you guys survive the highway with nothing to cut the wind. I realize the GS425 is on the smaller side of what most of you ride but I am just getting beat up and freezing my stones off with no wind blockage.

Jim
 
I dunno what size a guy you are, but do be aware of this when using a fairing, especially one with a good sized windscreen.

i have a KZ440. Little bike, im a big, tall guy. Bike has a short wheel base. I had a lil windscreen on it, and at highway speed, with my weight over center, and the short wheelbase, the front end became VERY twitchy, especially in a cross wind or a windy day. It was at times very disconcerting, and i would find myself leaning forward, and pushing weight to the front of the bike to smooth things out.

Keep in mind tho, that as i said, im tall and i weigh 260 pounds. That lil KZ weight 380. So im twothirds that bikes weight and pushed back pretty near the rear wheel. Dunno how the GS is set up compared to that.
 
They look great and help out with the wind, too. I had the Maier on mine for years.
It finally developed some cracks, so I got an Emgo. I haven't installed it yet.
 
I regularly ride a ZRX which has a bikini fairing with a stock windscreen. At 40mph and above I get a concentrated blast of air about an inch or so below the collarbone (I'm 5'8"). Much of the blast comes up into my face behind the faceshield. To be honest I think that the fairing makes the wind worse - my GS is much more comfortable at highway speeds as far as wind is concerned. On the Rex the fairing is just for looks, maybe at the expense of function.
 
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I have an old Emgo on my 1000G. Absolutly love it bike is super smooth all the way to redline in fifth! (once I install this 140mph speedo I'll know how fast that is.)\\:D/
 
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