Wind Deflector idea

[Guest]

I want/ need to make some kind of wind deflector for my bike that I can tuck down behind on the windy days. Any one have suggestions of a DIY one?

[BassCliff]

Hi,

For about $65 you can get a Slipstreamer Spitfire S-06 (deflector size). It's all I need for riding around Southern California. It's not too big, but just big enough. You can angle it back, like I do, to keep the wind blast and debris from hitting your chest area but leave your helmet in clean air. Or you can stand it up a little straighter to offer more room to get behind it for more protection. However, at the wrong angle, the airstream coming off the top of the shield can cause buffeting and noise at your helmet.

Some folks mount them in front of the gauges (on top of the headlight) and have it standing more or less the same angle as the forks. I prefer to put mine on top of the gauges and angle it back quite a bit.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[Ranger]

I want to angle it somewhat like a street bike, covering the gauges and some of my forearms so that I can tuck behind it just enough at higher speeds, like when I ride between Temecula and SD @ 85-100mph trying to keep up with traffic, without it standing out too much.

Do you have any websites where you would recommend finding one a little smaller than those?

[BassCliff]

Hi,

You can start at http://www.slipstreamer.com, http://www.nationalcycle.com, and http://www.maier-mfg.com, just to name a few. Windshields don't get much smaller than deflector size.



Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[Ranger]

Is there any plastics you recommend that are cheap, I think I'm going to use those as kind of a blueprint and try to make my own.

[Steve]

The plastic is not the difficult part. You can get acrylic or Lexan at Lowe's.

The difficult part is attaching it to the bike in a safe, secure manner.

.

[Ranger]

I'm actually starting a build. I have a new thread open for it. Any suggestions in there would be good.

[MikeJ]

For about $65 you can get a Slipstreamer Spitfire S-06 (deflector size). It's all I need for riding around Southern California. It's not too big, but just big enough.

+1 on the Slipstreamer idea, it's bigger than a bikini fairing, but smaller than a sport fairing and much smaller than a full touring fairing with batwings extended out to protect the grips at the bar ends.

I put one on my Honda VF700S Sabre as the flat bottom of the shield matches very nicely with the rectangular headlight bucket on that bike (but will also work with round headlights). They are available from numerous online discounters or on Ebay (My GS already came with a very nice, sport-size-with-wings, Shoei FM2 failring when I bought it).

You can angle it back, like I do, to keep the wind blast and debris from hitting your chest area but leave your helmet in clean air. Or you can stand it up a little straighter to offer more room to get behind it for more protection. However, at the wrong angle, the airstream coming off the top of the shield can cause buffeting and noise at your helmet.

The ideal angle to mount it at also depends on how tall you are. I'm 6'3", have mine mounted even a little more upright than the forks' rake angle, and I find little or no buffeting at helmet level.

Some folks mount them in front of the gauges (on top of the headlight) and have it standing more or less the same angle as the forks. I prefer to put mine on top of the gauges and angle it back quite a bit.

Glad that works for you, Cliff, but I would be concerned about flutter in the case of mounting it without having the bottom edge pressing down on the headlight bucket or summat, since otherwise it only has the 2 mounting points with the handlebar brackets. I guess you haven't found flutter to be a problem.

Anyway, its far too easy to do it this way for it to make any sense to cobble up a wind deflector from raw lexan stock. Then you still have to make (or find) appropriate brackets and mounting hardware. OTOH I guess you could contact the Slipstreamer foax and just order a set of their bracket hardware, then "bend your own" custom shield if you want to go that route.

[Buster-boy]

I had a Slipstreamer SS-28 on my old Honda CB450SC and it worked like a champ. Just enough to keep the blast off your chest but still get a breeze (and a few bugs) in your face. It was wide enough to cover your hands enough in the cooler months.