Anyone Make Their Own Windshield?

[knotscott]

The title says it all....I'd love to see what you've come up with.

[sxrupert8]

Bump. Anyone? I've seen some custom made windshield made of lexan or plexiglass from other forums. Would love to see some shields for GS.

[wedoo2]

I guess that nobody has done this and I can see the problem. Heating and bending plexiglass would be hard to get right. I might have an easier time making one out of glass. I have an old Rooster fairing that needs a windshield and if I can find a fairing that is close I am going to try. If for nothing else to see if I can do it.

Youface has several videos that show guys bending acrylic, none of which is either perfect, or a cheap, way to do things.

[knotscott]

Let us know how you make out if you try it...

[Allie]

Someone around here made a 'sport fairing' out of a helmet, I can't remember who it was.

[Wingsconsin]

What is the point...? There are many choices available for under $150 if you look online. I own 2 different universal handlebar mount windscreens right now that I paid under $100 for each - brand new in the boxes - by watching Craigslist.

They work really well ...at least in my opinion.

[pete]

I did... bit of scrap aluminium and a piece of "smoked" acrylic perspex off eBay means it cost me about $20 and a bit of labour.

I had seen one that was perfect for what I wanted, but when I went to buy it they had stopped importing them, and the shipping costs from the UK made it waaaaaaaaaaaay too expensive, so I used the design for inspiration for mine.

I made a cardboard template of the shape I was looking for and I used things like a sauce pan lid, my headlight grill, electrical tape, etc. to join different size circles together:





I transferred the template onto the perspex, cut it out with a jigsaw being very very careful to keep both sides of the perspex supported and only to move the jigsaw very slowly so as not to split the perspex.

I had a pretty good guestimate of where the mounting holes needed to be before bending it:



I had my old bikini fairing at the time which I used as the surface to curve it:





I just used a heat gun and some welding gloves to protect my fingers, you just need to ensure the entire area of the perspex is heated evenly:



My design for the brackets:





I stuck some rubber on the mounting surfaces for the screen to protect the perspex:



And there it is:

[pete]

It simply mounts via the headlight ears and I used some stainless allen head bolts with nylock nuts to mount the screen to the mounts.





One issue I did encounter is that after about six months or so, the vibrations caused one of the aluminium mounts to break. Aluminium is easily split and broken by flexing, and I had used 0.8mm aluminium which was too thin.

I simply added a second layer to a new set of brackets for double thickness and now it doesn't even vibrate at all.

I'm quite amazed at how much wind is deflected by such a small flyscreen and I'm very glad I made it.

[gustovh]

Nice job and looks good.
V

[knotscott]

Very cool.

[Grimly]

Not a full windshield as such, but when a stupid neighbour backed into my bike and the resulting topple over smashed my windshield, I 'glassed the bottom together and made a replacement top section from a piece of polycarbonate. Much more forgiving to work with than perspex.

[pete]

Cheers guys, I'm pretty happy with the end result and it's lasted very well so far although my wee little beastie struggles to get up to 140kph in the wind... haha... and not that I would ever go that fast on a public road though of course!

Grimly: In my case the perspex was easy because all I needed to do was cut it and give it a simple curve... I would imagine a repair job would be so much easier using fibreglass as you say... a perspex repair would make my head hurt...

[Gorminrider]

If you make one, the bigger it is, the more carefully it must be made symmetrical. You don't want a wobble at speed....
Even to buy one, a lot of the cheapie one-size-fits-all bolt-ons make me nervous because they are maybe too adjustable.

I made one from a windjammer fairing's windscreen-nice and tall- but I would not ride awful fast with it, when it is on.

[Larry D]

If anyone wants to do this with a GK windshield, I have a nice template that I made. I was going to make one at the time, but, my lovely wife surprised me and bought an aftermarket one. Heck....I even still have the old windshield too.

[argonsagas]

The title says it all....I'd love to see what you've come up with.

You can use 1/8 plexiglass or similar thickness lucite, but plexiglass stands up better in sunlight. Some will recommend 3/16 or even thicker material but when I wanted it I could not find 3/16 and used .122 on the GK and it was good at indicated 120 MPH, I have since done it on my Bandit with 3 inches taller than stock, and there is no problem at 140, so it should should be OK on yours as well.




All you need to do is take the old one and create a template by placing it on a sheet of cardboard, press flat, then trace around it. add about 1/4 inch all round to allow for trimming afterward and any edge grazing that might occur.


Cut it out with a spin saw or a fine-blade jigsaw.

Do NOT remove the protective covering.


Place it flat on boards that provide space for the blade to extend through and go ahead.
Put some sheets of cloth across the boards to cushion the plastic, and protect it from scratches.

Take your time with the cuts as too fast will clog the teeth and may catch and break the edge.

Once cut, use the original one to locate the mounting holes and use a marker to mark the centre.

Drill with a l small, then larger bit size and use SHARP bits to avoid them grabbing the material and damaging it.


All done.

Now take it to its final shape it with a belt sander, using fine or ultra-fine grit only. USE LIGHT PRESSURE AND TAKE YOUR TIME....a belt sander can very quickly take off a lot of material.

Patience yields a nice reward: you will end up with a clean edge and it can also be rounded with the sander and look professional.


Bolt the new windshield into place and then peel off the protective coating.


ready to ride.