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I purchased this bike last October and decided to add a cafe fairing, I looked all over and finally found one on ebay from Nationals Fiberglass in Ohio. Really nice gentleman who calls himself “Dude” actually manufactures these fairings, excellent quality! Just remember it is the fairing only, the mounting hardware and windscreen are up to you.
My first reaction was, what have I gotten myself into? I had never done anything like this before. I ordered the mount brackets for the Wes Cooley replica fairing that fits the 78-80 GS1000. As I said, I had never done anything like this so I asked lots of questions like how do you align something like this? How do you determine the spacing from the headlight? After getting many varied answers I finally determined that for me the best thing to do is create a standoff spacer for the headlight.
I quickly realized that the mount brackets I ordered would not fit, so as you can tell in the above picture I had to fabricate my own mounts. The lower brackets were fabricated by using angle aluminum while the welds of the upper mount brackets were cut then the mounting pad repositioned and re-welded. The original lower brackets I ordered ended up being used as templates for the correct angles then the pieces riveted together, there might be an easier way to do it but that’s what worked for me.
After mounting the fairing I drilled the dimples for the windscreen. I could not find rubber gasket material to put between the fairing and windscreen so I went to Lowes and found some rubberized shelf liner that I thought would work, and it did. I placed it on the fairing and trimmed it in place, leaving it taped to the fairing until I received the windscreen.
The windscreen I ordered from Gustaffson Plastics in Florida, http://www.bikescreen.com/proddetail.asp?prod=GreerGS1000S I also ordered the plastic mounting hardware AND the PLEXIGLASS DRILL BIT, I went to numerous hardware stores looking for a drill bit to drill my holes in the fairing and windscreen but no-one had it each and everyone of them tried to tell me that you can use any drill bit for drilling plexiglass but this is not true, if you drill plexiglass with the wrong bit YOU WILL crack or splinter the glass. I received the windscreen and associated parts then began drilling the holes in the glass, I removed the fairing from the bike and after careful measurement I marked the location of the center hole and drilled it, placed the screen on the fairing installed the center screw then marked the next hole, removed the screen and drilled it I repeated these steps mounting and removing the screen until all of the holes were drilled, it fit quite well.
Soon I will be painting the fairing to match the bike but before I do I have a couple of ideas I want to try that will make it unique. For starters I changed the handlebars and mirrors giving it more of a café style, I have a few more ideas before I am done.
I am posting this just in case anyone else is thinking of mounting a fairing having never done it before, this is what worked for me and maybe it will be helpful to you. I have many more pictures that I took throughout the process.
I have many more pictures that I wanted to post but unfortunately we are limited to the quantity of pictures that can be posted. I am willing to post more information or email pictures if someone is in need of info.
My first reaction was, what have I gotten myself into? I had never done anything like this before. I ordered the mount brackets for the Wes Cooley replica fairing that fits the 78-80 GS1000. As I said, I had never done anything like this so I asked lots of questions like how do you align something like this? How do you determine the spacing from the headlight? After getting many varied answers I finally determined that for me the best thing to do is create a standoff spacer for the headlight.
I quickly realized that the mount brackets I ordered would not fit, so as you can tell in the above picture I had to fabricate my own mounts. The lower brackets were fabricated by using angle aluminum while the welds of the upper mount brackets were cut then the mounting pad repositioned and re-welded. The original lower brackets I ordered ended up being used as templates for the correct angles then the pieces riveted together, there might be an easier way to do it but that’s what worked for me.
After mounting the fairing I drilled the dimples for the windscreen. I could not find rubber gasket material to put between the fairing and windscreen so I went to Lowes and found some rubberized shelf liner that I thought would work, and it did. I placed it on the fairing and trimmed it in place, leaving it taped to the fairing until I received the windscreen.
The windscreen I ordered from Gustaffson Plastics in Florida, http://www.bikescreen.com/proddetail.asp?prod=GreerGS1000S I also ordered the plastic mounting hardware AND the PLEXIGLASS DRILL BIT, I went to numerous hardware stores looking for a drill bit to drill my holes in the fairing and windscreen but no-one had it each and everyone of them tried to tell me that you can use any drill bit for drilling plexiglass but this is not true, if you drill plexiglass with the wrong bit YOU WILL crack or splinter the glass. I received the windscreen and associated parts then began drilling the holes in the glass, I removed the fairing from the bike and after careful measurement I marked the location of the center hole and drilled it, placed the screen on the fairing installed the center screw then marked the next hole, removed the screen and drilled it I repeated these steps mounting and removing the screen until all of the holes were drilled, it fit quite well.
Soon I will be painting the fairing to match the bike but before I do I have a couple of ideas I want to try that will make it unique. For starters I changed the handlebars and mirrors giving it more of a café style, I have a few more ideas before I am done.
I am posting this just in case anyone else is thinking of mounting a fairing having never done it before, this is what worked for me and maybe it will be helpful to you. I have many more pictures that I took throughout the process.
I have many more pictures that I wanted to post but unfortunately we are limited to the quantity of pictures that can be posted. I am willing to post more information or email pictures if someone is in need of info.
I know it is mounted now, but can you still get a side pic of what you attached to? How did you bend that angle iron into such a perfect circle? Is that a small metal working shop in the background?
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