Well, I can dream can't I? Why do you need a windtunnel? Great idea! Since I don't have a garage, would you mind doing this little project for me and the other inquiring minds here on the forum. Be sure to use a fan that generates at least a 60 mph wind while you are sitting on the bike. Shouldn't take too long. Oh yea, how 'bout some pics of the smoke flow patterns, too. It's not the prettiest but it's very functional in rainy and cold weather. The lowers are and old windshield cut to fit, with custom brackets holding it to the horn bracket on top and highway pegs on the bottom.
Don't be concerned too much with engine cooling when you're in hot weather, take a look at how some of the touring bikes are set up. I wouldn't recommend the lowers in weather above 85 degrees, which is why I have wingnuts so I can take them off and throw them in the saddle bags.
I ride a lot in the cold weather and my windshield helps keeps me on the road but only at slow speeds anything faster than 45 MPR is intolerable because of buffeting. I like the ideal of using softtail lowers but I'm curious if they can be used with Memphis Shades El Paso model.
Has anyone tried this particular set up? I was a lot like you were, running the H-D quick detach Compact windscreen. Mega improvement. Got rid of the strong updraft. Now I only buffet when freeway traffic causes a lot of turbulance when the air acts like a whitewater rapids.
I tried to find info on their website, they mention QD and regular hardware but I can't seem to get to the right area. I found the pictures of the lowers, but no info. Thank for the reply Lad. I was thinking about softtail lowers mainly from a financial standpoint. I think the softtail lowers can be had for sixty bucks or so on eBay. I don't know. I might have to head over to Home Depot and make my own.
I'm really watching my Penney's right now. Nothing is more discouraging than spending money you don't have,on parts that will not work. Doxbike I had the same problem with their web site. It seems to be real hard to figure out the hardware numbers that you need for their lowers.
Were you able to find them locally or did you have to go on-line. I tried to find info on their website, I was thinking They were purported to be 'quick detach' or whatever, but what I got required a Heck's head screw attachment. Not what I'd call "quick".
The dealer's mechanical men adapted them to fit. Later on one of the proprietary fastening screws backed out and escaped, so I had to send away to MS for a replacement. At first they shipped two of the wrong ones. Finally they shipped eight of the correct ones.
Memphis Shades tried hard to do the right thing. In the 80s I had a Yamaha Seca with the factory installed fairing. That was the best aero setup I've ever had. I would blast along in still air with the speedo pinned. On the other hand, I have a friend who rides this total rat rigid bobber. He toured last summer without a tent no way to carry stuff sleeping in abandoned sheds like a hobo.
I'm too old for that shite. Thanks for the help fellas. I ended up ordering lowers from Memphis Shades and the taller 19 inch wind screen.
So far I'm very happy with the results. Buffeting around town is gone. I have doubts about grinding away hour after hour on the highway. But I really haven't tested it yet. I will report back with a highway test after my next long ride,of coarse that my be a long time since I do very little real highway riding in the winter. I've had those homemade lowers on and off for a while now. See my Oct post for pics. They really help with the updraft , I can wear my Sombrero at 60 mph.
They DO increase the buffeting effects at speeds above 70 mph. Especially behind big trucks They don't seem to significantly affect engine temp , but then I take them off when it gets up to 60 degrees or so. I DON'T get it!!!!! You rather be driving a beetle than riding a sportster Here is the photo I forgot to include.
I have been wanting to make a set of lowers, wings or wind deflectors for awhile. Effie gets hot. I don't care about getting the wind off me, I don't use a windshield. I wanted to guide the air into the motor.
When I asked him about them he wasn't too impressed, said that he was not sure he would even put them back on for the IBR. So the air should come in one side and shoots straight through the engine compartment and back out the other side. Cindy, have you considered going with an oil cooler? Here in the Southwest I have found that the H-D oil cooler on my R has kept my engine temps down even on the hottest summer days.
I also run synthetic oil which helps. If you are concerned with reliability on those long hauls, you can install a mesh screen over the cooler and use flexible stainless steel oil lines. Here is what I did So I got to looking The bottom I used the soft side half of velcro folded in half, it just rides against the front fork. Smooth and no scratching Easy on and off, that 3M lock is tight. At 80 they are stable and I noticed lack of air flow on my chest from 40 up.
Calmed down the leg air too, smoother ride. BTW, the Lip works, looks OK enough that most never notice it, the lowers all but killed the buffet mess. Interesting, Steve. Do you have a pic of your Laminar Lip mounted on your QT windshield? Did the Lip help before adding the lowers?
Also, is the 3M Dual Lock you used the tape or circles? That Lip is real close to what mine looks like, mine has a strip attachments not the dots. It helped before the lowers. I can now ride with the windshield down lower without the ugly gap above the headlight. I tried the windshield tilted same angle as the forks, right now it's in it's stock position and seems fine.
Before the lowers I had a bunch of wind in my chest and up under my chin. With the lowers that is all but gone. Smooth at speeds to 80 so far. I like it. Seemed to kill the wind noise a lot. I wear a shorty and full, have not had the full on with em yet. The "lowers" used the circles.
Added a windshield bag HD does not list one but the Road King one works and it reduced the buffeting substantially. Took a mile ride last weekend. Lowers helped, nice addition. Took some wind noise out too. I found that I could move the Lip up about an inch and I was in an almost null area, but it added buffet to my wife. But the "lowers" worked out great. Only dow side, the smooth velcro I used on the lower dots, well it rubs the forks. Just took the clear coat off in a very small spot.
No big deal, not that noticable. Time to figure out a bracket from the wineshield lower mount down BTW, side note, I have some expensive headphones Klipsch Images for my iPod, they seal great, but do nuthing to control loud pipes. They let the lower frequincies in. I had my full face on, not so bad with my half lid. The only difference is my lowers are made of. I was worried because I have the HD turn signal relocation kit installed.
I used neoprene washers also from Home Depot between the acrylic sheet and the aluminum. The lowers are just in front of my turn signals. With my lowers being so thick, i. I didn't think to measure the shoulder bolts when I had it apart. Does anybody know the shoulder length of those bolts? With the extra thickness of aluminum the windshield mounts are not exactly correct.
McMaster-Carr has shoulder bolts but I'm not sure which bolts I need. If nobody knows that measurement right off the top of their head, I'll take one apart tomorrow and find out what is correct. Since it's going to be on there for awhile until I determine the best size and shape for the deflectors I want the windshield mounted correctly. I'm thinking that the rectangular shaped deflectors with their right angle corners cause some turbulence.
It seems to me that deflectors with rounded corners would work better. I'd also like to find a way to angle the deflectors so that they cause less turbulence. If I do that I'll have to cut holes for the turn signals to stick through.
I suppose I should say the my setup with 8" wide by 7" tall deflectors improved the turbulence coming up around the tank hugely. It's not gone completely but it's much better. Holding my hand in front of me it's easy to tell that there is much less upwards air flow. It used to be that I couldn't drive at 60 without my glasses vibrating so much that I couldn't see. Now I can drive at 70 with almost acceptable vibration. It's gotta be all in my head but the bike even seems to drive better.
Also, I used to have to lean way forward down over the tank to make the glasses stop vibrating. Now I can just lean forward a couple of inches and the glasses are dead steady.
I really don't think the turbulence is coming from air over the windshield. That air flow feels nice and smooth on top of my helmet. The air that's still coming up from below feels turbulent. The Bell was better with the sunshade visor removed. The Shoei was better with the sunshade visor on. Go figure. Other factors: I'm 6' tall with a 31" inseam. I also have this rather large gut that is probably affecting the airflow.
Check with www. I think the ones from National Cycle are less expensive, but I do not know about the quality. I now have a H-D Batwing fairing on the bike, but cannot install the windshield lowers because of clearanace issues - looking to resolve those.
I am in favor of windshield lowers - they do work. The Rifle lowers are what I was looking at. I just wanted to make sure that lowers would fix the problem for me before I pulled the trigger. With my lowers I have the air hitting my knee too. In fact the turbulence on the right side is worse then the turbulence on the left side because the air cleaner gets into the act.
My only concern about the Rifle lowers is that they clamp to the shock tubes below the lower triple tree mount reducing shock travel somewhat. I don't think my shocks have ever come up that far, but. I also think I'll have to cut the Rifle lowers to clear my turn signals. It's hard to tell from the pictures on their web site. I was thinking about trying to modify the Rifle lowers, somehow, so that the relocated turn signals and the Rifle deflectors both mount at the same place on the lower triple tree clamp.
I was under the impression that the batwing fairing mounted to the forks. Plexi cut 6 inch wide at begining and tapers down slowly until it gets to the back of the tank then comes to a point under the seat while turning downward.
Bend plexi with heat gun I Have not figured out a rigid mount for the rear so I just drilled holes and used zip ties at the rear and pulled both toward each other touches the frame. I painted the bottom of plexi to match tank and engine stills cools as intended. I was trying to come up with something along those same lines. I've been having to think about other stuff for the past week or so and haven't made any progress.
Can you post a picture or two? I posted the following idea on another forum here and got only one response. Anyone try this idea.
First the crash bars for the newer Sportsters are different than previous years, change in 06 maybe? The newer ones are curved at top and bottom while the older ones were more rectangular. My idea is to fasten lowers to the crash bar and a rectangular one would be easier to work with. I think the older bar will work on the newer models as the top bracket appears to be the same but the bottom one would have to be altered.
That's one idea. The second idea is to try and adapt the crash bar from one of the baggers, Road King, Electra Glide, etc. This bar is somewhat wider but wouldn't stick out farther than the foot pegs. Mounts would have to be made for the bottom since it's not a completely enclosed loop like the Sportster bars. Then you could fit the bagger lowers from HD. I'm not sure if the Sportster's front pipe would clear but think it would. No, I have not tried any of this because I've only been riding the Sportster and Harley for a couple of months.
Right now I don't have a good garage to work in. I made these lexan windshield lowers and vinyl engine guard chaps which were a great improvement for the buffeting. Just an update after about 5 months with the lowers on. It's now turning into the 90's here in sunny Fla. There is a huge difference.
I have a bone stock C with saddlebags and pizza box. Wind - The wind coming up from around the bottom is almost totally gone with the lowers on. I can ride with a ballcap on forwards at mph with no problem. The Bruce. Is it tall enough? You should be looking just a couple of inches over the shield. The lowers may be your fix. On my LC the wind was coming under the shield and around the faux tank which was causing the lifting turbulence on my head; lowers fixed it.
While riding, take your hand and move it around to determine where the wind is coming from. You may need a wider than stock shield, that's another option. The windshield is plenty tall.
I actually look thru it with a few inches to spare as I would rather look thru it than over it. I might try the lowers anyway. Here's an article that discusses the issues related to windshield height and a process on how to cut it down if that's what you need.
Click to expand The taller windshield is probably making a larger low pressure area behind it and the air is coming around the sides to fill it causing the buffeting. It looks something like this:. Lowers may help. But the ones National Cycle sells are pretty small and don't seem like they'd be very effective. Take a look at the ones from Rifle. At some point off the top of the windshield there is some smooth air, finding the sweet spot may not be easy or possible if the shield is too big.
Some cruiser riders end up with a huge upright wind dam they sit behind. Blocks all wind and mutes the sensation of riding. A vent would help to break the low pressure zone created on the backside of the windshield.
I added a 'wing style air vent on my stock windshield at it just about eliminated all the buffeting. Good luck. Mic said:. Morgan Buchanan. I have a friend with a near identical VTX, and we're nearly identical in height He likes the 21 a lot, and I think I vaguley prefer the If you don't have one, go to the local bike shop and they'll give you one from the trash.
Wrap the pieces of inner tube around the fork where the straps will go. I used Gorilla Tape to hold it in place. Since the part of teh fork above the mounting section was a slightly larger diameter, I had an approx. Your condition may vary. I could have added extra inner tube, but I chose to cut off sections of a rubber bungee strap to act as a spacer and cushion between the aluminum angle and the fork leg.
Clamp them on and adjust as necessary. Reply 2 years ago. I have made these lowers for my 08 c50t Love em That is a kick ass job my friend! I mean the lowers look great, your instructions were spot on and pics along the way were great. Very, very nice job on this project. Great job, looks professional, definitely going to do this on my Suzuki C50T, after riding this bike for a few weeks I knew I didn't like a windshield previous bikes had fairings no one makes lowers for C50T.
I've made your hand deflectors a couple years ago and love them; now I'm finding I need the knee deflectors too. Do you find that the thin Lexan does the job well enough? Reply 8 years ago on Step 6. Pretty, and smart. May I suggest that if You want it almost airtight against the fork, You may mount the Lexan on the outer side of the aluminium angle, with a full lenght metal strip between screw-head and Lexan to ease the mounting pressure? The inner side of the deflectors can be cut to fit around clamps and lower fork quite tight.
Great Job, Very good looking.. I did something like it on an old Suzuki "Water Buffalo". I mounted some house siding on the crashbars and then made a collector from the radiator to 2 3" hose run up into the Faring to bring heat up to my hands Made for much nicer winter riding.
Reply 9 years ago on Introduction. You should probably make a "How to survive motorcycling in 18 F " instructable, it could come really useful to me. Really man, how?
I agree with Tumunga. Full face helmet I usually ride with the shield open because I wear eyeglasses and they tend to fog up with the shield closed, even though I use anti-fogging coatings Motorcycle jacket Joe Rocket Alter Ego - best over top of polar fleece and dress shirt layers Overpants First Gear over dress pants layers Over-the-ankle boots Wool socks with dress pants tucked into them keep the wind from blowing up your pant legs I have heated Gerbing gloves.
All other gloves I have tried a lot didn't do it for me below like 28 degrees for my commute. They were either too bulky to use controls or didn't provide the warmth I needed. My commute is 40 minutes of stop and go, so lots of time on the brakes and clutch, hence, cold fingertips. Therefore,heated grips wouldn't work for me. Toes and finger tips are the extremities that are hardest to keep warm.
Thanks guys, and what about the tires? Do regular tires not get too hard and slippery at low temperatures? How I went the last time in too cold for me later : 2 bandanas, large one over the bottom of the face and neck, smaller one on the neck a vest, a shirt, a sweatshirt or something similar regular clothing and a normal motorcycle jacket double layer thermo pants not very thermo, only thin ones, so I do not cook myself during the day jeans, skiing pants regular socks, skiing thermo socks, regular trainers.
So your advice is appreciated, thanks.
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