Need help figuring how to mount a DIY motorcycle type fairing...
 

I saw the job one member did with a Suzuki racer nose but I want this to be removable and not alter the bike with welding, cutting...in other words...

How are motorocycle fairings like Vetters and such mounted on a MOTORCYCLE and how does it translate into a design I can build myself and use without mounting trailing arms to the axle as originally planned?

I want to make it free of the forks and larger than the basket size would've dictated and without using a modfied basket with a side or two removed or cut open, and I haven't had much luck yet searching for info from those of you that have actually built anyhing like it.

I am NOT building a snowmobile wedge but an honest to goodness personal design of a lightweight fairing like a newer Vetter and with a cut down Vetter windshield. I will draw the make a photo of my ideas but I could use some help to get much further.

I have paint for the bike but I'm holding off on the green until I have the fairing figured out as it shares some color themes with the rear fender!

Images of the fairing and bike would be a good start....

Windwrap and Mueller make fairings for bicycles, they usually mount on the forks and handlebars (and turn with the handlebars).

I have not seen any bicycle front fairings that mount to the frame and don't turn, unless it was for a full fairing (covering the entire bicycle).

From the discussions in the utility bicycling forum, there is one company that makes a bolt-on front mount stationary rack; I have seen photos in the utility forum. The shop that sells the Dutch bikes in Oregon is where I think they said they got it from.
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http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q...e/photo024.jpg
This is the bike I customized with the Suzuki GS fairing. Thanks for paying attention.
The fairing is held on by bolts. It can be removed, but at this point, I've added lights, and all the light (toggle) switches are on the fairing.
This bike has a heavy-duty rack which is fiberglass, and is permantently attached to the head-tube.

Have you looked at a late model (e.g.2003) Suzuki Hyabusa? The fairing is mounted to the fuel tank, left and right.


There is more than one way to mount a fairing. You could put shoelaces through the bolt holes and tie it to the handlebars.

Here's a motor-trike I saw in Greece:
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q...e/15090014.jpg

From my archives, I have dug up this dot-matrix document (circa 1987):
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q...ColorCover.jpg
I took two pipes, each six feet long, and strapped them to the top tube with stainless steel hose clamps.
(five clamps per side, each two inch diameter) I suggest steel pipes, as the aluminum pipes I used originally broke from fatigue after six thousand miles.
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q...00000010-4.jpg
This photo shows a completed bike, and another in the background with a pipe strapped to the top tube.

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q...00000024-4.jpg
My Daughter Mellisa designed this "Fiberglass Ladies Bicycle". The pipes could not be bent to fit a ladies bike, so she said to make a fiberglass piece by casting. The fiberglass piece is like a 4"x6" piece of lumber, but it has an offset bend to allow a step-thru frame. Mellisa also designed the fairing, which is based on a Kenworth truck spoiler.

That one is a bit closer and I am wanting a LARGE one along that line but able to hold a small 12V battery, Delco stereo and 2 5" speakers plus a discman and some small cargo, relay, switches and a locking door that keeps things safe from the weather and theft. My forks are hardly that big of course. I don't want a fairing setup beyong the handlebars...it's based on old-school seventies motorcycles and goes on from there.

The bike is Tempest the Rollfast in my avatar, to answer the reader that asked.

Start with a 6" piece of angle iron in front of the head tube, then locate two u-clamps to hold said angle iron in place. Use this as a foundation for your fixing points You might want something similar coming off the down tube as well depending on the size of your fairing.

The 12 volt battery is going to make it or break it. A 12 volt 7 amp/hour battery weighs about five pounds. And most of that weight is lead.

It looks like your bike has a curved top tube, so the method of strapping pipes to it may not work.

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q...e/photo023.jpg
Here's a closeup of the battery. In this photo I have a 12v 12 amp/hour, but I have swopped it with a 12v 7 a/h to save weight.

The whole bike presently weighs at least 30 lbs and I load it past 50 once in a while already. I am comfortable getting along with a load...I have some pics to post on that if I haven't already of when I brought groceries and the supplies for covering the windows, and they would show you I'm no rank amateur at loading anything.

The old Vetter fairings that I worked with used welded up brackets that were pretty much tailored to your motorcycle model. The bracket attached to the frame down tubes at four points with steel hose clamps. The mounting surfaces were short lengths of steel tubing split lengthwise that hugged the frame tubes. If I recall correctly, an angle iron frame was welded to these split tubes and drilled to match standard mounting points on the fairing. Most Vetter fairings would fit a wide range of motorcycles by using the proper bracket for each motorcycle model. Since bicycles are basically two dimensional, it might be difficult to achieve sufficient triangulation to support a fairing in the same manner.

How about?

Clamping around the top of the fork (where there are two-three fins beneath the fork cap) as it would be easy to use those gaps 360 deg to lock on? Then I can build the top in two pieces so that the windshield and top remove and show the exposed handlebar clamping for installation and removal. The joint goes down for the top and seals, and the bottom clamp is sealed off also.

Now, while I'm here I have what I hope is a simple question...on the matter of a flasher module, what is the difference between THERMAL and electronic flasher units other than the price? I bought a two-terminal thermal unit capable of handling all my 12V lights (up to six lights).

Thermal flashers (I have one on my bike) are a neat invention. I took one apart once , so I know why it's called a "thermal" flasher.
Inside the small metal can, there is a small bi-metalic strip. (Bimetalic strips have two metal strips, one is steel and one is brass) Bimetallic strips are used in thermostats all over the world.
The bimetalic strip is wrapped with asbestos (very tiny amount), and a piece of heater wire is wrapped around the bimetallic strip, insulated by the asbestos. (The wire in nichrome, nickel-chrome alloy, and as fine as a human hair, about four inches long when unraveled).
There is also a contactor. When the current comes on, the electrity flows through the nichrome wire. The bimetalic strip gets hot, and since brass and steel don't expand at the same rate, the bimetalic strip bends, and the attached contactor opens the circuit.
The bimetalic strip cools off in about one second, and the contactor closes again, and then heats up again , closing the circuit. And it repeats as long as the switch is turned on, making that familiar "click-clink,click-clink,click-clink..."sound.

I took a thermal flaher apart to see how it works.
I have no idea how the elctronic flasher works.

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q...00000017-1.jpg

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q...00000013-1.jpg

Photos of an earlier prototype, showing the aluminum mounting brakets.

Hope this helps.

Yes, it certainly does!

Okay, try this crude design to start...