Mirrors on Windjammer IV?
GWRRA Message Board Archives: may2001: Mirrors on Windjammer IV?
Has anyone tried putting mirrors on the front of a Windjammer IV Fairing? I would like to get rid of the mirrors on the handlebars and if possible put mirrors on the front of the fairing, much like the later Interstate/Aspencade models. I do see that there is quite a bit of shake in the fairing, especially when on bad roads (and we all know how many of them there are). I just would like to be sure that the mirrors would be functional if I did install them.
I also think that by mounting the mirrors on the fairing, that the bike cover would fit better and I would not have to readjust the present mirrors everytime that I remove the cover.
Thanx in advance:
Michael "Doc" Willey
Way back in my gl1000 era we all ran with vetter fairings. We welded an 1/8" plate to the outside lower mount arms and boxed in the cross L bracket brace in an attempt to stop the shaking.
Seems to me I remember seeing gl1100 interstate mirrors mounted on vetter fairings also.
Gl1100 vetter fairing mount brackets came with shorter side mount tubular arms vrs the gl1000 mounts.
CWN
Question to Jeff:
I have GL1100 fairing mirrors on my Windjammer IV, and they do have quite a bit of shake. It's not enough to keep them from being functional, but it is annoying.
I've been mulling over how to stiffen up the fairing, and I'm interested in knowing how well your method worked.
What do you mean by 'outside lower mount arms' and 'the cross L bracket brace'?
Bryce
I would also, be interested in how the extra bracing was done to get rid of the shake in the fairing. If you have a diagram, please post or forward it. I have tried different Rubber isolators to replace the original ones that were dry rotted, and nothing seems to really work well. I am at the present looking at using rubber cushions from figure/dance roller skates, that have a fairly good durameter and should work better than the rubber faucet washers that I have at the present. I know that you can not install the fairing directly to the bracketry, as I tried that and the noise that came from it was un-godly.
Michael "Doc" Willey
Its been 20+ years since I last rode behind a vetter fairing but I'll try and stretch my memory bank here.
It is impossible to stop all the fluttering of these huge fairings that ride on a whimpy mount bracket nor would it be desirable as something needs to flex somewhat to prevent damage either to the fairing shell itself or the mount bracket.
The mount bracket is composed of a left and right side that clamps to the down frame. It is joined together by a middle 90 degree angle brace that the upper frame mount arms are welded to and attach to the upper frame with hose clamps.
We laid a piece of 1/8" flat stock over the tubular arms on the side mounts and scribed them to the tubular arms......then had them tack welded around the perimeter of the tube arms and to the bottom portion of the side mount bracket metal piece that the fairing sits upon.
We then took a piece of 1" angle iron to match the existing cross brace running in between the side mounts and welded this to form a box beam.
This stiffened up the mount bracket to a certain degree. How much ????? Hey. It was a long time ago you 2.
Vetter must of realized their fairing mount brackets could stand to be improved when they designed the gl1100 fairing bracket ?
Comparing the gl1000 mount bracket to the gl1100s I found the following changes.
Gl1000 brackets used 1/8" steel throughout and the tubular side mount arms were 8" long.
For the gl1100 bracket, vetter beefed up the size to 3/16" stock and shortened the side tubular mount arms to 4" long. This would seem to me to be an improvement over the gl1000 bracket.
In closing here. One item I always wanted to change but never did was using solid round stock in place of the hollow tubular arm metal vetter used on their side mounts.
The bottom line here is ! As with any other modification. One must find the weakest link in the chain to make it all work in harmony . I cannot say our method was perfect, but I have read of one wingers experience about riding down the road when his vetter bracket broke and the fairing dropped onto the fender.
CWN 
Thanks Jeff. I have been building a steel frame that fits inside my Vetter (I just noticed, it's a Windjammer V not a IV). Wondered if I could use some of your ideas too. Will let you know how it works out.
cheers
Bryce
P.S. good luck with yours too Doc
Hi Bryce....Lets get to work.. LOL
OK, I found one problem with the way that my Windjammer was mounted while installing my new set of lowers. The fairing was mounted directly to the frame that holds the fairing and had rubber washers under the heads of the bolts. This allowed the fairing to jump around a little bit. THAT WAS WHERE ALL THE NOISE WAS COMING FROM WHEN DRIVING DOWN THESE GOOD MICHIGAN ROADS (escuse the yelling).
What I did was made two isolation strips from garage door sweep material (for the header and sides). It is .120" thick and very plyable.
I cut two lengths the size of the mounts and used a sheet metal punch to cut the holes for the bolts. Then I glued them in place with a product called GOOP. After they were dry, I installed the fairing and lowers and took it for a ride.
BOY, what a difference. Same roads that used to knock the heck out of all the plastic, rode very steady and quiet. Also no more metal to composite banging noise coming from the fairing. I even found a really bad dirt road and the whole front end was quite.
I returned to the garage and found a small clamp on mirror (from one of the kids bicycle helmets) and installed it on the upper part of the windshield and went out again. There did not seem to be to much shake. So as soon as I can find a clean set of 80-81 IS/ASP mirrors, I will be putting them on.
BTW, thanks Jeff for bringing up the support system issue. It gave me a different way of looking at the mounting of the fairing. I am going to be looking at adding some more structural support in the future, however at the present I think that this will work.
Thanx to all:
Michael "Doc" Willey