Installation Day

I waited until Saturday morning to start the installation so that I could read the instructions first and so I would have plenty of time to finish the job. Friday night I read the instructions carefully...and due to the English I mentioned earlier that took a while. After reading the instructions, I felt that if the brackets matched up with those on the motorcycle and the wiring didn't give me too much trouble, I might just finish before the heat reached 100 degrees.

Due to the fact that the windshield was after market...even though installed by the dealer before I purchased it...I wasn't totally confident that they would be considered "factory" and therefore I had some doubt that the fairing would go on without difficulty. Besides the potential bracket problem, I was also concerned about the wiring. Electricity is not my forte so after seeing all the wiring in the package, I was a little nervous. Also, the last time I added something to the motorcycle's electrical system...driving lights for the trip to Washington...it drained the battery when I first used them. Would the fairing cause the same problem? Time would tell.

Saturday morning I got up pretty early, had a little breakfast, read the paper...probably subconsciously putting off what I thought was going to be a real headache...and went out to the garage. I opened the garage door and pushed the motorcycle out on the driveway so I would have plenty of room to work.

I turned on a couple of fans and aimed at my work area...now I was ready to begin work. The first task was to remove the old windshield...which I had done on numerous occasions. I put the windshield aside, making sure the hardware was safely set aside as well. Before going any further, I took part of the mounting system for the old windshield...that chrome pieces that connected the top and bottom mounting bolts...and measured it against the new brackets. The new brackets were slotted...just as the chrome piece I was measuring with...so it looked like they were going to fit well.

Following the instructions, I mounted the brackets to the fairing. I measured the distance between the brackets and then measured the distance across the front of the motorcycle from one mounting hole to the other... I was about 4 inches short...well, not me, the distance between brackets.

I quickly discovered that I had turned the brackets the wrong way when mounting. Good thing there was only two ways to mount them so I didn't have to keep playing a guessing game with them. I flipped them over and remeasured...the distance was perfect.

Now, only one more thing to do before mounting the fairing...installing the windshield. I took the three screws out and slipped the windshield in between the front and back half of the fairing...leaving the protective paper on the Plexiglas to protect it. After securing the windshield and tightening the screws, I carefully placed the fairing on the bike and matched the brackets with the mounting holes...a near perfect match!

I carefully tightened the bolts, adjusting the height of the fairing as I went. Ten minutes later, the fairing was installed...now the hard part.

Before proceeding to the wiring, I decided to ride down to the end of the street and back to see if I could tell any difference. I started peeling the paper off the windshield and discovered that I had to take the fairing apart again because the paper between the two halves of the fairing wouldn't come out...and it showed somewhat. This little step wasn't covered in the instructions...guess I should have used a little common sense. Well, no harm, no foul.

I jumped on the bike and started down the street. Good thing Sharon was still asleep because I didn't wear my helmet and I had shorts and a tank top on. Anyway, I couldn't tell any difference, except that I was now looking over the windshield and not through it.

After getting back to the house, I pulled out the instructions and reviewed the instructions for wiring the harness up. It seemed pretty easy...red wire goes to the positive side, black wire goes to the negative. The brown wire had two options...option one, wire it to the positive terminal; option two, wire it into the accessory side of the on/off switch.

I really wanted to wire the electronics into an accessory wire but I was unwilling to mess with the on/off switch. I had been told not long ago that there was always a spare wire in the headlight that you could hook onto so I decided to try it. Of course, nothing is easy...I had to take the turn signal bar off to gain access to the screws on either side of the headlight. I peered inside and all I saw was a bunch of wires...all connected. Not really knowing what I was doing, I quickly closed up the headlight and decided to wire the brown wire into the positive terminal of the battery. The challenge would be to always remember to turn off the radio/CD player because if I didn't, the battery would be dead in a heart beat.

The instructions wisely recommended checking to see if everything was connected before putting everything back together. I hooked the wiring harness from the fairing to the wiring harness from the bike...and NOTHING! What could I have possibly messed up...it was too simple. I realized that I had spliced brown wire to the red wire...up stream from the fuse...using one of those little plastic connectors where you put the two wires in and push the cap down, making the connection. I decided perhaps I had not pushed down on the cap hard enough. I got a pair of pliers and gave the cap a real good squeeze. I then rechecked the connection between the fairing and the bike...making sure I had the "arrows" lined up. This time when I pushed the on button...IT WORKED!

I couldn't believe it. I had installed the new fairing and had it wired up in less than 2 hours. I figured it would take me all morning...and then some. I was ready to ride...except the fact that I didn't know how to make everything work. The AM/FM radio wasn't tuned to any channel I could receive and the GPS still needed to be set up, but I bet the CD player would work.

I decided to take it out for a good test ride. I changed clothes, grabbed a CD and took off. I started off down the highway at 70mph. The wind noise was still there but the wind was hitting me from different angles than before...in other words, the new fairing was not keeping all the wind off me. Of course, considering the windshield was significantly shorter than the previous one, I did not expect it would. After a few miles on the highway, I exited and found a good Farm-to-Market road and turned the volume up. The speakers worked pretty well...although I didn't turn the volume up as much as I could have. The music does distract me a bit so I'll have to watch when I'm listening.

The GPS screen was a bit dark...until I realized it was set for night. I pulled over and played with it a little and finally figured out how to change night to day...then it worked good. Now, I need to read the instructions and learn how to use it.

Looks like I have a lot of reading and experimenting to do before I'm proficient with the new equipment. I'll be glad when the temperature drops below the century mark so I can ride longer distances without feeling like I'm going to have a heat stroke.

I'm pleased that the installation didn't take me as long as I had thought it was going to. I'm also pleased that I didn't have any big roadblocks with the installation. It's nice to be able to tackle a task like this and be successful. It almost makes you think you are a mechanic...NOT!

If anyone has any questions about installing a fairing...don't call me. If you have any problems, you probably ought to follow the recommendations of the manufacturer...which I didn't...have a professional do the installation. Good luck!

It's Here!

My fairing finally came today. The box wasn't near as large as I thought it was going to be. After receiving a call from the DHL delivery man, I went home at lunch and moved it into the house for safekeeping.

After work, I hurried home, changed clothes and headed out to the garage. Before I could even think about opening the box...a fiberglass case actually...I had to clean up a mess on my makeshift workbench...a piece of plywood on sawhorses.

It only took me about 20 minutes to clear space and then I hoisted the case onto the bench and began to unwrap my present. Carefully, I peeled away the wrapping and peeked inside. I have been very apprehensive about whether or not the paint was going to match. Last year when I ordered touch-up paint from Color-Rite and it turned out to be much too dark. However, the new fairing is a perfect match for the motorcycle...it's going to look like it came that way from the factory.

It didn't take long to get all the wrapping off have the fairing carefully placed on a blanket. I then began to unwrap the various connectors and wiring bundles that are required to make everything work. That's when I decided that reading the installation manual might be a good idea. I know that the typical male usually just jumps in and starts putting things together...and I'm nothing if not your typical male. However, in this case, I decided to be atypical.

Reading the installation instructions is a hoot. The fairing came from Hong Kong...or somewhere over there. Anyway, the English is pretty good, considering the source, but the sentence structure and use of words is amusing. At least it isn't too hard to understand the meaning.

I've now read the instructions and the basic installation doesn't seem too difficult. However, the wiring may be a different story. Phase two of the installation...mounting the fairing to the bike...is next. I will probably wait until Saturday morning to begin that process.

If anyone wants to come down and lend a hand, there's still time to make it...come on down.

No, it isn't here yet!

I keep hoping that the fairing will show up soon but in reality, it probably won't be until at least mid-August. I guess I'm not in a particular hurry to have to work in a 100 degree garage, but I am anxious to have it installed and see how it works.

Last night, I rode down to Montgomery for a meeting and the whole time I'm imagining what riding with the fairing...music blaring...is going to feel like. I might even plan another trip somewhere just to check it out. September and October are still good riding months and there's plenty of biker rallies around the State to pick from. I'll definitely have to find one or two to visit.

Actually, my riding group has decided that we will participate in the Lone Star Rally in Galveston this year. We're teaming up with Chapter 2 in Houston to man a table so that's one trip already on the calendar...November 4-7...and then the next week is the annual Texas Honor Ride, which runs from Houston to San Antonio.

Well, sitting around hoping the thing shows up on my doorstop isn't getting it here any faster so I guess I'm going to have to work on my patience. I'll be sure to let you know the minute it shows up...with pictures.

Waiting patiently

Yea, right! I'm waiting, but not very patiently. It's taken me almost two years to get up the courage to spend the money on a fairing for my Vulcan 2000 and now that I have, I want it here now. Unfortunately, I won't see it until at least the middle of August...maybe later. Once the company received the order, they custom make it based on my desires, then they have to paint it to match...an option I paid for extra.

Over the past year, I toyed with the idea of selling or trading my existing motorcycle in on one that is set up for touring...meaning, it's got a fairing, radio, cd player, speakers, perhaps GPS, etc. However, once I heard what most of the dealers were going to give me for my motorcycle, I decided it would be much cheaper to keep it and add the fairing. The $2000 or $3000 that I would lose on the trade in more than paid for the new fairing by the way.

Choosing a fairing wasn't an easy task either. There are several vendors out there but as it turned out, only two of them offer a fairing for my particular motorcycle. Once the vendors were reduced to only two, the decision making became easier but by no means easy. Each vendor had multiple models from which to choose so I had to do a little research.

After many visits to each website, as well as reading some other biker's opinion on a few forums, I made my decision. I ordered the top of the line fairing from a company names Tsukayu...no, it's not American, but what can you do if there isn't a company in America that makes fairings for metric motorcycles.

My new fairing will have a GPS, AM/FM/CD player, plug in for I-Pod, bluetooth phone capability, SD card slot and 6" X 9" marine-grade speakers...should be enough electronics to keep me satisfied for a while. Oh, did I mention that the radio is wired for sirius radio in case you decide to add it on later?

I'll add a picture here at a later date of a similar bike with the fairing installed and painted to match. Hard bags from this same vendor have also been installed. I think it looks pretty good.

I thought I would allow you to follow along as I attempt to install the fairing on my motorcycle. I'm sure it is not going to be as easy as advertised. I hope it is...but I'm mentally preparing for the worst.

More later...