Are there any recommendations on headlight shells/covers.

Looking for one that rises high enough to cover GPS and also divert wind off my chest

Similiar to Africa Twins.

[This message has been edited by gwc (edited 06 September 2005).]

I've been using a Givi windshield on mine. It clamps onto the handlebars, making it easy to remove when I take my bike for dedicated dirt trips.

This is something I've been working on recently, it's an alloy light fairing that will replace the existing fairing. The plan is to fit a lid and lock to the back, making a small glovebox. I am not totally taken with the angles on this model though. If you're the jobbing type, I could supply the plans for this.



It's basically an alloy copy of a plastic fairing that I've seen on the net. Not quite sure where you'd find them, but Chris Scott had one on his bike.

Cheers,
Matt

My XR650L site

[This message has been edited by mattmbishop (edited 07 September 2005).]

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Matt
Do you mean aluminum with alloy?
Be carefull with that,remember what happend with the inventor of the Guillotin.
I think this could be done with a strong plexiglass.(for security)
Good luck on your design.
Keep us posted.
I am riding mine without but....
KH

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I've got a XR 650L and am thinking about the same thing.Have a look at this web site www.simpson-detour.co.uk the have twin headlights and surrounds,hope this helps.
Rob

Take a piece of lexan (polycarbonate) and bend using a hot air paint stripper. Then drill holes to fit using existing headlight bolts. Unless you bend the lexan in a completely dry atmosphere, you will get a few bubbles at the bends, but these are not significant.

ps

I'd show you guys a pic, but don't know how to add one. How do I do this?

pps

You can do the same with polypropylene, as I have done. Again, if I could show you a pick then you could see the results of the technique on my XR.


[This message has been edited by Cugel (edited 31 October 2005).]

[This message has been edited by Cugel (edited 31 October 2005).]

I'd be interested to see your Lexan windshield, Cugel.

You can't post a picture to this forum, but you can use html to link to a picture somewhere else on the internet. You'd need webspace somewhere to do this and then just add the html to your post. The code is [img src="http://www.domain.com/image.jpg" /](you need to replace the square brackets with arrow brackets for this to work)

If you can't do this, email the photo to me and I'll post it, matthew(at)sec(dot)co(dot)nz.



[This message has been edited by mattmbishop (edited 01 November 2005).]

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Posted on behalf of Cugel:

"The pic with my bike acting as a washing line shows my first attempt at making a tough & light windscreen. I used it last year in Morocco.



I got a sheet of 3mm lexan, marked up the bends I wanted and got to work with a hot air paint stripper. You need a big wooden jawed vise and some thick cloth gloves to make the bends. I used a Black and Decker workmate. Make sure you clean up the jaws or all the muck gets transferred to the plastic. Put the lexan sheet in the vice, with the required bend line just exposed above the wood surface of the workmate. Blast away in a steady sweep along the bend line. The lexan will start to bend by itself due to the temperature gradient from front to back. Keep on heating until its soft and easy to move. You will get some bubbles in the lexan at this point, but these are not too bad. When its soft enough, bend to the required amount and hold until its cooled. Practice on some scrap before you have a go at a big piece. What you end up with is very tough and very safe compared to acrylic. The latter shatters easily - its very brittle. I hit a massive pothole in the Atlas last year. I nearly went over the bars.
I bent the lexan screen through about 70/80 degrees, and it bounced back with just a few stress cracks.

I made a headlight shield using the same technique.

This year I wanted a bigger screen that was tougher, and gave me some shading for the gps and clocks. I bought a sheet of 3mm polypropylene. Same technique, but I noticed that I had to be more careful with the heat gun because of the lower melting point. The lower melting point was very useful, as it meant I could tweak the shape with my gloved hands.

The new shield appears in all the other pics. I built an adjustable mount for it so I could vary the rake. This was made from 3mm alloy.







By the way, if you are feeling keen you can drape-form or vac-form both lexan and polypropylene - however, its going to take longer to make up the kit.

Other points to note:

I wanted to try to keep the airflow laminar where possible, so I built the screen about 1" proud of the original XR screen. Thus a bleed of air anchors the flow for a bit longer at the top of the screen and helps reduce buffet.

The screen is attached to the alloy mount via some rubber nuts. These pop out in a hard crash.

The result:

The new poly screen is good at reducing higher frequency wind noise - its just not there anymore. However, thus means that I'm now more concious of the remaining low frequency buffeting. The latter penetrates earplugs and is a real balls ache. So I'm still not there yet.

What do you guys think of my hibscus stickers?"


Nice bike, and I think the stickers certainly improve the final product.

[This message has been edited by mattmbishop (edited 04 November 2005).]

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Flower power maaaan,it's the way forward!
By the way,a possible source of free polypropelene is from a builders merchants.Apparently it's used as protection for the large sheets of plasterboard/Celutex/some other board that i can't remember the name of.The 8' - 4' sheet i got my hands on years ago is nearly gone now,so if i find out exactly what it acts as protection for,i'll post here...

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Just going for a short ride on my bike....

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Just going for a short ride on my bike....