Mounting Buell Fairing

oppy00 · December 30, 2004, 12:00:07 AM

Alrighty, I've searched, but can't find what I need. I know that to mount a buell fairing, without it lookin' stupid, I need to lengthen the brackets that hold my headlight. Someone who has done this please let me know how. Also I could use some help with making a bracket to attach the fairing to my bike. Just to let you know I'm in college (broke) and I don't have access to tools besides wrenches and a hammer. I've thought about going to a machine shop and getting some brackets made, but I thought I'd ask before I spent money and made a mistake. Any help is appreciated.

gs2sv · December 30, 2004, 12:46:49 AM

I mounted the fairing off a buell lightning (x1 type) and had to make some simple brackets. it's easy. go down to HD or Lwes and buy yourself a piece of flat metal strip (not sure what they are used for but they resemble a metal yardstick or something) they have different sizes i bought one that was about 1inch wide and 2 feet long. It's pretty thin and somewhat easy to bend. not easy enough to be bent by the wind though. take it home and measure the length of it that you need to make a mount. cut two strips of equal length. mark the two holes on each one to match the mounting holes on the fairing. then on the other end mark a hole large enough for your headlight bolts to go through. here is the hard part. drill the holes for the fairing bolts and mount the metal "brackets" loosely to the fairing. now use this as a guide to figure out the proper bend to mount atop the headlight. now remove them from the fairing, take a couple pairs of pliers and get to bending. it will take a while and they might get a bit scratched but no worries, you can hide the errors with paint. once you get the shape right recheck where you want your headlight bolt holes to be and drill those. now, file the edges neat and round and spray paint them black with some quickdry flat black paint and whola. your done. just mount up, this may take a bit of fiddlin. and your done. I have had this fairng mounted on the gs for quite a long time and it's held great.

it's hard to see them but the mounts were made exactly like this. it's sounds way more difficult than it really is. took less than 2 hours even with painting. all you need is two pairs of pliers a hacksaw or dremel and black paint (if you want). let me know if you need more info and I'll find the exact material that I bought and the measurements. also you can go to your local harley shop and buy the mounts for a cyclone m2 fairing. that should work also. but not sure of the cost. I think when i made it, the material cost me a couple bucks. have fun.

weaselnoze · December 30, 2004, 09:47:12 AM

can u show a better pic of the windscreen?

JetSwing · December 30, 2004, 10:11:06 AM

yes, show us better picture...!

how much do they go for at the dealer?

Kingleo75 · December 30, 2004, 10:13:55 AM

I bought a Buell screen of eBay a while ago, I believe it was for an X1, anyways I went to the HD/Buell dealer and bought the original brackets for it cost me about 25.00 w/tax and they fit on my 96 GS without any modifications, they bolted on using the 2 bolts that hold the headlight bucket to its brackets, the bolts were long enough to do this.

gs2sv · December 30, 2004, 02:59:46 PM

i'll take the camera out today and get a better picture of the fairing and the mounts. also, not sure the price of the fairing at the dealer, I believe it was $75 new, I bought mine on ebay for around $15 but it was red so I had to repaint it. also the x1 type fairing is really tall so I had to take approx. 1.5 inches off the top so it wouldn't look silly. I just measured how much I wanted off the top then just tried to keep the original shape as best I could.

I'll try and get a better pic of the mounts up later this evening.

weaselnoze · December 30, 2004, 05:47:22 PM

is it just me or is this windscreen not symetrical? how well does it work functionaly

JetSwing · December 30, 2004, 05:51:42 PM

it probably has something to do with the instrumental panel layout... :dunno:

btw, there's a cf one on ebay if anyone is interested...

pantablo · December 30, 2004, 09:27:42 PM

the windsreen in the picture IS off center because of the Buell instruments but the BLAST! windscreen is symetrical.

I zip-tied mine to the headlight mounting ears but JohNLA installed his with the original HD brackets that go on at the nuts that hold the headlight to the mounting ears. New Blast! windscreen is $60 and $25 or less for the mounting brackets and assorted bolts. I know- I bought them new at HD.

Check JohNLA's site for the part numbers and a how to...
http://johnla2.tripod.com/windscreen.html

The Buddha · December 30, 2004, 11:49:52 PM

Symmetry ... we dont need no steenkin symmetry ... yea that screen is cockeyed, the blast screen is like the Pope's cap ... I'd say its a tie between the 2 for the D-oh factor ... but its a small elegant and cheap fix ... so what you complaining about ... I wanted to do this for so looong ... but I am currently not going to because of being broke ...
Cool.
Srinath.

atek3 · January 01, 2005, 01:04:46 PM

that looks awsome...does it cut down on wind blast any?

atek3

JetSwing · January 01, 2005, 03:04:56 PM

Quote from: atek3does it cut down on wind blast any?

i would think it would be minimal, if any at all...

weaselnoze · January 01, 2005, 03:23:41 PM

i actually like the fact that its not symetrical. im goin to try and find one on ebay soon. i know there is a cf for 36 bucks...

JetSwing · January 01, 2005, 03:34:22 PM

i like the new cityx's blue see thru windshield...i have a twin headlight so it would be perfect for my gs...but i don't think i'll find it on ebay any time soon. hmmm...i wonder how much it is from the dealer...

Focer · January 02, 2005, 12:47:05 AM

Hand gaurds are pretty phaty on that thing too! Hmmmm.... and thoughs lights

weaselnoze · January 02, 2005, 12:49:39 AM

more like FAT

manofthefield · January 02, 2005, 07:20:26 AM

Quote from: JetSwinghmmm...i wonder how much it is from the dealer...

Judging by the prices of Buell parts some others have purchased, it's probably not that much for a new piece. Maybe $60? BTW there is something about that cityx I really like, if only I knew it was reliable/easy to work on... (and if only I had the green)

gs2sv · January 03, 2005, 01:34:31 AM

here are the better photos of the brackets for the windscreen

simple.

jjr_vw · January 05, 2005, 01:18:02 PM

Yup, that's the route I took in mounting the flyscreen from XB9R to my GS. Just buy a strip of 1/8" by 1 1/2" aluminum flat bar from your neighborhood's hardware store (around $3), cut a strip of about 8", mount it on a vise (nice little investment, makes working on everything just easier) and start bending away to the shape you need.

I'll post pics from my ghetto-rigged setup soon (whenever I happen to be in the house during daylight hours).

Fairing was around $50 from my local HD dealer.

oppy00 · January 05, 2005, 04:32:25 PM

I've been working on this for a while now, but I can't get the bends right. I don't have a vice, so I've been using two vice grips. My problem is than I can't get the brackett to twist so that it will line up with the holes in the fairing. Any suggestions?
Oh, and thanks for the pictures they helped a lot.

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Mounting Buell Fairing