Buell Lightning flyscreen mounted

[Paulcet]

After sifting through fleabay for a Buell Lightning (XB9S or XB12S) flyscreen for a good price, I finally got one.  Cheap.  But it was camo'd.  They even sprayed right over the lightning logo and didn't bother to peel it off. 


I was going to just paint it black, but when it came in, I saw that it was Hero Blue (translucent blue lexan).  I thought the Hero Blue might look good on my bike, so I looked for some info on stripping the paint off of lexan.  I found one tactic was oven cleaner, and another was DOT3 brake fluid.  Since I always have a partial bottle sitting in the garage (I never trust old, unsealed brake fluid) I decided to try it.  I laid a thick paper towel over the flyscreen and poured the fluid on. 



The brake fluid does not work very fast, so I recommend you just walk away.  I left it overnight and most of the next day.  We had freezing temperatures that night, so that may have slowed the process somewhat.  I used a thin piece of plastic and a plastic pot scrubber to remove the paint.  The edges were a little thicker and better adhered, so I reapplied brake fluid and let sit another night.  Some more scraping with the pot scrubber and fingernail gave me this:



There are some scratches, either due to my scraping or due to the previous owner who decided to make a rat-bike with this camo'd piece.  Not too bad, and I might take the time to polish them out if I get ambitious.

I mocked up a mount with some cardboard:



Then bought some 3/4" x 1/8" aluminum flat bar.  Easy to work with and cheap. 



The 'X' configuration is necessary on the left because of the tachometer protrusion on the SV gauges. 

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  The color is not an exact match, of course.  I might paint it black, as well as the brackets.  As for it's effectiveness?  I am very pleased.  I used to get quite a bit of helmet lift at anything over 50mph (cheap HJC CL-12 helmet).  But nearly none now!  I ran at 108 indicated without laying on the tank and the wind wasn't bad at all.  Before this I didn't go any faster than 90-95mph. 

[scottpA_GS]

Looks good!  Great work 

[bucks1605]

Nice, I've always liked that look.

[GI_JO_NATHAN]

I think that looks awesome! What kind of dumb ass would paint one of those?

[cafeboy]

Looks awesome 

[GeeP]

Looks good!

I have to admit, when I read the part about using brake fluid I said "oh no..."  Looks like it worked well though!

On the mount, you might want to drill though the Aluminum flat where the two cross and install a screw.  It will then form a truss.

[Paulcet]

Thanks for all the  !

On the mount, you might want to drill though the Aluminum flat where the two cross and install a screw.  It will then form a truss.

I thought I might do that, too.  But I took it for a ride with just the verticals to see how the angle was and it was quite stable. 

One word of caution to others who may install one of these:  The bottom edge of the screen is just a few mm below the top edge of the lights.  So there is a bright reflection coming back at me, which may be a little distracting at night.  If I keep the blue I will make a longer vertical piece (or slot the existing holes) to raise it up just a bit.

[tripleb]

The bike looks great!  Good job on the makeshift brackets.  The flyscreen with the dual headlights looks pretty cool.

[Grommett2k]

I like it...has anyone ever mounted the one that fly n cycle sells? If so, I would love to see a pic. I think it is the next add-on to my naked conversion.

[Danny500]

That does look really, really good!!!! Props!