I recently purchased the Z gravity touring windshield and I really like it alot, only thing is I wish it was maybe another 4-5" taller, If I tuck down about that much things really get quite! I would like to see if I can achieve this by fabricating my own extension. I was at a hobby shop and they had these nice pieces of clear "lexan" squares, about 10"x10". They are about .06mm thick and ae really strong and yet still flexiable to bend to the countour of my ZG shield.

I plan on cutting out a shape that I can attach to the ZG that sticks up about 4-5" as stated. The trick is how to attach it securely. The are a lot of trick fastners out there as well as "Industrial" strength velcro. I dont want to screw it into the ZG. In fact I may want to remove it every now and then. I want to do some testing first at low speed with maybe some stiff cardboard or cheap plastic and duct tape to see the basic effect first.  I saw the Lamiar lip but at $90.00 for a piece of plastic I thought I might give it a shot first. The Lexan is about $10.00.

Anyone have any ideas or is this a really dumb idea!!!

Hi there,

Check with these guys.

http://www.bikescreen.com/

I bought a windscreen extension from them for a previous bike and they do great work that's reasonably priced.

Good luck,

Trwhoouse

I made one once when I had my old triumph. I rode it in winter and all it had was that tiny little flyscreen over the double headlights. I saw the laminar lips as well, but definitely wasn't looking to pay that much for one. I found an R1 windscreen at the local dealership on clearance for $9 and just cut it up. It already had a curved shape to it and obviously I knew it was durable to hold up as a windshield.

I know some of them come with the double sided velcro, but I figured when I removed it I would have rather had 4 small holes in my flyscreen than a giant piece of velcro, so I just bolted it on. It was more secure that way anyway.

It worked very well and was extremely nice to have something to tuck behind. I've been thinking about making something for my current bike, although I don't really plan to ride it as far into the cold as I did before.

Well I fabricated one. Held it over the barbacue to shape it. The shaping worked great but needless to say adding 3 "  of height to my ZG touring winshield just moved the wind up a bit to my helmet. Overall it didn't do much so I scrubbed the idea. I think to really make a difference you need to get a full on windshield that goes way up there.

A $20 experiment that didn't work

So any tips to make shaping it easier? Someday I'd like to find a normal windshield and cut it up/reshape it a bit as a touring/winter shield for my current bike but wasn't sure how well bending it would go. Should I just turn on the (gas)stove and hold it over for a minute or so until it lets me smoothly bend it?? I could also put some charcoal in the grill, but I wasn't sure if that would do a lot more than the stove.

The melting point of polycarbonate or plexiglass are both around 300°F. I would think that a good heat gun like this one from Harbor Freight would be the best for controllably heating the material.
http://www.harborfreight.com/professional-heat-gun-with-digital-temperature-settings-97114.html

Good find, $30 isn't bad. That's the kind of thing that would be useful to have around for random things so I could stop stealing my wife's hair dryer. Just for reference, how hot does a hair dryer get?

Not sure how hot a hair dryer gets, but my wife's has a hard time with the heat-shrink  tubing for electrical connections. Most decent hair dryers also have an auto cutoff if they get too hot.

So do you think the ZG touring windscreen is a worthwhile upgrade?  I was just pondering whether to buy it or the double-bubble.  I definitely need to get something the provides more protection than the factory screen.

Quote from: jp on October 06, 2010, 01:21:09 PM
Not sure how hot a hair dryer gets, but my wife's has a hard time with the heat-shrink  tubing for electrical connections. Most decent hair dryers also have an auto cutoff if they get too hot.

Heat gun would be great for that, never thought about it. I always just use a lighter, but I'm always worried about ruining something.