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Stop reading right here, if you are thinking that this is a fairing will increase your speed and make your motorcycle cut through head winds like a knife through butter. Cos it is not meant do that.
This fairing that I have on the Thunderbird is not a new thing in the market and has been around for years now. But this particular one, is fast becoming an RTMC heirloom! It’s been handed down twice before its come to the Thunderbird and me. The first owner even had a tape deck with speaker in it, to listen to music!
 Not the best looking thing, but sure makes touring easier. |
The fairing is not aerodynamic and will cause aerodynamic drag, but not more than what your body would, in the absence of a fairing. Did not change my motorcycle's top end, if that's what you want to know. A very common problem with cruisers which are not designed from the ground up to be long distance tourers, is wind blast the body needs to take at speeds higher than 80kmph. The shoulders and chest area take most of the wind resistance, because the tall handle bars and low slung seat shape the body into a human parachute made solely for reducing speed and causing strain. When faced with such a situation, you would rather that the fairing takes all the brunt rather than you. When the fairing is on, you tend to get less tired and can ride for longer distances without fatigue setting in. About the music system in it... nopes, I do not have that. But I find the space over there nice to keep some small things that I may need to move around. A couple of problems (as always) exist with this simple motorcycle addon/ modification. The first one is something that’s solvable with a little effort and is something that may not affect  The thunderduck in touring mode. The second one is a bit tougher if not impossible to solve and is due to the manner in which the fairing is mounted onto the motorcycle. The fairing is mounted mainly by the means of two stays. These two stays are fixed onto the handle bar. When the motorcycle is in strong crosswinds, like the ones I found while on the Bangalore-Hyderabad-Chennai route, the motorcycle starts reacting to it. Remember the parachute effect of the body it’s supposed to avoid? It’s shielding the body, but only thing is that now the fairing is acting like one and considerable effort is required to keep the motorcycle in line. I am not sure how you would solve that problem (Other than drilling holes into the fairing to let the air escape, which is not an option as of now). On the whole, it’s not like I ride in crosswinds every other day and almost never ride without a proper full face helmet. So, these problems are not something that would stop me from using the fairing and so I’m continuing to use it till I get a better option. In the mean while, if any of you have any contacts that would be able to fabricate a proper bubble OR if you have a spare one, drop me a line. |
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