Do It Yourself instructions for aftermarket windscreen.

There are many choices for windshields on the market these days. It seem like a new vendor pops up every week. Almost all of the available options are replacements for the stock windshield and use the Suzuki mounting points. All the screens that I have seen that use the standard mounting (two screws at the back and plastic tabs at the front and sides) are not much, if any, wider that the stock Suzuki screen.

Different screen seem to work for different riders depending on the riders height and their tolerance for wind noise at the helmet level. People coming from Sports Bikes are used to their helmets being above the protection from a screen and have had success with lower or different shaped screens that are about the same height as the stock screen. Those looking for the protection that a Sports-Touring bike like the Kawasaki Concours or Honda ST1100-1300 provide have had less luck.

The hand guards limit the width of a screen that uses the stock mounting method. There are screens that mount in front of the stock screen that provide good wind protection, but are very expensive and alter the looks of the bike.

If you think that a quiet ride is more important than how cool the bike looks, you can have real wind protection for less than $100.

I chose a "Road Krome" Sport M300 from Motovan in Canada as a starting point for my touring windscreen. The part number is 71-941 for clear ($75.99) or 71-942 ($79.99) for tinted. (Prices are Canadian Dollars)

http://www.motovan.com/en/products/index.html (click on the Moto2003 link to open the catalogue and go to page 19)

Motovan sells only to dealers, so you will have to find a dealer to order the windshield from.

You will need: Your Suzuki Tool Kit A pair of needle nose pliers A 1500W heat gun About 3 feet of auto door edge moulding (self stick) 2 inches of vacuum hose 4 1/4" stainless steel washers 2 1/4" nylon washers

Here is what you have to do to make the shield work on your V-Strom.

First remove the instrument trim (page 6-6 in the shop manual) and the stock screen. Then use a pair of needle nose pliers to pull the rubber well- nuts out of the front sub-frame.

This is what it looks like from inside the fairing:

Locate the stand-offs, the two short Allens and the shorter two of the longer Allens from the mounting kit. These are going into the hole where the well-nuts used to be. You can put the stock screen back on the bike and insert the long Allen screw and washer through the hole from the inside of the fairing.

The stand-off is about the same diameter as the stock screw so it should not mar the finish of the fairing, If you want to be sure, add a nylon washer under the stand-off. Tighten the Allen and check to see if the end of the screw is clear of the hole for the mounting brace. If it stick out into the hole add another washer under the head of the Allen (mine needed two washers on each side). Install the two mounting braces with the ends sticking through the stand- offs about 50mm (2 inches) and the braces are parallel to each other and are parallel to the stock screen. The mounts are about 10 inches apart to fit the holes in the screen. Tighten the Allens just enough to allow you to move the braces but tight enough to keep them from flopping.

Hold the shield up to the bike, the curve at the bottom of the shield hits the fairing and won't allow the windshield screws to reach the braces. You will need to take some or all of the bend out of the bottom of the screen to make it work. The screen is acrylic and becomes plastic somewhere between 200 and 250 degrees F. You can get a good idea of how much of the curve you need to remove by looking at the distance the screen sits above the brace. Use the heat gun from inside the screen to heat the acrylic along the bend line until it is hot enough to remove the bend (use an oven mitt so you don't burn yourself). If you have a helper to hold the screen while you remove the bend it goes very quickly. Heat only the curve, not the whole shield between the curve and the edge. This will keep you from putting finger shaped dents in the warm plastic. Work off the edge of the bench or table so you don't transfer the line of the table edge to the acrylic. When it's close, test fit to the bike. You can spend as much time as you want to get the edge of the screen to match the angle of the fairing. If you want you can allow the screen to touch the fairing with a little pressure, but it WILL end up marking the fairing over time.

Mount the screen to the braces using the hardware supplied with the screen. The mounting screws for the shield stick out behind the screen, when it flexes, they will hit the stock screen and make marks. Cut a couple of short pieces of vacuum hose to slip over the screws to keep the ends of the screws from hitting the screen.

Move the screen up and down on the braces until it looks right to you. Then tighten the 4 screws that hold the screen and clamps to the braces. Check the lower edge of the screen to see how much clearance you have. The screen flexes, you can either allow it to touch the fairing all the time with a bit of pre-load, or make sure it clears by about 1/2 inch. Any less clearance or too little pre-load will make the screen bounce against the fairing over bumps. Think "I hear you knocking, but you can't come in." I don't want scuffmarks on my fairing from the shield so I kept bending until the noise stopped. You can fine tune the gap using the heat gun with the screen on the bike.

Now that everything is fitting nicely, make sure the alignment is where you want it, then remove the screen and tighten the Allen set screws and the mounting screws behind the fairing. If you have the lower edge of the screen touching the fairing, remove the small piece of trim at the bottom of the opening and use the door edge trim to go from the outside corner of the screen, around the centre cut-out and to the other edge. Use your heat gun to make the trim more flexible to get it to fit the curve.

Reinstall the instrument trim (its easier now than with the big screen in place). Put the screen back on the bike, you are almost done! Road test! You should be in quiet air, unless you are very tall. There is some adjustment possible on the braces so you can tailor it to fit. When the screen is at the proper height you will hear a big increase in wind noise if you raise your helmet up an inch or two by standing on the pegs. If you have to rise more than a little bit, you can slide the screen down for better visibility.

I like my screen as low as possible while still having a quiet helmet. Adding a lip at the rear of the screen allows a lower mounting; you can do this with your heat gun. WARNING! If you chose to put a lip at the top of the screen you are creating a compound curve and adding distortion to the view through the screen! Some people cannot stand this, so don't say I didn't warn you!

So there you have it, a Damn Good Wind Screen (DGWS) for under $100!

The heat gun will cost you about $30-40 if you don't already have one. You will find all kinds of uses for it once you own it. Removing paint or varnish, shrinking heat shrink tubing (ever melted heat shrink because you tried to shrink it with a lighter?)

To improve the looks, you can mask off the front of the screen and use some paint from inside the fairing to give it a tint at the bottom and hide some of the mounting hardware. Flat black in the inside will reduce glare and be gloss black from the outside of the screen, if you are good with a spray can you can get a fade effect like the silk screen on the stock screen.

Best of all, after you've ridden for hours and you are more relaxed and alert since you haven't been fighting the wind, when your buddies ask where you got it, you get to smile and tell them you did it yourself!

If you don't need or want the full deal all the time, the screen comes off and all you have on the bike is:

If you try one, please report your experiences.

Randy Hough - November 19, 2003