Daytona Report

[Bill Stevenson]

I spent the weekend at Daytona. The weather was beautiful, mid-seventies during the day, partly cloudy and no rain. Come on down you'll love it. For every bike of all other brands combined there were about 2 or 3 Harleys in attendance, but it is all good. Everyone having fun, no hassles of any kind. Honda didn't open their display for the first weekend, but every other company was open for business. Demo rides were being offered by all the majors including BMW. I told BMW what I thought of my new R1200R, that it was merely the best motorcycle I have ever owned going back to my first, a new R75/5 bought in 1970. They were pleased to hear it.

Other things of note, Boss Hoss has a V-Eight engine mounted on 4 small wheels (think go-kart wheels) with bar stool above it to sit on and a steering wheel right off a greyhound bus. This item is perfect for tooling around the show grounds. There was a gal riding around on a nondescript scooter with her dog. Dog was sporting goggles, a leather helmet, tongue in the breeze, tail wagging, an obvious two wheeled veteran. What a hoot. There was a guy riding a Hyabusa right behind her and I told him no matter how fast he goes, he'll never beat her. He laughingly agreed. Lots of drunks burning donuts, some semi nudity. Every bar had a world class band. Lots of fun. I met a guy from Germany, not too sober, works for BMW in Bavaria. He was riding a Vespa at the rally and was amazed that we Yanks know about Franzikaner and other important matters.

One thing that might be of particular interest here is a company that makes polycarbonate windscreens for NASCAR racing cars. This company is branching into after market windscreens for motorcycles. Their display included a windshield wiper wrapped in steel wool wiping across an polycarbonate windshield. One half of the screen was the standard polycarbonate with scratch resistant coating as supplied by virtually all other manufacturers of windscreens and helmet face shields, and the other half with their proprietary hardening process. Their side was clear, the other pretty scratched up. I took my bike, fitted with the BMW "Tall" windscreen. to their booth and they measured and took photos. The owner asked how wide, how tall, how many others might be interested etc? It sounds like the price would be $250-$300. What think ye? Would such an item sell? What would be the ideal size? If there is interest I can supply their website and so on so you can take a peek. The owner said that if he could sell 50 units it would pay off for him to make them.

Bill

[deilenberger]

Bill,

I'll attach some photos.. I just finished fitting up the MRA (Wudo, Wunderlich) adjustable "VarioShield" to a BMW Touring mount. Wasn't a trivial exercise, but it gives me a height adjustable shield. That's the right height for me, one I can change the height of at the twist of a few thumbscrews.. The big plus to the BMW Touring Shield mount is - it fits well, and I've modified it to mount my GPS (and EZ_Pass).. You also can buy it from any dealer if you don't already have it.







I'm probably going to make a few more small mods to the mounting scheme I came up with (which basically uses 4 holes drilled to line up with the mount points on the touring screen mount, and some custom rubber spacers to move it out a hair so it doesn't hit the rear of the instruments..) but it would be neat if this guy was willing to consider making a height adjustable screen. I could loan him a CeeBailey to use for basic measurements (I have 3 CeeBailey screens..)

[Bill Stevenson]

Thanks for your reply Don. I have the BMW "Tall" windscreen so I have the mounting bracket too. I am sure this guy is open to developing anything that the market would like to buy. What he offers that is unique is the scratch resistant material that he developed for the NASCAR racing cars. His simple display, which I tried to describe tells the story. If an height adjustable screen is the way to go, we would need to suggest a design to achieve that objective. Can you do that, I can't sort out how yours adjusts from the photos.

I offered him the use of my OEM windscreen for the basic mounting dimensions and that is when he said that it would worth doing if he could sell 50 units or more. That didn't seem like a big deal to me.

Regards,

Bil

[deilenberger]

Thanks for your reply Don. I have the BMW "Tall" windscreen so I have the mounting bracket too. I am sure this guy is open to developing anything that the market would like to buy. What he offers that is unique is the scratch resistant material that he developed for the NASCAR racing cars. His simple display, which I tried to describe tells the story. If an height adjustable screen is the way to go, we would need to suggest a design to achieve that objective. Can you do that, I can't sort out how yours adjusts from the photos.

I offered him the use of my OEM windscreen for the basic mounting dimensions and that is when he said that it would worth doing if he could sell 50 units or more. That didn't seem like a big deal to me.

Regards,

Bil

If you want to put him in touch with me.. I can certainly suggest a design or two for him. The adjustment on the Vario screen is fairly clever - but a tiny bit overcomplex IMHO.. it uses a pair of slots in the lower half, and then a slider sort of plastic bit attached to the upper half, with a screw/thumbscrew to tighten the two together. The slider thingie is where the over complexity comes in ..

This could be simplified with some simple rubber bumpers on the lower half (which would be invisible from the front on a tinted shield..)

If he's willing to work with me - I can give him some suggested ideas, and then test-ride them. I think we might be able to resolve the buffeting problem ALL the shields I've tried have if we did a bit of research like California Scientific does on their RT shields... basically air-slots in the shield at the right spot to relieve the vacuum behind the shield and get laminar flow up both sides. Having a secondary shield should make the laminar flow design easier to do..

50? Piece'a cake - could prolly sell 50 right here if they work and look good and aren't too expensive. BTW - I did approach CeeBailey and a few other shield manufacturers with this idea - none of them bothered to reply. Shortsighted IMHO..