Try optimizing the fairing position without any additional bracket work.  Just place it on there however, stuff towels, foam or whatever behind it, step back and decide if the overall fairing needs to be hacked.  I think that will help you decide.

LostArtist wrote on 07/11/12 at 17:11:23:




Well,, harsh as it may feel right now, just think how youd feel if we all just said your labors & investment have paid off & it looks great & you spent the $$$ for the paintwork & you got shot down on it later?
Heck, man, you knew before you asked,, youre into shape & design & how things look,, its what you do,, & you know it looks, well,, like socks on a rooster,,but youre not done, not yet,,But I do think the overall height of it is too much for that bike to wear & not look like a chihuahua wearing a bulldog's head,

Well,, Im sure everyone here learned something,, test fit things before a ton of labor goes in it.

Set up a camera on a tri-pod & get several good side views, some without the fairing. Pick a view that give good detail & make some prints of just the bike & with the fairing. Cut out the fairing, trim it & fit it to the bike picture. For me it's easier to figure out in paper than on a 'puter screen.

I still think it will work with those w/s side parts cut away. & look good!

updated images, it is MUCH MUCH lower now, but now the question is, is it too far forward? and because of the bracketing, there really isn't much I can do with it being too far forward, I dont' think anyway, but I also didn't think I could get it this low, so who knows.   I don't have great photos here, these were taken with my phone and it was raining pretty hard so I didn't get it out since I'm a wimp to the rain  

justin_o_guy2 wrote on 07/11/12 at 21:56:03:


so, here's the complete story on the fairing, since some of you seem to think I'm a total idiot or something (well, I probably deserve that).  

I go to farleyandace.com/fairings.html and I see  

and I think, I like that, it's on a Triumph Bonneville, I own a triumph bonneville, so I email them about the fairing, telling them the details of my bike, make, model, year, so it is made to order to fit my bike (so I think) I send them a photoshop mock up of my vision, they are digging it, I'm digging it, we talk about getting it painted up there and then shipped to me, they quote $700 for the paint job, I'm not comfortable with that, not before putting it on the bike and "test fitting it"  so I get it shipped down just primed gray like it is now. So they make the fairing, ship it down and I get it in late March, or early April or something like that.

I don't have a garage, but I have a good buddy who let me use his once and awhile. So I get my bike and the fairing over there and we spend the Saturday putting it on. To put on the fairing, you have to strip the bike of it's gas tank, which, as usual, means taking off the seat, and for safety, disconnecting the battery, undoing a few bolts and disconnecting the fuel line and an electrical connection, anyway, we get everything on the bike and the fairing interferes with the forks when they are at full lock, turning side to side, the fairing itself is rubbing and hitting the forks, and it's kinda crooked and not looking the best on the bike. Since I'm not a master installer of this custom piece, and the guys that make it are in Pennsylvania, I'm in Texas, so I can't just go over there and get them to put it on. so thinking I just messed something up, I email them and tell them what's going on, the offer some advice and the next weekend I try some of that, well, still not working right, I point out some issues with the fairing to them and they say they'll send some new brackets and pieces, so I wait for them.

I put my bike in running order so I can ride a few days. I ride, it's good.

I'm hoping the new brackets when they come will fix this so I don't have to cut up the fairing to make it work.  So the brackets come but my friend is on vacation and working weekends for the next couple of weeks, so I don't get to work on it for awhile, and I'm enjoying being able to ride my bike, we were having unusually nice weather for late May early June here.  

So my friend gets a weekend off and I get to use the garage again, I put the bike back up on the jack, tear it all down again, put the new brackets on and try everything again, still no good luck, the front top brackets of the sides is pushing the fairing into the forks still.  so, bummed out by this, cause this fairing was supposed to have been made to fit my bike, I decide to cut the fairing where it's rubbing my forks, so we get the fairing all back up on the bike, adjust it, and end up with the first result, my buddy is kinda not into doing this, can't really blame him, and I'm just looking to get this thing over with at this time also.

so it's on the bike, I take the bike and fairing for a test ride, everything seems good, from the seat nothing is in the way and it blocks the wind nicely so it's functional.  I take some photos, I start looking at the photos and start thinking, mmm, that is a bit high huh?  wonder how noticeable that is. . .  so now we are here.  

the lesson from this is, everything is fixable, the only reason why I was able to lower it this time was because I had already cut the fairing to fit it as it was before, if I hadn't have done that, if I mounted it lower, it would still be rubbing on the forks. Now all I gotta do is figure out some way of pushing it back about 3 inches or so, which I may or may not be able to do because of how the bracketing works, if I could make my own  custom brackets, that'd help, but I'm not sure I want to spend another month on this project with my bike in my friends garage.  it is really close to being good, and if I can't get it to move back, well, it's okay, I'd be about 92% happy with it the way it is.  maybe I can find something really cool to put in that space, speakers or something, idk  

so I ordered some fairing kit that didn't work exactly like advertised but I got it working.  I shoulda just cut the thing to start with, but once you cut it, you cant' really just glue it back together.  

the other lesson here is, when you order a "custom" piece that's not from the factory, get ready to deal with some sh!t, so be prepared for that.  and get a garage  

Looks much better now than it did. Fairing notch base where the forks go through should always be lined up with the mid-line or base of the lower triple tree.

Why was it such a pain to deal with? Simple, those style fairings were originally designed for track only motorcycles, no gauges, headlight, high handle bar or bulky stock tank in the way.

I think you've done pretty good taking a compromise design and making it work. As for getting it to suck back tighter to the bike... probably not. Looks like space is getting a bit tight.

If you ever get tired of the fairing and take it off all you need is a National Fly Screen. That little thing looks sharp and it takes the wind off the vital chest and arm muscles. Makes a 500 mile day easy. Serenity has done a 400 mile day with me and thats all I had on my Savage.. I had one on my 2000 Thunderbird and it was sharp. Almost a cafe racer look.