20th November 2005. I've been busy...

I dropped the bike, I am thrilled!.....(no really, read on).

I was pushing it back into its spot in the carport when I over balanced and the bike fell away from me. It just clipped the edge of the van and smashed the windshield. YAH! Ever since I have bought the thing, I have been thinking how I could extend the shield, it was just too short (or is it that I am too tall?). None of the ways I could come up with really was viable, so when it smashed, I was wrapped, here was my chance to make a new taller one....... A quick trip to Ballarat Engineering Plastics saw me with a sheet of Plexiglass. They said it was stronger, more flexible and should curve with heat nicely. It cost me $110. So far so good. I then used the old shield to mark out the shape of the new one.

So, there you have it. Not too bad. Of course this one was deliberately made bigger in *all* dimensions. So, that's all well and good, but the original has this real nice curve to it......well, the Plexiglas also will curve with some heat, and it will stay curved when you remove the heat....thing is, how do you get the curve to stay put while you are doing this? Enter the ocky strap!

Enter lots of ocky straps. They worked a treat. I was a little surprised just how much heat was required to make the stuff bend. Make sure you carefully test your heat gun out on a test bit so you can see what it looks like just before it bubbles. I left the paper coating on as the Plexiglas is a little soft and scratches pretty easy (its only negative).

Once you have the shape all set, its time to get it on the bike.

Leaving the paper on makes it easy to mark and measure things, it also protects things while you handle and cut it with a jig saw. Use a course tooth blade, the fine ones glug up with the hot Plexiglas. How you go about making it symmetrical is up to you, I did the best I could and am fairly happy with the results, as usual when doing this sort of thing, the next one I do will be better..... so, anyway, how does it go?

Its mind numbingly good, no, its better than good, its simply fantastic! Where before I was getting a lot of wind buffet noise and fatigue from the air off the top of the shield, now, its quite, so quite its scary. I hear the motor like never before, the stereo has never sounded better, I can hear my blinker can ticking at 50kph and slower. I am warmer in the winter (yeah, ok, might/will need some vent thing happening in summer, I will see how we go), and just generally am a *lot* more comfortable riding the bike now. It was more than worth the money and about a days work to do it. In fact, I would pay and do it all again myself in a heart beat to make the next one when the time comes.....strength? My brother in law is a shooter, and so we tested the original shield and the new one, the old one split and fractured with a .22 rifle shot, the new one took a solid slug from a shotgun at (very) close range to put a small hole (but no shards!) in it. If a stone flicks up, the safest place on the bike is behind this new shield! Yes, its a little softer, just be careful cleaning the bugs off, use a good quality plastic polish and so far (some 5 months) it still looks like new (and better than the old one!).