Yep, when I put lowers on mine, your are correct it seems like the heavy breather just barely touched the lower door. Had to change the airfilter assy out. Mine was in like new condition so I put it all together and sold it to a member here, and bought a different air cleaner.

 

I love my factory lowers, but I honestly think the fabric ones you put on the engine guard block more air, thus warmer, and are easy to take off later.

I'd try those before taking all that other stuff off. Cheap too.

 

Ok, here's my synopsis of the $100 Amazon special lowers I bought. A lot of what I'm going to say sounds negative, but that is just figuring out how to install with a heavy breather. The fairings themselves look great, no issues with cheap feel, and install hardware is sufficient. The vent doors are cheap thin plastic (no worries of breaking, but I wonder how they'll hold up at high speeds), and the operation of the door lever is firm and not cheap feeling.

I installed the problem child right side lower tonight. What a doozy figuring out how to put the jigsaw puzzle together. I couldn't put the lower on with the heavy breather filter on. So I removed the filter and got the lower installed. Oh wait, I can't put the filter back on because there's not enough room. I have to remove the intake pipe that the filter element mounts to - not a big deal, just three easy-to-access allen heads (careful with the gasket!). With the intake tube and filter mated together off the bike and the lower completely installed, I put the heavy breather back on the bike. As I was already aware, the door is useless - the air filter is 1/2" from the door.

If I remove the door, there's no issue because the opening allows enough room for the filter to slide in enough to get the filter on and off. BUT it looks like poo with the door off and you can only remove/install the door when it's in the open position. If I just had the covers on the lowers instead of the doors, there'd be no issue whatsoever. Also, to remove the lower, I have to remove the intake tube and filter (again, just three easy-to-access bolts) because I have to open the door to remove the bolt that holds the upper cover on.

Two positives for my particular setup: the extended brake pedal was not an issue (if anything, the brake pedal barely taps the inside of the fairing when I'm standing on the pedal), and my fork fangs made by JES Customs work with the lowers (just made a tiny bend to give some clearance).

 

Yeah... I was up in arms. I wanted the look of the hard lowers but not so much of a hassle. I won't be taking them on and off, I will just leave them on I'm sure. Truly, it is not much of a hassle, I just had to figure it out. In the spring I will most likely change the blank panels to the the mesh that the Twin-Cooled motors have, so I can get more airflow - and that can be done in 5 minutes with the lowers on the bike.

I'm interested to see how the hard lowers affect buffetting. I'll do some tests with fangs and without fangs and see if there is much of a difference between where I was with just fangs.

 

Well, I wanted to ride my bike this morning, but I found that leaving my bike sit for a month in the [relatively] cold weather without riding it weakens the battery LOL. This is the longest I have ever gone without riding... Spent three weeks away over the holidays and enjoyed every minute of it. Should have used a battery tender!

 

I always had soft lowers till this summer, I bought hard lowers. I put them on in the middle of July before a road trip. I am never taking them off, I will never have another bike without them.

 

Rode to working this morning: 35*F, 75% humidity, speeds 50-70 mph, 20 minutes. I did not have the fangs installed, and the lower vents were closed. For pants, I was only wearing Dickies work pants (thinner than jeans). The lowers helped tremendously for my feet, lower legs, and outer thighs - barely even cold. From my knees to my inner thighs were numb by the time I got to work, even with my legs squeezed tight to the tank. One thing that is much improved is controlling the airflow that comes over up and around the tank, hits my torso, and rattles my helmet - I no longer have my helmet visor rattling so much that my vision gets blurry on the highway. The lowers direct a lot of air to the engine, so I'm getting a more concentrated stream of air between the engine and my legs than I'm used to, and more air to the side of my body and arms, as a result of the air being redirected.

Adding the fangs will eliminate more of the airflow that is coming up and around the tank - I can feel a strong stream of air rushing between the fairing and the lowers (in the turn signal area) where my fangs are normally mounted. I have a feeling that these lowers are going to stay on year round.

 

Bought some new grips finally... Better late than never I suppose. HD Get-a-grips 56100036. They feel much more natural

 

Might seem like a strange questions, but did you feel warmer overall with the lowers on? I only ask because you noted that it pushed more air up towards the tank etc... I wasn't sure if more of the air being pushed to the thigh and lower torso area would make you feel colder overall. I hope that makes sense and thank you!

 

For me the lowers keep me much warmer on a cold day, they also make it hotter on a hot day. I also use the triple tree air baffle that keeps air from coming up over the tank.
I had ridden since 2012 with lower fairings, in the fall of ‘18 I bought a bike without lower fairings. It got down in the 30s one evening on my way home. I thought I would freeze as I was dressed like I was used to with the lowers on. I had to add an extra layer in the winter when riding without lowers.