I've been considering this project for a while, and would like some input from guys who have been down the same road.

I've been thinking of adding a batwing fairing for a while, and initially thought of one of the removeable ones from places like Deadcenter, Dragonfly, Reckless, etc.. However, I have read mixed reviews on a few manufacturers, and honestly haven't been too impressed with how cheap some have looked in the photos I've seen. Plus, I'd have to remove my tach to make them fit. So far, my favorite fairing setup has been the factory one.

Trading for a Street Glide or something similar crossed my mind briefly, but I've been very happy with my older bike, plus it's paid for. Yes, it's 11 years old, but it has incredibly low miles (bought it a few years ago with 900 miles on it), runs great, and it's a CVO with the 103, cruise, and all the chrome goodies. I plan on doing the SE hydraulic timing chain conversion soon, and with that done there's no reason this bike won't last for decades more. After looking at the prices of new bikes, and realistically knowing what I would get selling mine or trading it in, I'm not very interested losing a ton of money by getting a new one.

So if I go with a fairing, I may try to do something semi custom, using a factory fairing as my basis. I like the idea of a removeable fairing (I do run without windshield & bags at times), and the addition of extra speakers, and really don't want to relocate my factory tach and speedometer. One option that I can think of is to use a factory inner fairing, and cut & fiberglass it to form around my factory tach, and convert the place where the radio would be to storage for my phone/mp3 player and Garmon. I wouldn't use the gage cutouts, but could put smaller speakers there or glass them in.

It would be a lot more work than just buying one, and I have no idea how it would turn out, but I'm seriously thinking of just buying a cracked batwing inner & outer, along with some removeable windshield brackets, and practicing my old fiberglass skills.

Any recommendations, suggestions, comments or criticisms?

 

Look at Hoppe fairings, the few I have seen look very well made. A model called a vanillazilla has no radio, just a smooth inner cover. $spendy$

 

The factory fairings are far from being removable! All the instrumentation and electrics are mounted on the dash, which is the structural part of the fairing. The pretty bit we call the batwing is fastened to that. I suggest looking at alternatives.

My own solution was to buy a secondhand shovel batwing, which is a glass-fibre moulding and self-supporting. I made my own mounting brackets, to get it to sit as I wanted it, also so it cleared stuff on my bike.

Photos are a poor source of info, so see if you can find locals or members with the aftermarket brands, so you can judge them properly and in the flesh, so to speak. Your tacho is going to be in the way, whatever you end up with, but it should be possible to relocate it, perhaps onto the bars?

 

You can build your own as I did. It does take a bit of fabrication skills. The basic construction is this. Take a OEM RK windshild, outer fairing and inner fairing. Clam shell the inner and outer on either side of the RK windshield. With some cutting and sanding of both sides to the fairing you can get it all to fit quite nicely. With this design you are stuck with the orginal windshild and it can't be changed. But you have a stock HD look sans guages. I have an amp and speakers I use with my iPod. The guage pods are just filled in. You could easily add addtional speakers if you chose to.

 

If you gor to my profile and look at the picks the one on the left is a road king with a wide open faring on it did not cost alot around 799.00 about 6 yrs ago going to put one one the OL bike after I get back fom bike week in AZ next week or two. It is alot of work to make one fit from scratch JMO. Good luck on what way you go.

 

Hey Ghosteh, I have a little experience in this regard. I put a Batwing Fair on my Fatboy a couple years ago. I chose a different path. I purchased an unfinished fairing from Exotic Body Parts (see link below). I was able to mount the radio/speakers how I chose and was able to purchase from a real electronics store the parts that I mounted to it. I did the finishing/painting myself (except the clear coat) and was happily surprised as to the delivered finish of the fairing. Fiber glass (perfect) already came gel coated and ready to prep for painting.
If you are at all handy this should not be too much of a project. The only down side was the mounting brackets were water jetted so I spend $25.00 at my local chrome guy and he smoothed out the cut edges and triple chrome plated the brackets. I looked great. The RK fairing on this web site is $329.00

BTW.......great looking RK


http://www.exoticbodyparts.com/harle...-king.html?p=5

 

Right now, your bike looks exactly like an Anniversary CVO Road King should look.....................INCREDIBLE!

 

I bought a used Tsukayu and it works perfectly. Looks pretty much stock on the outside and simply has a radio and speakers on the inside. It mounts on the same mounts as the stock windshield.

Kyle

 

Not trying to hijack the thread, but I've been wondering about putting a stock HD fairing on my 07 RKC. How difficult is it? How about hooking up the gauges?

 

Horry, start your own thread! You'll get a much better response than burying your question in here.