Pacifico Aero
Pacifico Aero
EVALUATION
Motorcycle fairings started out simple enough. A little bit of fiberglass bent to fit around the handlebars and a small plastic windshield and that was it. Like everything else in motorcycling, time has improved fairings to the extent that there’s another gap in the market for a simple bit of protection that’s not too big.
Pacifico has a new model that fits the less-than-fu 11-size category in some new and different ways. To start out, the Pacifico Aero is not a tiny fairing. It’s not even small. It’s a seven-eighths size full frame mount fairing and it comes with a full line of accessories including stereo, optional windshields and lowers.
Lest there be any confusion, Pacifico’s Aero is not at all like Vetter’s Quicksilver, even though both of these frame mount fairings have been introduced recently as smaller sports-touring equipment. The Pacifico fairing is noticeably larger than the Quicksilver and it fits on larger motorcycles than the Quicksilver.
Mounts were available for our GSI 100, even, so that’s what the Aero was attached to. Mounting the Aero is perfectly normal for a frame-mount fairing. The mounting bracket is of welded-up steel rods with hose clamps fastening the bracket to the downtubes of the frame and U-clamps fastening the bracket to the downtube crossovers. The mount is normal enough and very solid, even though it’s not as neat as the factory setups.
In order to keep the fairing as close as possible to the rider the bike’s headlight shell must be removed, which is simplf enough on the GS1100. A small plastic pouch is included with which to bundle up all the rat’s nestof wires that normally fit in the headlight shell. Electrical connections are made with crimp-on fasteners. These aren’t as convenient as plug-in connectors but when the wires were plugged in as indicated on the clear instructions all the lights worked fine. No extra connectors were provided for attachment of auxilliary power source wires, even though the additional wires were included in the fairing’s wiring harness.
No rubber pads for the mounting bracket to downtube contacts were ineluded in the kit, even though the mounting instructions says to install the pads, so some rubber from an old innertube was substituted to no ill effects. é Before installing the fairing all the pieces were weighed and the total was 26 !b. With the removal of the headlight shell and the bike’s turn signals 6 lb. came off, So the Aero added 20 lb. to the motorcycle. That’s noticeably lighter than some of the biggest barn door touring fairings.
The Aero is normally equipped for a round headlight', although a rectangular headlight kit is optional. Ours came with mounting hardware for a round headlight, while the bike has a rectangular headlight, so a normal 7 in. quartz-halogen headlight was taken off the shelf and installed into the Aero without complication.
> Installing the windshield on the Aero was particularly simple because there are nuts built into the leading edge of the fairing for the six nylon bolts that hold the windshield to the fairing. No more trying to fold the arm backwards to fit it inside the fairing to hold the tiny nut in the center of the fairing. Good thinking there.
When the fairing was mounted we noticed the pair of small openings in the base of the windshield, one on each side. There was nothing to close them off and they looked as if they would cause a blast of air right at the rider. So we took the high pressure air gun and blasted 100 psi at the vents in the base of the windshield while a rider sat on the bike waiting to feel the blast of air. Only he didn’t feel it.
Molded pockets in the fairing body channel the air directly up inside the windshield, filling the low pressure area just behind the windshield. On the road the effect was just as noticeable. Riding along a highway at 60 mph a rider could move his hand around and feel the air blast from the pockets directed just inside the windshield, while there was no blast at the rider.
This appears to be one of the better solutions to a problem that’s confronted fairing designers. An upright and fiat windshield provides good protection for a rider while air from the leading edge of the windshield spills around all the edges to fill the vacuum behind the windshield. This works fairly well for windshields, but causes lots of turbulence and leads to that barn-door look when used on a large fairing.
As fairing shapes became more and more angled there was more updraft. Air running up by the fork legs filled the low pressure area and that worked well enough most of the time, except when it rained. Then the water would run from the front tire and up behind the fairing where it splattered onto the rider and the inside of the windshield. On some fairings there was a backdraft of air that swirled around the rider and pushed forward on the rider’s back.
As hard as it is to imagine, the air vents on the Pacifico do help solve the problem. There’s no massive updraft around the fork legs. Even when ridden in the rain there’s no splash coming up from the front tire. And the backpressure on the rider is minimized.
What hasn’t been entirely solved is the buffeting around the head. With the medium height standard windshield installed the Pacifico provided excellent protection from the knees up, but the turbulence around the head caused a helmet to shake a bit. Ducking lower kept the rider’s head in tranquil air, but for anyone over about 5-foot-10 the medium windshield would allow quite a bit of buffeting. Of course, it also allowed anyone over that height to look over the windshield, rather than through it, which is very convenient at times. If you want a windshield to see through, order the extra tall model.
Considering the smaller size of the Pacifico Aero, the amount of protection is surprising. It provides particularly great protection down low, making lowers almost needless. Lots of warm air was provided for the legs even without lowers attached. And the narrow 29.5 in. width didn’t limit protection around the hands at all.
With the sport bubble windshield attached the fairing’s character was immediately changed. It looked dramatically different and riding with the bubble was noticeably different. The bubble’s protection ends at shoulder level. A rider’s head is out in the wind as much as it would be if the bike didn’t have a fairing. Yet there’s no blast on the chest and it’s not as much work holding onto the bike.
Whichever windshield is attached, the Aero offers some excellent features. Locking covers over the fairing’s storage bin are especially large and they fit just fine. The irregular-shaped openings extend about 8 in. long by 5.5 in. wide, which is large enough to fit a can of oil, or a large SLR camera or any one of a number of things through. Storage space in the fairing is similarly large and very convenient.
Pacifico offers a stereo speaker kit for the Aero and the panels of the Aero are molded just for the speakers so a separate speaker housing isn’t needed. Additional room is available for gauges, plus there’s a plug in the fairing waiting to be exchanged for a lighter. Headlight adjustment is handled by a knob on the inner edge of the fairing, the adjustment range being very great.
Finish on the Aero was perhaps its best feature. The black paint was glossy and smooth over the entire outside surface and didn’t develop any chips or scratches during a month of use.
As far as the fairing’s styling goes, people who like large fairings commented that the Aero looked quite attractive, while those less interested in touring fairings didn’t seem to notice the Pacifico. In any case, there’s little to quarrel with. The shape is different from the other fairings now available, is a size that fits between the largest and smallest fairings and it fits a wide variety of motorcycles.
In addition, our fairing was well made, showing excellent attention to detail and fit.
Available through Pacifico dealers. Contact Pacifico, 1625 S.E. Hogan Rd., Gresham, Ore. 97030 for details. Price of the fairing is $324.50. The mounting kit is $53, the standard height windshield sells for $30, the bubble shield is $125 and the lowers are $73. 88
