Rifle Fairing
Rifle Fairing
EVALUATION
One Size Really Does Fit All
Despite dozens of fairing manufacturers offering scores of different designs, there have still been some empty places in the line-up, some motorcycles which no fairing fits.
Now, though, thanks to the Rifle fairing, there are fewer gaps.
The Rifle is a medium-small forkmount sport-style fairing. It is bigger than the shells that cover little more than the headlight. But it’s much smaller than the giant slabs of plexiglass that look as if you’re bringing a sliding glass door home from the hardware store. This is a nice size. Weight is about 9 lb., with mounting hardware and the standard height windshield. That includes the turn signals mounted in the fairing, so when the bike’s turn signals are removed the Rifle adds no more than 8 lb. to the front of the motorcycle.
To fit the widest range of bikes, the Rifle fairing has two unusual features. First, it is constructed of an outer shell and an inner shell, the inner shell varying with the bike the Rifle will mount on. This way the same fairing can fit bikes with ordinary round headlights, or giant 8 in. round headlights or even rectangular headlights. At the front of the fairing is a flat plastic cover over the headlight opening, improving appearance and maybe even making it a more efficient aerodynamic shape, although that would be hard to measure. As long as an inner panel was being formed, the Rifle people shaped in a couple of storage pockets, one on each side, complete with upholstered covers, each held in place with three snaps. The pockets are small, but big enough for a small camera, or a wadded up rainsuit, or a couple of rags and a bottle of windshield cleaner.
A second unusual feature is the mounting system for the Rifle. Actually, the system consists of lots of pieces; strap steel and pieces of aluminum and a pocketful of screws and nuts and washers of various types. The mounting brackets attach to the top triple clamp and the fork legs below the bottom triple clamp. All these pieces make installing the Rifle more work than most fork-mount fairings, about an hour and a half job if you are unfamiliar with the design or don’t luck out. Instead of producing a specific set of procedures for each bike, the Rifle instructions are more conceptual. They explain how the mounting brackets are supposed to work
and what the pieces are, but it’s up to you to figure out which ones go where. These are good instructions, though not like all the others.
Our Rifle was installed on a Yamaha Seca 650, a hard bike to fit because of the giant round headlight. The Rifle also works on Kawasakis with multi-piece handlebars or even the Yamaha Vision. The instructions explain that if your bike doesn’t work with the mounts, you can call the Rifle people for advice.
When mounted, the collection of black bits is unobtrusive, mostly hidden from view by the fairing. Ours came painted silver, and it nicely matched the silver paint of the Yamaha. The finish was shiny and smooth. The flush headlight cover makes the fairing look BMW-like, as do some of the contours. The ABS plastic looks sturdy, there are no big flat areas, and the edges are covered.
Six plastic screws hold the windshield to the fairing, and the back side of the fairing is easy to reach for holding the nuts. How nice. A vent in the front of the fairing, at the base of the windshield, acts as a pressure relief behind the fairing.
Windshields are offered in two heights, 15 in. and 18 in. Where the fairing mounts on the bike is determined by where the headlight is. The Seca 650 has a large headlight, high relative to the steering head, bars and seat. On the Seca, the standard shield appears to give ample protection for anyone not in the NBA, while riders of less than six feet wished they could have seen more road over the top of the shield. (The clear plexiglass shield is not optically perfect, which makes looking through it awkward.) The taller shield was too tall for everybody. On a bike with a lower light and higher seat, perhaps the short shield would be too short and the taller one just right, which is why Rifle has two sizes.
Cost of the standard fairing, with short, clear shield, is $186, including all hardware. There is a variety of options: the taller shield or a tinted short shield is $5 extra, additional shields are $35 each, a dash instrument panel comes for $24, a Cycle Sound housing is $80 and flares for hand protection are $24.
Rifle fairings are available at dealerships or from Rifle, 767 Francis Ave., San Luis Obispo, Calif. 93401. Phone (805) 544-0414. ra
