Memphis Shades Windshield

I'm running out of things to do after work in the Philippines (3am in the morning, that is), so here's another quick post on another addition to my bike.

I bought a windshield for the bike. The M50 comes from the dealer without anything - one of the reasons I liked it. I hate saddlebags, windshields, anything that makes it look like an old man's bike. Just my opinion. But, I've taken it to Calgary before; on the highway, having no windshield sucks the big one. I've got an f'ed up shoulder to begin with, but after hours on the road getting blown back by 130km wind I was in some serious pain. So, if I'm doing this big bike trip this summer going to the Island to visit my mom, I'm going to need a windshield. Either that, or I'm resting every 30 minutes. This is what I ended up buying:


I figure, if I'm getting one, it better have some semblance to a young person's style. I figured that I'd match up the color and got a two toned windshield. It's not a huge one, but it takes all the wind off my chest and directs it nicely over my head, too. I also find that it's nice in the rain. Usually, I end up getting a puddle in my crotch when I ride in the raid because it all runs down my jacket. But with the windshield, I'm perfectly dry. I should take some pics of my rain proof pants too...next post.

I've posted the pdf instructions that I received with the windshield here.

Once you get it set up, the clamps around the forks just stay there all the time and blend in pretty well. I never take those off. Then, the windshield just quickly tightens onto them and it's installed. To estimate, I would say it takes me about 30 seconds to get it off or on. It comes with an Allen key and you just tighten or loosen 4 bolts.

I had it quite low on the forks when I first put in on, but after riding for a bit, I can feel the wind "chop" at my head. So, now I've got the windshield raised all the way to the top of the forks and it's a lot better.

You’ve got to buy the windshield and the mounting kit separately. But it wasn’t too expensive; I paid $150 US for both together. Phatperformanceparts.com is a great site – lots of cool stuff. I’m thinking about buying some pipes from there, too, but damn they are expensive (and I don’t even want to think of the shipping and duty costs).

Billet Rack and Mounting Bracket

Still more preparations for my big summer trip, and I need more places to hold crap. Behind the sissy bar (not installed yet) will be the billet rack. And to install the rack, I needed to pick up the mounting bracket, too.

I got these from Oneida Suzuki, as usual, and they installed great. There was one little thing, though. You can't have just the rack installed without having the sissy bar installed. The reason is that the sissy bar has threads for the bolts to screw in to. I just picked up some nuts from Home Depot and that solved that. Here's the instructions for the Billet Rack and the Mounting Bracket, in case you're interested. They're just the OEM instructions, but nice to have in case I loose mine.

What the heck is a Hypercharger??

Sometime last year, I picked up a Hypercharger for my bike. Sounds pretty crazy, right? Well, it's actually just a replacement air filter cover and comes with a K&N air filter.

The exact name of this one is the Thunder Air Kit - I got it from Oneida Suzuki, where I get most of my stuff from. To be blunt, this is what it does:

• allows more air into the engine;
  
• K&N air filters are some of the best;
  
• allows more air in depending on how much throttle is given;
  
• supposidly increases horsepower by as much as 5%;
  
• it just looks cool, that's about the gist of it.

I had a hell of a time finding instructions on how to install the thing. How does one piece of paper, double sided, and with no pictures sound to you? Yeah, that's what it came with. Turns out the interweb offered some better instructions. And I give those to you here. If you ever get one, you'll need to remember that you need to get the hypercharger and some conversion kit, too. This kit allows you to install the hypercharger because some fittings are a little different.

To tell you the truth, it does feel like I have a little more horses, but it could be because I want to think that.

If you've got any questions about this, let me know.

Laptop Bag

I'll start with something pretty simple - a laptop bag. I ride to work every day, rain or shine, and I've got to take my work home some times. And by work, I mean my whole laptop, cords, mouse and papers. I didn’t want a backpack because you really shouldn’t ride a bike with anything that restricts your arms. So, I picked up a bag from Argyll Motorsports. It’s made by Oxford Sports and it does exactly what I need it to do.

It hooks up to the strap between the main seat and the back seat, then wraps around the whole back seat and stays pretty firm. It comes with a cargo net strap to go over top and a built in water proof cover. I can store the laptop in the main cargo area, along with the power cord and mouse, but there’s plenty of other storage areas too. It also funtions as a backpack, so when I take it off I can just throw it over my shoulder and go. The only down side of it is that I don’t think it’s strong enough to stay on the bike without the cargo net strap that comes with it - no big deal.


I don’t know how may people actually ride their motorbikes to work with their laptops, but if you do, check out Oxford Sports’ site for some of their products. By the way, I paid about $150 for it.

As you'll see later, I've now bought a whole motorcycle luggage set from Oxford and I highly recomend them, whether you ride a cruiser or crotch rocket. I picked up a tank bag, saddle bags and a bag that hooks up to the sissy bar. I'll show you them later.