Make your own winglets!!!

[rkclmbr24]

After finding out how much winglets cost I decided to make my own. I have a 1995 R1100GS but I am sure that you can figure out how to do this on just about any bike.

1st- I bought a large sheet of 1/4 inch plexiglass for about $2.00 at my local Ace Hardware. I find that I recieve great service from Ace store becuase they are locally owned and operated compared to the big "box" stores.

2nd- I got some pics off the net on winglet shapes and schetched what I think is a good all around shape. I am sure that there are some people that can wax peotic about aerodynamics and wind flow and buffering but I found that this shape works really well. It has greatly decreased buffering and makes a big difference on the highway. Especially when cruising at about 80 or 85 mph.

3rd- Using some cardboard I traced the curve of my plastic horizontal cowling.

4th- I traced my winglet shape 2 times onto the plexiglass and also traced the cardboard curve onto a 2x6 and a 2x4.

5th- I then cut the winglet shape out of the plexiglass and cut the curve out of the wood peices. These wood peices are how I made my mold for bending the plexiglass.

6th- I screwed the 2 top mold pieces together so that they are double width and sanded them with a large belt sander to make sure they were nice and smooth. I also sanded with the same belt sander the edges of the 2 pieces of plexiglass. I stapled some old linen rags to the mold so the plexiglass would not stick to the wood or leave any marks in the glass when I clamped it really tight.

7th- I searched the net and found some guys bending plexiglass by heating it up over a propane torch. I found this info by searching on google "plexiglass bending heating" and it came up on a model airplane building site.

8th- I marked the spot on the plexiglass were my bend would occur and marked that with a marker. I then simply heated the glass over the torch and kept moving it back and forth (sideways) across were the bend needed to be. I kept heating and trying to bend it with my hands (were some work gloves) until it became nice and soft.

9th- I put the glass in the mold and clamped it in both directions making sure that the glass was aligned nice and straight in the mold.

10th- I let the glass cool in the mold for about 20 minute and repeated again. BE SURE TO FLIP YOUR OTHER PEICE OF GLASS OVER OR YOU'LL END UP WITH 2 PEICES FOR ONE SIDE OF THE BIKE!!!!!!!

11th- I bought some rubber washers and bolts at Ace and drilled holes thru the winglets and thru the gray cowling between the light housing and your tank. Make sure not to hit anything important on the under side of the cowling. Put the rubber washers in between the winglet and the cowling. This lets the winglet move a little while off road and in high winds.

12th- Go for a ride and enjoy the benfits.

13th- Use the remainder of the plexiglass to make a fairing entender!!!

I hope this is a good description and I will post more pics through the thread on how I did this.

Have fun- rkclmbr24

[rkclmbr24]

The curve.

[rkclmbr24]

Bandsaw

[rkclmbr24]

My mold.

[rkclmbr24]

Mold pic 2.

[rkclmbr24]

Winglet

[rkclmbr24]

winglet side view

[rkclmbr24]

wing side

[rkclmbr24]

rider view

[rkclmbr24]

windsheild extender. I am 6'5" so this is a nice size.

[Borracho]

Great job! Very nicely done.

Good to see people thinking outside the box and coming up with their own solutions.

[GB]

Looks good!! Thanks for posting

[Hedge36]

An 1150 version:

[Oro D]

I have the templates for the 1150 version. Another rider posted a picture of these with measurements and I used Illustrator to come up with an actual template. You will need 8.5 x 14 paper for these to fit on the page.

They are in pdf format, so I can't upload a photo, but I can email them to anyone who is interested. Just pm me with your address.

Grizzy.

[Hootowl]

So how well do they work?