Krauser Adaptation For the Kawasaki Kz650
KRAUSER ADAPTATION FOR THE KAWASAKIKZ650
NEW IDEAS IN FAIRINGS
Despite the undisputed newness of this idea, the evaluation that follows comes only after internal debate and struggle. What we have here is the invention of what we must call the Threeeighths Fairing, that is, a compromise between the racing-style quarter fairing as used on road and cafe racers and the full touring jobs which are sometimes billed as half fairings.
Out invention itselt is as homemade as our descriptive term. That's why the hesi tation. Before we make judgments and take credit, better we make it clear that this product has been adapted and the project has some flaws, several of which are the result of our work and not the manufac turer's.
We'll start with fairings as a group. Currently the market offers three basic types: full touring, bikini sports and sensi ble windshield.
Touring fairings are great. when used in their proper environment. On a touring bike. over a long haul, dawn todusk on the open road at open road speeds. the big fairing is great. Wouldn't tour without one.
i ne DiKifli or sports or quarter or cock pit fairings also have their place. On the track, in most applications, or on high speed sporting roadsters. The BMW RS models, the Ducati Desmo and Kawasaki's Z1-R come with such fairings and work well with them.
Windshields are nice to have on go-to work bikes, as they keep you drier and neater than you'd otherwise be on arrival.
of the cal use or emotional appeal for many sporting riders.
For the rider who does at least 50 miles a day but seldom more than 200. the touring fairing can be awkward and clumsy. There are riders who plain don't like to look through anything.
Bikini tairings? Stylish, yes. But for a sit up rider the sports jobs aim the air directly into the chest or the Adam's apple. For some of us, cafe is too much sport and not enough comfort.
Windshields work fine for the police and the city rider. But they also must be looked through. they can lose their usefulness at highway speeds and besides, they are too practical for persons with a wish to look sporting.
Despite all this, a fairing can be a biker's best friend. Good-bye, headwinds. No more helmet mashed against one's nose, adios chill winds down the co!lar, farewell arms aching from leaning into the wind, mile after mile.
What the world needs, we decided, is a new idea in fairings. If you began with a bikini fairing and made the screen higher so it would deflect the blast, but not so high that you couldn't look over it, you could have most of the protection given by a touring fairing and most of the sporting appeal of the racer type. without their respective drawbacks.
Great. Too bad nobody is making such a thing.
Came then an announcement from Bob Beach Motorcycle Accessories, (2763 W. River Pkway. No. 60, Grand Island, N.Y. 14072). They are importing a Krauser cockpit fairing and package. styled much like the BMW fairing except for larger front piece and higher screen. Complete with streamlined mirrors and instruments. For the Honda GL1000.
Nuts. But because the idea seemed so close to our own we called and asked about other installations. Yes, they said, they planned to develop the hardware for other models. Like a Kawasaki KZ650? Sure thing. Fine, we said, and we ordered one to be delivered soon as they had the hard ware.
Couple months later the UPS man delivered the Krauser fairing kit. For a Honda GL. Seemed there had been a mixup in the paperwork and our order had gone out prematurely. The people at Beach said they were sorry and didn’t know when the KZ650 fittings would be available.
Once we had the fairing in hand, we couldn’t let go. Despite the scoffimgs of some of the staff, we decided the fairing could be installed on the KZ. Ron made some brackets. (Nice thing about having a racer on the staff is that makeshift machine work doesn’t deter him.)
The brackets attach the top sides of the fairing to the former mirror mounts and the bottom sides to the triple clamp bolts. The position was chosen, make that dictated, by where the fairing opening lined up with the KZ headlight. Worked out well enough, although the fairing and screen are a bit lower than we would have preferred; there’s just barely room for gloved hands between the grips and the fairing’s edges.
After that it was simply a matter of attaching the mirror mounts and mirrors, the turn signal stalks to the lower edges, and the actual windscreen, then doing the wires for the clock and voltmeter. Making the brackets was the worst part.
Debits:
First flaw has to be the installation, not because it was badly done-Ron did a super job—but because it required more work and innovation than would a fairing and kit designed for the bike onto which it went.
Next, the finish of the fairing isn’t too good. There are pinhole flaws in the paint, the screen is optically curved to the extent that looking through it will make your eyes cross, and the edges of the fairing proper were not dressed out. These problems have nothing to do with the installation or the use. If we owned the fairing and the bike, we would have sanded and filed the edges until smooth and would have primed and sanded and then got some epoxy paint mixed to match Kawasaki candy apple and had the fairing done to blend with the rest of the bike.
Even so, the finish wasn’t as good as we would expect from a firm as well known as Krauser and for the price (approximately $250) of the kit.
The looks. Some people express a mild liking for the looks of the fairing, more don’t care one way or the other and one man here hates it. Too many fussy angles, he says, too much styling, especially those mirrors on stalks.
Personal views have a place in an evaluation, but not a large one and anyway, the potential buyer/adapter can judge any product by the pictures.
The mirrors do have some shake at speed, perhaps as a result of the homemade mounting. They also mount just above the grips, standard cafe position and like short mirrors on narrow bars, they give the rider a backward view that doesn’t include the area directly behind the machine. What the rider gets is a glimpse of his own elbow. Widerstalks would be nice.
Credits:
Simple. The fairing works. It does what it was expected to do. The screen height and curved upper edge are just right for the average rider’s riding position. The wind is deflected; catches one just at the top of the helmet where it provides a clue as to speed and doesn’t push the rider back or around. Just what we wanted.
We can look over the screen and see the world firsthand, one of the best things about riding. At speed you sit in roughened air, so to speak. Some buffeting and more wind noise lets you know if there is a head wind, a cross wind or both.
But you do not feel them directly. The KZ650 is still as stable as ever, still as sporting, indeed, one might say the feeling of looking over that racey screen adds to the sport. Blasts from trucks don’t bother
the bike. Or the rider.
Fine. Consider this project a trade: In exchange for a homemade installation of a fairing not supposed to be on the bike and perhaps not as perfect as a buyer would like, we get to stay warmer and more relaxed and never again care if there is a headwind.
That’s a better than even trade.
Now to the secret reason for this evaluation. Most of the time a magazine reports the news. There are occasions on which a magazine, okay, this magazine, is entitled to make some news.
We think there is a demand for the three-eighths fairing on sports roadsters, or perhaps that there will be a demand now that this project has been shared. We don’t ask letters be written or telephone calls made, but we do hope that Bob Beach will finish his hardware design and that some of the fairing manufacturers and importers will do some test marketing of their own, all so those of us who want a balance between touring and cafe will have a place to get it.—A.G.
