Silhouette Fairing
Silhouette Fairing
EVALUATION
Most fairings available today fall into one of two categories: barn doors or belly button protectors. One rather intriguing variation of the basic barn door-style fairing is the Silhouette. It’s intriguing because from some angles it doesn’t appear to be a barn door-type fairing because it doesn’t appear. Made of clear (or smoked) plexiglass, the Silhouette is completely transparent.
The Silhouette also is different from most large fairings because it mounts differently. It looks like a conventional handlebar-mount fairing but it’s not, exactly. Two chrome-plated steel rods run from clamps on the handlebars up inside the fairing and bend down again where the fairing clamps to the rods. The only other connection between the bike and the fairing is where the lower extensions of the fairing hug the fork tubes.
Silhouette calls the mounting a “chassis mount” system. According to the makers, there is supposed to be some flex and the plexiglass is supposed to break off the mounts intact in the event of a crash, not damaging the rider or the fairing.
In use, the mounting system has one huge advantage over most large fairings; it’s easy to remove. The first time the fairing is installed, it takes about half an hour to put on. Once done, the fairing easily can be taken off in a minute and installed in two minutes. So in less time than it takes to put on a rainsuit, a fairing can be installed for protection from the elements. And no longer is the rider forced to ride behind a big fairing all year around just because it usually takes half a day to remove the fairing.
What takes most of the time installing or removing most fairings is the electrical work of connecting the lighting to the fairing. But on the Silhouette the fairing wraps around and behind the headlight and signal lights on the motorcycle. Neat. No wiring and no problems.
During the evaluation the fairing was mounted on two motorcycles, a Suzuki GS850 and a Yamaha XS750 Special. The same fairing will fit most motorcycles made and special models are available to fit the Gold Wing, Yamaha XS Eleven, Honda CX500, Moto Guzzi and HarleyDavidsons.
What sells fairings, though, is not how easy they are to take off but what they do when they’re on the motorcycle. In the case of the Silhouette, it does very nicely, thank you. At 34 in., it’s as wide as a normal fairing and it extends 40 in. from top to bottom, which is more than enough in that direction. And because the fairing mounts quite close to the rider, overall, it gives good protection. What it doesn’t do is provide quite the same degree of still air that the best frame mount fairings provide. And a passenger is going to get a little more breeze than is common with the best of the biggest. But the amount of protection is greater than any ordinary handlebar-mount fairing and very close to being as good as the basic, big barn door. Where the difference is noticed most is around the kidneys and down low'. This is where the usual handlebar mount units are short and the big fairings work well. The Silhouette falls in the middle.
There is no shortage of protection around the face and head. At least not if the Silhouette is used as sent. On either of the two motorcycles the Silhouette was mounted on, it extended nearly half a foot higher than it should have. The instructions say the fairing can be tilted back to decrease overall height. Didn’t work. There’s no way to tilt the Silhouette that far back. It’s just too tall. Of course the solution is to saw off the top of the fairing with a sabre saw, which is easy to do and works very well. It’s better to allow the purchaser to saw off excess material than make the fairing too short for some, we suppose.
How about distortion through the fairing? Not bad, considering. In the seethrough portion the distortion is minimal, about the same as a good quality windshield. But where the fairing bends around the handlebars there’s noticeable distortion. And it is nice to be able to see exactly where the front wheel is going, particularly for negotiating dirt roads or in close quarters. The Silhouette doesn’t provide the same feeling of bulk that even most handlebar mount fairings do.
Best of all is the price: $84.95 for the clear and $89.95 for the tinted model. So while the Silhouette doesn’t offer the best protection or doesn't provide any storage room as do many of the largest fairings, it offers excellent value for the money and the convenience of not having to have a fairing.
Available from Silhouette Fairings, P.O. Box 1672, Martinsville, Ind. 46151. (317) 342-2300.
