Hannigan Ste Fairing
HANNIGAN STe FAIRING
EVALUATION
Touring Comfort, Sporting Style, Canadian Design
We first saw the Hannigan STe fairing at Daytona, 1980. Two Canadians had ridden to the races through snow and cold and dark of night. No news there; Canadian bikers are an enthusiastic and sporting lot. But they looked as if the ride hadn't been all that tough and they gave credit to the fairings on their bikes.
We’d already noticed. First impression was how nice they looked, what a good blend of grand prix shape and full touring size. With lowers, no less. And storage pockets. Great. Where does one get such a fairing? In Canada? Oh. The project went on the back burner until a Hannigan ad appeared in Cycle Canada and we wrote for details. Turns out Hannigan does sell in the U.S. so we ordered up an STe (which seems to stand for Sports Touring european) color matched for a silver Honda CB750F.
The STe was just what some of us had been waiting for. For several years there has been a good selection of full touring fairings in the Vetter theme, with frame mounting and storage and full protection, fine for long days on the highway, except that they’re high and detract, in the mind if not actually, from the sporting feel of a
performance bike. And the BMW R90S introduced the cafe or bikini fairing. Much less weight, more sport, cheaper and easier to install and racy as a TZ750 .. . and not much for wind and weather protection. Since then we’ve seen a narrowing on the two ideas, some of which are good and some which aren’t so good.
The STe is a good one, on the protection side of the sports/protection scale. It is by most definitions a full fairing. There’s a metal framework that mounts to the front
downtubes and has a platform to which the fairing itself, of hand-laid fiberglass, is bolted. The STe is complete with its own headlight, turn signals and wiring harness. There are optional lowers that bolt to the lower trailing edge of the fairing and brace with small brackets on the lower outside of the engine cases. The tinted screen, bolton mirrors, and pocket covers are standard equipment, as is a clear deflector for the top of the screen, if desired,
Installation was efficient and reasonably quick, at least for those who’ve already mounted fairings of this size and type. All the parts were in the box, the holes had been drilled to align with the other holes and the wiring snapped into place. The instructions were complete and the project took a couple of hours or so. (A six-pack job, as our amateur mechanics measure time.)
That was with one shortcut. The Honda is on loan so the headlight bucket was left in place, a timesaving that cost the bike its fork lock because the bucket interferes with the inner fairing at full left lock, a flaw that shouldn’t be held against the fairing.
The STe is an unusual piece of equipment. Sporting in look and feel, it is still a full fairing and the total package tips the scales at 28 lb. by the factory’s book, 30 lb. by our mailroom test. That’s more than twice the weight of the smaller bar-mount bikini fairings and the weight can be felt in slow traffic and on fast turns. It doesn’t hamper the 750F exactly, but it can be felt and does pull the bike down in turns.
Next, the STe, requires personal tuning and attention. The e as in European means lower bars and a leaned-forward riding position. The fairing comes with one mounting height, as do most frame mounts. But the barn door jobs offer a selection of screen heights and if you don’t like any of them you can get one that’s too high and trim to taste. The Hannigan screen is formed and shaped permanently. To trim it would be to ruin the lines and the protection. All the rider can do is alter his position, with the bars.
In this case the primary rider likes bars that are low, but not that low, so he picked a set about four inches lower than stock. They put the grips just low enough so a rider’s hands can be squeezed a bit by the edge of the fairing when the bars are at the restricted full lock.
That man thought the position was fine. One taller rider said the bars were too high, another of equal height but different style thought they were too low, both said the screen was too low and didn’t keep wind out of their faces. Another rider, shorter than the first, said the bars and screen were too high. Moral: getting bar and screen height to match rider preference, size and position is a personal thing. But don’t plan on using stock-height bars with the Hannigan.
The mirrors are further from the rider than bar-end mirrors are and in order to not reduce the rider’s field of vision, they are convex. You can see everything back there, but the image of the car you just passed is smaller, i.e. looks further away, than it really is. After some practice, no problem. The lowers work in rain and cold and give adequate clearance for all except
the largest, say size 12, boot. Like all lowers they make engine maintenance more of a hassle.
These are minor things. Riders who like to bask in the admiration of others will love the STe. Bikers and just folks remarked on the sheer attractiveness of the bike. The 750F has always drawn such comments but the STe, with matching silver and trim and matching red and maroon stripes, knocked ’em out. People at the press show for another fairing company made a fuss over the Hannigan and we haven’t drawn such crowds on a bike since we were the first guys in town with an Interstate.
You don’t care what other riders think? The STe keeps off the cold, worth at least a down vest in the winter. The GP crowd didn’t pick that sleek bullet front for nothing, and the STe parts the air and moves it about and around, with no back draft to chill your kidneys or side buffeting of your helmet. Moving the aerodynamic center forward makes the bike more sensitive to side winds, a debit. But. Although the CW mileage loop isn’t laid out to measure aerodynamic changes and we thus don’t have a figure for this, in daily use the miles-per-tank average has gone from 200 to 225 before switching on the reserve. We don’t say it will add 5 mpg, but that’s the indication.
Nice work. Bigger and heavier than the pure sporting rider may want, with less storage and more position restriction than the touring fairings have, but still it’s well balanced and well done and it looks wonderful.
Crossing the border has been arranged. We tend to think of Canadians as friends, almost family, but there are rules.
Hannigan has made it possible. Price of the fairing, with the bracketry, screen, spoiler and mirrors, is $425 U.S. The lowers are $125, color match is $125 and there’s a locking pocket lid for $20. U.S. duty is eight percent, or $34 for the fairing, $10 for lowers. Hannigan has engaged a customs broker to take care of the paper work and red tape, for a $20 fee.
By paying the money with the order, buyers can get the fairing across the border and shipped, fee collect. Those charges depend on weight and distance and are estimated at $30 in the northeast to $75 in the southwest. They suggest that several people order at the same time, which saves on both the brokerage and shipping. The hardware is designed for each model, that is, no one-size-almostfits-all, and the STe is offered for most popular bikes, 750 cc and up.
From Hannigan Fairing Co. Ltd.
1525 Warden Ave.
Scarborough, Ontario, Canada M1R4Z8 S
