Monday, May 23, 2016

Laminar Speed Screen

See update at the end of this post.

The Laminar Speed Screen (Part No. SS-961-S Smoke) that I'd selected from my screen options exercise arrived in fairly quick order and I set out to install it. The mounting that is provided with the screen are eight Velcro-Like 3M Dual Lock Disks (eight more are provided for spares). The Dual Locks are definitely stronger than plain Velcro, but I'd read where the Laminar Screens with the Dual Locks had flown off in flight. A permanent mount was more my plan.



The screen is 14.5" tall, 14.0" wide (at the widest mid-point) and about 12.0" wide at top. The screen can be mounted at various levels on the DR650 headlight shroud, but it's important to get the height right if permanently mounting it like I did.


Although perhaps not a good permanent mount solution, the Dual Lock Discs were really useful to mount the screen at a couple different levels to experiment out on the road and find the height that I wanted. They were actually reusable when I removed them with some heat from my shop blow dryer. Just warm; I wouldn't put anything too hot on the screen like that which comes out of a heat gun...or the shroud for that matter.

I mounted the screen with four M6-100  flange bolts. All surfaces (each side) was buffered with a 1/8" rubber washer. In addition, I inserted 1/2" nylon spacers in the top mount points. I was careful not to over torque the bolts; doing so is what causes these screens to crack. Keep in mind that the surface is bowed into shape. Flattening them out by over-torquing is not what they want to do.

Based on where I mounted my screen, it extends 8.5" back from the headlight shroud at its current angle. If I take out the angle and measure straight up from the top of the shroud to the top of the screen it's 7.0" high.


Here's a look down the back, between the shroud and screen. In this photo, the 1/2" nylon spacer is visible on the left side; it's white. The 1/8" washer in the lower mount is also visible. It seems fairly sturdy.


I'm really liking the looks of this screen. It doesn't take away from the "dirt-bike" look that the DR650 has. I really only needed that additional seven inches to keep the wind from blowing back on the front of my helmet so hard at speed.


On the downside, while the screen itself doesn't flex back, it causes the front shroud (to which the screen is bolted) to flex back. At 50 mph, the shroud is touching the speedo. That takes a small amount of angle off the screen, but didn't reduce effectiveness. Nonetheless, I need to add some sort of brace to keep the shroud from flexing. Stay tuned!

Quick Tip: The best rubber washers for buffering vibrations are 1/8" -- 1/4" thick faucet washers found in the Plumbing Section at places like Home Depot. They're thicker than regular rubber washers found in the basic hardware sections and much better at buffering than vinyl washers. 

Update: Unfortunately, the Laminar Lip Speed Screen and the DR650 didn't get along. The screen caused extreme oscillation in the front (death wobble/tank slap) and after tinkering to try and fix the problem, my only option was to remove it. 

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