Baker Air-Wings installed

Wow! These work GREAT! I wish I had these installed on my last trip to southern Indiana and Northern Kentucky, because it was HOT! These would not have reduced the temps but they certainly move air around. Sitting behind the fairing with a full-face helmet on was hot, and though I was sorely tempted to ride sans helmet, I did not.

Installing these was fairly simple, but I made some changes to the mounting hardware. I replaced the supplied zinc-coated screws with stainless metric cap screws (M5 x 30mm) and stainless washers. I also tapped the 10/32 holes in the mounting plates to M5 and then used M5 x 12mm cap screws that I ground down to the correct length so they wouldn’t hit the trim strip, also with stainless washers. Now, the bolts can all be removed with a single 4mm allen wrench and they are all using the same thread pattern. 10/32 threads are so close to M5 threads that I just ran the M5 tap into the 10/32 holes and it was fine.

The supplied patterns for drilling the trim strips placed the holes a little too far to the top, so I used a dremel to elongate the holes so that the nylon inserts were sitting properly. It all went together quite easily.

The lower section can direct the radiator-warmed air to the rider, or deflect it out and away. Independently, the upper section can direct the ambient air over the rider or deflect it away. Although I haven’t yet had occasion to try it, I would think that using both upper and lower sections to deflect air away from the rider would help in the rain. When I get my Garmin 478 installed, I hope to never test the rain deflection properties – the 478 with Nexrad radar should help me to avoid getting rained on in the first place. Time will tell.

So far, a big THUMBS UP!

Washing and waxing may require removing the air-wings, I will know in a day or two.   Hopefully it won’t be more than a minor inconvenience if it’s necessary, and the way the air-wings work makes it a worthwhile trade-off.