Need new underwear and a windshield

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semongtaulie

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Perfect weather for motorcycle riding here in the Bluegrass state last Friday. Took the bike on my 35 mile I-75 interstate commute to work and had a great ride. Started out great on my ride back home until my Rifle windshield decided to become detached, barely missing my helmet and shooting into the stratosphere somewhere behind me.

I was in the middle of three lanes doing about 80 (keeping up with traffic) when all this happened. It happened so fast, there was no flutter of the windshield or anything. Just "Wham" and it was off. I did a quick check of the mirrors and caught a glint of something but I couldn't take my eyes off the road to see if was in the shield. I was about 7:00 to a semi in the right lane and had a car to my 10:00 in the far left lane.

After I said "Oh S%$#, about three times I was able to get in front of the semi and pull off the road. No one pulled off behind me so thankfully the windshield didn't hit anyone. I went ahead and got off the interstate and took the back roads home. The extra airflow did make for a nice cool ride and I was able to air out my drawers
smile.png
.

When I got home I checked the damage. I don't know what in the heck happened. All the plastic bolts were still in the Rifle blocks but the heads were sheared off.

The Yamaha trim piece was missing as were the two bolts that held it on. I am wondering if the vibration from the windshield caused the two trim bolts to loosen and they dropped out allowing all the stress to be put on the plastic windshield bolts.

The Rifle was the best shield for air management I've owned. My buddy and I have ridden with the Calsci, V-stream and Yamaha Touring shield at some pretty good speeds and never had this happen.

Anybody else ever lost a windshield??

 
Locktite wouldn't do anything if the head of the screws broke off.
There plastic anyway and made to shear off. I would have to say the lack of the W and two front screws missing was the demise in this case.

Tomorrow: check the windshield bolts on my feej.

Dave

 
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Thanks for the replies. I'll be sure to apply blue Loctite to the trim "W" bolts and look in the manual to see if there are torque specs for those two bolts. I never torqued them before but made sure they were very tight but evidently not tight enough.

I only had the shield raised about a quarter of the way up. The Rifle tuning blocks puts the shield angled back toward the rider more than other shields I've had so it's not like it was straight up and down.

I'll have to say it was not a good feeling being close to a semi when that happened!

 
Thanks for the replies. I'll be sure to apply blue Loctite to the trim "W" bolts and look in the manual to see if there are torque specs for those two bolts. I never torqued them before but made sure they were very tight but evidently not tight enough.I only had the shield raised about a quarter of the way up. The Rifle tuning blocks puts the shield angled back toward the rider more than other shields I've had so it's not like it was straight up and down.

I'll have to say it was not a good feeling being close to a semi when that happened!
Be REAL careful with the loctite that it does not get on any plastic. It will eat the ABS. Those screws go into spring-nuts, and should not require any loctite. Just snug them firmly.

I'm wondering if those plastic windshield screws were over-tightened, just waiting to shear. That 'W' trim piece isn't structural, The plastic windshield screws do all the heavy lifting. You should be able to ride the bike without the 'W'

There don't seem to be specific torque specs for those bolts, but if there were, it wouldn't be very much.

When you replace your screen, snug the new plastic screws firmly, but don't godzilla 'em. You want to avoid stretching or stressing them. Buy some extras, just in case you think you've over-tightened one or two.

Glad that you managed to stay upright, and not lose your cool. A few parts and a load of laundry and you're good to go!

 
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Semonguitale....I have a dark gray "W" for the windscreen that you can paint if needed, perfect condition.

PM me if interested.

Glad you weren't hurt!!!

 
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I replaced the bottom 4 screws with SS screw and left the top 2 for clearance for trim piece. I have a really short shield and I would go over it if I crash.

 
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I have never heard of a windscreen flying off like that. They may have been too tight for a long while.

Be careful. I replace mine about every two years with fresh nylon screws. They are plastic for a reason, so the shield pops off when you hit something, the bike stops and you don't. If you use steel fasteners the sheild will break and rake your belly and you fly forward.

 
Words of caution: 1. Yamaha used plastic screws for a reason. I think it is so they break off when needed in a crash. best to stick with them. 2. DO NOT use regular Loctite (blue#242 medium strength or red#271 high strength) on nylon screws. It will dissolve and/or weaken the plastic including your Lexan (polycarbonate) windshield. Loctite 425 is made for plastic but I don't think its necessary for this application. There seems to be sufficient running torque (friction) to keep those plastic screws in place.

 
Perfect weather for motorcycle riding here in the Bluegrass state last Friday. Took the bike on my 35 mile I-75 interstate commute to work and had a great ride. Started out great on my ride back home until my Rifle windshield decided to become detached, barely missing my helmet and shooting into the stratosphere somewhere behind me.

I was in the middle of three lanes doing about 80 (keeping up with traffic) when all this happened. It happened so fast, there was no flutter of the windshield or anything. Just "Wham" and it was off. I did a quick check of the mirrors and caught a glint of something but I couldn't take my eyes off the road to see if was in the shield. I was about 7:00 to a semi in the right lane and had a car to my 10:00 in the far left lane.

After I said "Oh S%$#, about three times I was able to get in front of the semi and pull off the road. No one pulled off behind me so thankfully the windshield didn't hit anyone. I went ahead and got off the interstate and took the back roads home. The extra airflow did make for a nice cool ride and I was able to air out my drawers
smile.png
.

When I got home I checked the damage. I don't know what in the heck happened. All the plastic bolts were still in the Rifle blocks but the heads were sheared off.

The Yamaha trim piece was missing as were the two bolts that held it on. I am wondering if the vibration from the windshield caused the two trim bolts to loosen and they dropped out allowing all the stress to be put on the plastic windshield bolts.

The Rifle was the best shield for air management I've owned. My buddy and I have ridden with the Calsci, V-stream and Yamaha Touring shield at some pretty good speeds and never had this happen.

Anybody else ever lost a windshield??
Glad you're okay, and glad those behind you are okay.

It seems unlikely that all the screw heads would sheer off at once, more likely that they would break one at a time and result in the windshield becoming "floppy" so you'd get a warning, and see something was wrong before it got to the point of coming off. Is it possible someone was (forgive the pun) "screwing" around with your bike? Loosened the screws? Maybe even tried to remove the windshield?

 
+1 on the W not being structural. The plastic screws hold the shield on, and this sounds like they were overtightened. They need almost no torque at all when they're snug, and overtightening stresses, i.e. stretches and weakens, the head of the bolt.

Also +1 on staying with the plastic screws. if you go through the screen for any reason, you WANT it to pop off. You do NOT want it to break from your impact and disembowel you.

And there's nothing in there that needs to be Loc-tited.

This could also be an instance of turbulence banging the shield. An air blast behind the shield would throw it forward and I could see it snapping, especially if the bolts weren't up to the job from previous damage.

 
Thanks for posting this, and I'm very glad you're OK!! I'll be checking all the fasteners for my +5 +4 Rifle this AM!!

 
Glad you're okay, and glad those behind you are okay.

It seems unlikely that all the screw heads would sheer off at once, more likely that they would break one at a time and result in the windshield becoming "floppy" so you'd get a warning, and see something was wrong before it got to the point of coming off. Is it possible someone was (forgive the pun) "screwing" around with your bike? Loosened the screws? Maybe even tried to remove the windshield?
That's what I was thinking.

It is not easy to overtighten those nylon screws because the screwdriver slips in the screwhead and chews up the x with very little effort. It is more likely that some of them were too loose or missing and the force was not shared equally across all seven screws.

 
It is not easy to overtighten those nylon screws because the screwdriver slips in the screwhead and chews up the x with very little effort. It is more likely that some of them were too loose or missing and the force was not shared equally across all seven screws.
My experience has been somewhat different, and it's not all that hard to over-torque those nylon screws, leading them to eventually fail. I've always been careful with tightening them, but've botched it a couple of times.

I remembering riding into California Scientific in East Sacramento a few years ago, and his comment as he helped me install a new windshield was, "Huh! You haven't over tightened these. Most I've seen have been."

Carry spares.

 
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