USA Trailer Store fairing on 12 Nomad

[hayes]

I like fairings. Always have. I also like music. I had a Boss Audio 600 watt kit, and the sound was good. I could hear it great until about 70 miles per hour, but once I crossed that mark and the sound washed out. The speakers were a 3" design, so the low end of the sound was non-existant. I bought this for the bluetooth connection, but I found it to be unreliable above 65 mph. It would skip like a CD. No big deal, really, but I was changing the system out anyways.

I installed the Boss kit because I was on a time constraint. I was leaving for a 4000 mile trip about a week after I ordered it, so I needed the installation to be easy. It was. I removed the tank, hooked everything up and the system just worked. Cool.

I bought a fairing from USA Trailer Store. The total cost was about $265.00 shipped to my door. The overall quality is good. The cost was the big selling point for me. Compare it to any other fairing and you will understand why I chose to go this route.

Once I got the fairing, it was time to get it mounted. The initial fit was a little...iffy... I knew I would have to modify the fairing, so I was ready. The mounting holes needed to be wallowed out, so that the fairing could be mounted higher than it was. Took some time, but I managed to get the fairing fitting right. I forgot to take pictures of this step. It's not pretty, but it gets the job done.

Now for the fun part... AUDIO!!!

I went to Walmart, for cheap deck and speakers. No dice. Then I went to Best Buy - BOOM! I bought the Kendwood KMM-T312U deck. It's a mechless, so there is no CD player. This makes it a short unit. I had to shave the opening down to fit, but no biggie. Once it was mounted, it was time for the speakers. I bought the Kenwood KFC-6995PS. They were about $20 bucks more expensive than the lower 6x9 model, and I am glad I spent the money.

The wiring was straight forward, but I kind of winged it due to time restraints. The fairing itself is completely wired, but the power is where I half assed it.

I hooked the power wire, and the memory power wire together and ran them directly to a switched power source. Basically, when I turn off the bike, it's like factory resetting the radio completely. Kind of annoying, but I didn't have time to make it work right, and it's only for a couple of days until I get the rest of my parts.

Next up will be a volt gauge to mount in the fairing, so I can monitor the battery levels. I will install that when I also install a fuse block. When I install the fuse block and gauge, I will run the memory wire straigt to a constant power source.


My impressions:

1. The fairing is awesome. It's solid. I need to put some felt on top of the headlight because the fairing rubs a tiny bit and squeeks. No biggie, all part of the game.

2. The head unit is great. My iPhone plugs in using the Apple cord and I can control everything from the head unit. Once I have the memory power cable wired, I will be able to see song titles and all the coolness.

3. These speakers are loud. I was worried about having to get an amp installed at a later time. This will not be necessary. I listen to all kinds of music, mostly country with some Ice Ice Baby, Baby Got Back, and Regulators thrown in for good measure. One of my favorite bands is . This is what I gauge the speaker quality on. I could hear all the parts of the song great. I never raised the volume of 30 and could hear it at 85 mph.

4. The shield that comes with the fairing is terrible. It's 5" tall and creates a lot of buffeting around my head. I will be getting a slightly taller and curved shield to install. The shield that came it is also a stupid brown color. Again, no biggie overall, since the height will not work for me anyways.

Now it's picture time.

[HwyRider]

Nice job. When you do the rest of the wiring use a flat 4 wire trailer wire so that you can unplug the entire fairing without having to disconnect individual wires. Just unplug the one plug and pull the fairing anytime that you need to.

[hayes]

Thank you! Is forgot about that idea. I definitely want something that's easy to remove. I hope I don't have to take the fairing off a lot, but I case I do...

[nomadtom69]

looks like the old style Reckless fairing they changed theirs because someone copied their design

[hayes]

At the end of the day, a fairing is a fairing. Only so many designs you can have. It was significantly cheaper than reckless. I looked into them but it was 1400 dollars by the time it was done.

[Framer]

Nice job. Reckless also comes with a junk shield so I went with a Long Ride Shields. They're having a sale use code megasale50 to get 50% off.

[BigRed]

Does this fairing mount in the same spot(s) as an OEM windshiels? Did it come with all the necessary hardware?

[Vulcanrider03]

Originally Posted by hayes

I like fairings. Always have. I also like music. I had a Boss Audio 600 watt kit, and the sound was good. I could hear it great until about 70 miles per hour, but once I crossed that mark and the sound washed out. The speakers were a 3" design, so the low end of the sound was non-existant. I bought this for the bluetooth connection, but I found it to be unreliable above 65 mph. It would skip like a CD. No big deal, really, but I was changing the system out anyways.

I installed the Boss kit because I was on a time constraint. I was leaving for a 4000 mile trip about a week after I ordered it, so I needed the installation to be easy. It was. I removed the tank, hooked everything up and the system just worked. Cool.

I bought a fairing from USA Trailer Store. The total cost was about $265.00 shipped to my door. The overall quality is good. The cost was the big selling point for me. Compare it to any other fairing and you will understand why I chose to go this route.

Once I got the fairing, it was time to get it mounted. The initial fit was a little...iffy... I knew I would have to modify the fairing, so I was ready. The mounting holes needed to be wallowed out, so that the fairing could be mounted higher than it was. Took some time, but I managed to get the fairing fitting right. I forgot to take pictures of this step. It's not pretty, but it gets the job done.

Now for the fun part... AUDIO!!!

I went to Walmart, for cheap deck and speakers. No dice. Then I went to Best Buy - BOOM! I bought the Kendwood KMM-T312U deck. It's a mechless, so there is no CD player. This makes it a short unit. I had to shave the opening down to fit, but no biggie. Once it was mounted, it was time for the speakers. I bought the Kenwood KFC-6995PS. They were about $20 bucks more expensive than the lower 6x9 model, and I am glad I spent the money.

The wiring was straight forward, but I kind of winged it due to time restraints. The fairing itself is completely wired, but the power is where I half assed it.

I hooked the power wire, and the memory power wire together and ran them directly to a switched power source. Basically, when I turn off the bike, it's like factory resetting the radio completely. Kind of annoying, but I didn't have time to make it work right, and it's only for a couple of days until I get the rest of my parts.

Next up will be a volt gauge to mount in the fairing, so I can monitor the battery levels. I will install that when I also install a fuse block. When I install the fuse block and gauge, I will run the memory wire straigt to a constant power source.


My impressions:

1. The fairing is awesome. It's solid. I need to put some felt on top of the headlight because the fairing rubs a tiny bit and squeeks. No biggie, all part of the game.

2. The head unit is great. My iPhone plugs in using the Apple cord and I can control everything from the head unit. Once I have the memory power cable wired, I will be able to see song titles and all the coolness.

3. These speakers are loud. I was worried about having to get an amp installed at a later time. This will not be necessary. I listen to all kinds of music, mostly country with some Ice Ice Baby, Baby Got Back, and Regulators thrown in for good measure. One of my favorite bands is . This is what I gauge the speaker quality on. I could hear all the parts of the song great. I never raised the volume of 30 and could hear it at 85 mph.

4. The shield that comes with the fairing is terrible. It's 5" tall and creates a lot of buffeting around my head. I will be getting a slightly taller and curved shield to install. The shield that came it is also a stupid brown color. Again, no biggie overall, since the height will not work for me anyways.

Now it's picture time.

how would it fit on the bike if you have 4 inch riser ,,

[HwyRider]

You would probably need to modify or make some new mounting brackets.

[hayes]

Originally Posted by Framer

Nice job. Reckless also comes with a junk shield so I went with a Long Ride Shields. They're having a sale use code magasale50 to get 50% off.

Thank you! We're the mounting locations the same?

Originally Posted by BigRed

Does this fairing mount in the same spot(s) as an OEM windshiels? Did it come with all the necessary hardware?

It does. The website says you need the quick release kit, but that's not true. I used the oe hardware to mount the fairing.

Originally Posted by Vulcanrider03

how would it fit on the bike if you have 4 inch riser ,,

Originally Posted by HwyRider

You would probably need to modify or make some new mounting brackets.

I had to take my chucksters risers off. The fairing wouldn't fit with risers.

[hayes]

Are the shield mounting holes fairly standard across the board?

[Framer]

[QUOTE=hayes;635153]Thank you! We're the mounting locations the same

RLS makes shields for Harley and reckless, I'm not sure why since they're so close to the same it doesn't really matter. If yours is a three bolt pattern I'm sure it will work. I purchased the 22" shield for the reckless fairing but my trim piece is for a Harley and they both work great.

[HwyRider]

If you do a lot of riding you will be replacing the shield approximately every 2 years. I have a Reckless 8 inch shield and it needs replacing at the end of this season. They scratch up easily. They're cheap enough to buy so it's worth it to replace them when they get crappy.

[VulcanE]

Originally Posted by HwyRider

If you do a lot of riding you will be replacing the shield approximately every 2 years. I have a Reckless 8 inch shield and it needs replacing at the end of this season. They scratch up easily. They're cheap enough to buy so it's worth it to replace them when they get crappy.

I've had my windshield on my fairing for 6~7 years now (Clearview with recurve), and it still looks almost new, it looked good enough that I spent $100 on a windshield engraving during the rally in Eureka Springs.

[hayes]

I have an old batwing shiel that I'll test mounting locations with. If they match up (or are close), I'll order the 6.5" recurve version. I had it on my vn2k and it was awesome.