2nd Gen Owners: Check your Lower Wind Deflector Brackets

[ablumny]

Last year I noticed my lower deflectors were vibrating a lot. At the end of the season I checked closely and saw rust on the top of the bracket and upon even closer look one bracket clearly was cracked. I ordered the brackets online and today we had a heatwave here on Long Island (50F!) so I tackled the replacement.

 

Below are the pictures of what I found;both were cracked; replacement is straight forward however a couple of observations:

 

- the outside bracket screws were so hard to get out I almost stripped the heads. The insides were ok. Something about the position of the outside bolts ? Happans to also be the brackets cracked on the outside of the bracket.

 

- Use locktite on all of the bracket screws. The factory did.

 

- I stripped the 5mm heads of the passing lamp bracket using a ball head allen key. (too lazy to remove the front fairing). My local H/W store gave me stainless 6mm head cap bolts. A bit more confidence cranking on the bolt with a 6mm ball head allen key.

 

Question: Anyone know what the hole is for on the bottom of each bracket? (see pic)

 

Andrew

 

[Freebird]

They pretty much ALWAYS break. They should be covered under warranty if you bike is still under warranty. There is a rubber bumper that goes into that bottom hole. They should be adjusted so that the rubber bumper just touches the forks, that prevents them from vibrating too much in the wind and cracking so easily.

 

I wish you had posted about this before ordering the new ones. If you paid for them out of pocket, Diamond R makes a much nicer set in Stainless Steel with Stainless Steel brackets that hold up and look much better.

[ablumny]

WOW. I thought I did a good job searching for prior threads, didnt see many so to hear they always break is a shocker. Bikes an 03 so no warranty. Brackets were cheap (maybe why they rot !) Next time I'll go with the Diamond brackets...They look nicer......errrr

 

and I dont have the bumpers @!

[V7Goose]

Yes, as Don said, this is extremely common (but it hasn't been mentioned here for a while).

 

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=42697&highlight=brackets

 

Those rubber bumpers touching the fork sliders are critical (and they are easy to drag off with a rag while washing the bike).

Goose

[kj5ix]

Mine are in the same condition,,, I was just going to weld them back,,, May look into the stainless ones if they are cheap...

[ablumny]

Thanks. On a related subject:

 

-how to do a multi word search like "lower wind deflectors" ? I get every post with either of these three words when Im looking for posts with that phrase only..

 

andrew

[V7Goose]

Thanks. On a related subject:

 

-how to do a multi word search like "lower wind deflectors" ? I get every post with either of these three words when Im looking for posts with that phrase only..

 

andrew

Just put the words in quotes, exactly like you did above.

Goose

 

(But those three words only return 11 posts, even without the quotes - can't be THAT hard to look through, can it?)

[ablumny]

Well, I click on Search in the header section, same line as Forum, UserCP, etc. In there I had entered "lower wind deflectors" already. When I choose Show Threads, I get 38 results. When I choose Show Posts, I get 46 results. In both cases, Im not getting ONLY topics for "lower wind deflectors"

 

Whatever, we can drop it. Hope the pics help someone!

[V7Goose]

Those results do not match mine - I'll play with it some and see if I can figure out what is causing the difference.

Goose

[V7Goose]

Yup - now I am getting the same results - 38 returns. Very different than what I got earlier in the day. Cannot explain it yet. Will keep working on it.

Goose

[eusa1]

just go to diamondraccessories.com and buy the mounts and the chrome deflectors to go with them, they reflect more light than any amount of passing lamps could ever put off!! and they are top notch quality!

they warranty them them never to break! and as if that were not enough.... they are CHROME deflectors :cool10:SAFETY CHROME BABY!!

[kyle]

Mine just broke the other day, of course i was fiddling with it and snap, oh well. just ordered fact. replacements from boats.net with new bumpers for twenty something.

[N3FOL]

I just inspected my brackets this morning and it showed little surface rust. As soon as I arrive from work, a nice coat of anti-rust may help a little. Thanks for this thread, this is something I'ce never really paid attention to.

[Bobby G]

Washed the bike on Wednesday, and the left side bracket fell right off. Rusted clean through. Just ordered the OEM replacements (Diamond R's a little too pricy right now), and will hit them with a rust proof coat of Krylon before installing. Should last long after I finally upgrade to a newer scoot someday. The rubber bumpers will get replaced as well.

[V7Goose]

Washed the bike on Wednesday, and the left side bracket fell right off. Rusted clean through. Just ordered the OEM replacements (Diamond R's a little too pricy right now), and will hit them with a rust proof coat of Krylon before installing. Should last long after I finally upgrade to a newer scoot someday. The rubber bumpers will get replaced as well.

Those brackets do not rust unless they are already broken by the flexing from the wind pressure.

 

As I stated in an earlier reply to this old thread, those rubber bumpers are critical - they MUST touch the fork covers. If they do not, the brackets will break from flexing before 20,000 miles. The more space between the bumpers and the fork covers, the sooner they will break. If they do touch the fork covers, the stock brackets will last forever.

Goose

[allwx]

Thanks to VentureRider I caught this over three years ago, just after I got my 07 RSV. Mine at that time were riding way high away from the fork covers. I adjusted them to maintain solid contact with the forks, and they still look perfect after 23k miles. Thanks, VentureRider!

 

ON a slightly different note, it never ceases to amaze me that Yam (and the other manufacturers as well) will let something like this ride with apparently no attempt made to improve the parts. A similar thing often happens with the cheapo lightbar on the Roadstar Silverados. Mine snapped off one day in traffic, fell down and put nice dents in my fork covers.

 

In so many resects, an outstanding motorcycle, that could be made so much better by a little more attention from the Company.