Yet another screen on my ADV

[Orcadian]

I've only managed about 300 miles on my new ADV so far, so still getting to grips with it. Like most areas of UK recently it's been bloody windy - it's almost always windy in Orkney but it's been particularly bad this winter. Anyway, when I ordered the bike I asked for the gen Honda taller Touring screen - wish I hadn't bothered, so ended up with Puigs offering which was an improvement but still nowhere near as good as the Forza. I had a Givi screen spare from the Forza days which would have only seen the light of day after I shuffle off! I compared it to the ADV Puig one and reasoned that I could modify that without it looking like a bodge job.
I offered it up to the ADV mounts and marked out the four 7mm holes. The original mounting holes could be removed in the trimming process. After drilling I mounted it in place and marked out the bits that would need trimming to clear the mirrors and hand guards on full lock. I taped a microfibre cloth to my bandsaw table and trimmed the screen to the marked out lines. I then dressed the edges with my home made drum sander and polished the edges with fluffy velcro on the same sander.
I've been out today for a 40 mile spin in very strong 'swappy' winds and it's streets ahead of the other screens!











Ian

[MrGrumpy]

Looks great - and its big! I admire your artistry!
No doubt you've worked out how those funny screw things work. All beyond my level of incompetence as my screen fell off the other day! Well, it was hanging by one screw. Rummaged in the Honda tool kit and it had an Allen drive thing with which I removed the other screw. Then had the interesting task of returning home with the screen detached. Oddly, it didn't make as much difference riding without a screen as you might think - certainly colder, but not as windblown as you'd expect, albeit I was keeping my speed down.

[Orcadian]

It's certainly big! Those screws are just cheap anti- vibration mounts. If you look at the 'key' holes they fit in you will see that they are bigger at the bottom, so you fit them there and then slide them upwards to hold in place. Seems a bit wrong to me - I used to be an engineer but I'm OK now! Here in Orkney gravity seems to work downwards so the slots are upside down in my view. Perhaps their thinking was that the wind pressure would tend to push the screen upwards - dunno! Also you can tighten them way above what the rubber can stand - doubt if they use any torque setting - mine were slack from new. I might seek an alternative but my 3phase converter for my lathe has just gone bang after 38 years perfect service - I'm lost without a lathe!
I was certainly impressed with the new screen yesterday - only in the heat of Summer might I revert to the smaller one - if that ever happens! One downside is that adjustment downwards will not be possible due to interference with mirrors and handguards but it was bigger I was after, not smaller!

Ian

[MrGrumpy]

I got a nearby workshop to refit the screen - have to see how tight the screws are. I'd seen warnings elsewhere that you shouldn't tighten the screws too tight, but you don't want them flopping around, but it seems over tightening them causes problems! Pretty hard to guess for anyone, let alone a mechanical numpty like me!

[Orcadian]

Mr G - When you said it was held only by one screw - did you lose the others then? There have been reports of ADV screens flying off while riding by some of the Asian folk. As a production engineer I have a feeling that the fasteners were perhaps assembled to the screens in batches, to be clapped on to the bracket and then pushed upwards and tightened. That's fine if there is a torque setting available and no doubt the operatives were skilled in knowing how tight. My touring screen was fitted at the dealers and I removed it to load the bike into the van and they were little more than finger tight. As I say, when my lathe is running again I shall seek a better, more reliable alternative. Can't remember exactly what the Forza had but I'm sure they were far more positive. The 'key hole' system is only necessary for rapid production - I'm sure I can block those off and leave circular holes.

Ian

[MrGrumpy]

No, fortunately all the screws were retained in the screen, and perhaps even more remarkably stayed in the screen when I transported it back home! With the benefit of hindsight, I should probably have taken them out for safe keeping, but I was a bit stressed at the time! What's wrong with a traditional nut & bolt solution? Even I can work that out!

[Orcadian]

Ah! That makes sense and bears out what I'm thinking about how they are assembled. Sounds like yours were not tight enough allowing the rubber bush to drop into the larger part of the key hole. As you may now be aware, there is a stainless steel insert in that rubber mount which then gets squeezed to fill the smaller part of the hole as it's tightened. If they had wanted a quick assembly method (which the accountants no doubt insisted on!) then these keyholes could have been moulded sideways to prevent either gravity or wind pressure letting the screen escape. We shouldn't have to intervene to make things foolproof - that should have been done at the design stage - grrrrr!!!!

Ian

[Andym]

The CB500X (or whatever it's called this week) has the same issue.

The fasteners are rubber well nuts and are a commercially available part, so no need to buy from Honda.

As well as really not having any proper clamping force and hence torque, they have another problem. When the thread corrodes the lack of fixation in the rubber part allows the lot to rotate. A total mess as an automotive design. Treat on assembly, keep clean and see what you need in the way of long pliers to grab the back of them.

The CB500X is a distaster aerodynamically, so in the 15 months I owned it I had three screens and a period of actually running without. Had I actually solved the screen problems, my next move would have been to separate the fasteners and anti-vibration functions. Probably fix a sub frame to the bike with rivnuts instead of well nuts and then mounted the screen to that with rubber pads bonded between.

They'll prise the electric screen button out of my cold dead hands though, so hopefully not a problem I'll need to re-visit, but hopefully a bit of experience that can move your plans along.

Andy

[Orcadian]

Yes Andy, the electric screen and general aerodynamics were far better on the Forza - for me it was just the Mickey Mouse front suspension, mirrors and steering head bearings which let it down and made me change to the ADV. Whilst I don't regret it, I'm still making small additions and mods to it to suit me. If Honda had put a proper front end - including the lovely wide ADV bars and mirrors on the Forza, I would have bought one. As I've said before, the only bike I've bought that was correct 'straight out of the box' was my 1500 SE GoldWing - but you can buy 6 ADV/Forzas for the same price as its successor these days. I will certainly be making alternative fasteners for the ADV screen asap.

Ian