Cutting a GS Screen

[Attleborough]

I've tried a number of screens on my 07 GS but I find that I still get a huge amount of wind noise with my Schuberth Concept 2 helmet. I know the helmet is quiet in a clean airstream so it's the dirty air from the screen which seems to be making the helmet aerodynamics fail.

What I want to do is start cutting a bit of the top of my standard screen to see if that helps. Yes I know I could just remove the screen but hey this is research.

I want to cut about 1" off the top, test and try again and see if there's a point where I can change the aerodynamics to suit.

I've acquired a second hand screen via ebay to play with, well for £10 it's worth a play.

Any suggestions as to what I cut the screen with so it doesn't look like my wife did it with a bread knife!

Hints and tips welcome.

Cheers

 

[Magwych]

Try PM'ing ARASpitfire, I was with him in Morocco last year and he had a very cut down 1200GS screen, have been interested in doing this myself ...

 

[Attleborough]

Try PM'ing ARASpitfire, I was with him in Morocco last year and he had a very cut down 1200GS screen, have been interested in doing this myself ...

Thanks for that, I'll give him a go and post up anything useful in case it helps you and anyone else.

 

[Tom Murphy]

When I fitted an adventure screen [ from Nippy Normans ] and tobinators to my 1150 gs, I found that I had to cut some bits off the sides of the screen to allow the bars to turn fully.
I just used a jig-saw with a plastic blade [ blade designed to cut plastic ]. I then cleaned the edges with a fairly smooth file and it worked fine.
You would probably need to be reasonably careful though.I imagine the screen would crack if there was too much vibration.
The combination of adventure screen and tobinators worked fairly well in terms of reducing turbulance. I never got it to the stage where I had completely clean air though. Perhaps if I had spent more time experimenting with the tobinator settings I might have, but I got fed up stopping to adjust the bloody thing.
Still have wind noise - I just wear ear plugs.
Anyway, best of luck. I'd be interested to see how you get on.
Cheers,
Tom.

 

[Timolgra]

Put masking tape on both sides of the screen where the cut is to be made and use a fine tooth jig saw. Finish it off with a file and some wet and dry.

 

[ECM]

If you like a summer screen, don't take an inch off. Take half!! Then you get the silence you are after.

Here are more pictures

 

[Surrey_gareth]

After the wet and dry (fine) use brasso with a rag and it'le polish the edge like the rest of the screan edge (amaizing what I remember from school...)

Wish TT did this with my extender flip....


Gareth.

 

[ianboydsnr]

Put masking tape on both sides of the screen where the cut is to be made and use a fine tooth jig saw. Finish it off with a file and some wet and dry.

or cheap small angle grinder, metal cutting disk, folowing a line marked on the screen, with a magic marker.

 

[Timolgra]

or cheap small angle grinder, metal cutting disk, folowing a line marked on the screen, with a magic marker.

...but I fear we're talking 1200 screen here, that would never do

 

[thauma]

just be careful if you use an angle - grinder, dremmel or other high speed tool........ The plastic will melt and then you'll need to take off another inch to get the finish you want.

 

[Attleborough]

If you like a summer screen, don't take an inch off. Take half!! Then you get the silence you are after.

ECM - well I may end up that short but what did you use the cut the screen and what did you do to stop it cracking while you cut it?

 

[ianboydsnr]

just be careful if you use an angle - grinder, dremmel or other high speed tool........ The plastic will melt and then you'll need to take off another inch to get the finish you want.

It never happened to me, maybe i worked fast enough

 

[longdog]

If you want to modify your GS screen, take a look here first.

 

[Attleborough]

Great find Longdog but does anyone have any thoughts as to how much the metal plate show in the final pictures would influance the airflow and whether the plate itself would be moving the air up the inside of the screen?

 

[araspitfire]

Someone call my name?

It's all been pretty much covered, but a few years doing this kind of thing (aviation and oceanography) I feel pretty confident at it...

Masking tape... start with a narrow one and try to make a pleasing line with one edge... Add more around it so that you have a gap in between to cut in, and enough to protect the screen from the jigsaw...

Us a jigsaw that has bent out teeth... this cuts a wider slot than the blade and prevents melting from friction... a finesh tooth metal one will do... but so will a courser one... plastic is easy to file.

Make your cut... the BMW OEM GS screens are made from polycarbonate... that's like lexan... you may have heard it called 'bullet proof glass'... it won't crack from cutting it... The stuff is very tough.

Other makes of screen are made from acrylic... you can still cut and drill it... but do it as warmed up as possible... or it will crack... best to push your drill bit against the concrete floor before drilling too, to keep the drill from grabbing and cracking the acrylic.

After you cut, take a course file and run it along the edge sweeping it along, not filing like using a jig-saw... Follow this with a fine file if you have it...

If you don't have a fine file you can skip to the last step, but start more course... buy some fineish (and also very fine) sand paper and tape it down to your bench (table... whatever... something flat and smooth)... then sweep your screen along it so that you sand along the cut... do this until the bumps and file-marks are gone... repeat with the finer paper... You are done now...

Unless you want transparent... then you need to get a torch and being very careful... melt the edge to a transparent finish... with no bubbles... (I don't bother as it has the potential of making lots of work as you start from the file again if it bubbles...)

Hope this helps...

BTW, what I did with my OEM GS screen was cut it all at once as short as I could... then performed the above on the lower bit...

Then a while later, I bought a Givi screen for winter and attached the upper bit (cleaned up as above) on aluminium rails to the top to extend it...

In Morocco...

On the way to Morocco... (the cut-down screen above fits in a pannier)

BTW... I'm happy with this setup... I've had it short for a couple of summers and am very happy with riding like this... And for long motorway travel and winter, I can hear my music just fine through earplugs and Autocom headset with the long screen... I've adjusted the sliding add-on screen to be a bit below the horizon as I ride...

Visit the Smugmug gallery to seem more pictures if you want...

Al...

 

[Attleborough]

Thanks for the all the suggestions. I'll take some pictures as I go and post up the results in a few weeks as to how I got on.

Cheers

 

[Ali-bear]

If you want to modify your GS screen, take a look here first.

Hmm those vents are somewhat over-engineered, IMHO. Couple of round holes would work just as well. I notice that Honda Dullville screens come with holes as standard.

 

[Runt]

I cut some of those natty ducts that Grizzy gave a link to into my standard screen because I had holes in my Deauvilles screen and I figured what the hell its only plastic.


Seems to work
I have a C2 as well