modified Interstate fork deflectors

The Hondaline Interstate front wind deflectors, while a neat idea, are well below typical Honda quality -- the welds are awful, the mounting hardware is ugly, and the retaining plates (#3 in the above exploded diagram) are not cut straight (I looked at a half dozen pairs, and they were all bad).  Fortunately, these defects are not noticeable after the deflectors are installed.

I got the idea to replace the retaining plates with Signal Dynamics 6" LED turn signals. I also needed to devise a way to mount the deflectors to Rattlebars' UnderWhere.

LED strip modification:

After installation of the Interstate radiator pods, I could no longer use the radiator covers to mount the LED turn signals (installation of the LED's on the radiator covers is pictured here).  Although I am installing KuryAykn LED turn signal mirrors, the old versions did not have a provision for running lights (the new version does).  So, I decided to kill two birds with one stone and use the LEDs to cover the deflector hardware.

step 1 - wing fabrication:

Since the wings are too short to accommodate the LED's, you will need to fabricate longer Lexan wings.  Find some scrap 1/8" Lexan.  Remove one of the old wings.  Lay the new Lexan down.  Place one of the existing wings on top.  Trace around the wing with a Sharpie (it's tip is almost exactly the width of a jigsaw blade).  As the drawing to the right shows, just extend the straight lines until they cross.  Then use the curve at the tip of the wing to trace the new bottom curve.

Using a fine metal blade, carefully cut out the shape.  If you take your time and stay within the Sharpie line, you will be surprised at how straight the lines come out.

Then, using a sanding block and progressively finer paper (I went 240 > 320 > 600), sand the edges smooth.  When everything looks straight and smooth, polish the edge with some McGuires #2 auto polish.  All in all, I was astonished at the quality I was able to achieve in a couple of hours and using relatively primitive tools -- the edges were not only better than the original wings, they were better than the Hondaline windshield edges.

step 2 - hole drilling:

The LED mounting holes must be bored out to accept the 6mm bolts.  Then, use the the existing wing as a template to mark the TOP TWO mounting holes and drill (5/16" bit works great).  Using the rubber gaskets that come with LEDs as a template, mark and drill the bottom mounting holes and the small pass-through holes for the LED wiring.

The middle mounting holes (blue in the exploded diagram) will need to be modified to accept 6mm X 15mm flathead screws to replace the middle bolts because the LED strips must lay on top of them.  Using a countersink bit, a suitably large drill bit, or even a knife, machine the Lexan to allow the flathead screws to be countersunk flush with the top surface of the Lexan.

Finally, mount the wings and the LEDs.  Voila!

step 3 - wiring:

Next comes wiring.  First, shrink wrap the LED wires into a bundle for a tidy installation.

Fortunately, the tubing is hollow with chrome end plugs (yellow in the above exploded diagram), making it easy to hide the wires.  Drill out the end plugs to accept the smallest grommets in the Radio Shack grommet assortment pack.  The wires pass through the grommets.

[If using the UnderWhere:] Drill two more holes in an appropriate on the Underwhere and add two more grommets there.

Now to get the juice to the LEDs.  You could just go around the outside of the triple clamp, but that wouldn't be very clean, would it?  So, drill a hole in the lower triple clamp to get the LED power tapped into the wiring in the headlight shell.

I removed the headlight shell from its clamp and secured the headlight shell out of the way with a coat hangar.  I then removed the clamp and drilled a hole just behind the clamp (using a rat-tail file to dress the edges to prevent chafing of the wires).  A 3/8" bit will just allow the Dean's connectors (described below) to pass through.  To minimize wiring, I drilled a hole (3/8", also dressed with the rat-tail) in the headlight shell in the middle of the triangle-shaped hole in the clamp, leaving a short path to the triple tree hole.  Clean.

The wiring is as follows:

Left (clutch side) turn signal

Left running light

Right (brake side) turn signal

Right running light

turn signal ground (common)

solid orange

orange w/ white stripe

light blue

light blue w/white stripe

green

Tap into the turn signal circuit using your method of choice.

Since I ditched my turn signals, I was able to remove the wiring bundles going to the turn signals, leaving the female bullet connectors inside the headlight shell.  I am using a combination of the deflector LEDs and KuryAykn LED turn signal mirrors, so I needed to get power to both.  I like polarized connectors, so I soldered up a rig with two female 3-pin Dean's connectors in parallel, terminating in male bullet connectors.  The deflector LEDs and the mirrors, of course, terminate in male 3-pin Dean's.  (For instructions on how to wire the KA mirrors, see here).

Important notes:  The running/turn wiring colors of the KA mirrors are reversed -- with the LED strips, the red wire goes to the turn signal, with the KA mirrors, red goes to the running lights.  Also, although the KA mirrors claim to have some sort of load equalizing circuit to maintain a normal flash rate, with my combination of front and rear lights, the flashing is still rapid (the lower current draw is fooling the bike into thinking that a bulb is out).  I still haven't found a solution for this problem.

The finished product (use your imagination and picture the windshield in place):

mounting with UnderWhere installed:

The fork wings normally mount to the headlight mounting bolts.  Because of the UnderWhere, I could not access these bolts.  To overcome this limitation, I cut off the deflector mounting tabs (green in the above exploded diagram) with a Dremel cut-off wheel.  I then mounted the deflectors directly to the UnderWhere by drilling holes in the remaining portion of the tabs (red in the above exploded diagram) and mounting them directly to the UnderWhere.

To get the holes right, first drill the holes in the tabs.  Then position the entire assembly on the bike with the UnderWhere installed.  Mark the UnderWhere with a Sharpie. Drill and bolt up.