Windshield brackets

[Juan]

I know that a ton has been written on windshield brackets. I've been through most of the discussions before I went along and got the Madstad bracket for my 2013 S10. Till now I'm still using the OEM windshield (short) on the bracket. The purpose of the bracket is to eliminate/reduce noise at high speeds (buffeting was not a problem without the bracket).

I'm experiencing substantial vibration of the bracket and windshield and I'm afraid of damage. I have one simple question I'd like to ask all those who have the Madstad bracket: How long have you had the bracket and are the vertical supports to which the bracket is now fixed (referred to as 'Stays' in the Parts manual) surviving the beating?

Thanks in advance to all those who reply.

Juan

 

[coastie]

I have not heard of any breaking. I made a support for mine which has worked perfect for over a year. A few others have done the same.

 

[Bushyar15]

I've had mine on for 2k+ miles with no issues. That includes riding on bumpy rocky roads which had my GoPro all over the place as well as highway speeds… I don't notice any vibration or odd movement from it…

 

[echo_four_romeo]

I have a considerable amount of vibration in mine, on bumpy roads and such. I also have a few accessories mounted to the cross bar, so the added weight might be making it worse.

Do you have anything mounted to the cross bar?

 

[ejy712]

I was also afraid of damaging the stay. I had a lot of bumping and banging going on with my windshield. And my wrists were taking a beating (problems from decades of computer programming). I set the front forks preload 7 bars showing (softest, but sag was still not quite enough), compression damping to 12 (13 is softest), and rebound damping to 0 (hardest). I was very pleasantly surprised by a plush ride without porpoising, loading up, or bottoming. Windshield banging was gone, and my wrists are happy. 5'11", 215#.

 

[Juan]

In answer to Echo Four Romeo, I haven't yet attached anything to the cross bar. The only thing I will be attaching is the Ram mount ball and GPS - not heavy in total, but will probably adversely affect the vibrations.

 

[Bushyar15]

BTW, I do have a ram mount with electric cradle for my Montana 600 mounted to the cross bar... So over bumpy roads my Montana moves around alot but not seeing anything that would indicate stress will develop...

 

[oldbear]

Be sure the mount screws on the madstad are tight-if a little loose you will see a LOT of movement!



Be sure the screws on the madstad mount are tight-if a little loose you will see a LOT of movement! Mine works great with both the stock shield (summer) and a large Parabelllum )24 inch) for winter. Love the combination. With the para on my bike is quieter than with the Stock shield when I'm wearing earplugs!!!! Unbelievable!!







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[Juan]

EJY712 - surely the settings you did are way too soft. Are you comfortable with braking and cornering?

 

[ejy712]

EJY712 - surely the settings you did are way too soft. Are you comfortable with braking and cornering?

Braking and cornering are fine for me at these settings. There is VERY little front dive when braking hard, the bike just seems to settle. And the bike seems to be on rails in the curves. I have my rear settings equally soft and find the rear wheel stays on the ground much more on really lumpy roads than with harsher settings, this keeps unwanted traction control activation to a minimum. I continue to be surprised by this motorcycle.

That said I am a very conservative rider. I average over 50 mpg in warm weather and my rear tires average 13,000 miles before replacement. I don't do wheelies. I do scrape my boots periodically and don't have chicken strips on Anakee 3's. The only suspension mod I have is a HyperPro progressive coil spring on the rear.

Softer settings are easy to try. Use preload to set correct sag. Write down your current damping settings so you can go back to them (note the number of clicks when tightening the setting screws all the way). Reduce front compression damping to at or near the softest. Start out with minimum rebound damping. Increase the rebound damping until the porpoising and wallowing go away. If you dive too much on braking increase the compression damping in front. I have different rear rebound damping and preload settings for myself alone, myself and my wife, myself alone and luggage, myself my wife and luggage. The front preload, rebound and compression damping stay the same for all cases. If you are unhappy with the results you can easily go back to where you were...

 

[Andylaser]

I have a considerable amount of vibration in mine, on bumpy roads and such. I also have a few accessories mounted to the cross bar, so the added weight might be making it worse.

Do you have anything mounted to the cross bar?

Same with mine. I am going to move the sat nav back to the handle bars.

 

[Juan]

EJY712 - thanks for the info.

My front preload looks fine, but could do with a little more preload. Sag takes 25% of the front tube (exposed inner tube with wheel off ground is 20cm and with rider it's 15cm) and it's commonly reported that sag could take as much as 33%. I have 6.5 bars showing, so I'll put it onto 7 bars like yours.

Compression is presently on 8 clicks and riding on paved (but uneven) roads with potholes takes a lot of travel of the tube, leaving only around 7 cms (2.5 inches) unused. I will try and put it on 9 or 10 clicks and see how it goes.

As for rebound, I'm at at around half way (can't remember offhand the number of clicks, but have them recorded). I will get it more towards hard, say full hard less 3 clicks.

As for rear preload, I usually have this on 2 bars (1 is softest) when I'm riding solo, 3 bars with pillion and 4 bars when riding with pillion hand full luggage.

I will set settings as above and see how it goes.

Thanks again for the insight.

Juan

 

[ejy712]

Juan - you are welcome.

I found playing with rebound damping to be very interesting. The bike feels bouncy/wallowing until you get enough rebound damping. Try increasing the rebound damping one click at a time until bouncing/wallowing goes away. The trick is to get both the front and the back rebound set right. It can be hard to figure out which (front, back, or both) is underdamped. After you get it adjusted for you remember that you will have to increase rebound damping in the rear as the rear preload is increased for passenger and luggage.

Increased compression damping on the front will make the ride harsher. Reduce it to where you don't quite bottom out (you seem to be doing this). You may have to increase compression damping if you get too much brake dive.

To bring this back to the original question: Once you get a good soft suspension setup I found that most of the banging done by the windshield and instrument cluster goes away. (And the ride is fantastic - the bike feels like it's almost floating over most roads/terrain).

Have fun experimenting with this...

 

[Bappo]

A new Stay, Side 1 is about $70. Kind of a pain to replace. I can't blame the Madstad bracket for breaking the little plastic prongs though. All my fault.

 

[Koinz]

Hi all, reviving this thread to ask a question.

I have the sw motech anti-vibe gps holder and I was thinking of adding a madstat bracket. Is there any interference with the gps holder that you are aware of.

 

[Juan]

The Madstad bracket has a bar for mounting the GPS so you may as well use this (so as not to clutter the dash unnecessarily). Some damping is provided in that the Madstad bracket is fixed to the stock upright brackets (or Stays) with rubber well nuts.

 

[klunsford]

I have had my madstad for over 2 years and used windshields from the stock one to a 22" VStream with no issues. I know of one rider who went down in sand with the same Madstad and Vstream windshield and actually broke the bracket off of the ST. He did take a pretty hard fall even in sand and slow speed.

 

[Koinz]

The Madstad bracket has a bar for mounting the GPS so you may as well use this (so as not to clutter the dash unnecessarily). Some damping is provided in that the Madstad bracket is fixed to the stock upright brackets (or Stays) with rubber well nuts.

I've been using the sw-motech mount and like it. If I can keep it without it interfering with the madstat bracket, I prefer to go that route.
Just wondering if any has that setup.