I ordered the rain shields for my ST1100 from http://www.vpaccessories.com/ . They mistakenly shipped two right side shields. I emailed them and they promptly shipped out a left one for me. Great people to do business with.
Great service from VP Accessories
- Thread starter Butternut82
- Start date
Uncle Phil
Site Supporter
I have them to be an excellent vendor and your feet will really like the RainShields!
CYYJ
Michael
Based on the feedback posted above by Butternut, I ordered a pair of these foot shields for my ST 1300. I am not at all impressed with them, nor with the support provided by the vendor.
They arrived without any instructions and without any identification of which was right and which was left. In theory, it shouldn't be necessary to identify left from right, but the shields didn't easily fit on the motorcycle, and Uncle Phil and I spend about an hour trying to figure out why they didn't fit and wondering if we had the wrong piece on the wrong side, or if we had mis-oriented them. Finally, we got them installed after a lot of bending and forcing. The result looked kind of perplexing - there was a significant gap between the inner edge of the shield and the lower fairing of the motorcycle. Essentially, the shields installed parallel to the lower fairing, rather than proximate to the fairing at the leading edge and then diverging outwards at the trailing edge.
The photo below shows how the shields fit. They were under considerable tension, probably because either the bolt-holes were in the wrong location, or because one or more of the bends in the Lexan material was not formed at the correct angle.
Looking from the front
I rode 4,000 miles with the shields installed as shown above, and did not notice any appreciable change in rain protection or foot temperature.
After riding for just a few days, I wrote the vendor and asked that he send me some additional pictures of the product installed on a ST 1300 to enable me to determine if the shields on my bike were in fact "correctly" installed according to the design specification. The vendor sent me one picture, which was a slightly higher resolution version of the one and only picture on the vendor's website. That picture is below, in exactly the same size and quality that the vendor provided. It didn't really provide much useful guidance for either installation or comparison
Vendor's Picture (640 by 480 pixels)
A week later, I wrote the vendor, enclosing several high-res pictures of the shields installed on my moto, and asked if the fitment matched the design specification. I received a 3 word reply: "It looks fine".
Below is a picture showing how the shield would look if it actually fit flush against the lower fairing. I had to deform the shield a bit to make it fit this way, and as a result, the bolt-hole up at the top no longer lined up with the fitting on the underside of the tip-over wing. Likewise, the landing angle of the upper flange doesn't match the underside of the tip-over wing.
How the shield would look if it actually fit flush
I wish I could say "You don't have to be an aerodynamics specialist to figure these things out", but unfortunately I am an aerodynamics specialist, and I can't see how they do any good when they stick out parallel to the lower fairing.
Based on my experience installing (and since removing) this product, and the lack of support from the vendor, I don't recommend this product at all.
Michael
They arrived without any instructions and without any identification of which was right and which was left. In theory, it shouldn't be necessary to identify left from right, but the shields didn't easily fit on the motorcycle, and Uncle Phil and I spend about an hour trying to figure out why they didn't fit and wondering if we had the wrong piece on the wrong side, or if we had mis-oriented them. Finally, we got them installed after a lot of bending and forcing. The result looked kind of perplexing - there was a significant gap between the inner edge of the shield and the lower fairing of the motorcycle. Essentially, the shields installed parallel to the lower fairing, rather than proximate to the fairing at the leading edge and then diverging outwards at the trailing edge.
The photo below shows how the shields fit. They were under considerable tension, probably because either the bolt-holes were in the wrong location, or because one or more of the bends in the Lexan material was not formed at the correct angle.
Looking from the front
I rode 4,000 miles with the shields installed as shown above, and did not notice any appreciable change in rain protection or foot temperature.
After riding for just a few days, I wrote the vendor and asked that he send me some additional pictures of the product installed on a ST 1300 to enable me to determine if the shields on my bike were in fact "correctly" installed according to the design specification. The vendor sent me one picture, which was a slightly higher resolution version of the one and only picture on the vendor's website. That picture is below, in exactly the same size and quality that the vendor provided. It didn't really provide much useful guidance for either installation or comparison
Vendor's Picture (640 by 480 pixels)
A week later, I wrote the vendor, enclosing several high-res pictures of the shields installed on my moto, and asked if the fitment matched the design specification. I received a 3 word reply: "It looks fine".
Below is a picture showing how the shield would look if it actually fit flush against the lower fairing. I had to deform the shield a bit to make it fit this way, and as a result, the bolt-hole up at the top no longer lined up with the fitting on the underside of the tip-over wing. Likewise, the landing angle of the upper flange doesn't match the underside of the tip-over wing.
How the shield would look if it actually fit flush
I wish I could say "You don't have to be an aerodynamics specialist to figure these things out", but unfortunately I am an aerodynamics specialist, and I can't see how they do any good when they stick out parallel to the lower fairing.
Based on my experience installing (and since removing) this product, and the lack of support from the vendor, I don't recommend this product at all.
Michael
v8-7
Site Supporter
Bummer.. I was thinking of adding these .
Thanks for the review.
Thanks for the review.
I've now my own negative experience to report. I've long been a fan of the V&P shields but circumstances (OK, the bike fell over in the garage), required a new set.
The first negative experience on my purchase of these deflectors was similar to Michael's. Actually it was a bit worse as I ordered the smoke tint and wound up getting clear tint. But I never got around to grousing about this because the fact is the clear deflectors in no way would fit the bike properly. A comparison to the smoke version I bought ~5 years ago showed the angle for the mounting points was totally different and in no way would work out. To add to the negative experience, the edges were not finished like the smoke.
I emailed V&P and received less than satisfactory response. They seemed to sympathize with my observation, claimed they had issues with a shoddy vendor (and said they would probably get out of the ST1300 business) and suggested I use a heat gun to modify the bend. It seemed like it was only a hobby until retirement for them. I had too much going on at the time to argue with them about having to spend my earned cash, only to wind up having to fix their product.) I'm likely never to do business with V&P again.
The first negative experience on my purchase of these deflectors was similar to Michael's. Actually it was a bit worse as I ordered the smoke tint and wound up getting clear tint. But I never got around to grousing about this because the fact is the clear deflectors in no way would fit the bike properly. A comparison to the smoke version I bought ~5 years ago showed the angle for the mounting points was totally different and in no way would work out. To add to the negative experience, the edges were not finished like the smoke.
I emailed V&P and received less than satisfactory response. They seemed to sympathize with my observation, claimed they had issues with a shoddy vendor (and said they would probably get out of the ST1300 business) and suggested I use a heat gun to modify the bend. It seemed like it was only a hobby until retirement for them. I had too much going on at the time to argue with them about having to spend my earned cash, only to wind up having to fix their product.) I'm likely never to do business with V&P again.
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