Nice pics Amtrak ! I can't believe how many of those WindJammers survived from back in the day. I rode a CB750-4 with a WindJammer fairing, it was awesome to say the least....not unlike being in the cockpit of an airplane. The very first units didn't have the vent holes in the shield, on a hot day the rider didn't get enough air to stay cool.
When I got mine it didn't have the vents and the way I looked thru it I was right on the top of it and was was worse than bi focals:-) So I got an extra tall windshield with vents which only let air thru when it is 30 degrees or colder..I was told the vents are mainly there to help prevent buffeting from the wind..I haven't ridden a street bike in 30 years without a shield so I don't know .
Cockpit? check this XS set up...nice...
www.flickr.com/photos/13581817@N04/1387095050/in/photostream/He also has a story about the bike...pics have been removed and I had to copy and paste ..he sorrta got banned from the 11 site ;D
A strange thing happened on the way to the bridge. We had just crossed under the first suspension tower…
When I heard this gawd awful noise creeping up from behind. I sounded like a big bore V-twin with a HUGE thumping stereo pumping out mega volumes of HIP-HOP I turned my head…lo and behold that is exactly what it was.
A massive white Harley…maybe an ultra-glide or some such. Or possibly an FXHDSGPYSRWK!!!…whatever Harley’s extraneous numbers system means. Any way it WHITE WHITE WHITE with red trim. Obviously a very pricey custom job. This guy had more money in this bike than most people make in a year. I guess it was a 120+ inch motor as I found out a few minutes later.
Bohn dubbed the driver “Rufus”…Miles dubbed his lady friend on the back “Little Miss B”. I’ll call his friends in hot pursuit “Big Timers” wink wink. So for purposes of this story we’ll use those aliases.
I was bringing up the rear as all seven of us crossed the bridge in tight formation. Rufus pulled up along side me as the traffic was knee deep and rolling about 40 across the bridge. His head was bobbing to the music like “Hell Yeah!”. He was looking over at me as if to taunt. Then the idiot tried to stuff me pointing his massive $80,000 machine toward the hole between Miles and I. I twisted the grip on Zilla and closed the gap so the ******* couldn’t squeeze in.
Then Rufus rolled forward splitting the lanes between us and the cars to the right and tried to stuff Miles and Bohn. He almost hit Bohn Frazier and that rose my ire. Bohn…unlike me…has very little aggression and is a perfect gentleman. If he had taken Bohn down I would have likely died fighting the fat maggot because he had two or three buddies following him on similar custom machines.
Finally he gave up…slowed, fell behind us and went around us to the right. As he did he revved his mega twin and flipped me off with some gesture I had never seen before. When people do crap like that it doesn’t set well with me. Zilla was feeling sparky at sea level…REAL SPARKY…so I stepped up to the plate to try and knock one out of the park so to speak.
The lanes had opened up for about a ¼ mile in front. I fell out of formation like a fighter jet headed for enemy aircraft. I pulled along side Rufus and Miss B. He was not smiling...neither was I. I stuck my hand up and waved bye-bye as I rolled the throttle. Rufus followed suite. I was in fourth and I jumped ahead for an instant...but then some very strange happened. The massive Harley pulled me about 5 to 6 feet in the roll on.
It occurred to me this was NOT your average 88 inch motor. Rufus was motioning for more so I accommodated him. So I pulled a long side dropped Zilla into 3rd (we were rolling about 50 mph)…and jumped out front. This time it was a different story…at the end of the roll-on Zilla was out front by a good bike length.
Rufus WAS NOT happy. His uber expensive Harley just got shaved by some old “glory days bike” from the late 70’s. Zilla was likely built before Rufus was even a twinkle in is daddy’s eye.
After this ostentatious display of old school Japanese muscle Rufus was very angry. He was motioning for more. I wasn’t real happy at the time either. Remember this a-wipe d**n near hit a good friend on the bridge for no reason at all. So I obliged Rufus one more time.
It occurred to me Zilla should be able to utterly destroy this thing and I thought the 750 gearing might be hurting his ability to really do the V-Twin in for good. So this time I rolled up next to Rufus in 3rd. The idiot actually motioned for me to get the jump. So I dropped the big lizard into SECOND. This put the tach squarely into Mr. Zilla’s power band. At 50 in second with Chop’s drive mod Zilla’s trick engine is spinning about 6000 to 6500. I knew he’d wind to 10,000 and never float a valve because we did numerous times on a dyno. I also knew he would pulled like a freight train all the way out to 9000 rpm.
We had just entered a tunnel north of the bridge and the lanes had opened up more. Rufus motioned for me to roll. I twisted the throttle grip darn near off the handle bar and the big Maxim lept out front by a full bike length. Winding the 1200 cc powerplant to 9500 I simply fanned the clutch with the throttle wide open …much like I did as a teenager drag racing. Believe it or not Rufus was pushing his twin just as hard and speed shifting too. When Zilla hit 3rd at 9500 rpm the rear end squatted and the front wheel left the pavement by a good 10 inches. It felt like being shot out of a cannon. I let him wind to 100+ mph. As I shut down for fast approaching traffic I looked in my rearview and Rufus was easily 2-3 car lengths behind…maybe more. His overpriced cruiser just got thumped…decidely… by a 47 year old grandpa on a 25 year old bike.
Needless to say Rufus was not happy. He was cursing aloud and wanted more. I simply laughed and waved him off falling back into formation. I figured if I pushed the issue I’d either wind up in jail or the morgue and neither prospect was appealing.
Rufus rolled the throttle and disappeared into the Marin County traffic. His buddies rode by. Ray said they were laughing and waving at us when they went by. I didn’t notice as I was pretty “adrenalized” at that point. All I remember is the frightening sound of the big lizard and the massive V-Twin scuffing it out in the tunnel. The Harley sounded like dynamite going off reverberating through the tunnel. But Zilla’s high winding motor sounded like a P51 Mustang flying straight down the throat of the tunnel. It was an experience I shall not soon forget…nor repeat. My quick temper got the best of me that day and I could have easily gotten myself into more trouble than I and all of Zilla’s horses could have put back together again. In retrospect a common phrase comes to mind …”Don’t try this at home”.
A shot of me by Zilla at the Holiday Inn Express in Mill Valley after the fray.