windshield screws?
- Thread starter Sirnice
- Start date
^+1 I agree, buy some plastic ones. They're only a couple of dollars anyway.
Y
yellowfz
Would you guys stop with the Plastic screw thing please ?
Look it is okay to use Stainless Steel or Aluminum screws , with the factory screen seeing it is brittle it might be advisable , but with the Puig and others they are made of more flexible/durable plastic so no need for plastic screws .Put plastic screws in the faring so when you crash it will shear off and not scratch it , didn't think so . The plastic screws are one use only intended to be used just one time and then replaced .
With some screens it is imperative that you use something other than the plastic screws , how do I know ? I actually have a Puig .
Look it is okay to use Stainless Steel or Aluminum screws , with the factory screen seeing it is brittle it might be advisable , but with the Puig and others they are made of more flexible/durable plastic so no need for plastic screws .Put plastic screws in the faring so when you crash it will shear off and not scratch it , didn't think so . The plastic screws are one use only intended to be used just one time and then replaced .
With some screens it is imperative that you use something other than the plastic screws , how do I know ? I actually have a Puig .
Last edited by a moderator:
5mm is like 3/8". Seems a bit thick and 1.25mm would be well short for this application?
Not trying to start anything...just want to pass on accurate info. :thumbup:
Y
yellowfz
That's okay , 1.25 is thread pitch as in fine or course , we must look at things differently huh .
Dang you copied it before I changed it , you can see I retracted the sizes .
Dang you copied it before I changed it , you can see I retracted the sizes .
Last edited by a moderator:
Y
yellowfz
Ah , yeah M5 is 5mm though .
But I think they are actually 0.8 thread pitch . I bought screws for my wife's ride and mine last week so may have gotten confused .
Last edited by a moderator:
UselessPickles
New Member
So it will flex more than the stock shield before snapping, then those sharp jagged edges of the remaining portion of the windshield will now be spring-loaded to assist in disemboweling you as you fly over the screen.
These windshields are all some formulation of acrylic or polycarbonate. They are flexible to a point, but then just snap into very sharp pieces. The Puig screen is acryilic, and the stock screen is polycarbonate. If you look here, you'll find that acrulic is actually more likely to chip and has less impact resistance than polycarbonate (which means the Puig is actually more likely to break into sharp dangerous pieces as you fly over it).
Or you might be over-tightening them if you're having problems with them stripping (either the heads or the threads) or stretching/breaking.
I have swapped screens on my FJR at least a dozen times with the original plastic screws with no problem. Both of my FJR screens are larger than the Puig FZ6R touring screen (this one is MUCH larger), are in a much more vertical position on the bike when fully raised up (which I do on the freeway all the time), and I have had the both windscreens up to speeds higher than the FZ6R can reach.
I'm not just lucky either. Many FJR riders have large windscreens installed with original plastic screws without any problems. I have only heard of them breaking as a result of over-tightening, or a crash (in which the rider's most painful injury was the impact between his groin area and the windshield - would have been much worse if the screen did NOT break off at the screws).
I think you're misunderstanding the purpose of the plastic screws. They are not intended to protect the windshield from breaking. They are intended to protect the rider from injury from the windshield. The plastic screws are the weak link that allow the screen to break away cleanly (no sharp parts) with less force (less impact injury). A more durable windscreen would actually benefit from the plastic screws even more than a less durable screen. A solidly mounted less durable screen would at least break, absorbing some of the impact, rather than behaving more like a solid immovable object.
Last edited:
^^^^
I'm a firm believer in plastic screws because my cousin was messed up very bad and on his bike, the windscreen was in half, still connected by stainless screws. Not sure how bad that damaged him as he was in the hospital for 4 months and don't remember anything from that day.
Also, they are cheap. you can get a pack of 10 or more for a few bucks on ebay.
If you want to get stainless, just take one of the plastic screws into lowers or home depot and screw it into the wall thing they have and it will tell you what size to get.
I'm a firm believer in plastic screws because my cousin was messed up very bad and on his bike, the windscreen was in half, still connected by stainless screws. Not sure how bad that damaged him as he was in the hospital for 4 months and don't remember anything from that day.
Also, they are cheap. you can get a pack of 10 or more for a few bucks on ebay.
If you want to get stainless, just take one of the plastic screws into lowers or home depot and screw it into the wall thing they have and it will tell you what size to get.
Bloke
New Member
If you look at how they're done up stock it's literally two fingers, rotate screwdriver gently until it resists, then stop.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk
Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk
10/22 DUDE
New Member
I have the same windscreen and I just brought one of the original screws in and showed it to them. They had many color options and I got the aluminum screws because it does not matter. The piece on the bike that the screws screw into is very weak and in a crash would just pull off the bike anyways.
UselessPickles
New Member
Do you have any evidence to back up that statement? I highly doubt that you have tested how much force it takes to break off the windshield mounting point compared to breaking the plastic screws.
rjohnson5481
New Member
I'm getting the idea most of your support is from experience. ( which is sometimes the best ) regardless of that where have you seen that the screws were made to break instead of the shield? Hear say or something you read. I just see all these companies selling metal screws for the screen and it seems like a lawsuit waiting to happen( if that's their true intended purpose) I'm not trying to cast doubt just asking for backing, so that I don't make a mistake. :thumbup:
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
UselessPickles
New Member
I did a bit of searching to find something official for the sake of this thread, but unfortunately I couldn't find anything. Pretty much every discussion I've found on various motorcycle threads ends up with the same conclusion, though.
That, combined with reports of windshields breaking clean off in crashes, my own experience with my windshield breaking off in a crash, my own experience working with polycarbonate and acrylic (observing how it snaps un-cleanly with sharp/jagged edges), the experience of me and many other riders with very large windshields mounted with the plastic screws, and also the fact that after-market windshield instructions don't instruct you to replace the stock plastic screws with steel or aluminum... that's enough evidence for me that the plastic screws have a purpose, and that they are strong enough for large windshields when properly installed.
just like you could ride without a helmet if you wanted to. Point is it's all up to you. I for one want to replace my screws with metal ones, but it doesn't help visually or safety wise replacing them with metal screws. So plastic they will stay and any more back and forth on this subject is pretty pointless without studies. >_<
Companies make products for bikes all the time that are dangerous as hell. Check out some of the custom bikes with metal spikes all over them, the levers that are basically a knife blade, all that kind of crap makes the bike more dangerous. If they can make money from someone putting them on their bike because they think it looks cool, they'll do it.