Vetter Bullet Fairing

Vetter Bullet Fairing

CYCLE WORLD EVALUATION

How nice it is when something new comes along that’s useful and attractive. The Vetter Bullet is like that. It's a compact one-size-fits-all fork-mount fairing.

There aren't a lot of gaps

in the fairing business. All kinds are made and sold, with the factories equipping touring bikes with full fairings and their sport bikes with tiny racer-look fairings. The aftermarket has filled in with lots of clear plastic fairings in all sizes and some nifty sport fairings.

Except that the only popular class of motorcycle not equipped at the factory with some kind of fairing is the Harley copy. Yep. The Magnas and Shadows and Viragos and LTDs and L-models are the bikes that need fairings. They also can benefit from fairings, because their leanback-and-relax riding posture makes wind in the face less fun.

This brings us to the Vetter Bullet. It’s small, and light and shapely. It is designed to fit just about anything. There’s a large opening for headlights of all sizes and

shapes, with a rounded shell forming that opening. A small w indshield fits on the lower section, some brushed aluminum strips are added mostly for decoration and there you have it.

Mounting hardware consists of a couple of steel straps, a bracket that clamps to the fork tubes between the triple clamps and a rod that ties these parts together. How

the hardware fits together is shown in the brief but adequate instructions. The pieces can be set up several ways to position the fairing around signal lights, headlight and instruments.

It took about an hour to figure out how it all went together, though there was nothing difficult with the job. All those pieces make it very adaptable, while mounting securely when everything is tightened. About the only shortcoming of the system is appearance. The various rods and straps are noticeable around the small headlight of our Harley-DavidsonFXRS, and the wide-open headlight area looks a little naked. If there were some way of installing a plastic shield over the headlight, the fairing would look even better.

As it is, it fits well and looks good. The rounded shape of the fairing goes well with the shape of the Harley's gas tank. The black finish of the fairing shell is finished nicely, the holes all line up and the little brushed aluminum trim pieces do a good job of highlighting the shape.

The job done by the fairing is just what you’d expect from its size. From top to bottom it's 28 in., from side to side it's no more than 16 in., tapering in at the top. This is small, smaller than the top half of a rider. The wind isn’t eliminated by this fairing, it’s just split. This makes for a breeze on the rider, not a blast. With the fairing angled back sharply the wind is angled past the rider's helmet, which can lift the helmet shield.

For extended voyages, something larger is in order.

If you don’t like fairings at all, you’re not reading this anyway. But for the rider who wants something trim and good looking to break the wind, the Bullet’s a good piece of equipment.

Fist price is $139.95 at dealers everywhere. Available colors are black and maroon. 0