Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Accessories Warmer Hands?

A couple of weeks ago I made my own hand/wind deflectors. The original set I made was from a template of my wife’s car mirrors. Kinda elongated egg shape. I had some aluminum strips, about 1/2"x1/16", laying around from another project and some 1/8" Plexiglas that I had reinforced my saddle bags with left over. Cost $0.00. Used a Dermal tool with a Rotozip bit to cut the plexi with and a belt sander to smooth to the final shape. I took the alum. strips and started with about a 5" piece for each side. They are very malleable and bent very easily. I found a place on each side that I could bolt or screw them to, under the hand controls and bent them to where I thought they needed to be to hold the Plexiglas. I clamped the cardboard template to the strips to get an Idea of the position and angle I was looking for and I also bent the cardboard to the shape I liked. I marked everything for mounting holes and transferred that to the Plexiglas and drilled all the mounting holes. The hard part was bending the Plexiglas. I got a pot of water and heated it until it was just starting to get those little bubbles and put the Plexiglas in and let it sit for about a minute. I used a towel to hold it and bend it to the shape I wanted, but when I let go and it cooled, it relaxed quite a bit and did it all over again with the same result. One more time and I broke it. A new plan was needed. After about twenty minutes of making another one out in the garage it was back to the kitchen. I found a jar about 12" in diameter that fit into the pot I was using. I heated the water again and the new piece of Plexiglas and then I used a piece of rope to rap the plexi loosely to the jar and put them both back into the hot water. I left everything alone long enough for the water to cool and a beautiful piece of custom made of Plexiglas emerged. After mounting them and riding for a week or so, I saw the need to beef up the mounts and change the shape of the left hand deflector. Triangulate! Another short piece of the aluminum strap to the front of the deflector with a twist [90*] or a little less, and a hole to put the turn signal mounting bolt through. Cut off the extra and now they’re plenty strong. The left hand was getting down wash off the mirror, so I cut and bent another piece of Plexiglas that went to the mounting post in the middle of the mirror. Now my hands are riding in the eddy of the deflectors witch will allow me to ride through the winter in a lot more comfort. BTW, these home made deflectors look a lot better than "hippo- hands" and probably work just as well. I've already been asked where I bought them. You could make your own for around ten dollars if you don't have the stuff laying around and now you know how to do it.

I'm just using heated inner gloves

Sounds great! Pictures?

Send me your emaim addresses I have a hard time posting pictures here.

A hard time spelling too. That was supposed to be E-Mail address

Sounds good to me, Chip. I have been contemplating the same thing. But I'll probably just give in to the winter godz.

That doesn't mean parking it for the season, does it, Rich? That wouldn't seem likely.

I'm thinking of getting handlebar mittens that have little pockets for chemical handwarmers in them to keep my dainty little digits warm and toasty.

National Cycle has 3 styles of these hand protectors....

http://www.nationalcycle.com/catalogue/zoom/HD-N5503_600.html