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[ultrafxr]

Met up with a friend who has a 2015 CVO RG Ultra with about 25k on it.  He has had a couple disturbing problems with the vent system on the new fairing. First he struck a bird and the bird's head wound up on the rider side of the mail slot and the left front speaker grill was clogged with feathers.

Today he told me of another problem.  He was riding in the left lane of a four lane divided highway with a low concrete divider and a narrow shoulder area on the left.  There was an eighteen wheeler in the right lane just ahead of him.  It was not an interstate so there was cross traffic. 

A cage coming from a side street pulled into the right lane just in front of the truck causing the truck driver to have to swerve left.  He went a little too far and got his wheels onto the shoulder where there was debris - dirt and rocks which his tires threw up into the air.  My friend had all three vents on his RG open and he said they acted like a vacuum throwing dirt and rocks right into his face.  He now keeps his vents closed.

As he wondered aloud - doesn't anyone at Harley actually test these designs?  Based on the myriad problems with the rushmores I think we know the answer - not no, but hell no.

[OBB]

Simple enough to make some screens out of perforated aluminum. Keeps the crap from hitting ya.





Klockwerks also makes them for around $70.

Last pix shows one I made for the  top but I haven't perfected the fit yet. Does wonders for keeping the small stuff from hitting me in the forehead.

[ultrafxr]

Last pix shows one I made for the  top but I haven't perfected the fit yet. Does wonders for keeping the small stuff from hitting me in the forehead.

Good one!

But on a $40k top of the line vehicle you shouldn't have to make accommodations for their lack of design and testing.  Oh wait, what am I thinking?  This is a Harley after all, lol.

[grc]

Yup, we can't expect much for $40k from Harley.  Maybe they have a scheme where they put out a half-azzed design and then when people complain they will offer a Screamin' Eagle part as an upgrade, at a nice profit of course.  I can see it now, SE vent screens to keep birds and boulders from blowing straight through to the rider, $299.99 plus tax and installation.  Kind of like all the profits they made selling SE compensators all those years before making them stock, and then still selling a ton of replacements because the SE version also was a POS, Harley always seems to have a way to turn poor design and quality into more profits for them.

Jerry

[kojak]

Not to rain on the parade but I had a dam duck hit my helmet once riding on I90 in western Mass. Its a bike, your friend rode 25k miles in one year (I'm jealous!), chit can and will happen. Its a motorcycle for pete's sake, not a cage.

[FLSTFI Dave]

I have 25K on mine.  Luckily I have not hit a bird.  I did make screens for the lower two vents.  My three vents are never closed.  I get less debris in my face off this bike than I do off my 13 CVO King, or any of my previous road glides. 

Air management is far better on this Road Glide than my last two CVO road glides. 

I actually think harley did well with the vents and new design other than the head unit which still has bugs and has been in production two years.  My wife hated my previous road glides.  To much wind, to much buffeting.

She loves the 15 Road glide and has over 25K on her Special.

Sorry about your friends luck with the vents.

[ultrafxr]

Not to rain on the parade but I had a dam duck hit my helmet once riding on I90 in western Mass. Its a bike, your friend rode 25k miles in one year (I'm jealous!), chit can and will happen. Its a motorcycle for pete's sake, not a cage.

Understand and agree. Chit can and does happen but obviously some feel that screen over the vents is a pretty good idea and I think the moco should have provided them.

Not a put down but just a heads up to those who have Rushmore road glides so they are aware.   

[CVODON]

I don't see a need for screens, and I definitely do not see a reason for bashing the motorcycle maker in this situation, whether a HD or Honda. What if he were riding like most of us started out with no windshield? This regardless of what anyone else says seems petty to me.
I have the same bike and can honestly say it has the best air management of any motorcycle I have ever rode and if your buddy wants to close his vents because of potential for debris coming thru, does he really want to ride a motorcycle?

[fastfreddy]

its happened to me to me also on my OLD RG, peppered by rocks, and have hit birds...have to say the birds just bounced over my head the rock shower sux and jacked the paint too  chit happens

[MrSurly]

I'm at a loss to understand this.
Where are all these rocks coming from? Does the RG come with rocks?
Many thousands of miles on non-fairing and non-windshield bikes and I don't understand  this complaint.
Is the RG somehow picking up rocks more than other bikes? Are you guys riding adventure trails?

Should "on a 40,000 dollar bike..." be tattooed somewhere?
Remember that old saw "well, if we can put a man on the moon, we oughta be able to -whatever-."
Apparently, "on a 40,000 bike" we should expect ~whatever~to be included or were getting F-ed again.
Armor? Air bags?
Padded tank? Cocoon?

A simple jacket could go a long way to eliminating some of these, I'd guess.
You're traveling 60mph in a T-shirt, what would you expect?
Pebbles hitting your forehead? Just close the visor, silly.

Oh, wait.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[MrSurly]

BTW, those aluminum screens that were shown look like a great fix.
If the MoCo had installed similar, you can bet that:
1.) someone would complain that they restrict air flow
2.) the hot fix would be 'how-to's on removing them to get more air and
3.) someone would post that "it's unbelievable that we have to do this" on a 40,000 dollar motorcycle."


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[GregKhougaz]

I too don't understand this claim nor is there any "vent problem" with the CVO Road Glide.  Since the original post is a second hand rant, there must have been something lost in translation.  My nearly 12k mile experience on the CVO RGU has been wonderful.  I believe the wind management of this motorcycle is the state of the art.  As well above legal speeds, there is only a soft breeze coming through the vents.  I have never experienced anything resembling a vacuum and feel no need for screens.  It seems the bird incident was a freak incident and the motorcycle acted and performed just as it should.  Cleaning out of the feathers behind the speaker grill would take all of about 10 minutes.  Heck, that bird could have been a deer. 

The claimed second incident makes no sense to me as described.  Was the rider tailgating the truck?  Did he not hit the brakes?  I'm not feeling the "vacuum" claim at all.  I have only closed any of my vents once and that was in very heavy rain.  Based on that experience, I just have a tough time with this claim.   Sorry but the Harley bashing, at least this time, Jerry, is misplaced.   

[OBB]

BTW, those aluminum screens that were shown look like a great fix.
If the MoCo had installed similar, you can bet that:
1.) someone would complain that they restrict air flow
2.) the hot fix would be 'how-to's on removing them to get more air and
3.) someone would post that "it's unbelievable that we have to do this" on a 40,000 dollar motorcycle."


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Funny chit there. 

[OBB]

My first test ride on a demo bike last year, I had a huge bee get sucked into the right side vent and it shot right by my ear. It was one of those that was just kinda floating out in front of me real lazy like. If my wife had been on the bike with me and in her normal slightly looking over my right shoulder position, she would have gotten nailed right in the face. WITHOUT a fairing, it might has just slid past on the right or bounced off my knee. Better safe than sorry.

Just an example of why I like my screens



Another, all those little bugs and SMALL rocks that may come through that vent are stopped



So there's my reasoning on why I made screens although I really shouldn't have to explain a damn thing. It's my bike, you don't like it, I really don't give a phuck.

[Bubba]

Well Mikey,,, I LIKE your screens and I don't even own RG  . 
I think the two side ones you made looks great and part of the bike. 
Again two  
You are like me a technician and you have to fix what was ENGINEERED and suppose to work.
YOU know what they say about engineers.....
"An ENGINEERS DREAM IS A TECHNICIANS NIGHTMARE!"     
  Lord please forgive me for that.....

I don't want to be negative here as I think you made an AWESOME improvement but if the top grill was made out of the same material as the speaker grill it would probably look better as that way your dash would match. JMHO But that is why it's called a prototype so you may want to sent it back to R&D (Gives you a chance to drink more    ) to where you can charge more money when everyone else starts wanting one.

Just my 2¢…