Well I’ve had my Dead Center Fairing for one season and a little over 16K miles now. The fairing has seen everything from 114 degrees and sunny days to 29 degrees and snowing… regardless of the weather the fairing has done great (the radio never gets wet while the radio window is down).

I think that just about every aftermarket fairing is going to look the same on your bike so it comes down to minor things that separate the main makers of these. I went with Dead Center just because I liked how it uses the quick release window mounts and I also liked the little locking device it has. I still think that anyone that wanted to steal this thing could do so easily with a couple of wrenches…. the lock just keeps an honest man honest.

Here are the pros and cons of the fairing:

Pros:

- Looks Great.
- Keeps the wind off of your hands when it is cold outside.
- Tunes when you want them.
- Turns your bike into an Ultra King in minutes!

Cons:

- non stainless speaker bolts
- every now and then I get the dreaded cross wind that ultra owners have been dealing with forever now!

As I mentioned the bolts that hold the speakers in will rust. I put 3 and 1 oil on them and it hides it pretty good (you could also just replace them with stainless). The stock Jenson radio burned up on me within the first two weeks. The good folks at Dead Center said that this was the first radio that they ever had do this; they made things right by just refunding me the cost of the radio. I took the cash and put in a Kenwood headhunt that I really like. If I were doing this again I'd just get the fairing with the speakers and radio ready harness then I'd get my own head unit. The install of the fairing was pretty simple and only took me maybe 40 minutes to install everything. Other than the little bolts rusting and the first head unit dying I don't have any real complaints with this fairing. The first 6 months of having the fairing I never took it off but now I go back and forth between the fairing and windshield. It is pretty cool to be able to switch the bike between the fairing and windshield; it gives you three bikes (fairing, shield, without). Most people don't even know that it is an aftermarket fairing... it really does look almost dead on. The only thing from the front that would give it away is that it (and all of these aftermarket fairings) tilt a tiny bit forward... not sure why they do, but they all seem to.

Now About the radio: I put a Kenwood head unit in it. I think it is rated at 40 watts per speaker. I have V&H True Duals with Thunder Header Muffs on the bike so my bike is pretty loud. With this head unit (and even the stock one) I can hear all the way up to 85 on the highway (at full blast). You'll find that the radio will be too loud at anything under 50 mph... but eventually you'll want to add a power amp so that the thing will blow your head off at the higher speeds. If you wear a full face mask with the shield down you really won't be able to hear the speakers on the highway because the helmet will kill the sound. My wife thinks that the radio is plenty loud, but I'm sure that she can't hear it very well at highway speeds.. she says that she can, but I think she is just being nice! Anyway, I'm going to add some speakers into my leather tour trunk this winter so that I can have surround sound when I'm using my trunk... that would probably enough to push the sound to the next level!

Well hopefully this is enough information for all of those thinking about getting a fairing.

Good luck and stay safe, Ralph (Ohio)

Here are some pictures from some of my travels. Please note that the bike is dirty during these trips.. I only wash my bike about every two weeks anyway.. I’d rather ride than sit around and clean her all the time!

Pictures will be added shortly. Thanks

 

hmmm some things have changed... i wanted to post an image directly from my photobucket, but it doesn't look like I can easily do that. I'll have to give you all attachments. Sorry about that.

 

couple more pics

 

So you can see who I am.. Here is a pic of my wife me at a blessing of the bikes last year.

Talk with you good folks later.

Ralph

 

Very nice ride

 

Thank you sir... yours isn't all that bad either!

 

Very good review! I'm sure anyone looking at that mod will thank you for it A set of paint matched hard lowers with some of pez's speaker kits in them would really boost the sound for the driver and passenger I have the removable tour pack with the factory upgrade speakers and the ones in the lowers really made a much more noticable difference in sound for me but hey 6 speakers is also nice Sharp bike too! One other thing to think about is when your tour pack is off you still have 4 speakers kicking at you

 

I've got a question unrelated to the fairing. Do you know what luggage rack is on your leather tourpak? I want to put one on mine but they don't show one in the catalogue specifically for the leather tourpak.

Thanks

 

Excellent review. Why don't you copy it and post it in the Product Review section.
Tom

 

Sweet ride and great review on the Dead Center Fairing. I'm thinking about one on my 08 FLHR. Thanks again.