Add a Windshield to your NH80


Okay; enough Bugs - in - the - teeth !

As long as it was cool I could tolerate my full face shield bubble, but when it hit 98 degrees F (37C) and 90% relative humidity, the fishbowl had to go! But bugs and rocks from passing autos called for protection.
After searching eBay and other shopping services for a genuine NH80 windshield (found a couple but when the bidding passed $50 plus shipping, I gave up) I found this "universal" windshield kit.

I was worried that the windshield would not fit without removing the "Honda" logo windscreen; but after calling the supplier, I decided to gamble on being able to make it work somehow.
As you see, it has nearly the same curvature as the small "Honda" windscreen. The mounting hardware is universal enough to allow mounting here, or above the "Honda" windscreen, but I elected to put the bottom of the new windshield between it and the mirror mounts for superior vibration resistance and higher strength.
You should be prepared for a vision issue common to all windshields: Some distortion occurs at the upper edge of the windshield because the coefficient of refraction of plastic is not the same as that of air. Nothing can be done to change this. Wearers of bi-focal glasses quickly learn to ignore the same effect in their glasses (as I can testify after wearing tham for 30 or more years) but you will have to discipline yourself to not allow this effect to distract or confuse you; it might take a few days to become completely comfortable with the upper limit of the 'shield.
The mirror mounting bracket and "L" bar support can be positioned several ways to fit just about any setup.

To prevent scraped knuckles, I will add either "Acorn" nuts or some kind of plastic covering to the exposed "L" bar threaded section seen at lower center here. The twin clamps on the windshield itself are plastic, but should be fairly easy to replace with stainless steel if they later break due to weathering or vibration.

You can see here how the bottom edge of the 'shield fits snugly between the Honda screen and the mirror support arms.


This closeup of the left mount shows that the windshield could have easily been placed outside the Honda windscreen, or above it.

Those mirror mounts use high-strength socket-head bolts, hundreds of times stronger than needed to hold this assembly together. I'd bet that the welds holding the nuts into which they are threaded will break before the bolts.

I obtained my windshield from Global Motors Imports (GMI, Houston, TX) but you may find the same item elsewhere.

I've put a link to GMI in the Resources page. They were cooperative. helpful, and shipped on time as promised; but this is my only purchase from them.

After a few miles the windshield began to vibrate just a bit, and I decided that the "jam-nut" arrangement (above ^) was not correct.

After removing the brackets from the mirror mounts and repositioning them, one nut was set forward and brought back to bear against the front of the bracket, while the second nut was installed to clamp from the rear. As seen at right ->
I added an 8mm "Acorn" nut (stainless steel) to cover the exposed L-bar threads and to jam the other nut for security. I bought these at my local "Ace" hardware for $0.95 each.
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Page updated Friday, August 5, 2005 13:49 Eastern. ©2004 Bill Laudeman. All rights reserved.