A call for Vetter serial numbers

[Craig Vetter]

Lets discuss Windjammer 9873. It would be helpful if you would post a pic of this fairing. Here is why:
I am in the middle of writing this story. I had forgotten that there was a transition period from the Windjammer 1 to the Windjammer 2. This meant that both series of Windjammers were produced side by side using the next serial number plate in the stack. I am still not clear as to the exact date and serial number of the Last Windjammer or the serial number of the first Windjammer 2 (sometime in April, 1973) This picture, taken in the Spring of 1973 says it all: At this date, we called them all Windjammers. One reason was that I had not yet decided to refer to them as the second series of Windjammer.

Suffice it to say: Most Windjammers in 1973 were actually Windjammer 2s, whether they said so or not. We will be able to tell more as you send pictures of your fairing along with the serial number. Craig

 

[fxray]

O.K., here are some rather poor images that I cropped from pictures of the bike when it was still in the barn. Maybe they will help identify the fairing:

The front (by the way, the windshield cleaned up nicely later on):

The side:

The rider's view:

Serial number plate and 6-pin connector:

A tighter shot of the serial number:

The bike was built in June, 1974 per the VIN tag. Depending on how many fairings were in the supply chain, I guess it could be either the original Windjammer or the Windjammer II. The original owner bought the bike from the BMW dealer who used to be located in Colfax, Illinois. I would be curious as to what you have to say.

Thanks, Ray

 

[Craig Vetter]

You have one of the very first Windjammer IIs. While it is definitely a Windjammer II the clues that it is so early are: It has no ID decal on the side. It has edging without the chrome strip. It might have belonged to one of my employees. You found it in Illinois, right? It was made in Rantoul.

Here is the BIG question: is this made of ABS or fiberglass?

 

[fxray]

You have one of the very first Windjammer IIs. While it is definitely a Windjammer II the clues that it is so early are: It has no ID decal on the side. It has edging without the chrome strip. It might have belonged to one of my employees. You found it in Illinois, right? It was made in Rantoul.

Here is the BIG question: is this made of ABS or fiberglass?

Well, now I am confused! In your pictures elsewhere on the forum, the Windjammer is shown with edging without a chrome strip. The Windjammer II shows edging with the chrome strip. Also, the Windjammer is described as having a 6-pin connector, while the Windjammer II has a 9-pin connector.

Since mine has edging with no chrome strip, and has a 6-pin connector, I thought that made it a first generation Windjammer (not a Windjammer II)?

I believe mine is made of ABS, and not fiberglass, but I'm not sure if I can tell the difference. Here is a picture of the edge of the lower surface. It appears to have an inner and an outer layer with a third layer sandwiched between:

Inside the storage areas, the surface is smooth, not rough hand-laid fiberglass. Am I correct in thinking that this is ABS? You can see in this picture where I used the flash that the wiring is reflected in the smooth inner wall of the compartment:

There is also an aluminum plate affixed in the center front, behind the windshield:

The bike had a Vetter rain fender on the front:

The original owner, who bought the bike new (a 1974 BMW R90/6) was a construction worker. He sold it to a friend in about 1995. I am the third owner, having bought the bike in May of 2014. All three of us are from Central Illinois. So, it would not have been a bike that belonged to one of your employees.

I used to pick up and deliver lift trucks (some call them fork lifts) at Bell Motorsports -- the helmet folks -- over in Rantoul. They were adjacent to the airfield on the old USAF base. I used to drive across part of the airstrip to get to their docks. Is that the same warehouse that you once used?

Thanks for any info. I'm finding this interesting. It would seem that if my fairing is a first generation Windjammer, it would be the highest known S/N for that model. On the other hand, if it is a Windjammer II, it would have the lowest S/N for that model.

Ray

 

[Craig Vetter]

This gets stranger and stranger. You have an ABS fairing. The blue Vetter plate is from early Windjammer 2s. They had a "locater" flat spot for the plate. Yours does not. Yours was intended for the chrome logos which were on later Windjammer 2s.
Did we put the old plates on the new interiors until the new chrome logs arrived? Don't know.
I am beginning to suspect that you have a fairing that was assembled clansestinely from scrounged parts taken home.

Your electrical plug should be horizontal. Somebody installed it vertically. What is that all about?

Please take some more pictures of the interior... especially so I can see the area where it bolts to the mounting bracket. When I get the chance, I will take a look at my examples, too.

By the way... I don't know what picture you are directing me to but no original series Windjammer had edging around the perimeter.

So... I am still not sure what you have. We will eventually figure it out.

The "Rainy Day Fender 12 & 35" is very special and worth its own story.

Fun, huh?

 

[fxray]

Craig, I see now that I was mistaken about the perimeter edging on the original Windjammer. I was looking at this picture from your website:

I first thought it had white edging, but since your comment I looked again and I can see that there was no edging used at all.

So, it looks like I have a transitional fairing. It is odd that the S/N on mine is 712 units above your highest known for the original Windjammer and 3,775 units below the earliest known for the Windjammer 2. Is it some kind of experimental (prove design) number, since it doesn't seem to fit logically with the rest?

I took a look at my 6-pin connector. It is small enough to move left and right in the opening in the S/N plate, but too big to fit through the hole when the connector is rotated to the horizontal position.

As you requested, I took some more pictures today:

The mounting bracket:

Detail of the yellow sticker. This is on top of the bracket and below the fairing surface, so it was protected. It doesn't appear to have any motorcycle model listed.

This number was stamped into the crossbar on the mounting bracket:

This morning, I was talking to the guy who sold me the bike and told him your comment about this fairing maybe being built at home with pieces snuck out of the shop. He told me to look around for the intitials "JC" scratched on it somewhere, like Johnny Cash got it one piece at a time.

Let me know if you need any other info, and also please let me know what you think is up with this old thing! Also, can you explain further about the Rainy Day Fender? Did you sell a lot of those?

Ray

 

[Larry Fine]

I'm getting goosebumps.

 

[roncar]

 

[Craig Vetter]

Thank you. You provide more clues. 1) The mounting bracket is much newer than the fairing as it has ID numbers stamped into it. I don't think we did that in 1973

2) We had chrome edging in January of 1973. See the pic of my Honda with it. In fact, that Honda Windjammer 2 was actually fiberglass because we did not have the first ABS Windjammer 2 until April. The "Basket weave" non-chrome edging on your fairing is not stock. Maybe it was replaced at a later time with the wrong edging. The chrome edging was our own product.

3) The serial number plate is full of clues. Attached is the one from my Windjammer 1 from my 1972 Suzuki 750:

The serial number plate is just like yours meaning yours is a legit Vetter fairing made by us. It could be one of those in the picture I sent already. Cool, huh?

It looks to me as if you have one of the transitional Windjammers from the summer of 1973

 

[Craig Vetter]

Aha! A smoking gun.

Here is Carol - my wife to be - Vetter in the summer of 1973. This is Test Fairing #1.
This is one of the transitional Windjammer 2s. Carol got it because she rode so much. Look at the edging. No chrome.

Could this be your fairing, #9873?

A very good possibility

 

[roncar]

Craig, I'll bet in 1973 you had no idea of the puzzle you would be creating for yourself 40+ years later.

Seems to me serial number 9873 is noteworthy regardless, but do we call it a WJ1, A WJ2, a WJ1.5 or what?

The webs we weave......

 

[Kynan C.]

This is like a episode of CSI!

 

[roncar]

Craig, What is this cut-out about?

 

[Kynan C.]

I was thinking the same question.

 

[Craig Vetter]

Can you tell if your 9873 is painted black on the outside? How? go underneath where it set against the mount and see if you can scrape some black paint off.

By the way... there was another transitio WJ2 with the basketweave but it had lowers which means it had holes for lowers. not yours. The slot in Carol's fairing was to let her see in foggy / rainy weather. Very effective but had to be done rider-by-rider and was never something we could do in production

 

[Larry Fine]

Gee, and I thought the slot was a handle for carrying the motorcycle around with one hand.

 

[fxray]

Can you tell if your 9873 is painted black on the outside? How? go underneath where it set against the mount and see if you can scrape some black paint off.

O.K., Craig, I tried it and my perception is that it is not painted. I'm surely no expert on this, but it seemed to me that I was just scraping off surface glaze. The black color is solid down to the lamination that I pictured earlier, but became rougher as I scraped. There were no big flakes of paint. I snapped a picture, so maybe you can tell something from that:

The original owner bought this motorcycle at Cycles Unlimited in Colfax Illinois, just down the road a bit (45 miles) from Rantoul. I got to thinking that if this fairing is indeed the one from your wife's bike, perhaps you sold it as a prototype to the shop in Colfax. However, I called the original owner today and he told me that he bought the bike without a fairing. He got the fairing soon afterward from Sport City Honda, a dealership that used to be in Creve Coeur, Illinois. He also ordered the mounting bracket that I pictured earlier. He remembers installing the fairing on the bike himself.

Thanks for your time that you have spent delving into this. I am finding it very interesting.

Ray

 

[brianinpa]

Thanks for your time that you have spent delving into this. I am finding it very interesting.

Ray

I don't think you are alone!

 

[Craig Vetter]

I am convinced that you have Carol's Test Fairing Number One.

Carol's Test Fairing #1 was never painted. Therefore, it always had a "satin" look as compared to the glossy surface of the urethane paint. You must put yourself back to early 1973. How was this new ABS going to hold up? Would the sun destroy it if it wasn't painted? Nobody could tell us.

In the winter of 1973-4, Carol's Honda 500 was totaled when a test rider went off the road with a sidecar prototype. #1 Test Fairing survived just fine. That is what Test Fairings were for... to test how they would hold up the way we rode them.

How did it get into the hands of the dealer? That is simple. Windjammers were precious. The dealer was given some kind of deal. Carol got a new 550 with a new Test Fairing . Her new bike was never as special to her as her first bike and fairing.
Craig

 

[Craig Vetter]

Carol says: "The fairing hasn't changed a bit. I wish I could say the same"