Motorcycle Windshield Storage Rack...Cheap

Windshield? Hell no, I don't need one......

Every time I'm moving things around in the garage, trying to find a little more space, I seem to devote a little too much to the bike windshields I have sitting around. I figure they're just on borrowed time before some sharp-edged object falls onto one of them, or when I accidentally knock one over. 

Now and then I thought of hanging them up, but just didn't come across the right hook/hanger/whatever, and I didn't want to tie up shelf space with the damn things. So while I was hanging some other shelves last week, I thought maybe I had the stuff right there to make something that would keep these up and out of the way, where they won't get gouged up.

I sawed a couple 15" pieces of double-track hanger and screwed them to the wall. Then I used (4) 9" shelf support brackets, drilling 3/16" holes about 1.5 inches from the end in 2 and about 4" from the end in the other 2. These are thru-holes for a #6 wood screw.

Then I cut 2 pieces of 5/8 pine dowel rod about 15" long and fastened them to the shelf brackets. The top set with the dowel closer to the outer edge is mounted high...the other lower. My Switchblade windshield fit on the top dowel, leaning back against the wall. For that mount, I filed two flat spots on both ends of the dowel so the windshield popped on snugly, and I taped a piece of foam on the wall so the shield wasn't up against the block.

For the Harley shield, if you get the height between the two supports right, the shield slips onto the lower dowel, and the lower part of the bracket (it's upside down, so now it's higher) pivots out until it hits the top dowel and stops. It's very solid like that and both shields are secure. It works better than I expected! Heck, I wasn't sure it would work at all!

So for about 12 bucks and a few screws, my windshields are up out of the way and secure. Worked pretty good, so I figured I'd pass on the idea.

Cowboy
4/1/2012 (and no, it ain't an April Fool's Joke)