Improving your Xtreme Revolution Ultra Fairing Sound

[Shiner]

I received the email below today from Xtreme Revolution showing how they recommend modifying your UltraFairing to improve the amount of sound your stereo speaker output.

They have now added these additional instructions to their standard fairing (attached) installation guide.


UltraFairing Technical Bulletin Crank It Up! You have recieved this email because our records indicate you have an Xtreme Revolution UltraFairing and we wanted to share this tip with you.
We have discovered a simple way to greatly increase the volume of the stereo in your UltraFairing. The problem is that the fairing is like a sealed drum, and for the speakers to move they actually have to compress the air in that sealed drum which steals away sound power. The solution is to create "tuned ports" for the fairing that allow the speakers to move freely. This is an old trick that has been used in speaker boxes for many years. If you create some tuned ports in the fairing you will notice a significant increase in the volume. The downside is that you will now have holes in the fairing -- bugs, mice, etc could get in. XR



See attached PDF file for images and instructions.

[iron pony boyz]

Has anyone done this mod yet?

[Shiner]

Working on it. Made the port the other night. Planned to install today but will ride instead. I am hoping it will help provide a bit more base tones as well as overall volume.

Good luck on finding the PVC reduces that XR shows in the instructions. I tried all the big box hardware store (home depot, lowes, ace) and ended up going with some PVC adapter that took a bit of modification to get right.


http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg84/tshinefield/VTX%20Pics/ports.jpg

Shiner

[iron pony boyz]

Mod completed a few days ago. Sounds much better under 40 mph; yet at highway speeds the sounds has too much to compete with (pipes, wind, other traffic)

Be sure to use the quick dry jb weld (4 min.) because the other type takes 15 hrs (ouch)

Not worth taking pix.

But here is a sunset (ha, ha, ha)

http://www.vtxoa.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=39&pictureid=171

[iron pony boyz]

Have had a chance to try out tuner ports last 2,000 road trip.. Works great even 50-80 mph. I am stoked.

[gEEz]

Just a double check before drilling a hole in my nicely painted faring. Does this give me better sound and base in addition to louder? Is it worth doing?

[dirtstiff's X]

That's funny gEEz,

I was just to ask the same question.... I just bought some 3/4 x 1/2" bushings. Have them painted and clear coated ready to pop in the hole...

I too hope they are worth drilling into my nicely painted fairing....

If you get some good feed back, please pm me or email. I will do the same..

Most be an Oregon thing ...

Thanks, see ya or hear ya on the road.

Jim
jdjacksons@comcast.net

[iron pony boyz]

9,000 miles ridden with tuned mod. Huge improvement by increasing "volume", does not disminish inner fairing appearance (hardly noticable).

Highway speeds use may be diminshed by high winds and loud traffic, yet generally not a problem with normal traffic conditions.

Low cost mod with high benefit return. Really glad I did the mod before I did a 6,117 mile solo road trip. Having "sounds" was great company.

[Shiner]

IMO, I believe the ports allow the speakers to create more volume by moving more freely. I notice I can get loader now with out as much distortion.
It may have help increase the base tones somewhat as well, hard to say.
As Iron Pony says, it a cheap mod that does seam to help and does not have to look like an after though.

Shiner

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg84/tshinefield/VTX%20Pics/soundports1.jpg

[gEEz]

IMO, I believe the ports allow the speakers to create more volume by moving more freely. I notice I can get loader now with out as much distortion.



Ok, now that's a clean look. What did you use for the grill?

[dirtstiff's X]

I was about to do surgery when I saw Shiner and gEEz' inserts...

They look great!!!

Do you mind sharing what and where you got them before my fairing goes under the knife?

Thanks Gentlemen,

Jim

[Shiner]

If a picture is worth a thousand words, here is a few pictures!

As I mention in an above post I had trouble finding the PVC reducers the the XR folk advised to use. I instead found a suitable PVC coupler at Home Depot that alowed me to cut away the bulk of the coupler leaving me with what you see below. Took some sanding and milling to get it to the final shape. In addition I used some scrap metal screening I had around and a small part of a PVC pipe to secure the metal screen to so it would not want to fall out at the first big bump. I drilled out the holes in the metal screen a bit larger and added a little bow to the screen shape with a small hammer.

Port Parts Used
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg84/tshinefield/VTX%20Pics/IMG00057-20090613-1052.jpg

Unpainted Ports
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg84/tshinefield/VTX%20Pics/IMG00059-20090613-1353.jpg

Just an Idea: Another though would be to pick up some small car door tweeters and gut them for the shell and housing. You could bond the hollow tweeter shell over the hole you drill in your fairing, giving you a professional look without having to build the entire port. You can pick them up at the local auto part store fairly cheep. For example here are some I found out on the web. http://www.sonicelectronix.com/viewcat.php?id=32&&affiliate=yahoosm&utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=SonicElectronix&OVRAW=Tweeter%20car%20speakers&OVKEY=tweeter%20car%20speaker&OVMTC=standard&OVADID=14275766013&OVKWID=106325222513

Shiner