The reason I'm posting chit chat between Don, Hartmut and myself is to give jtanners insight (incite? :o)) into some of the happenings behind the scenes.

First guys, a little more on my conversation with Dave Campos as to his experience with riding streamliners. He said, "A well handling streamliner requires a light touch on the handlebars at speed.", Don Vesco and Boris Murray said the same thing, "a light touch". They never made a fist around the handlebars or gripped them tightly, they said they only laid their palms on the bars ever so gently and it was enough to keep the liner between the black lines. The black lines are placed 100 yards apart, which is the length of a football field. They all also said that the 100 yards somehow shrinks to about 35 feet at speeds over 300 mph, and that body English is sometimes enough, and utilized at very high speeds. No handlebar movement required. Shifting your knees was Boris Murray's method and Don Vesco said his method was moving his fanny a bit. I asked, "How can you do this when you're strapped in with a five point seat belt harness?" They answered, "You can still move around a little bit in that thing, and it don't take much!"

I picked up my polycarbonate wind screen material, and at the same time learned a bit of information that's important. I had taken the old windscreen with me so they could inspect the cracking. I thought the old windscreen was plexiglass, but found that it was polycarbonate material. We had been cleaning the windscreen with Windex, which is what we were doing wrong. Windex contains ammonia, and polycarbonate materials change their molecular makeup when ammonia is applied. Another no-no for cleaning purposes would be any petroleum product. A soft sponge and a cotton diaper with a mild dishwashing soap and water is more appropriate. The company that I bought the windscreen material from is Lustercraft here in Wichita, who predominantly deal with the aircraft industry. One thing that I found interesting--the same company makes the windows for NASCAR. The material thickness is only .040. Hard to believe, but true. The windscreen in 2004 was 1/8" thick. Evidently the thinner you go the less distortion with polycarbonate. I felt that the .040 material was just too thin so I have opted for 1/16" polycarbonate for 2005.