F4 Custom Windshield Review

By Steve Saunders

It had to happen, my GL1800 Goldwing windshield got damaged. You would think riding through a toll barrier that the operator would see a Goldwing, after all they are hard to miss and I had just handed him the money seconds before riding through the raised barrier. As I drove my Goldwing through, the barrier suddenly dropped onto my windshield and cracked it and the toll company agreed to pay for a new one. From experience, I knew that Goldwing parts can take anything up to six weeks to arrive through the Honda dealer so I decided to also buy a windshield from the USA and fit whichever one arrived first to my Goldwing in time for an upcoming trip about three weeks later. I could always sell the spare windshield whenever that arrived.
I asked around to see what windshields were popular around the Goldwing community. I wanted a decent one and as we all know there are several options available. One of my GL1500 owner friends had an F4 fitted to his machine and he had put around 25,000 miles on it travelling around Europe several times. The windshield was still clear and not fogged from old age and I was impressed. So off home I went and looked for the F4 Customs site and I enquired about a windshield with vent for my GL1800. Don Frank replied to my query and during the usual back and forth email session he realized that I was the owner of this humble site and offered to give me a windshield with vent free of charge, in exchange for a review here. This was a really generous offer, after all the windshield with vent was about $360 plus shipping from the USA.
Well things don't always work out as planned and to my surprise the Honda windshield arrived first and I fitted it in time for my trip to the UK. When I returned home a week later, there was a large box sitting in the shed, containing the F4 Customs windshield. I undid the wrapping (it was very well packed with no chance of damage during shipping) and when I held it up to the light I could immediately see that the optical clarity of this windshield was much better than the OEM Honda windshield in spite of the F4 being thicker. 
I decided to hold onto the F4 until I found someone who needed a new GL1800 windshield. Of course Don from F4 was keen to see the review done asap, but he was very understanding and left it to my own discretion. Eventually a deserving cause came along when John Murphy, one of my Goldwing friends In Ireland was hit by a car and his 2004 GL1800 was very badly damaged. Fortunately big John suffered only minor injuries. Hardly a panel on his Goldwing escaped unmarked and he decided to have them repainted a different colour, from the stock Goldwing Candy Red to a Chromaflair Orange, the paint that shifts colour when viewed from different angles. We fitted the F4 Custom to John's GL1800 at the end of the rebuild.

The two pictures below show the last stage of assembly and the F4 Customs windshield fitted to the rebuilt GL1800...

...and below, pictures of first time out after the rebuild.

The quality of this windshield is IMHO very high indeed and even the vent is of the highest standard. Close-ups of the vent below.

This windshield shrugs off rain easily and is very tough with no flex when riding on windy days. You can wipe it with normal rags without fear of scratching it as the surface is very hard compared to the OEM windshield. F4 Customs have done a good job on this windshield and thanks very much to Don Frank for supplying this one free of charge.