[masons chief]

I’ve been the owner of a new Roadmaster Darkhorse for one week. Traded my 2015 Chief Vintage and also ride a 20 Challenger. Been riding for well over forty years and would like to get the opinions of other owners of the Darkhorse Roadmaster with the hard lowers. Had a 130 mile ride home from the dealership and noticed the dirty air coming under the fairing right away. I’m 6’4” tall and have a 12” Klockwerks windshield with the flip. Made a call to the owner of JES Custom Accents who has designed lowers for wind deflection for the Chieftain. Right away he informed me where the air was coming from....The hard lowers...unbelievable the nasty air coming from those lowers right up and under the fairing to the cockpit area that is really noisy and contributes to head buffeting. Removed the lowers and cleaned it up mostly.
Any other 2020 owners experienced this? I’ve done stage two and love the smooth ride and the power, but have a problem with the lowers. Thanx Bob

 

[Smokeater40]

LOTS of people take them off and leave them off. I have a Chieftain with the trunk and never found the need for lowers. If it rains, it rains, getting wet anyway, good boots help.

 

[kwebb961]

yes you would of thought that Indian would of done some testing. They just threw the roadmaster lowers on there. I noticed it right away myself. My Victory cross country tour did not have this problem. i really didn't expect it on a bike for this price.

 

[Cameroni79]

Are these the same lowers that are on a 19 regular Roadmaster? I haven’t noticed that issue. 6’2” 214 lbs.

 

[kwebb961]

Not sure if the 2019 Roadmaster is the same or not. I know the 2018 is different. The 2018 had a air deflector you could pivot up to close that off. Had a smaller vent in the lowers. Plus the fairing is different on your Roadmaster. The dark horse is 2019 chieftain with trunk and lowers from Roadmaster.

 

[kwebb961]

From what I see in pictures the 2019 has the same lowers. I think it’s the combination of the lowers with the chieftain new style fairing.

 

[kwebb961]

My point they just threw it together and didn’t test for this issue.

 

[Big Dawg]

My point they just threw it together and didn’t test for this issue.

Even though I'm not sure what "dirty air" is, I d see your point that they should have done some testing with the HD style fairing on a RM.





BD

 

[INJUNlvr]

I’ve been the owner of a new Roadmaster Darkhorse for one week. Traded my 2015 Chief Vintage and also ride a 20 Challenger. Been riding for well over forty years and would like to get the opinions of other owners of the Darkhorse Roadmaster with the hard lowers. Had a 130 mile ride home from the dealership and noticed the dirty air coming under the fairing right away. I’m 6’4” tall and have a 12” Klockwerks windshield with the flip. Made a call to the owner of JES Custom Accents who has designed lowers for wind deflection for the Chieftain. Right away he informed me where the air was coming from....The hard lowers...unbelievable the nasty air coming from those lowers right up and under the fairing to the cockpit area that is really noisy and contributes to head buffeting. Removed the lowers and cleaned it up mostly.
Any other 2020 owners experienced this? I’ve done stage two and love the smooth ride and the power, but have a problem with the lowers. Thanx Bob

Think that it's not from the lowers, but from the poor design of the smaller HD-like fairing. I have the 2019 Roadmaster with the larger fairing (with integrated driving lights) and have no issues at all!!!

 

[HiDesert]

Even though I'm not sure what "dirty air" is,

It's a term for turbulent, buffeting air. It's the opposite of good fluid dynamics. Drag this through the water at 30 mph, and you get good, smooth laminar flow.

Drag this through the water at 30 mph, and there will be so much turbulence and drag it will probably tear itself to pieces.

The turbulent buffeting around the complicated, irregular shape is the water equivalent of dirty air.

 

[Big Dawg]

It's a term for turbulent, buffeting air. It's the opposite of good fluid dynamics. Drag this through the water at 30 mph, and you get good, smooth laminar flow.

View attachment 601873

Drag this through the water at 30 mph, and there will be so much turbulence and drag it will probably tear itself to pieces.

View attachment 601874

The turbulent buffeting around the complicated, irregular shape is the water equivalent of dirty air.

Got'cha. I knew about buffeting and have had wind deflectors on my bikes for years. I currently have a pair from JES and they are great. I had just never heard the term "dirty air" before.





BD

 

[mikepillow]

I also purchased a RM Darkhorse this past march, trading in a 2019 Roadmaster with stage 1.

I loved the look of the white matte color, but when I started adding the things I was used to on my standard RM it started getting pretty expensive! (rear crash bars, trunk luggage rack. etc)

Within just a few weeks the difference between the Old "locomotive" style fairing and the new (Cheiftain Limited) style fairing was very noticeable in the lack of wind protection. So much that I changed over from a 3/4 helmet to a full face modular because of the wind blast coming from underneath the fairing.

Long story short - I loved the agressive looks of the bike, but when Indian came out with the 'no payment for 6 mo' promo I decided I would go back to the standard style RM and couldn't be happier with the old style fairing. IMHO no comparison.

Just a quick note: I regularly do business with about 3 Indian Dealers and the RM Dark Horse models don't seem to be moving very quickly. I'm wondering at this point if they will go the way of the Roadmaster Classic that only lasted for 2 model years?