Motorcycle rearview mirrors on the windscreen stanchions

 

TL;DR a cheap way to drive without the side screens legally
EDIT : I'm dumb enough to cover the subject twice, here's the 2025 version...

Part of the fun with a Seven is that the sidescreens can be removed in a matter of seconds. The downside is that the rearview mirrors are fitted just below the windows and are removed too.

Fitting the mirrors on the stanchions permanently is impractical as it prevents the doors from fully opening and leaning on the bonnet. Which is really convenient as it adds some ease of access to the cabin, even more so with the roof up.

Looking for some cheap "F1-style" mirrors, I found super cheap motorcycle kits on Aliexpress, around 8€ a pair pp incl. cheap. As their base is designed to fit into the end of a handle bar, some adapter would be required.

I ended quickly designing a slim handlebar-shaped adapter with a flat square base. The fitting is done with a long-ish M5 screw that replaced the central windscreen screw. Having slightly damaged one aluminium thread of the windscreen with a stainless stell bolt, I quikly re-threaded it, and swapped to nylon bolts instead. Nylon is strong enough for this application, and would break readily in case of mishap, protecting the windscreen and threads.

WARNING : digging into the windscreen with a thread that is too long will crack the glass.

The first installation was made with the mirrors going upwards from their base, which felt too high when driving as they were too far from where the door mirrors are located the rest of the time. They are now used hanging down, I prefer them that way.

When the small mirrors are not use, a pair of black nylon tapered screws are used to secure the windscreen instead of the stock metal ones.

The plastic adapter bases were re-designed multiple times when fine-tuning the thread length, then a locating peg was added to align the mirror holders and lock the alignment with the bases. A new iteration is to be 3D-printed, taking care of securing the alignment with the stanchion and the car as well. As it is, they tend to rotate upwards with the wind when driving over 100km/h. And they rotate down when cruising at lower speeds.

On passenger side, the range of motion of the mirror knuckle did not allow was too short to allow for a useful setting. A weirdly shaped 3D-printed spacer has been designed and installed to remedy that situation.