Are tall windscreens a trap?
 

1. My first bike was a naked. Suzuki SFV650 Gladius, for which I bought a tiny Puig windscreen. It made a tangible, if not life-changing, difference - but then, I was also using a very cheap helmet and had not quite discovered earplugs.

2. Then I bought a Honda VFR800 with a double-bubble screen already fitted. (I rode a friend's CBR600F3 for a few months in the meantime, but didn't do any extended trips on it.) On a whim, I put an MRA X-Screen lip on it, and played around with the angle a bit, finding that I actually got much better results if I angled it straight into my face. This was also around the time when I bought a Shoei NXR, and was in a position to assess the relative quietness of different setups. (The reason for the new helmet? The old HJC didn't match the VFR's color scheme.)

3. I rented or test-rode a bunch of stuff, including a CB500X, an NC750X, an Africa Twin, an XR150 (got that thing up to 90km/h indicated!!!), a Vespa 250, and most recently, even a friggin' brand new Gold Wing Tour...

4. The FZ1S I bought came with a tall MRA touring screen already fitted by the previous owner. (One of the reasons I bought the bike was that the guy had invested heavily into touring prep on it, including, by happenstance, the mounting hardware for all the gear I'd kept from the VFR!) This one has a lip spoiler too, and after the first few rides, I quickly tilted it to point straight at my visor again.

5. Had a long trip this past weekend, more or less a circle of the country, and on the last section I was bored and a bit stiff, sitting in the right lane of an empty highway - so I stood up on the pegs.

Amazing! Once my head was up high, out of the airflow, it was so beautifully quiet. Much more quiet than ducking down onto the tank, hiding my head entirely behind the screen (but now hearing engine noise, of course). And this was in a Grex G9.1, basically an overstock old Nolan N90 with different stickers - a great modular helmet for the money, but definitely not the quietest thing in the world.

Sure, there was wind pressure on my chest, but I am definitely willing to live with that if I can keep my head in quiet air like that!

My next step is to fit the stock windscreen that the previous owner gave me, and see if that gives me the effect I want...

Works the same for any bike. bier

While you have the screen off for trying out different ones try riding the bike with no screen fitted - that works ok for the quietness factor also.

Unless I'm missing something how is standing on the pegs (and well above the screen presumably) out of the airflow? My experience with screens has been exactly the opposite; above the screen is as noisy as hell (although it needs a properly designed screen, not your cat flap held in place by duct tape).

Sorry, should've elaborated: out of the flow of turbulent air disturbed by the passage of the bits of the bike in front of you. The helmet traveling on its own through otherwise still air is, apparently, really not very turbulent at all.

(Compare riding with nobody in front of you to being stuck behind a lorry.)

I doubt it will. Probably will be noisy. doh

I'm surprised with all those bikes you never figured out that most screens cause noise and buffeting and that NO screen is quiet in most cases. I've been round and round on screens with several bikes over the years. Talk about chasing your tail! :helpsmilie:

Sometimes you get lucky and find a quiet one, but more often than not, it's quieter with NO SCREEN on the bike at all.

Many ask how I could ride long distance and long days on my DR650. It's a dual sport bike, only has a little front cowl, so you get "clean" air flow. Many DR650 riders add screens ... but I knew enough not to go down that slippery slope.

The one area where (to me) a decent screen makes sense is in VERY COLD conditions. Can help keep you from freezing.

On my former '07 Triumph Tiger I tried 3 different screens, one a very expensive UK product with mulit adjustability ... CRAP! Nothing but noise.

On the Tiger, after 3 screens and no luck, I gave up and just took off the screen. 100% better.

When I sold the bike I put the stock screen back on and gave the new owner one other screen I had left over. I was able to sell off the UK one.

The owner Poo Poo'd the idea of buffeting as a problem. In a month he emailed saying he went in circles trying to get his screen quiet ... and finally did what I had done ... just took the bloody thing off. Job Done! :thumbup1:

And YES ... we all wear very good ear plugs always! bier

I don't use tall screens, prefer to have wind on my chest and have direct view on the road. In my experience much better is to invest in very good, aerodynamic helmet. Once I got my arai tour and shoei nxr helmets they made all the difference, it was much quieter and my had stopped to jerk around on wind gusts. For longer journeys sometimes use earplugs.

Either the windscreen must be so tall that its taller than your head when youre sitting on the bike so that you can hide behind it or it must be relatively low. Those quite high windscreens that only gives shelter halfway up your head and thus gives a huge airflow straight into your head are absolutely the worst. The original screen on my Tenere 660 for example was absolutely PITA. Fitted a 10 cm taller screen and its much better.
On the Tiger 955 I had I went lower than the original and also that was waay much better than original halftall...

I would hardly call them a trap - I find tall windscreens rather comforting, however I do not know how much of that comfort is psychological. Having it cover my entire body provides a sense of protection and safety, even if a superficial one.

That's exactly why I called them a trap. ;) They provide a psychological sensation of being better and more comfortable, while not actually making the ride quieter. I guess they keep more of the bugs off your jacket...

Maybe I'm being obtuse here but my (subjective) experience has been that 'naked' bikes are wind noisy as hell and more tiring to ride - at any significant speed anyway. I can't say I've ever noticed how having my whole upper body directly in the airflow has led to a quiet ride compared to having some kind of barrier in front of me. OK, on some of my DIY attempts it's needed a bit of 'development' work to cut down on edge of the screen turbulence and in one case a 'blowing across a bottle top' whistle but these were easy to do.

The bikes with factory fitted fairings I've owned have all been pretty good and I can't say I've ever thought that they were noisy. My current GoldWing (an extreme example I admit) is so quiet behind the screen I can listen to the radio through the speakers at 70mph. Swapping from that onto a KLR doesn't feel like I've entered an oasis of calm.

And as for riding any distance in winter without some sort of screen - noisy or not - this picture, taken at the side of the autobahn returning from a long ago Elephant Rally, just about says it all. Temp at the time was around -10C :

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...elephant79.jpg

Interesting direction we're going here!
I've ridden several bikes with BIG touring screens (talking about BIG Barn Door style screens now)

Ridden Gold Wings, big Moto Guzzi, to all sorts of BMW's; from old air heads, K bikes to latest RT's and GS's.

Most are fairly quiet and it can be nice sitting in a nice cocoon of still air on a cold day.

But ... In mostly WARM California and Mexico, where I ride, these cocoons of still air are not always a good thing. In the heat ... AIR FLOW is good.

The other big gripe we hear about wind screens is trying to ride off road whilst looking through a screen. I've done it plenty and hate it! doh

First did this on a friends R100GS in Baja. He had fallen, had a minor concussion. So I was conscripted to ride bike back to the highway, load into "sag wagon".

That GS was well set up, had good, fresh knobbies mounted, so it handled Baja's deep sand tracks fairly well (for a GS!) ... but I had a HELL OF A TIME riding as I was forced to look through that tall wind screen.

I could not concentrate well, affected vision, depth perception and mostly confidence. Not good. I only had to ride it for less than an hour, so I guess after a day or so I could have adapted. Overall, very un comfortable for me. :nono:

Later rode a friends XR650L through Mojave Desert. His bike had moderate screen but it really made vital terrain reading/line choice nearly impossible riding at a good pace. I hated it and crashed it. (minor)

Since then ridden a few other Dual sport bikes with screens off road ... I am NOT a fan.

The last point is the danger of having your throat cut it you bash into the edge of the screen in a fall neck first. :censored:
Unlikely, but somehow worries me. :Beach:

Yeah, I just test-rode a Gold Wing, played around with the electric windscreen. Made little difference. Had it up to about 170kph. 70mph - 115 kph - is not really the sort of touring speeds I'm talking about in Europe. ;)

So then the question becomes - why do all the rally-raid fairings are so tall? Can't be just to hide the nav tower? A big KTM Adventure is near-vertical where it meets the air...

no it's not that tall, it's about same height as on xt660z tenere
so you can still see over the screen freely when seated and when on rally you spend plenty of time standing up on pegs anyway, so screen won't matter. Basically it's for protecting the navigation tower from sand etc.

I've toured on bikes with windscreens, and without them. Overall, I prefer going without. Maybe I just like getting blasted by the wind.