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...
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