Taking the advice of the collective, I have put the quest for a windshield at the top of my list, ahead of heated gear.
What's the word on windshield height? I know the Wing's was too high; no matter what I did I couldn't see above it, and it was a real hazard in the rain. I know the sport shield that was on Jezebel when I bought it was totally worthless. I had to lay on the tank to get out of the breeze at all -- which might be okay on a sport bike but is pretty uncomfortable on a cruzer. Feet and hands out in front, ass hanging off the back, it was a backache.
What windshield height gauge have you used?
Thanks in advance for your help.
You're going to need two actually.
ReplyDeleteOne is the "barn door" for mid
winter. One is the small(er) one
for the rest of the year.
Buy from same company (eg
Slipstreamer) so the mount
hardware is the same and you get a
set of spares.
Get the big one now but pick out
the small one for an April buy.
Fitting is a trial and error thing
and more critical with the small
one; you'll have it figured out
by then.
There is no gauge or magic
ReplyDeleteformula. It's trial and error, so
get something with some
adjustability. Height, tilt, width
etc. there are many factors.
Sometimes you throw one on and
love it. Sometimes you don't.
My ST1300 has electrical height
adjustment with 14" of travel. No
where is it just right.
It's kind of a personal trial and
ReplyDeleteerror thing.
That said, here's how I do it.
Sit on motorcycle. Eyeball the
distance above headlight to line
of sight. Now measure the
distance from that line down to
the top of the headlight.
Windshields are sized by that
dimension and width.
I like to tilt my shield back as
much as possible. When I'm done,
the shield is tilted back as far as possible and the top is around
chin high. This puts my face in
the breeze with a clear view to
the front.
When it rains, I can scrunch down
and avoid most of the rain in the
face thing.
Remember that you are trying to
stay warm. I'd err on the side of
too big. High enough that you can
peek over the top or duck down
behind it at your option.
Like Pete Springer recommended.
Get a big honking national II. His
Sabre is cozy.
I actually have two shields for
the Adventure ST. one is minimal
and removes windblast from chest. The second is medium sized and
works for cool weather. I kind of
want a Springer Shield for my
early spring oddyssey. That would
be three to cover the weather
gamut.
FWIW: When I had a small
ReplyDeletewindshield on the Sabre and wanted
something more protective, I
clipped some stiff plastic sheets
to the small shield and went for a
ride. I stopped now and then and
adjusted the sheets to find the
optimal comfort zone.
Back home, I sawed a sheet of
acrylic to the proper size, hauled
everything into the kitchen and
turned the oven on to 225F.
Propped the acrylic on two sticks
and waited until it looked like it
would sag.
Quickly removed the acrylic sheet
(Hot-hot-hot), bent it onto the
shorter shield, and let it cool.
Drilled the sheet and the shield
then attached the new addition
with stainless screws, nuts and
faucet washers.
The spirit is a great shield for
ReplyDeletegen 1 magnas. However when I
bought the 96 the spirit shield
dumped all of the air on my chest
and head. I switched the spirit
to the 82 v45 and put my Natl
Cycle onto the 96. Big
improvement for both bikes. BTW
removing the sliding shield from
the Nat'l Cycle eliminated
buffeting.
However for full protection the Ultraglide batwing is the best.