GrahamNZ
High Miler
The issue of screens for sensible road bikes comes up repeatedly. To many, no screen is best, and for avoiding helmet buffeting I agree that it is, but on bikes where you're sitting upright, sustained highway speeds are very tiring.
Arriving at a screen which works for you can be a frustrating issue. When you find one, rejoice! At the risk of boring the pants off older forumisti, here are my thoughts and experiences.
Motorcycles are a streamlining nightmare compared with well streamlined cars. Far too much frontal area and really bad induced and parasitic drag. That makes any screen at best just another compromise. What may work well for the rider may be bad for any passenger and vice versa. Similarly what works on one bike may not on another, and for one rider not for another. What works at some speeds may not at others.
The first step is to decide what you want a screen to deliver. Just relief from torso wind pressure? For that a short screen will work best, minimising helmet buffeting and noise, allowing good vision in rain as the windblast clears rain drops from your visor, and ensuring your visor will get bug-spattered at times.
A very high and large screen may give you great protection but looking through one is a very bad thing when the screen inevitably gets dirty, scratched and when it rains.
Spoiler screens sometimes work quite well, but often they don't because all they do is re-direct the turbulence, often increasing it at the same time.
Adjustable screens seldom work well and if motorised the control button will get a lot of use. On every bike I've ridden with a motorised screen, it has worked best when in the lowest position. That is largely because as the screen rises the angle also steepens, moving the top further from your visor. A screen which maintained angle as raised would be a breakthrough. Suzuki had one that did that once, but it never had enough height to be really effective.
The Suzuki V-Strom is a bike with many great features but let down by its screen. (And its appearance according to many!) Various ploys are available and some even work, but make the appearance even worse. The real problem is the typical one - the screen top is simply too far from the rider's visor.
So, is there an answer? From my experiences there is, but it's rare to achieve it. This is it - the screen top needs to be level with the tip of the rider's nose and 200 - 250mm in front of the visor. If you have a screen you can prove this for yourself by moving yourself so that your helmet is in that position. On a few bikes I have achieved the ideal, including on my Breva with the setup shown below but with the screen add-on fitted inside the main screen to move the top slightly higher and even closer to my visor. Sorry but no photo of that yet.
The summer setup is a compromise which does work but looks rather odd.
Visor to screen top distance!!
This one is great, helped by the bike being so short anyway.
The best ever. My home built bike from 1973.
Graham
Arriving at a screen which works for you can be a frustrating issue. When you find one, rejoice! At the risk of boring the pants off older forumisti, here are my thoughts and experiences.
Motorcycles are a streamlining nightmare compared with well streamlined cars. Far too much frontal area and really bad induced and parasitic drag. That makes any screen at best just another compromise. What may work well for the rider may be bad for any passenger and vice versa. Similarly what works on one bike may not on another, and for one rider not for another. What works at some speeds may not at others.
The first step is to decide what you want a screen to deliver. Just relief from torso wind pressure? For that a short screen will work best, minimising helmet buffeting and noise, allowing good vision in rain as the windblast clears rain drops from your visor, and ensuring your visor will get bug-spattered at times.
A very high and large screen may give you great protection but looking through one is a very bad thing when the screen inevitably gets dirty, scratched and when it rains.
Spoiler screens sometimes work quite well, but often they don't because all they do is re-direct the turbulence, often increasing it at the same time.
Adjustable screens seldom work well and if motorised the control button will get a lot of use. On every bike I've ridden with a motorised screen, it has worked best when in the lowest position. That is largely because as the screen rises the angle also steepens, moving the top further from your visor. A screen which maintained angle as raised would be a breakthrough. Suzuki had one that did that once, but it never had enough height to be really effective.
The Suzuki V-Strom is a bike with many great features but let down by its screen. (And its appearance according to many!) Various ploys are available and some even work, but make the appearance even worse. The real problem is the typical one - the screen top is simply too far from the rider's visor.
So, is there an answer? From my experiences there is, but it's rare to achieve it. This is it - the screen top needs to be level with the tip of the rider's nose and 200 - 250mm in front of the visor. If you have a screen you can prove this for yourself by moving yourself so that your helmet is in that position. On a few bikes I have achieved the ideal, including on my Breva with the setup shown below but with the screen add-on fitted inside the main screen to move the top slightly higher and even closer to my visor. Sorry but no photo of that yet.
The summer setup is a compromise which does work but looks rather odd.
Visor to screen top distance!!
This one is great, helped by the bike being so short anyway.
The best ever. My home built bike from 1973.
Graham
