Recently, well in May, I experienced something that was a little crazy to me. This may make perfect sense to someone else, but I am totally puzzled by this. I would like to get some constructive input from people with more experience so I turned to the best most experianced group of people I know, the people in this forum. A little history may help. I ride a 2015 Street Glide for the record.

Last year in May I rode with a group of friends to Washington DC for Rolling Thunder’s Memorial Day “parade”. Approximately 600 miles from home. I wore my Shoei RF1200 helmet on this ride because there was a lot of interstate riding involved and likely rainy weather along the way. I normally wear a half helmet. Other than I couldn’t hear anything with the visor closed on the Shoei I suffered no ill effects from riding this helmet on the trip.

This year in May we made the same trip. Same distance, same route and pretty much the same group. I wore the same Shoei helmet on the same bike with two changes to the bike. Last year I rode the stock seat and had a 7” Long Ride Shield on my bike. This year I have a C&C solo seat on my bike and I installed an 8” Long Ride Shield. I have been riding the C&C for 8 months prior to riding to DC and I installed the 8” Long Ride 4 months prior to “get used to it” before the trip. I figured the taller windshield would help on this trip. This year after approximately 300 miles I had a terrible head ache, was nauseated and my ears hurt. The vibration was so bad I couldn’t get the rider in front of me focused. It was like he was vibrating as we rode. I noticed the buffeting on the helmet as soon as we hit highway speeds on the interstate but before the second gas stop I was physically becoming ill. I tried couple of things like adjusting my wind deflectors on my fairing, closing the fairing vent and opening and closing the helmet visor. Nothing I tried made it better. I blamed the helmet and switched to my normal half helmet. Problem went away when I switched helmets. On the way home I tried the Shoei helmet again due to the threat of bad weather. Again after approximately 300 miles I had to ditch it and go back to my half helmet for the same reasons.

I understand that moving back a little because of the seat change put me in a different position in the “bubble”. I also understand putting a taller windshield on the bike changed the air pocket behind the fairing. What I don’t understand is why this made such a huge difference in the head buffeting I experienced. I also don’t know what to do to correct it. I have changed back to the 7” Long Ride shield. This seems to have helped some but I haven’t been able to make 200 plus mile trip at highway speeds since returning from DC. I had help from a Shoei Rep picking out the helmet and I have worn it off and on for several years on a couple of different bikes so I know it fits correctly. So I don’t think helmet fitment is the problem. What else can I do to help with this? What am I missing?

I am trying to figure out something about wind, buffeting, turbulence or whatever we want to call it. I am NOT trying to start a discussion or argument about whether or not buffeting exists. I am looking for answers to my questions or an explanation so I can understand why this happened and make the proper adjustments for myself and maybe help someone else in the future. I know I am riding a motorcycle and being in the wind is part of that. I actually enjoy being in the wind that is one reason I ride. But the experience I had on this trip was not fun. Part of riding is supposed to be fun.

I would appreciate any constructive input to help me understand this better.
TIA,
Kevin

 

so it seams you understand the "bubble" you are now on the back corner if it. with the LRS shield while it it taller it also has a flare to it so it kicks the wind up higher sooner thus creating more vacuum earlier and pulling air up from under the batwing fairing. this also makes the air drop sooner before the end of the bike.so now you are getting hit on the top of the brow vs the air passing over your head. the mechanics of why this happens is less concern than correcting it. me personally would try to leave the seat and put the stock screen back on to see if it helps. if you have friends with similar bikes then try to borrow their shields to see if you can find "the sweet spot" of wind.

 

Do you look over the top of your 7in. or 8in. windshield or through it ? ?
If the 7 inch windshield works, and the 8 inch does not, go back to the 7in.
Kuryakyn makes what looks like a half ashtray that bolts to the triple trees,
it's much like the one that older Harleys use to have. Then there is the air
deflectors ( the fangs ) that bolt to the forks. I used them on my Road King
Custom, they do help some.
That is my only advice, for the buffeting.


John

 

Have you thought about trying a freedom shield ? They have a new model for the bat wing that's supposed to work really well.

 

 

I went through several windshields trying to get rid of buffeting when I had a SG. It's not the windshield. Nothing fixed it except fork deflectors "fangs". Didn't like the look at first but without them riding the bike sucked.

 

Unfortunately I just went through this exact same thing. Last fall my setup worked fine, but I did a lot of mods over the winter (new seat, lowers, bars) and when I went for my first extended ride I was getting a reverberation noise inside my helmet. It wasn't really a shaking, but it made me unfocused, fatigued and not feel well. Switching to my half helmet alleviated all of those issues.

In an effort to combat this, I switched to a top of the line helmet (Arai Quantum X) thinking that my modular was the issue. It helped some, but I was then getting loud slapping on the helmet at speeds above 60mph. I did a number of experiments with the different windshields I had (Windvest 13" & 14", KW Pro Tour 15", stock HD windshield) and even removed the shield completely. I determined it was in fact the change in air flow from the lowers and being 2" further back on my new seat. I wasn't going to change either of those items and I really fell in love with the new Arai, so that meant I had to try a new windshield.

Now I have a 15" Freedom shield and it seems to have eliminated the issue for me. The shape and angle of the Freedom moved the "pocket" back to a good position for me, gets rid of the "slapping" and performs wonderfully!

I'm not saying that buying a Freedom shield will fix your issues, but I am betting that changing your windshield to something different WILL.

 

 

 

Thanks for the input. Keep us posted on the Madstad