Exactly what I was wondering.

 

Couple of reasons -

You're supposed to look over a windshield - not through it.

You can wipe your helmet shield while riding. Not so easy to do your windshield.

Having ridden through rain in many combinations -

- no helmet/no windshield - sucks really, really bad

- no helmet/windshield - sucks really bad

- half helmet/no windshield - sucks really, really bad

- half helmet/windshield - sucks bad

- FF helmet/no windshield - sucks

- FF helmet/windshield - sucks.

In my experience, nothing beats a good full face helmet for rain. ymmv

 

you got it right. i draw the line when i get to where i am going, or i cannot see the road.

 

Something does beat it - a full face helmet with a Pinlock insert. Cold rain on the outside and warm breath on the inside is the formula for fog. Pinlock eliminates that one problem. Nothing worse than the combination of rain on the outside of the visor and fog on the inside.

 

I have a pinlock on my Shoei. It helps, but it's not the magic pill I was hoping for. I still get fog.

 

I'm do fine with a FF and mesh armored jacket, it is a good bit better than the 1/2 helmet and glasses with a t-shirt. I manage fine with either, though. Rain gear gets hot down here.

 

For me the worse has been a matter of not having a choice if I want to get home. Two years ago in October I rode to Florida for Disney and daytona and the hurricane on the coast came in and I did not have a single minute of dry weather from Florida to the ohio border. Lashing winds and rain all the way through Carolina on 77. It was miserable. Wasn’t fun but had no choice.just went slow and stopped often. And let me say rain gear only helps for so long. Doesn’t matter how tight you are wrappedwith rain gear. You will eventually get wet from rain seeping in. And you will be cold. And tired. And cursing. And your pin lock WILL fog up after 50 miles in lashing rain. Only thing you can do is stop often.

 

I put all my stuff in plastic bag inside my gear bags anyway, second layer of protection. Water has a nasty habit of finding a way in if you don't. It's like rainsuits , no matter how good they or how well you wrap up somehow I always get that one little trickle of water down between the shoulder blades, not enough to get you really wet but just enough it annoys the hell out of you.

 

and you reach a point where nothing helps really. 35mph crosswinds and raging constant rain moving in all directions for a day and a half=waterlogged, totalled goretex waterproof boots and full face helmet with liners drenched from water getting into vents and from spray underneath. Boots smelled so foul I just trashed them immediately. Nothing will help in these conditions short of not choosing to ride.

 

I don't know.....my ride from Colorado (900 miles) was pretty brutal in rain that varied from drizzle to torrential. I really never got soaked under the suit. A little dampness here and there, but not bad. My hands definitely got all pruny. I need some better rain gloves. But my feet were dry as a bone. I wear Sidi Canyon Gortex and I will tell you, unless the water pours in from the top, I stay dry. The Harley rain suit did it's job too. I put the hood up, and the helmet on, so water stays out pretty well. Obviously the fairing, windshield, and lowers helps tremendously.

And for me, stopping often wasn't an option. I would never had made it home. I just put the hammer down and stayed at it. (Thank God for higher speed limits through Nebraska!) And the only reason I could do that was my heated liner. It was 40 degrees pretty much the whole ride. I would have entered hypothermia in short order without it.

But I'm still scrubbing road paste off my engine cases. That **** doesn't like to come out.