I've had my eyes on the new Road Glide Special but I'm concerned about buffeting, I'm 5/9 170 lbs and like the looks of the stubby windshield on both bikes but have not had a chance to ride both, what do most find the best when it comes to wind management?

 

A minimum of a taller windshield if you are gonna ride the bike at all on the highway. I'm 5'9 and I have an 8" on mine.

 

You will need a taller windshield. My street glide with the stock windshield at 80 mph on the highway was terrible. The wind would almost take my sunglasses off. I'm 5'10, I have a klockwerks 6.5" windshield on mine.

 

I've got a 14 Street Glide with a 6 1/2" Klock Werks shield and it does great on long trips and a 5" Klock Werks for shorter trips. I'm fine with both but my passanger likes the 6 1/2 on long runs. I'm 5'9

 

I have a shorty on mine and it works perfectly, no buffeting and no complaints on long road trips. I took the stock one off and threw it away!!!!

 

some models don;t come with "windshields" ...they come with "deflectors" that should tell you all you need to know about the stock offerings.

HD and the aftermarket have plenty of options.


if you are test riding, the dealer may have a loaner windshield you can try on there.

if you wear a helmet, the type and shape of the helmet will play a big part of this too.


I find the batwing fairing works better for me.

I use windshields of a height that the top edge of the windscreen appears to intersect the road about 40' ahead of the bike...that'll shoot the bugs and grit over my head.
I don;t use a "recurve"- optics, and I don;t use a tint- night riding



mike

 

I'm in upstate NY so a helmet is a given, normally a full face.

 

I'm 5'8 and have a 5" freedomShields on my Street Glide. taller would probably be more optimal but its worlds better then the stock 4" and retains the low profile look.

I feel like the road glide would probably be a bette option if your going to go with a low windshield. also the same height windshield on a road glide looks lower to my eyes then a street glide

 

I wear FF also, in the first photo is a stock SG screen which induced a high pitched vibration in my helmet that made my nose itch something terrible.at anything above 50mph. Second photo is a Klock Werks 5" that is much much better - some wind noise but mostly free of buffeting. I do notice some on occasion when wearing the RX7 Corsair but as of yet - none to speak of wearing the RX-Q. 5'9" BTW.

 

that'll increase the area exposed to the wind by about 100%.

I rarely wear one ( only in hostile territory)- it took a good number of tries to find a helmet which didn't impact my riding.

it is an HD branded 1/2 with a little ducktail on the back- it's the only helmet I've ever had that didn;t bobble or pull up on the strap.


the only FF I had was ok in a forward position like on a sportbike, but when upright it was a bummer.




Mike