I've been riding with an 8" windshield for some time since I found the stock one annoying. The top of it was too close to my line of sight. You know the story.
Now I'm planning a Blue Ridge Parkway ride where day one is going to be almost 600 miles to get there from New York. I'm debating whether to put the bigger w/s back for the long highway portion to reduce buffeting fatigue or leave the shortie on for the rest of the ride through the mountains. The taller w/s could prove annoying on the dragon and similar twisty roads. Waddya think?

 

For long rides I would get a http://www.customflhtwindshields.net/index.html tall enough to look through.
It's wider and will help with all the buffering. Much better comfort, if comfort is what you are looking for.

 

Are you experiencing buffeting with the shorter windshield? I'm using a 8" clearview with the recurve top, and it's nice and smooth, and I'm looking well over it. No way would I ever put a stock height windshield back on my bike unless I had to.

 

I just did about 800 miles this past weekend with a 6 inch ultra flip windshield from long ride shields. The top is below line of sight and it deflects wind up to where it just touches the top of my helmet.

 

I have the 8" recurve from Clearview. The only time I experience buffeting is above 75mph. I know some long distance riders have big windshields that they look through. They say that clean air is a big deal for them when riding all day. I guess if I'm going to consider it a compromise in any way it makes sense to stick with the 8". If my problem starts at 75mph I'll keep it below that and all should be ok. Thanks.

 

I had the same problem last year. I changed out the stock shield for an 8" straight shield and had bad helmet buffeting above 40 MPH. I went back to the stock shield after about year and hated having the top of the shield in my line of sight and the way it distorted the road ahead. I changed to a Clearview 9.5" with Recurve and it is perfect. I'm 6'1 with 32" inseam and the 9.5" is well below my line of sight but provides the same wind protection as the stock shield for me and my passengers.

Clearview allows the return of mounted shields as long as the protective plastic isn't removed, so you can mount the shield and test ride to see how you like it. Long Ride Shields also just introduced their new Ultra Flip shield that is supposed to provide even more coverage, though I haven't seen any reviews of it yet.