Another Harley Thread

[michael1954]

I'll never understand why so many people insist on having wind protection...while riding a motorcycle. It's a motorcycle, not a car. The whole idea is to be out there in the elements.

Smooth windflow on a no-windshield bike is easier to get along with and more relaxing than noisy turbulence from the windshield, not to mention having to look through that bug-splattered windshield. Plus, when it's hot, you don't receive the benefit of the cooling wind.

Having owned both types of bikes, and having tried my windshield bikes with and without their windshields, the ride was better every time without the windshield. Some bikes look ridiculous without their windshields (V-Strom, ST1300), but they still work better that way. Other bikes look much better without windshields, so adding one where it doesn't belong not only butchers the aesthetic, it diminishes the ride quality.

Ride a full weekend without the windshield. Get used to it. Quit talking yourself into thinking you have to have one. You don't, not on bikes like the CB1100. If it's a feet-forward cruiser that will turn your upper body into a sail without a windshield, okay, fine, but that only goes to prove, once again, that the basic cruiser design architecture is seriously flawed. The natural riding position on a motorcycle should include having your feet beneath you, with the upper body upright or canted slightly forward. No windshield necessary, at least up to eighty mph.

Allow yourself to get used to it, and you will never go back.

Hi, I sort of agree, having a windshield only on 1 of 3 of my bikes. I like riding without one, always have. Takes me back some 40 years ago when I could not afford a fairing. But, I like the smaller windshield I put on the 2017 CB1100EX. It does remove most of the wind that tires me sometimes. If you have not ridden in South Texas in the Spring, you do not know wind. Almost every day of fighting 30/40 mph wind is a pain. The shield is a plus then. Some 15 years back I was riding home from work, only 25 miles on my 1500 Vulcan Nomad and the wind was high, near 40/50 mph, even with the big bike, shield and all, I rode home on the access road next to the freeway. It was so bad, it was blowing me all over the road.
No shield then might have actually been better, not acting like a sail on a boat!