Short Shield Shakedown Ride

[the Ferret]

Ok to refresh memories, I had bought a National Cycle Street Shield EX shield for my 13. Took 1 trip to West Virginia with it in 13 and experienced pretty much noise and buffeting. Since I only used it for that 1 week vacation I just put up with it. I had taken an earlier trip to North Carolina and rode the bike sans shield. Traded my 13 in on a 14 DLX. I took my fall 14 trip to Kentucky on the 14 dlx sans shield as well. When I went put the shield on my DLX I remembered the noise and thought I might need to cut the shield down some hoping to move the windblast out of the eye port on my helmet. CIP had gone thru the same thing with his Street Shield EX, and I basically mirrored his experiment. The shield measured 17" from NC. First I cut off 4", again as CIP had done. Tried it, no good. Still too much buffeting and noise.Then I cut off 3 more inches for a total of 7" (again as CIP had done.) Got it mounted up yesterday and today decided to take it for a shake down cruise this afternoon. Rode 44 miles altogether.

Here's what the shield looked like when I put it on the 14 Dlx last fall.

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Short shield...warming up
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Over by the lake

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Right curve

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Left curve
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S curve

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Roller Coaster

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So, how is it? Well, it completely blocks the air from shoulder to shoulder from my waist to my neck. Wind starts hitting right at bottom of chin. Head is nearly in 100% clean air, but not quite. There is no head wobble and there is no flag flapping noise, but there is some noise (much, much less than before). If you stand up on the pegs just a little it gets clean air quiet.

Shield is now 10" tall. I have the shield sitting 1/2" over the headlight, and it measures 10 1/2" from ignition to top of shield. Could probably shorten it 1 more inch on a Deluxe, but I don't know if I'll bother. It's awfully good right now. I need to get it out on the freeway to make sure, but I am pretty happy with it the way it is. There is NO air pressure on the chest, you can move the palm of your hand from belly button to collar bone and not feel any air pressure at all.

Thanks to CIP for the legwork on this.

More testing to follow