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

[url=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/theferret111/media/March%2030%20ST%20and%20CB%20rides%20018_zpsx8qhjfbu.jpg.html]

Roller Coaster

[url=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/theferret111/media/March%2030%20ST%20and%20CB%20rides%20023_zpsju9bnp7h.jpg.html]

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

[CB4ME_imp]

Nice job. Looks good and sounds like it does the job. Let us know how longer term testing goes.

I tried cutting down my Honda tall windscreen to no avail and ended up selling it. Perhaps I should have cut more off.

Not to steal your thread, but I have an 18" Madstad on my NC that really works. The screen sits nearly 2"off the adaptor plate allowing wind to enter from the bottom, and this eliminates the negative pressure that develops behind the screen and contributes to wind turbulence. Now all I hear in the engine. Sadly Madstad doesn't make a windscreen for our beloved CB

[emptysea]

nice pictures and glad it is working for you.

[Papa Weeley_imp]

Very glad to hear this, since I bought the same one, and the noise bothered me so bad that I cut my ride short maybe only 2 miles out.
My question is though: how did you cut it so perfectly and professional looking, curved at the top, radiused at the top edges, etc.???

[the Ferret]

Papa we used a jig saw with a pretty fine tooth blade. I taped the shield with green painters tape. Measured down how much I wanted to cut off. Used a piece of light cardboard wrapped across the front to draw my line with a black ball point pen, and just freehanded the curves on the top edges. I held the shield on a table with the part to be cut off hanging off, and my brother ran the jigsaw free handing it along the line. Then I used a block of wood with some 100 grit sandpaper wrapped around it for a sanding block.

[Lord Popgun]

Papa,

If you aren't sure your skill is equal to ferret and his BIL, another option might be to take it to a plastics shop and have them cut and finish it. Or try it then take it...

[the Ferret]

Definitly make practice cuts an inch from the top or two inches from the top until you move down to the line you want to cut.

[Lord Popgun]

Ferret,

Is the NC EX the same as the NC II that eveyone used to talk about? I ended up getting confused on all the models.

[the Ferret]

No the Plexifairing 2 is the full shield like CA and Flynrider and CIPs winter shields.

[Lord Popgun]

Thanks,

Now I can go to the NC site and have some idea of what to look for.