Is a windshield worth it?

[Badbob]

I have ridden GZ250s pretty close to 20,000 miles with three different windshields and some without one. I like riding with out a windshield. However, without the shield bugs, oil and other assorted junk hits you. This can range from annoying to disgusting to painful. Then there is rain. At highway speed it hurts.

My two cents on the three windshields I have experience with.

Suzuki:
In a nut shell. It sucks. It's to small and mounted far to low. My head was right in the turbulence. Turing the mounts up side down gets it up much higher and makes it work better but its still not good. Quality is poor. One of my mounting bolts broke and eventually the windshield developed radial crcks around the mounting holes and I had to replace it.

SpitFire:
I don't know who makes it. It came on the bike. Much better performance that the Suzuki shield. Better designed. Better quality. Tougher as well this one is pretty beat up from getting hit by things including the pavement. Everything on it stil works fine. It blocks the wind pretty well and way better than the Suzuki shield.

National Cycle Plexistar2:
No contest. This one is the best of the three by such a large margin the other two are not even in the running. Much better quality all round. There are no mounting holes. Another real plus os that you can buy parts and they have technical support. I bought it to keep the wind off my hands in sub freezing weather. It does this very well. A big surprise came back in July when I got to ride it for a log distance in a down pour at highway speeds. The only place the rain hit me was below my knees and my elbows. It keeps the rain off real good. The down side is that its big and some what difficult to mount. It pretty much only mounts in one position. It's going to be to tall for some riders although you can cut it down if need be. I have been so impressed with this windshield that should I buy another one even if its smaller it's going to be a National Cycle Windshield.

Price is not and indicator of how good a windshield is. The most expensive one of these three is the worst of the lot.

Reading you description I have to wonder how much seat time you've had. Sounds like you haven't had much. When you first start riding 35mph seems fast. This is an illusion. You are used to riding in a cage protected form all the wind and noise. In time you will get used to it and will hardy pay any attention.

Is a windshield worth it? Depends. If I was never going to ride out side of town or in freezing temperatures I would probably not have a windshield. In bad weather they can be of great benefit and at higher speeds they provide some additional protection. I would not wan to ride down a highway at night in my area with out one. Huge bugs. Thousands may be millions of small bugs. All hitting you. You are the only one who can really decided this. Where and how are you going to ride? How much protection do you want? How much are you willing to spend?