Windshield or windscreen purpose??????

[bpdchief]

Gotta go with Northside on this... my GZ has a windshield, and at 55-60 mph it does cut way down on the wind. It also helps with flying objects and rain, set at the right angle and heighth the wind goes right over your helmet so you don't get your head bounced around.

Now for a word or two from my evil side - as I ride down the highway, I find myself reaching above and around the windshield to see just what the windshield is doing besides creating a nice dead air space for my cup holder (mounted on the handlebar between the clamps). I do feel like the bike is being pushed around by the "clear wall" attached to the handlebar. When my new lower handlebars arrive the windshield will be a thing of the past, in the meantime, it's coming off for a 300 mile ride Monday. As for wind noise - you should be using ear plugs anyway. The serious riders I know (not the weekend dinks who pull out the leathers for a Saturday ride to the beer joint)all wear earplugs as part of their riding gear and don't leave home without them.

[5th_bike]

I'm with Alan, a GZ doesn't need a wind shield. It just doesn't go over 65 mph often enough. Below that, wind is only noticeable above say 50 mph. I do have a full face shield on the helmet though, it once kept a big bee or hornet from entering a nostril at 60 mph. And it usually gets littered with little bugs.

[Rookie Rider]

Every freakin time i get on the gz it seems windy outside.

[bpdchief]

That's because the GZ is a wind magnet... it could be a perfectly calm day and as soon as you turn the corner from the house - 30 mph head/cross winds appear :lol:

[mrlmd1]

Even if the air is still, you are generating your own headwind riding into and through the air. Going at 50 mph even if the air is still with no wind at all, you are generating a 50mph wind in your face.
If there is any real wind coming from any direction, even a very mild wind, you are riding into an "apparent wind", which is the combination of the real wind (called true wind) and your in-your-face wind you are generating. The apparent wind you are riding in is the diagonal in the parallelogram of actual (true) and generated wind. This is well known to sailors who understand this, and maybe pilots who fly in it, but it applies to the rest of the real world as well.

Here's how it works, for anyone who may be interested:

If you are going 50mph straight into a 10 mph true wind coming at you, the apparent wind in your face is 60mph.
If there is a true wind coming from behind you at 10mph and you are riding at 50mph, the apparent wind in your face is 40mph.
If the wind is coming from any angle off to the side of your direction of travel, if you construct a parallelogram with a line representing the true wind coming from its' real direction, and making the length of that line equal to the speed or magnitude of the wind, in whatever units you want (mm, in, etc), and then draw another line representing the generated wind using the same scale to draw it to length, then make the parallelogram, the diagonal line connecting opposite corners represents the direction of the apparent wind you feel and the length of that line is the speed of the wind. There are complicated algebraic equations for figuring this out but it's an easy geometric solution.
Enough lesson for today, but it's always windy when you are riding a bike, even walking does the same thing.
Clear? (as mud).

[bpdchief]

While that was an amazing and (because I'm a nerd) very interesting treatise, this time Doc I'm afraid you've "shit too close to the house" (a crude way of saying your over thinking a problem/situation)...

What was meant by our statements is that it could be a perfectly calm, windless day - and as soon as we roll the bikes out to go for a ride, trees will be getting bent over by winds that weren't there prior to.

[bpdchief]

Back to the subject of windshields:

If you mount the slipstream windshield as intended with the cutout a finger thickness above the headlight, it looks decent, but, is so low it does little good.


Mounted so that the top of the shield is about even with the bottom of your nose (where the industry says it is supposed to be), the cutout is at the top of the speedometer and looks silly. Don't think anyone makes a windshield that actually is meant for the smaller cc bike.

Which makes me question the value or purpose of the little shield on the crotchrockets.

[mrlmd1]

bpd- weather is a local phenomenon. If you live in an area with closely spaced houses or buildings and trees in the neighborhood you may not feel much wind 'till you get out on the road where it's much more exposed. And weather changes from one locale to the next and with time too, as well as with topography.
But yes, I know what you are talking about.
Sorry if you didn't like my lecture, my educational piece for the day, just trying to add a little enlightenment to an otherwise drab subject.

[northsidegz]

Not sure why, but mrlmd1's analysis made me think of a great quote from a movie with a great bike in it. "I was inverted."

[bpdchief]

mrlmd1 - I fully appreciate your shared wisdom. It's great when someone with the knowledge shares it with those of us who don't. I had no intention of offending you in any way. Please to forgive me.