If you are into riding around town within the city chugging along at regular speeds, you wouldn’t really realize this. But for those who take their bikes on the highways cruising at higher speeds, we know the pain behind all the wind blast that we have to tackle. Plus if you are the unlucky one with a naked street bike running on the highway, the pain is multi fold to keep the bike stable as well as go through the horrid wind resistance at those high speeds. The only thing that helps here is a windscreen or a windshield. Lucky are those who get it factory fitted, like on the faired bikes. For all the rest, we need to get them additionally fitted and it might not always look as pretty.RELATED ARTICLE: An In-depth Of Aerodynamics
Now having a windshield on a motorcycle has a lot of advantages to it which actually makes them worth it. For starters, they do provide ample protection from all the windblast making it easier for you to sit and ride with ease on the motorcycle without worrying about the wind blowing you away and off the motorcycle at high speeds. Also it provides protection to the body as well from the wind blast and hence the journey becomes a lot less tiring and more fun. The stress which you would otherwise experience in your neck or on your chest and shoulders would cease to exist and you can hence travel longer distances with less intervals as well provided your butt permits you too.
Apart from the wind blast issue, windshields also protect you from oncoming foreign bodies as well while riding. A lot of gravel, dust, insects, etc. keep on jumping on us throughout the journey as well as by passing vehicles. A windshield guards you from them and also makes sure that you stay protected and do not get harmed in any way due to that. Though that will mean you will have to clean up your windshield regularly, but that is still fine.Also windshields not just block the air flow coming onto you but they divert it in other directions causing a streamline effect. This gives the bike a bit more aerodynamic effect provided the windshield is properly fit, shaped and angled; else it could end up into all ways of bad. It is not that serious though. A proper windshield will protect you and make your bike a lot more agile on the road. But a wrongly fit one could divert air into all sorts of wrong directions which will not only not protect you but also will take a lot more out of you in terms of effort to ride the bike due to aerodynamic imbalance. So you have to be wary of that as well.
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Also if you have a proper touring bike or a sports bike which you use on the track, you could also opt for the dark version of the windshield to gain additional protection from the sun. But that is all very much subjective to whether you do duck behind the windshield most of the times while riding your bike. In over 95% of the cases, it is not really recommended that you use a dark windshield as it can cause issues when riding through the dark. But if you are only using it as a partial windblast protection and you have a bike which is dark coloured, then you could opt for a dark windshield.
So remember that having a windshield is always beneficial if you are into touring and high speed riding. But if you are riding in the city, you would not really feel a difference, but then again it never hurts to have a small windshield on to keep you protected.
By: Pratik Patole