It has been precisely 4 weeks since I had purchased the Wee. This would be my first in the series of review-like posts on various things my Wee has or does not have to offer. This particular post would be about the dreaded wind buffeting.

While I was doing my pre-purchase research I did notice that almost all of the current Wee owners listed wind buffeting as one of the biggest problems. Nonsense, I thought. Some people are just too sensitive and picky. Some people just don’t know what to do with the money they saved when they opted for a Wee instead of a more expensive BMW or a KTM Adventure. Those were the admittedly judgmental things that were running through my mind as I was reading those complaints. Up until I bought my V-Strom and rode it back home. The wind buffeting was next to unbearable. When there is smoke there in fact is always fire. The wind noise was not a matter of someone’s wild imagination.

Luckily one of my fellow rider friends is a V-Strom owner. His Wee is outfitted with an aftermarket windshield bracket and an aftermarket windshield. He also happens to own a so called Suzuki factory tall windshield. It is a few inches taller than the stock one. All that called for the proper testing of different combinations of stock and aftermarket brackets and winshields. I made a bold decision to park my sport-commuter KTM and ride the V-Strom for a few weeks of testing. It is not that easy to understand why the decision to park the KTM for a few weeks did not come easy. Only people who’s ever ridden the KTM 950 Supermoto especially in a lane splitting situation can understand that. The Supermoto is in a complete different universe as far as the fun and grin factors go. Oh well. I did what I had to do. And just like that the proper testing began a few weeks ago.

So courtesy my Strom riding friend here is what I had at my disposal.

Windshields:

• Suzuki stock windshield
• Suzuki factory tall windshield
• Givi  D260ST windscreen

Windshield mounting brackets:

• Suzuki stock windshield bracket
• MadStad adjustable windshield mount

The advantage of the aftermarket mount is that it enables your windshield to be adjusted for 25 degrees of tilt angle as well as 3″ (76mm) of height. And you can do that without any special tools while you are seated on your motorcycle. Another big benefit of this bracket is that it allows the air to flow under the windshield as well as over it.

Over the course of the last few weeks I have tried all possible combinations of the 3 windshields and 2 brackets. I also tried riding without any windshield. I even tried a home made solution where two spacer had to be placed under the lower screws to make the windshield tilt more on the stock bracket.

I can probably go into specifics of each combination. However I will just skip the mundane details and jump to the very conclusion. What worked for me was either the no windshield at all option or any of the windshields with the adjustable bracket. It just does not seem like the stock bracket is good enough regardless of the windshield. I did not feel much difference with a taller Suzuki screen or the even taller Givi screen when mounted on the MadStad aftermarket bracket. Understandably that depends on a given rider’s height. I think if I was a shorter rider (I am 6′ tall) then it is not entirely impossible that a taller windscreen on a stock bracket would also work for me.

What I chose to do for myself was just to get a new aftermarket bracket. The right tilt angle would work just fine on my stock screen. I left it at that, went online and placed an order on one of my favorite websites - twistedthrottle.com. My new MadStad bracket is on the way.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 18th, 2009 at 5:30 pm and is filed under Motorcycles, Street, Riding, Gear. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.