Too much Turbulence on my 88 RS windscreen

This is my first bm'r and It appears to have an aftermarket windscreen on it. This one is 10" above the dash panel if measured vertically. I'm 5'10" and I need to duck down 2" or nearly stand to find clean air. The howling is awful and unless you wear earplugs it doesnt encourage riding at all. There is a small window at the base which I assume is to reduce turbulence? Also, the PO has installed about 1.25" bar lifts but the bars are not pulled back at all. Would the original screen work better?? Thx, Love the sight and tips;)

You've discovered an issue that affects a lot of people for various reasons. Clearly there is a zone where the air is hitting your helmet and causing the noise. Likely the lack of smoothness on your helmet also contributes to the noise.

I don't ride an RS, but you might need to look into a laminar lip replacement screen...I believe it directs the air slighly higher. I also seem to recall that even a slight bit of edging along the screen will break up the air somewhat. You might experiment with some simply clear tygon tubing split lengthwise and then slipped over the edge. Don't do anything permanent like gluing, but see if something might help the situation. Note that the original RS screen had an edge strip already built in.

To answer your question, yes, the original screen would likely work better since it's a little shorter and shaped differently. The wind would hit you at a different spot.

In my opinion, for your bike, you'll either want to go shorter to lower the wind blast below your helmet and face, or taller, so that it goes over you, since it seems the current shield is creating undesirable turbulence.

I've replaced my shields on my RS fairings from Parabellum, so there are options out there for aftermarket shields for the old RS's.

regardless of what you decide to do with a windshield, earplugs are a good idea. as hearing damage is permanent & unrecoverable.

I bought a windshield from Motobinns Seducum 4" over stock height.

Works well for me + earplugs!

Had an '84 RS, wasn't crazy about the fairing. Created a beautiful pocket with downforce at speed. Personally it wasn't for me. Riding in a pocket that is. Always wear ear plugs after going temporarily deaf many years back, without plugs, thinking a new Arai was the ticket, and a long all day ride into a headwind. IMO earplugs are part of ATGATT. Give the stock shield a try, it may surprise.

I bought my '93 RS from my brother several years ago. It was my first motorcycle with a fairing. On the ride home I had buyer's remorse -- the noise was deafening. I had never experienced anything like it on any of the standard (no fairing) bikes I'd owned. He had always told me how smooth and quiet the bike was -- "like a Cadillac." When I called him to complain he said, "You're wearing ear plugs, right?" Well, no, I wasn't. He had always worn ear plugs on all of his bikes and tried to talk me into them over the years. I'd tried them, but the weirdness of having something stuck in my ears far outweighed any noise reduction that I experienced. Not on the RS -- it is essential to wear ear plugs to enjoy the bike.

And about aftermarket windscreens -- I'm sorry, but in my opinion they ruin the looks of the RS and probably (no first-hand experience) don't cut the noise as well as ear plugs.

So in my obviously biased opinion, use the stock windshield for beauty and use ear plugs for noise reduction -- or trade for an RT.

[FONT=Comic Sans MS]I ended up cutting my stock RT fairing down by about 9 inches.
Got rid of the buffeting, but I still wear the plugs.[/FONT]

[FONT=Comic Sans MS]Meaning 'Windscreen'...not the actual fairing... Lesson: Read post before I hit 'submit';)[/FONT]

It's called the "On No" second...one second after submitting, you yell out "On No"!

Lesson 2: You can go back and edit your post after the fact. ;) ;)

Something i have had good success with;
is to take a section of clear tubing ( vacuum or fuel type) lay it out and carefully on your work table slice it long ways then trim the ends on an angle .
Slip the cut part over the top edge of your windscreen , the shape and tension of the tubing will hold it on at speed.

It helps direct the wind blast just enough sometimes that a replacement screen can be avoided at a much lower cost.

That looks like a Parabelum (sp?) wind screen,they come in different heights.Might want to try a taller one.

I always found it was more pleasant when my head was in clean air, that is air that is not being buffeted by a too tall a fairing. I used to sit up a bit straighter to find that clean air over my stock windshield until I added K75s bars that put me up higher. Much more enjoyable experience on both my 88 RS and 78 Motorsport.

Wayne.

Wow, Thanks for all the input. I kinda feel like I'm in a video game or somthing w/ the foam ear plugs I wear when I'm riding this bike. They make me feel pretty disconnected w/ traffic ( horns and sirens), I guess you could get used to it? I kinda like the last post about the stock windscreen and the K75 bars.. I suffer from "plumbers" back, too many stumpy basements and heavy boilers over the years, a bit of a lift on the bars may be nice??

[QUOTE]That looks like a Parabelum (sp?) wind screen,they come in different heights.Might want to try a taller one. [/QUOTE]

Easy enough to "test" using some corrugated card board duck-taped onto your wind shield. It doesn't have to be water proof or pretty, it just needs to be secure long enough to determine if / how the buffeting is affected.

Testing "shorter".... might be a bit more problematic.