Vented Windshield

[Utah Geezer]

Anyone have an experience with the vented windshield. I ride in pretty hot country and sometimes wish I had a little more breeze on me, hot as it may be, better a hot breeze than no breeze at all. When you shut the vent down does it eliminate all the air.

[cuznjohn]

i have had one on both my rt's and i love it

[SpyderAnn01]

I had one on my 2013 and I honestly didn't think it was worth the price. The windshield on the 2014 has a vent, unlike the older models, it just isn't adjustable. I found that a better option for moving air around are the BRP adjustable wind deflectors. They are also quite a bit cheaper than the vented windshield.

[jaherbst]

I have one on the 2014 RT-L. Don't waste your money IMHO. They are smaller than the stock windshield both narrow and height. You will get more wind on your shoulders and more buffeting on your helmet.

Jack

[larryd]

I have the F4, stock height, +5" width with the vent and love it...and yes, when you close the vent the air & the rain stop coming in...

[doctorlbug]

I have the F4, stock height, +5" width with the vent and love it...and yes, when you close the vent the air & the rain stop coming in...
Has anyone used a Mastad windshield, or know anything about them?
http://www.madstad.com/

[trikermutha]

The vents help but if you want more wind use the side deflectors with the windshield vent.. I like the option if I want more or less wind on me..:thumbup:

[mrfats]

Another option is the Baker Airwings, a Spyderlovers sponsor. Had mine for three years and really like them. Turn them in or out depending on the weather....

[Bob Denman]

I had one on my 2013 and I honestly didn't think it was worth the price. The windshield on the 2014 has a vent, unlike the older models, it just isn't adjustable. I found that a better option for moving air around are the BRP adjustable wind deflectors. They are also quite a bit cheaper than the vented windshield.

:agree: ...Just about 127% :thumbup:

[MRH]

I have the vented windshield and the BRP air deflectors. For me, the windshield has made a huge difference cooling me on hotter days, and the deflectors make only a very small difference.

[STELLING MAN]

Next spring I am going to get a F4 for my RT, I'll probably get an oversized one with the vent..:thumbup:

[Cruzr Joe]

I had one on my 2013 and I honestly didn't think it was worth the price. The windshield on the 2014 has a vent, unlike the older models, it just isn't adjustable. I found that a better option for moving air around are the BRP adjustable wind deflectors. They are also quite a bit cheaper than the vented windshield.



:agree:, and i have been told that i am not an agreeable person :yikes:

Cruzr Joe

[PW2013STL]

I have the F4 short wide screen with vent and the vent works as it allows a breeze to the face area with out buffeting. Highly recommend!

[Bob Denman]

:agree:, and i have been told that i am not an agreeable person :yikes:

:shocked: You aren't... :shocked:


:roflblack::joke:

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

Anyone have an experience with the vented windshield. I ride in pretty hot country and sometimes wish I had a little more breeze on me, hot as it may be, better a hot breeze than no breeze at all. When you shut the vent down does it eliminate all the air.
Someone here mentioned they installed the vent from a Goldwing windshield into their Spyder windshield. IIRC, they said it wasn't difficult and worked good.

[finless]

The vented windshield was a great add for my 2011 RTS. It helps a lot with the back pressure behind the windshield and buffeting. You don't really get any more air on you though!

The 2014's have holes built in so I would have to say the vented windshield would add nothing worth the price.

Bob

[Bob Denman]

Hi Bob,
The two little vent openings on the lower corners of the windshields probably do more to reduce buffeting, than provide useful airflow to the rider...
I'm not sure about the big center vent that is available; does that actually increase airflow right up the middle? :dontknow:
I know that you said that the effect on airflow was minimal; HOW minimal? :shocked:

[finless]

Hi Bob,
The two little vent openings on the lower corners of the windshields probably do more to reduce buffeting, than provide useful airflow to the rider...
I'm not sure about the big center vent that is available; does that actually increase airflow right up the middle? :dontknow:
I know that you said that the effect on airflow was minimal; HOW minimal? :shocked:

It's nothing really! I notice no extra air on me with it open or closed!

Shawn Smoak also talks about it in one of his riding videos.

Bob

[Bob Denman]

We need somebody to perform an experiment... :thumbup:
Tape down about a dozen pieces of yarn (Maybe 6" long" to the top of the "Dashboard"
Then; ride around a bit, and note the difference in what they're doing as the vent is opened, or closed. :clap:

How about it , Guys? :D

[F4 Customs]

Hey folks Don Frank from F4 Customs here. Just thought I might comment on what riders tell us.
We put the GL1800 vent in our windshields and yes they fit just fine for the poster that asked this question.
Most of what we sell are vented shields. Why because the GL1800 vent leaves a lot of air in and does cut down on the back pressure that you get.
I profess that the best air management on the Spyder you can get is using our vented windshield with the Baker Air Wings. With our wider sheild in any size it takes the air off of the shoulders and the vent and air wings give you the air or take it away when you don't.
Maybe some other folks with the Wide F4 windshield and air wings will give some input here.
Thanks for letting me comment.
Don

[jonnizingo]

Has anyone used a Mastad windshield, or know anything about them?
http://www.madstad.com/

Madstad makes a great product. I had their windshield on my previous Road Glide. Once you got it dialed in, almost all buffeting (big issue on Roadglides) is gone. They aren't cheap, but believe they also do money back guarantee. As to using on a Spyder, on my RT, with adjustable wind shield, first thought I had was, I've got an adjustable Madstad so no need to make any changes. I'm happy with stock 2014 RT Limited shield, most likely because of what I rode previously.

[SpyderRT]

Hey folks Don Frank from F4 Customs here. Just thought I might comment on what riders tell us.
We put the GL1800 vent in our windshields and yes they fit just fine for the poster that asked this question.
Most of what we sell are vented shields. Why because the GL1800 vent leaves a lot of air in and does cut down on the back pressure that you get.
I profess that the best air management on the Spyder you can get is using our vented windshield with the Baker Air Wings. With our wider sheild in any size it takes the air off of the shoulders and the vent and air wings give you the air or take it away when you don't.
Maybe some other folks with the Wide F4 windshield and air wings will give some input here.
Thanks for letting me comment.
Don

Is the GL1800 vent better than the BRP vent in theirs as far as amount of air that comes through the vents?
Have you ever considered using the BRP vent?

[Dragonrider]

I have both the vented and non-vented windshields. I prefer the non-vented, as it is wider and taller (even tho the vented one is supposed to be the TALL touring version). Having said that, the vent does provide air to the upper chest and face, however, if you wear a full face helmet, don't waste your money.

Since I wear a half helmet, I swap windshields summer (vented), winter (not)...

[DJFaninTN]

Hey folks Don Frank from F4 Customs here. Just thought I might comment on what riders tell us.
We put the GL1800 vent in our windshields and yes they fit just fine for the poster that asked this question.
Most of what we sell are vented shields. Why because the GL1800 vent leaves a lot of air in and does cut down on the back pressure that you get.
I profess that the best air management on the Spyder you can get is using our vented windshield with the Baker Air Wings. With our wider sheild in any size it takes the air off of the shoulders and the vent and air wings give you the air or take it away when you don't.
Maybe some other folks with the Wide F4 windshield and air wings will give some input here.
Thanks for letting me comment.
Don



This is the same set up that I run. It's not that much more on the F4 and well worth the investment. I also highly, highly, highly suggest getting the Baker Wings. They make a huge difference.

[KX5062]

Has anyone used a Mastad windshield, or know anything about them?
http://www.madstad.com/


Madstad makes a great product. I had their windshield on my previous Road Glide. Once you got it dialed in, almost all buffeting (big issue on Roadglides) is gone. They aren't cheap, but believe they also do money back guarantee. As to using on a Spyder, on my RT, with adjustable wind shield, first thought I had was, I've got an adjustable Madstad so no need to make any changes. I'm happy with stock 2014 RT Limited shield, most likely because of what I rode previously.


Since we are talking about the RT, the Madstad is not available for this model. It is for the RS/GS only. I had one on my RS and liked it. I thought it was a good product once dialed in correctly. However, it take some doing to accomplish that. It was not a bolt and go affair. I've also own some Madstad products for other bikes and will say that it is a nice product for some bikes, but not so much for others.

[F4 Customs]

Hey folks Don Frank from F4 Customs here. We use the GL1800 vent for several reasons. First it is the right size and looks good. Also for the years we have been installing this vent we have had very few issues with them. We use the Tinted as they do not fade in the sun over time. Again most of what we sell are vented shields.
As many of you have heard and seen the best air management on the Spyder you can get is using our vented windshield with the Baker Air Wings. With our wider shield in any size it takes the air off of the shoulders and the vent and air wings give you the air or take it away when you don't.

One more comment. For this board, if you call us and mention you are a board member I will give you 10% off and free shipping on the F4 windshields and Baker Air wings until Christmas in the lower 48. So tell your better half its time for an early Christmas present.
Don

[Motorcycledave]

Order in "if you don't already have them" Baker Air Wings... worth the money...
you can direct the air onto you or away easily.
Dave



Anyone have an experience with the vented windshield. I ride in pretty hot country and sometimes wish I had a little more breeze on me, hot as it may be, better a hot breeze than no breeze at all. When you shut the vent down does it eliminate all the air.

[Barbwire]

I have a 2010 RT and I had the F4 windshield which I love. I changed it last June to the F4 with a vent and it is awesome. I can stop all of the air but rarely do.

[cohoff]

I've heard great things about the CalSci windshields. Here's a c&p of their description on their windshield and the science behind it.


Windshields Plastics
Windshields for motorcycles are made from either polycarbonate (Lexan) or acrylic (Plexiglas). Each type of plastic has advantages and disadvantages.
Polycarbonate is an extremely strong plastic. Polycarbonate is about as transparent as glass. Polycarbonate cuts and forms easily at both room temperature and at higher temperatures. For machining purposes, you can work with polycarbonate pretty much the same as you would aluminum. Polycarbonate has a major drawback for windshield use: polycarbonate picks up water from the air. The water eventually makes the polycarbonate cloudy. This water will form bubbles if you heat the polycarbonate to forming temperatures. So, before you can form polycarbonate, first you have to place it in a drying oven at about 200° for about 12 hours. Because of this, only companies that manufacture polycarbonate make windshields. Polycarbonate is sensitive to ammonia, so glass cleaners like Windex should not be used on polycarbonate. Polycarbonate windshields need a coating to protect them from chemicals and prevent them from absorbing water from the air. This optical coating is difficult to apply uniformly, resulting in optical distortion. It also scratches and cannot be repaired with plastic polish. By far the most popular polycarbonate for motorcycle windshields is GE Lexan Margard MR10 (http://www.geplastics.com/gep/en/NewsRoom/PressReleaseDetail/october_27_2005_gesnewlexan.html), aka "quantum coated." GE polymers was recently bought by a Saudi Arabian firm, Sabic - see GEPlastics.com (http://www.geplastics.com). We don't buy products from countries that fund terrorism.
Acrylic is only about 3% as impact resistant as polycarbonate. Normal acrylic shatters upon impact, and therefore is considered an unsafe material for windshields. Acrylic is very chemically resistant, and is more transparent than glass - glass absorbs about half again as much light as acrylic does. Acrylic forms easily at high temperatures, about 300°. However, machining acrylic at room temperature is difficult. It's not very easy to cut acrylic with a saw or drill holes in acrylic without shattering or weakening the material.
Polycarbonate is a DOT approved material for making windshields; normal acrylic is not. Some states require DOT approved windshields, and therefore in these states a normal acrylic windshield is actually illegal, however these laws are rarely enforced. Normal acrylic can be shattered by an impact from a rock moving at speeds as low as 15mph.
We use a special high cost acrylic called Impact Modified Acrylic. This form of acrylic is DOT approved for windshields. We use only DOT certified impact resistant plastics to make Calsci windshields. Our windshields will not shatter if hit by a rock. We test our windshields by shooting them with a .22 caliber rifle and verifying that the windshield maintains its basic integrity without shedding small pieces that could impact your face or eyes. No windshield can protect you against everything, but we do our best to make certain that our windshields protect you against the small rocks frequently thrown up by other vehicle's tires.
Optics
Even though Calsci windshields are designed so that you look over them, not through them, we use only optically correct shapes that will not distort your vision if you do look through the shield. If you look through one of our shields at a dividing line on the highway, you'll see essentially no bending of the straight line. You'll never get a headache from looking through one of our shields.
Design Goals
There's a very understandable desire for a very small attractive shield that will throw the air completely over your head. Can't be done. Laws of physics. Some people put little adjustable wings on their shields promising this; the wings can make a shield act 3cm-5cm taller than it is, but that's about it, and then the top of the shield has three parallel edges instead of just one in your visual field.
Stock shields are designed to look sexy on the showroom floor and sell bikes. Really, in almost all cases, the manufacturers are completely uninterested in the aerodynamic performance, they're interested in the marketing / sales performance. And their experience in wind tunnels is mostly on things like the CBR, so they're thinking punch a small hole in the air at 280kph, they're not thinking produce a calm quiet ride at 120kph.
I'm all about long distance touring comfort, riding 6 to 10 hours per day then being able to do it again tomorrow. I understand this means many think my shields look like barn doors, and I have essentially no customers under the age of about 34. On the other hand, guys over about 45 are completely uninterested in the small sexy shields: we mostly feel like we've already taken our life quota of abuse, and we certainly don't need to take more from our chosen hobby. If you're under 30, I'll talk to you in about 10-15 years. You'll feel very differently then.
Aerodynamics
Why don't we use wind tunnels? Wind tunnels are made to measure lift and drag, not noise and turbulence. You put a model on a pedestal attached to strain gauges and start up the wind. Lift is the pull upwards on the pedestal; drag is the push backwards. This is what wind tunnels have measured since they were invented by the Wright brothers. CBRs go into wind tunnels because at 180mph aerodynamic drag is everything. Those fancy looking smoke trails you see in many car ads? The wind tunnel is operating at about 1-2 mph. Any faster and the smoke pulls apart and you can't see a thing.
Nearly all of our windshields (http://www.calsci.com) have vents. These vents are part of the aerodynamic design of the shield, to reduce turbulence and noise. They are not there to make a flow of air on the rider. When you're riding on the highway, any windshield is pushing air away from the rider. This leaves a low-pressure pocket between the windshield and the rider. Some riders feel this low-pressure area as a push on their shoulders, "back pressure." The air flowing past the windshield wants to drop into this low pressure area. If the outside air is allowed to spill into the area between the windshield and the rider, the result is turbulence, noise, and drafts. When outside air spills into the rider area, it almost always falls in a curved path, causing spinning vortices of air. These vortices are noisy and can cause the battering and hammering on your helmet reported by some riders. Our windshields and vents are designed to funnel air into the rider region to relieve this low pressure area and greatly reduce the tendency of outside air to spill in. The vents are designed so that the air coming through them is quickly dispersed, leaving almost no detectable air flow at the rider. Our goal is to produce almost completely still air on the rider with no back pressure.
Why don't we put louvers on our vents? Air sticks to any surface; immediately at the surface the air is not moving. As you move away from the surface the air speed picks up with distance. The curve of airspeed vs. distance from the surface is called a Poisson curve. As you go to higher and higher speeds the Poisson curves from adjacent surfaces on the louvers move outwards until they touch. When they touch, that's the maximum air flow speed for that gap. Typical 1/2" louvers will choke off air flow to a maximum speed around 40 mph or so; above that speed you need more and more air flow to compensate for the growing vacuum behind the windshield, but the louvers have maxed out. So the louvered vent becomes less and less effective as your speed increases to 80 mph or beyond, and the windshield becomes more noisy and has more turbulence as you pick up speed.
I get a lot of emails, "Can you make me a windshield with a reverse flip to kick the air up over my head?" Yes, I can, but I won't. Air is a spring - there are shock absorbers made with only air as the spring. When you kick a spring, it kicks back. Putting energy into the air like this is exactly the opposite of what we're all about. Windshields with reverse flips and non-fair shapes generate semi-periodic chaotic swirls of turbulent air, called Von Karman vortices, after Theodore Von Karman. These vortices, or pockets of turbulence, grow as they move away from your windshield. If you feel your head being rocked or even slammed side to side or front to back as you ride, this is Von Karman vortices at work. Some manufacturers, to my own astonishment, actually claim to produce these vortices on purpose, apparently with the idea that some turbulence is "good" and will somehow perhaps cancel out the "bad turbulence." We work very hard with the design of the shape of our windshields and the location and size of the vents to eliminate all Von Karman vortices.
http://www.calsci.com/motorcycleinfo/Images/von-karman.jpg
Von Karman Vortices - the source of countless headaches. Theodore Von Karman emigrated from his native Hungary to the US in 1930 to become the director of the aerodynamics laboratory at Caltech. Mark learned his aerodynamics in Von Karman labs at Caltech. Calsci windshields are designed using aerodynamic engineering principles that guarantee our shields do not generate turbulence. These are the same shapes that minimize drag and maximize fuel mileage.
The shapes of our shields are all solutions to Laplace's equation, ∇²φ = 0, which guarantees a fair shape, that is a continuous second derivative. Laplace's equation governs much of the world around us; solutions include aerodynamics, space-time near a black hole; and the electron orbitals of atoms. Notice the hydrogen orbitals below - these are some of the solutions to Laplace's equation Most of the orbitals look like spheres, doughnuts, or rain drops - the basic aerodynamic shapes.
http://www.calsci.com/motorcycleinfo/Images/HydrogenOrbitals.gif
Hydrogen Orbitals. Design Process
All our shields are laid out on a computer and cut with an industrial cutting laser. Our shields are symmetric to within a thousandth of an inch (.025mm). All mounting holes are also drilled with the laser, guarantying an excellent fit to your bike. This precision is necessary to be certain your riding experience will be precisely the same as all our other customers, and precisely what we engineered for your bike.
Our windshields (http://www.calsci.com) are designed by Mark Lawrence and Carl Porter. Carl has a Bachelor's degree and a Master's degree in engineering from Ohio State University. Mark has a Bachelor's degree in engineering from the California Institute of Technology, and is currently working on a PhD in physics at the University of Southern California. Carl and Mark don't agree very well about college football teams. Mark has a bit more than 550,000 miles of motorcycle experience. It takes about 6 weeks, eight to twelve prototypes, and typically several thousand miles to finalize a windshield design. Our windshields are not just a stock windshield made a bit wider and taller. We build and modify our prototypes until the resulting windshield is quiet, comfortable, and attractive.

[Andy Cserny]

I've heard great things about the CalSci windshields. Here's a c&p of their description on their windshield and the science behind it.


Windshields Plastics
Windshields for motorcycles are made from either polycarbonate (Lexan) or acrylic (Plexiglas). Each type of plastic has advantages and disadvantages.
Polycarbonate is an extremely strong plastic. Polycarbonate is about as transparent as glass. Polycarbonate cuts and forms easily at both room temperature and at higher temperatures. For machining purposes, you can work with polycarbonate pretty much the same as you would aluminum. Polycarbonate has a major drawback for windshield use: polycarbonate picks up water from the air. The water eventually makes the polycarbonate cloudy. This water will form bubbles if you heat the polycarbonate to forming temperatures. So, before you can form polycarbonate, first you have to place it in a drying oven at about 200° for about 12 hours. Because of this, only companies that manufacture polycarbonate make windshields. Polycarbonate is sensitive to ammonia, so glass cleaners like Windex should not be used on polycarbonate. Polycarbonate windshields need a coating to protect them from chemicals and prevent them from absorbing water from the air. This optical coating is difficult to apply uniformly, resulting in optical distortion. It also scratches and cannot be repaired with plastic polish. By far the most popular polycarbonate for motorcycle windshields is GE Lexan Margard MR10 (http://www.geplastics.com/gep/en/NewsRoom/PressReleaseDetail/october_27_2005_gesnewlexan.html), aka "quantum coated." GE polymers was recently bought by a Saudi Arabian firm, Sabic - see GEPlastics.com (http://www.geplastics.com). We don't buy products from countries that fund terrorism.
Acrylic is only about 3% as impact resistant as polycarbonate. Normal acrylic shatters upon impact, and therefore is considered an unsafe material for windshields. Acrylic is very chemically resistant, and is more transparent than glass - glass absorbs about half again as much light as acrylic does. Acrylic forms easily at high temperatures, about 300°. However, machining acrylic at room temperature is difficult. It's not very easy to cut acrylic with a saw or drill holes in acrylic without shattering or weakening the material.
Polycarbonate is a DOT approved material for making windshields; normal acrylic is not. Some states require DOT approved windshields, and therefore in these states a normal acrylic windshield is actually illegal, however these laws are rarely enforced. Normal acrylic can be shattered by an impact from a rock moving at speeds as low as 15mph.
We use a special high cost acrylic called Impact Modified Acrylic. This form of acrylic is DOT approved for windshields. We use only DOT certified impact resistant plastics to make Calsci windshields. Our windshields will not shatter if hit by a rock. We test our windshields by shooting them with a .22 caliber rifle and verifying that the windshield maintains its basic integrity without shedding small pieces that could impact your face or eyes. No windshield can protect you against everything, but we do our best to make certain that our windshields protect you against the small rocks frequently thrown up by other vehicle's tires.
Optics
Even though Calsci windshields are designed so that you look over them, not through them, we use only optically correct shapes that will not distort your vision if you do look through the shield. If you look through one of our shields at a dividing line on the highway, you'll see essentially no bending of the straight line. You'll never get a headache from looking through one of our shields.
Design Goals
There's a very understandable desire for a very small attractive shield that will throw the air completely over your head. Can't be done. Laws of physics. Some people put little adjustable wings on their shields promising this; the wings can make a shield act 3cm-5cm taller than it is, but that's about it, and then the top of the shield has three parallel edges instead of just one in your visual field.
Stock shields are designed to look sexy on the showroom floor and sell bikes. Really, in almost all cases, the manufacturers are completely uninterested in the aerodynamic performance, they're interested in the marketing / sales performance. And their experience in wind tunnels is mostly on things like the CBR, so they're thinking punch a small hole in the air at 280kph, they're not thinking produce a calm quiet ride at 120kph.
I'm all about long distance touring comfort, riding 6 to 10 hours per day then being able to do it again tomorrow. I understand this means many think my shields look like barn doors, and I have essentially no customers under the age of about 34. On the other hand, guys over about 45 are completely uninterested in the small sexy shields: we mostly feel like we've already taken our life quota of abuse, and we certainly don't need to take more from our chosen hobby. If you're under 30, I'll talk to you in about 10-15 years. You'll feel very differently then.
Aerodynamics
Why don't we use wind tunnels? Wind tunnels are made to measure lift and drag, not noise and turbulence. You put a model on a pedestal attached to strain gauges and start up the wind. Lift is the pull upwards on the pedestal; drag is the push backwards. This is what wind tunnels have measured since they were invented by the Wright brothers. CBRs go into wind tunnels because at 180mph aerodynamic drag is everything. Those fancy looking smoke trails you see in many car ads? The wind tunnel is operating at about 1-2 mph. Any faster and the smoke pulls apart and you can't see a thing.
Nearly all of our windshields (http://www.calsci.com) have vents. These vents are part of the aerodynamic design of the shield, to reduce turbulence and noise. They are not there to make a flow of air on the rider. When you're riding on the highway, any windshield is pushing air away from the rider. This leaves a low-pressure pocket between the windshield and the rider. Some riders feel this low-pressure area as a push on their shoulders, "back pressure." The air flowing past the windshield wants to drop into this low pressure area. If the outside air is allowed to spill into the area between the windshield and the rider, the result is turbulence, noise, and drafts. When outside air spills into the rider area, it almost always falls in a curved path, causing spinning vortices of air. These vortices are noisy and can cause the battering and hammering on your helmet reported by some riders. Our windshields and vents are designed to funnel air into the rider region to relieve this low pressure area and greatly reduce the tendency of outside air to spill in. The vents are designed so that the air coming through them is quickly dispersed, leaving almost no detectable air flow at the rider. Our goal is to produce almost completely still air on the rider with no back pressure.
Why don't we put louvers on our vents? Air sticks to any surface; immediately at the surface the air is not moving. As you move away from the surface the air speed picks up with distance. The curve of airspeed vs. distance from the surface is called a Poisson curve. As you go to higher and higher speeds the Poisson curves from adjacent surfaces on the louvers move outwards until they touch. When they touch, that's the maximum air flow speed for that gap. Typical 1/2" louvers will choke off air flow to a maximum speed around 40 mph or so; above that speed you need more and more air flow to compensate for the growing vacuum behind the windshield, but the louvers have maxed out. So the louvered vent becomes less and less effective as your speed increases to 80 mph or beyond, and the windshield becomes more noisy and has more turbulence as you pick up speed.
I get a lot of emails, "Can you make me a windshield with a reverse flip to kick the air up over my head?" Yes, I can, but I won't. Air is a spring - there are shock absorbers made with only air as the spring. When you kick a spring, it kicks back. Putting energy into the air like this is exactly the opposite of what we're all about. Windshields with reverse flips and non-fair shapes generate semi-periodic chaotic swirls of turbulent air, called Von Karman vortices, after Theodore Von Karman. These vortices, or pockets of turbulence, grow as they move away from your windshield. If you feel your head being rocked or even slammed side to side or front to back as you ride, this is Von Karman vortices at work. Some manufacturers, to my own astonishment, actually claim to produce these vortices on purpose, apparently with the idea that some turbulence is "good" and will somehow perhaps cancel out the "bad turbulence." We work very hard with the design of the shape of our windshields and the location and size of the vents to eliminate all Von Karman vortices.
http://www.calsci.com/motorcycleinfo/Images/von-karman.jpg
Von Karman Vortices - the source of countless headaches. Theodore Von Karman emigrated from his native Hungary to the US in 1930 to become the director of the aerodynamics laboratory at Caltech. Mark learned his aerodynamics in Von Karman labs at Caltech. Calsci windshields are designed using aerodynamic engineering principles that guarantee our shields do not generate turbulence. These are the same shapes that minimize drag and maximize fuel mileage.
The shapes of our shields are all solutions to Laplace's equation, ∇²φ = 0, which guarantees a fair shape, that is a continuous second derivative. Laplace's equation governs much of the world around us; solutions include aerodynamics, space-time near a black hole; and the electron orbitals of atoms. Notice the hydrogen orbitals below - these are some of the solutions to Laplace's equation Most of the orbitals look like spheres, doughnuts, or rain drops - the basic aerodynamic shapes.
http://www.calsci.com/motorcycleinfo/Images/HydrogenOrbitals.gif
Hydrogen Orbitals. Design Process
All our shields are laid out on a computer and cut with an industrial cutting laser. Our shields are symmetric to within a thousandth of an inch (.025mm). All mounting holes are also drilled with the laser, guarantying an excellent fit to your bike. This precision is necessary to be certain your riding experience will be precisely the same as all our other customers, and precisely what we engineered for your bike.
Our windshields (http://www.calsci.com) are designed by Mark Lawrence and Carl Porter. Carl has a Bachelor's degree and a Master's degree in engineering from Ohio State University. Mark has a Bachelor's degree in engineering from the California Institute of Technology, and is currently working on a PhD in physics at the University of Southern California. Carl and Mark don't agree very well about college football teams. Mark has a bit more than 550,000 miles of motorcycle experience. It takes about 6 weeks, eight to twelve prototypes, and typically several thousand miles to finalize a windshield design. Our windshields are not just a stock windshield made a bit wider and taller. We build and modify our prototypes until the resulting windshield is quiet, comfortable, and attractive.

Very impressive presentation of basic engineering data. I have never used these windshields, however I have ridden several 100K miles using various windshields on my Gold Wings and have found that the 'Baker air wings do a great job of directing air onto the rider/passenger or deflecting unwanted wind [rain, cold air], I have used windshields with and without the central vents found on the standard Gold Wing windshield and these type of vents are used on the Tulsa and F4 windsields and they all work the same way and do very effective job of directing air onto the riders face or chest and keeping this same airflow off the rider when closed. I have an F4 windshield with a central vent left over from my Gold Wing and as time permits I will see if it will fit , with the necessary modifications, my 20 14 RT. I now have a Tulsa tall on the Gold Wing and it gives a very good bubble of protection especially in the rain. The downside is that one cant lean forward while getting on and off the bike becasue the windshield protrudes way far toward the rear of the bike and unlike the F4 it cant be used with RainX.

I now have the stock windshield on my new RT and have noticed the following: a lot of wind pressing on my back and back of my arms, a lot of undesirable wind on me in general when its cold, when the temp gets up and I want air on my face lowering the windshield is essentially not effective and I miss the adjustable/closeable vent in the center of the windshield. I have already installed all the Baker wings that can be put on an RT and they work great in cold weather and it remains to be seen how much air they can funnel on me during hot weather [ lie they did on the GWing.
It may be mid January or later before I can experiment with the F4 windshield and will report on that.
Has anyone had experience with the Calsci windshield? I would be greatly interested.
Andy