Featured National Cycles Deflector Screen On Street Twin. First Impressions.

Thought I'd post this because I couldn't find any reviews online specific to this shield and bike. I was tossing up between the Street Shield and the Deflector, the former is a little larger and has four mount points, 2 on the forks and two on the handlebars. I went with the smaller Deflector with two struts that mount to the handlebars.

I chose this because I have blinkers attached at the head lamp pivot bolt so I couldn't use the Dart. I was a bit worried about the struts looking a bit naff, but in the end the black chunky hardware works well with the black Street Twin aesthetic.

Fitting it was fairly time consuming looking for the correct position and angle on the bars for the quick set knobs, the angle of the screen and so forth. It's pretty straight forward but ultimately it all does go on. There aren't a lot of choices really because the brake line limits where you can put the quickset mount and still get to the mounting bolts. I did not used the supplied double sided tape and i don't see how it could be used bearing in mind the mounts need micro adjusting.

At first I wasn't quite sure about the look or whether I should have gotten the slightly larger Street Shield, but in the end I'm very pleased with this size, and while not being sure at first after a short time I have come to really like the way it looks with the struts, especially as I know I can unmount and remove the screen literally in seconds!

I mainly got it for when I need to ride at 100kph or more on a highway, or even a long day out on the bike where all day buffeting takes its toll on the neck muscles.

It seemed to be a bit bouncy at first, not because anything was loose just because it only mounts at two points, however on a smooth rd it was fine. Took it for a quick 50km first look, on a fast rd where I could try it out at 120-130kmh. My first impressions are that I am very pleased with the performance. It makes a massive difference, and it was a gusty day. I'm 169cm and it made fast riding orders of magnitude better.

I tried tucking down behind the screen just a bit, not flat on the tank just dropping my arm to get behind the screen and it was like a BMW with a full fairing. I'm glad I got the clear now, I wanted the smoke finish but it was gonna take 3 months.

I will update this with further impressions, but as an alternative to the headlamp mounting screens which are smaller, this one seems a lot better. I had a headlamp mounted one on my previous GS, the Givi 210 and this is a lot better. Also I like the way the struts are not bolted to the screen as I find they tend to rust and the rubber mounts wear out and look bad after a while, this attaches on the inside to specially moulded and fitted in parts.

The stability of the bike was unaffected, in fact it may have improved a bit but it definitely didn't make the bike feel unstable in the slightest. Immediately I found myself going faster than I normally would out of the block.

I may perhaps be a little wary of how it will wear with the stresses put on it, however this shield has been manufactured for a long long time so I'm sure that's all been sorted. Really pleased with it so far.

Bugger, the photos below are too large, but I am unable to delete them to load smaller ones so here's a bunch of thumbnails that link to smaller images.

 

Thanks for some nice comments everyone. I have tried to cover all the things that bothered me, and if truth be told if it did not have the blinkers mounted where they are I would probably have gone with a Dart screen, due to some misplaced idea that it was more minimal, but in retrospect I was worrying for no reason, especially as I have the choice to remove it if I just want to pose around town on a windless day!

OK it's been week now, surprisingly my fuel consumption has gone down from 27.5km/L to 29.6km/L my best ever result before the screen was 30km/L and that was an all day ride at a relatively steady and sedate speed. I expected this to be around 27km/L at best because I took plenty of short high speed runs so to hit almost by best ever economy was very surprising. After a few more tanks I'll be able to know if this was just some unexplained anomaly.

Here's another shot with more accurate view of how it looks from the rider's perspective in real life. The handlebars look a little crowed but we can't have everything.

@Sullivs, yeah here is a shot with my camera rather than a phone and this is a very realistic perspective. At one point I was thinking of getting the U clamps which are more permanent but as you say this black hardware does not look bad at all.



I did try putting the L shaped pieces that go into the windshield bracket the other way, but then I had to have to too close to the speedo if I wanted them embedded deeply into the holders that mount to the bars. I thought maybe touching the front of the speedo to give another anchor point might be a good idea. I did not like it and I have put them back the way I initially had them.





I am liking this more and more as I use it. Sometimes it feels like it's not making a difference because unless I tuck down behind it I still get wind noise. However I use earplugs and this is not a fully faired bmw. However there is definitely no wind pressure on my chest pushing me back and this is why I'm getting better milage. an extra 20kms on a tank at least.

I am definitely liking this handlebar mounting better than headlight mounts and being able to take the entire windshield off in literally just a few seconds, is something that leads to a lot of peace of mind, because you can easily go for a run with it off, and then on and get a real idea of what's happening. And you never have buyers' remorse, do I really like the look, is it really doing enough; you can easily confirm for yourself and you are not forced to have it on or off, because if you don't compare immediately then you can't really compare very well at all because even a slight breeze will change how it works. So you end up trying to convince yourself of what you want to believe. But this way when you have it on, just knowing you can whip it off if you want, makes it easier to live with, you don't feel like you're being dictated to. And anyway after a year, if you find yourself pretty well leaving it on, then there's always the option to get the U clamps for a cleaner look.

Further down the track I will do some side by side high speed runs, but I need to get some assistance to guard the screen when I take it off. However I had her up to about 145 genuine km/h (using gps speedo) and the screen felt rock solid, and quite comfortable tucking down behind. I'm most impressed by the neutral effect on handling.

I would say if you don't mind the look, and you also want the convenience of being able to put it on or take it off at will, then this is a unique shield that does look pretty good and fits the classic look too.