Screen recommendations for 6'3" rider on 600TA

[stoo]

Finally got my TA in one piece and ready to go last night, and took it out for my first ride on it today... and I've got to admit, I'm pretty disappointed.

Anything above 40mph and the wind noise and turbulence vary from horrendous to unbearable, depending on where I put my head.

If I stand up on the pegs and get right out of the way of the deflected air - it's lovely and quiet, just like it is on my XR with no fairing whatsoever.


What genius decided that a bike that's revving its nuts off at 80mph needs a fairing anyway?


I'm tempted to hack the standard screen down as far as I can to see if that makes it any better, but I've got a sneaking suspicion it'll just make the bike look really daft


Anyone actually had any luck quietening down a 600TA, or is it just a case of industrial strength earplugs and a barn door screen to stop the buffeting?

Cheers,

stoo

[steveR]

Anyone actually had any luck quietening down a 600TA, or is it just a case of industrial strength earplugs and a barn door screen to stop the buffeting? :?:

Cheers,

stoo

Yes! :-)

[stoo]

Well, after a bit of research, and realising I was running out of time to get something sorted before my planned trip - I decided to try everything at once. A party pack of various flavours of earplugs, a WhisperStrip kit for my Shoei Raid (it's an extra curtain that fits around the base of the helmet to help seal out any extra wind noise),



and a powerbronze tall flip screen.



Went out for a quick blat to test it all - and it was an utter disaster.

I hated the earplugs - I found it really disorientating as all sounds seem to be so muffled.

The whisper strip kit made a significant difference to the overall noise levels, but killed a lot of the ventilation out the bottom of the helmet, and made it feel uncomfortably stuffy - and would be particularly unpleasant on a hot day.

On the bright side, at 40mph it was now bearably quiet, and there was no significant amount of turbulence to worry about.

On the down side, over 50mph and the wind noise was still too loud to tolerate, albeit significantly quieter than before.

So the whisper strip came back off, the earplugs came out, and as for the screen - off with it's head!



It's now significantly quieter, although not perfect. Standing up on the pegs slightly does drop the noise levels a fair bit, but it's certainly not too bad while sat down - especially if I'm sat as upright as I can.

It'll certainly do for now. Not sure whether I'll keep the bike after the trip, but if I do, I'll remove the fairing completely and stick on a small fork mounted headlight, similar to what's on the XR.

[scdan3]

its the helmet mate. had a shoei raid for the past 4 years and 3 bikes. my friend has one as well, they are just bloody loud.

And apparently especially so on the transalp. mine already had a flip up screen on it, and it hurt to go 80 without earplugs (this didn't worry me too much as always wear earplugs, have to with such a noisey lid). But the noise was enough that i was trying different screens, extra screens, changing the angles etc. nothing appreciably worked.

Treated myself to a new lid - shoei ?? but with the newer airvents. soooo much quieter its undescribable. now sit at 80 happily without earplugs.

so have come to the conclusion that for some reason the transalp - raid combination really doesn't work. would be interesting to test it with a db meter...

rather than change your bike, change your lid and buy a nicer one to boot!

dan

[stoo]

its the helmet mate. had a shoei raid for the past 4 years and 3 bikes. my friend has one as well, they are just bloody loud.

And apparently especially so on the transalp. mine already had a flip up screen on it, and it hurt to go 80 without earplugs (this didn't worry me too much as always wear earplugs, have to with such a noisey lid). But the noise was enough that i was trying different screens, extra screens, changing the angles etc. nothing appreciably worked.

Treated myself to a new lid - shoei ?? but with the newer airvents. soooo much quieter its undescribable. now sit at 80 happily without earplugs.

so have come to the conclusion that for some reason the transalp - raid combination really doesn't work. would be interesting to test it with a db meter...

rather than change your bike, change your lid and buy a nicer one to boot!

dan

Doesn't match my experience - have had the Raid, Raid 2, and XR1000, and also an Arai Condor.

Of the 3, the original Raid was probably the quietest - it deffo had the least "furniture" on the outer surface of the lid to cause turbulence (and hence noise).

The XR1000 was noticeably noisier than the Raid, and the daft wing thing on the back of it tended to pull the helmet back. Bearable, but no advantage over the cheaper Raid, apart from the ventilation, and the double D rings instead of the nasty setabelt clip on the Raid.

Current lid is the Raid 2, and its quieter than the XR1000. Probably not as quiet as the original Raid as it still has a bit of a sculpted wing thing on the back - but definitely better than the XR1000.

The Arai was appalling in comparison to any of the Shoeis I've had in terms of noise, but then most people tend to find Arais to be noisy.


Now here's the science bit - if I stand up on the pegs, out of the disturbed airflow caused by the aerodynamic (or not) properties of the bike's nosecone.... THE NOISE GOES AWAY!

So it's deffo the bike, not the lid.

Sorry.

[Pete Rock]

Now here's the science bit - if I stand up on the pegs, out of the disturbed airflow caused by the aerodynamic (or not) properties of the bike's nosecone.... THE NOISE GOES AWAY!

I use an XR1000 and ride a 650, but I still find the noise gone when standing up. My guess is that undisturbed air isn´t noisy, the advantage of fairings is regarding wind blast not noise, if you´re really that upset by it the final solution would be getting rid of the the fairing altogether, if you think the bike is worth the trouble, my 2 cents

[stoo]

Now here's the science bit - if I stand up on the pegs, out of the disturbed airflow caused by the aerodynamic (or not) properties of the bike's nosecone.... THE NOISE GOES AWAY!

I use an XR1000 and ride a 650, but I still find the noise gone when standing up. My guess is that undisturbed air isn´t noisy, the advantage of fairings is regarding wind blast not noise, if you´re really that upset by it the final solution would be getting rid of the the fairing altogether, if you think the bike is worth the trouble, my 2 cents

Deffo agree with that. Don't have time to make a decent job of de-fairing the bike and resiting all the instruments and power leads and whatnot in time.

Also - Didn't get rid of the XR1000 cos it was too noisy, had to abandon it after a wee accident in Corsica....



Luckily - my head wasn't in the lid at the time!

Would have replaced it with the same, but thought I'd try the Raid 2 instead cos I thought it might be a tad quieter - which it is, just not very much.

[Pete Rock]

Deffo agree with that. Don't have time to make a decent job of de-fairing the bike and resiting all the instruments and power leads and whatnot in time.

Also - Didn't get rid of the XR1000 cos it was too noisy, had to abandon it after a wee accident in Corsica....

I now wear earplugs on most of my motorway miles, and about half the time when commuting, cause once, after a 1500 miles weekend my ears rang for an afternoon because of not wearing them, it was strange at first but soon gets confortable and you soon get addicted to them.

I find the XR1000 very well made and the best feature as far as I´m concerned are the vents, very good when riding with over 25ºC weather, not to mention the over 30ºC we´re now having.

[stoo]

I find the XR1000 very well made and the best feature as far as I´m concerned are the vents, very good when riding with over 25ºC weather, not to mention the over 30ºC we´re now having.

Yeah, I liked the one I had.

The vents aren't normally issue for me, as I usually wear an MX lid when its warm and keep the full face lid for the winter, or high mileage trips.

That said - I'm gonna be riding through Spain, Italy, France and Slovenia next month, so maybe I'll regret not getting another XR1000 after all!

[Badger]

It's an interesting subject this noise / turbulence thing. I have owned Arais for the last ten years so can't comment on Shoeis, however my old X11 was very quiet to ride but then the neck strain takes over, compared to my Blackbird which was very noisey but no turbulence due to its pointy front end and raked screen, which is why I preferred the X11. I found both my ATs very turbulent at motorway speeds but never experimented with different screens. I may be lucky but at 6'2 with an Arai I don't tend to get much noise or turbulence on my Varadero and at 80 + it kind of puts you in this pocket of air, strange at first but I find it very comfortable. Different helmets help but it's the enviroment you put them in that makes them noisey.