If you’ve never purchased a windshield before and are looking for total protection, it may be tempting to buy one that stands taller than you while sitting on the bike. In other words, you look through it as you would a car windshield. This is incorrect.
Motorcycle windshields are not made of glass, and they don’t come with windshield wipers, either. Bug splatter during summer riding will quickly make looking through a motorcycle windshield practically impossible.
Rain will have a similar effect, especially on windshields that have become scratched, as the scratches fill with water and dramatically distort and reduce good vision.
If you’re looking for the tallest windshield you can safely install to offer the most protection, then that windshield should typically line up with the tip of your nose and no higher. Don’t worry, even at this height, most of the wind will be deflected up and over your helmet.
Ensuring you get the correct measurement takes two people and can be achieved in just a few minutes by following three simple steps.
All you'll need to get started is a tape measure (preferably a rigid contractor type).
Step One:
Sit on your motorcycle in a comfortable position with both feet on the ground—much as you would, say, at a red light. Mimic the posture you normally take when riding.
Step Two:
While you are sitting on the bike, ask the other person to take the tape measure and measure upwards from the centre and top of the headlight. Windshield fitment heights are always worked out this way.
The tape measure should also follow the motorcycle rake.
Motorcycle rake is the angle to which the headstock inclines in relation to a line drawn perpendicular to the ground. Rake can be best visualized by looking at the angle of the front forks and fork tubes. As they travel from the centre of the front wheel up towards the steering head, the angle they are tilted at is the rake.
The person who is doing the measuring must measure up from the headlight and as closely as possible follow the rake (try to keep the tape measure following the same degree of lean as the forks.
Step Three:
Now you can simply look at the tape measure from your comfortable seated position on the bike and read out the number (in inches preferably) on the tape measure that matches the height of the tip of your nose.
And there you have it, that number represents the maximum height windshield that you can purchase for your ride.