I'll second the riding position and the size of the rider. It makes a huge difference.

Post some photos of the bike and with you on the bike in your riding position.

 

I had a 2011 FB and fought the same problems. I ended up with a Memphis Shades bullet faring with a little add-on recurve booster wing. I also had some cheap plastic fork deflectors I got on JP cycles.

That combination finally worked for me. Before the faring I had a stock windshield cut down to 13 inches with a booster wing. That worked ok but the faring was better.

There's something about the FB that causes a lot of turbulence for the rider. My '18 Heritage with a 16 inch Long Ride shield and JES fork deflectors is better than I could ever get with the FB and I tried several different combinations.

 

Thanks for the replies.

XRAN, I will look into something like the wind deflectors you suggested. My fairing is not a Memphis Shades, but I know a product called Freedom Wings is supposed to fit it. I had thought about those, but had a guy tell me they didn't help with buffeting. Now with your second opinion I will look at them again.

I am 5"9" and wear an Arai Defiant full face helmet and have a Mustang wide touring seat with the rider backrest. Doesn't matter if I have the girlfriend on the back or not, the buffeting doesn't seem affected by having a passenger. I will see if I can get any pictures, but that may be tough right now. That's a difficult selfie.

I haven't named the fairing brand simply because I don't want to imply in any way that I think the fairing itself is the problem. It is a well know and respected brand and is well made. The mounting is tight and pretty close to the headlight. I will get some pictures of that as well as soon as I get a chance. If anything, I would think air coming in around the headlight might help the problem, similar to the way the new fairings have the vent to allow air to enter the vacuum area behind the windshield, but that is just my gut instinct. I did stuff a towel in around the headlight from the back side to block all that air entry and it didn't make any noticeable difference.

Buster217, I fear I may end up at the same conclusion you came to about the FB just having a lot of turbulence. I am sure this can be solved with enough time, effort and some money, but I am nearing the point where I may not pursue it too much further. I am not done yet. I do like the look of the bike the way it is now. This is frustrating for sure though.

If I do pull the plug on this Fat Bagger experiment, I will have a nice fairing and an excuse to buy a Road King

 

Gas Smasher

While your riding it find out where the majority of wind is coming from, I just used my hand as I was riding by moving it over the gas tank - left and right and forward and back. This will give you an idea where the low pressure spots are and where the wind is coming up behind the fairing.

I did this with both the fatboy and the road glide I owned. On both bikes the majority of the wind causing the buffeting came up from under the fairings. So using deflectors that blocked more of it from below helped . But also by knowing where it is worse you can see if sitting lower or more forward or back will help. Sometimes your riding position is right in the path of the worst so by moving back and inch or two or lower it will take your head out of the worst area.

On both of my bikes I ran a C&C seat that moved me back and down 1-1.5" and bars that allowed me to ride in a slightly more upright position. Moving my head out of a specific area made the most difference. Also I grew up riding motocross bikes and always tend to hug the gas tank with my knees vs the relaxed riding position I see a lot of riders using, by bringing my knees up close to the gas tank also helped me by allowing my knees to also block some of the wind coming up from under the fairing.

 

Thanks XARAN. I have been playing around with moving my head around and blocking wind with my hand. I agree that the wind causing the problem is coming mostly from below. Hugging the tank with my knees does lessen the buffeting, but not enough to matter and I am sure I can't ride that way for hours. It just isn't a comfortable position for me. Same with head position. If I move my head down and forward I get into calm air, but I can't ride that way very long. Makes me think a taller windshield is worth a shot, but I hate looking through them, I like to look over the top, so that is probably not a real answer for me either. Plus I would rather not buy another windshield, although I probably will just to find out. Removing the windshield completely works, but there is more air pressure on me than I want. Kinda defeats the purpose of the fairing, but that is the reason I an still pursuing the lower windshield approach at least for now.

I suspect fairing lowers would help too. I have 3 crash bars and 2 sets of lowers in my spare parts stash. No combination of parts I have works together, but I may go down that road too. I also wonder if the front fender plays a role in this. I may try to round up a front fender off a touring bike or a Heritage and see if I can at least try it with a few combinations of other stuff.

 

Here is a follow up on the buffeting problems and some things that have helped enough to take it on some longer rides.

I mentioned earlier all the details of what I have tried, so read the earlier posts if you missed all that.

I took the 6" windshield and cut an inch off the top. With this and mounting it an inch lower in the second set of holes I drilled and with the fangs installed it was rideable but not really very good and not what I was after. Also, the wind noise was pretty bad in this configuration.

I bought another re-cure type windshield off an brand x seller on E-Bay. It was 8" tall and was pretty bad. I lowered it a couple of inches an inch at a time by re-drilling the bottom mounting holes. Again, lower was better but it really wasn't any better than the flat windshields. I cut an inch off the top and again it improved things, but the wind noise was the worst of the combinations I tried.

I ordered a 8" flat windshield and tried it. A little better especially in the noise department, but still bad enough buffeting that it wasn't the answer.

I bought one of these windshield vents for a Gold Wing off some brand X seller on E-bay. I paid like $20.00 for it with shipping


I cut a hole in the 8" windshield just above the fairing and installed it. Huge improvement. Pretty much un-rideable to pretty darn good just by installing the vent.

Encouraged, I ordered a set of Freedom Wings since XARAN had reported these helped with one of his. These did help fine tune things. They didn't make a big difference, but they did help. I have to ride with them fully closed.

In the interest of science, I took 2 of the short windshields and installed the vent. It didn't make near the difference in the short windshields.

So in the end, I have an 8" flat windshield with a vent for a Gold Wing, fangs and Freedom Wings and it is now pretty good. I did a 200 mile ride with this set up and I am pretty happy with it. It isn't 100% calm, quiet air pocket for the rider, but I don't think anything ever is. This is probably 80% of what I would call excellent, so it is pretty good.



Sadly, I really don't like the look of the vent or the fangs and I was sure hoping I wouldn't need them, but they work so I will get used to them I guess. I am going to log some miles and get all the tinkering behind me and then tear it back down and paint it. I may try a vent for a little more money that is smoked and will match the windshield better.

It was a serious PITA and I just about threw in the towel and pulled everything back off a couple of times, but in the end it is actually pretty good to ride now.

 

Gas Smasher
WOW- I think you tried about every combination. Sounds like you have something you can live with now. Congratulations. How about a picture of the final setup?

I have my Fatboy with the MS Batwing and I guess because of my riding position the buffeting is not bad at all, if I lean forward I get it so Im in the pocket with the seat, handlebars and my size. But the best experience i had with a quiet, clean air ride was on my Road Glide, after I lowers and moved back and put bars that allowed me to sit up , added the HD wind deflectors from the lower fairing to engine guard I had a quiet, 95% no buffeting. But yet others with the setup were not happy. It really makes a difference where you are on the bike and your size.

I wonder how a fixed fairing on a Fatboy would work out? Ive seen a couple that look good IMO and IMO the fixed fairing doesn't add weight to the forks/handlebars and in cross winds is far superior. That is the only thing i really miss for long rides , especially in windy areas is the handling of the Road Glide

 

XARAN, I have learned a lot about buffeting on this project and no doubt, the rider position plays a big role in it. This is the best picture of the semi-completed project I have right now. I am going to ride it a few months and make sure I don't end up making any more changes before I tear it back down and paint it.

 

I guess I'm old school but I can't understand the use of the "look over the windshield" style. I've ridden HD ultras for the past 30 years and always use the tallest windshield I can find.. June bugs and stinging rain are handing by hiding behind the shield.

At 71 I moved to a 2016 Fatboy because of less weight. I want to get a batwing but I'm thinking of adding the tallest windshield I can find.

Can someone confirm I'm headed in the right direction or why it is the wrong one?

 

This is what mine look like, I feel like it finishes the lines under the windshield, as for the buffeting, these wind deflectors fix it 100% but at the same time you will lose some engine cooling too.