2020 Road King. Rider is 5' 9+" tall, 30" inseam, & quite handsome. Full face helmet.

Realized quickly after purchase that 60+ mph velocities would rattle my noggin pretty badly in the full face helmet. To those who'd label me a [vulva] and tell me to suck it up - I don't care: even 20 minute pulls on the interstate would give me an headache.

I replaced the stock 18" windshield with a 20" unit purchased here, & that knocked-down the buffeting a good bit. It was manageable during rides without long-duration 65+ stretches. Still, rides over 5-iish hours would leave me exhausted, and with a low-grade headache. I came to find that putting my feet up on top of the engine guard (where my legs would be against the tank) cut the buffeting to near zero.

Lots of internet searching yielded a good many proposed fixes, including various attachments, plastic & metal. The only consensus I could determine was that there was no consensus. Some fixes worked for some riders, but few worked for all. I didn't wanna reinvent the wheel by buying & trying everything for myself, so I went with the one that seemed to work for most: I bought the HD "fang" wind deflectors (57400146A). The local dealers didn't stock them, but Newcastle got them to me far sooner than promised, for a goodly amount less than list price.

I gave the, "fangs" a shake-down today, and my experience mirrors most of the accounts I'd read: they definitely stop the buffeting, and they do make the bike feel hotter. With the 20" windshield on, I ran up to 90 mph both with and against the wind, and there was virtually no buffeting at all. The little bits I noticed (probably from cross winds) weren't the violent kind I'd felt before. In fact, I could ride with the helmet's visor up, and still had no buffeting.

I then strapped on the 18" windshield and ran the same circuit, at the same speeds. The buffeting was again knocked-down a huge amount, though not as much as with the 20" windshield. It would be fine for rides with limited high speed runs - maybe stretches of an hour or less.

Both windshields left me feeling noticeably warmer in both the legs/groin, and face, than without the fangs. Opening the helmet visor and putting my knees out a bit wider took care of most of that extra heat. I'm sure I'll figure it out more as I log more miles.

Like many, I'm not thrilled with the way the "fangs" make the front end look cluttered. In this case, though, I feel that, "beauty is as beauty does."

Just my experience.

FC

 

I'd more concerned with the motor running hotter than the cluttered look, no bueno in the summer months...

 

"quite handsome"........that made me laugh (for reals, as the kids say)

I found you walk a fine line with buffeting. Even slant/shape/height of windshield affects it. I also found fangs to make a big difference.....along with type of windshield, slant of same, height of same and whether or not I had the soft lowers on. Even feet on highway pegs (or not) affects it to some degree.

You are correct. There is no consensus. I have not yet seen an Aeronautical Dynamics Engineer Harley rider weigh on on this forum to explain it to us all.

(worse yet, there are some who claim it's all hooey and we're liars...ie: there is no such thing as helmet buffeting..........I know there is. On my first windshield, I must've looked like a <handsome> bobblehead going down the road, not able to focus on anything over 45mph !

 

A sure cure is to take the windshield off...

 

I'm with ya on bein' against heat. The headaches were worse, though.

Still, I'm not worried too about the motor, because:
1) It's not a blistering amount of extra heat, just a noticeable amount
2) I'm running Mobile 1 V-Twin in the crankcase, which oughta afford me just about all the heat protection one can get
3) The fangs are genuine HD parts, sold for this exact purpose: the MOCO would have a hard time denying any warranty claims for engine problems that arose from their use.

FC

 

if that makes one feel better about using them, so be it, but the damage from excess heat will not generally rear it's ugly head until after the warranty has long passed...

 

Running fang's on my RK, and not only does it solve the buffeting problem, but works like a steering damper at above 20mph to really calm the front end down as well.

As for cooling, you still have the wind coming down the center of the bike, and all you are loosing is the extra stream of air that would come down the side of the bike to cool your thighs from the heat coming off the side of the motor isntead. Hence air coming done the motor from the center of the frame, hits the frame plate just behind the starter mid flame, is what you are feeling as it being deflected out (without the closer stream of air down the side, since the fangs are now pushing that air out more outwards).
Hence motor is still running as warm as it was before, but since the side air is begin deflected out far off the side via the fangs, you don' get this extra cooling of the air itself off the motor, as you feel the air coming off the sides of the motor..

So the short version, is the air off the mid frame plate behind the motor, just needs to be defected downwards as it leave the back of mid frame, instead of being pushed back into your thighs/ up into the air void behind the windshield.

https://captain-itch.com/product/cro...bossed-flames/

 

If the buffeting is coming from the tank area up behind the windshield DK has a set of "wings" for lack of a better word that mount in front and below the tank. Have not used them but they sound like your answer without taking cooling air from the engine.

 

Just rec'd my JESCustom fangs today...we'll see how well they work tomorrow.

 

Another yes vote for the fangs. I am very impressed how well they actually work.