Last week was the first time to go on the interstate with the Road King. At about 70 I started to pick up pretty bad buffeting, at 80-85 it was REALLY BAD. It was suggested to try the fork mounted deflectors. I already have the small deflector between the forks.

I bought the fork mounted wind deflectors and installed them last night.

I REALLY dislike the looks...I have not ridden with them yet, but to me they look terrible.

Do any of you have them mounted on your bike?

Do they really help?

The air is coming from below around the tank area. Is there anything other than these deflectors to help with the buffeting?

I am wearing a HD hybrid helmet which is fairly thick. I am wondering if I change to a thinner helmet will it help the buffeting.

Yes, they work. They work best when your feet are on your floorboards and knees by the tank (as oppposed to feet on the highway pegs. If I still smoked, I could almost smoke a cig behind the windshield. The deflector between the forks only helps about 3% of the wind if any at all

I totally agree on the looks. I can't stand them on the bike but they work so darn good. I only put them on when I know I will be doing a lot of interstate traveling. They also catch a lot of bugs!

I think they look okay; they almost blend in with everything else. And they do work great; nothing better to stop buffeting in my opinion. For whatever reason, a passenger seems to really increase buffeting on an RK, and the fork lowers work in that case, too.

Hmmm... I never experienced buffeting on my King at any speed, highway or surface streets. I did have the small bracket installed. I also ditched the stock windshield for a 17" LRS.
This topic is so subjective, that you'll likely exhaust all your funds if you try everyone's suggestions.
Good luck to you...

I have the stock windshield and if I am relaxed I am looking through the top 1" - 1 1/2" of the windshield.

If I stretch to sit straight up I am looking just over the top of the windshield.

I am thinking about cutting 1" off the top of the windshield.

Do you think this would help with the buffeting?

but I agree about the looks, the looks kind of grew on me and I don't mind it anymore. If you want to greatly reduce the wind coming up from the forks then you should give them a try.

Difficult to know and say, at best...
It's all so subjective. What is intolerable buffeting to one person is just a little wind in the face to another.

I will say that I hate looking through a shield, so I've always used ones that allow me to look over the top.

I went to a HD maintenence seminiar and the mechanic suggested you try different helmets first. Sure enough, I had a HJC modular and a Shoe RJ platinum. If I just took the visor off the Shoe it was night and day different. Then, I bought a Bell 500 which is real light and smaller than the Shoei. Buffeting was gone up to 80 which is as fast as I go. Personally, I do not like the looks of the deflectors on the RKC.

I also messed with it on my Heritage Softail. I found if I kept my knees tight against the tank, it broke up the wind enough to greatly lessen the buffeting.

Saw a new style of these deflectors from Kury. Look pretty cool, but don't know the function. But then again, might look like crap if that's not your thing to begin with.

I have never had any buffeting on my RK... I did cut my windshield down to 17.5", but even before that, no buffeting, just found it very annoying to have the top edge of the shield right in my line of sight all the time - it was very distracting and distorted the view some. A shorter windshield may certainly help with the buffeting.

Ideally, you want to be able to look over/above your windshield comfortably when riding... the top edge of the shield should be about mid-nose height, this will provide good visibility, better wind flow to you and your helmet (wind coming over the windshield hits at a better spot) and still protect you from bugs and heavy wind on you. That height also allows you to easily duck in behind the windshield when crossing through rain, or a hwy dividing a field full of moths, bees, butterflies (yes, it has happened)