For all the high praise we lavished on Star Motorcycles' new V Star 1300 a few issues back, I'm beginning to find out the thing ain't exactly perfect. I've counted enough comments on a reader's windshield buffeting complaint (see John G's letter in the October 2007 Rumblings section) to make it a blog entry - I figure it's the most efficient way to alert other owners of the Star's shortcomings and offer some solutions. Here are a few of the most helpful.
Apparently a Mr. Holgate had a similar buffeting problem with his '01 Roadstar, and nipped it in the bud by installing a set of windshield lowers purchased from a guy on the Delphi Forums Roadstar Rider Forum. Seems the lowers can also be purchased from Yamaha, but those are a tad shorter. Both are said to cut down quite a bit of the draft coming up from under the shield.
6' 3" Mr. Kreska weighed in with his two cents as well. He confirmed that tall riders also suffered from wind blasts ripping in under the shield; in his case, the air current would push open his helmet's face shield. Kreska's advice was also to check out the Delphi VStar 1300 Riders forum - where apparently the general opinion is that the Star's non-adjustable windshield is fixed in an overly perpendicular way. Most folks on the forum believe the screen should have been angled to better match the angle of the forks, and many riders have added lowers to deflect wind off their torsos. Seems like pretty good advice, and watching the forums for stuff pertaining to your model just makes good sense regardless.