Thoughts on this awful wind noise

[illies17]

So today was my first full day with my new FJ. As others have stated many times I find this stock scream unbearable. I'm 6"3 and use Arai RX-Q helmet. While riding I adjusted the screen up and down with no change whatsoever. Like others though I noticed a big decrease in sound while standing up a few inches.
 
While messing around with my chin vent I noticed dramatic decrease in sound when my hand was placed on the mouth of my helmet. Just flat on my chin the buffeting sound would nearly disappear. Has anyone else noticed this? I was almost tempted to just drive with my hand on my mouth area. Anyone have an idea why this would be or what to do with this information?
 
Tonight I was messing around with it and I took the windshield off and it was a lot better, but still not great. I'm completely baffled how yamaha could make such a good bike with such apparently god awful aerodynamics! How did nobody in the design process see a need for change here. For comparison to the "naked" look I took out my naked SV650 to see if that's just what it sounds like and I forgot. Well, I could go 70 on the SV with VERY little noise at all, no ear plugs and it wasn't the least bit uncomfortable, only thing loud was the exhaust. How can this be when it's nothing but a round headlight up front? Is the front end of the FJ really just that awful aerodynamically that it's worse then absolutely nothing? This is my conclusion after riding them back to back. I was gonna make just a small screen to cover up the odd naked look but I think any screen at all will make it worse until it's way over your head. Do you think just angling it more upright while staying "naked" would help at all?
 
I really don't want to spend $200 bucks on a brand new bike that shouldn't require it just to be bearable but it's looking like that may be the only solution. One of the main points of the FJ is for the wind protection up front but it's much worse then nothing when compared back to back it seems. This is very frustrating.
 

[b12ty]

I too have noticed the hand over the mouth silence. Which is odd because on my Suzuki Bandit 1200, it's the opposite. That bike is pretty quiet, but put your hand over the mouth area, the wind noise increases dramatically. I thought it was just my helmet ( an old Shoei RF-900 )but looks like i'm not the only one.
 
No clue why the FJ is like this.
 
Ty
 
 

[sixcharlie]

Same height and also had the issue with my Arai Vector 2. Scared the hell out of me the first time I heard it. Putting the stock screen all the way down helped as there seemed to be just one spot my head was in would result in the noise.
 
It is kind of amazing how that air flow noise gets so amplified when it hits the helmet chin.
 
I've been wearing my Roof Boxer since the weather warmed up and I can't quite remember if the low setting fixed the issue or not. I'll wear it this week at some point and let you know.

[steve]

As you've mentioned so many have had similar issues and for some the solution was to change the screen.
I've stepped back a bit from the problem to see if it is Yamaha centric and have found most manufacturers have this problem with the upright sitting position (sit up and beg). I had immense issues with my Schuberth S1 Pro which never gave me any problems on my Yamaha Thundercat (YZF600R), I bought a new Schubert S2 as the S1 had seen better days, but the problem, if anything got worse. A helmet claimed to be the quietest was really testing me. I have subsequently found it is my hearing which is partially to blame, but I haven't given up on trying whatever I can to sort out the helmet.
 
Screen up or down no difference, stand up in clean air and I really get the noise now - so for me the screen is doing something. I had identified an area in the helmet near the chin strap which seems to be an air vent. Blocked it a bit with some cotton wool and it has helped.
 
I'm not familiar with Arai's, so my mileage may be way out for you. You mention covering the mouth - are you blocking the visor area and / or covering an area under your chin which may be open?
I know it is vendor specific, but if you Google S2 user manual there is a good illustration of where the sensitive area is for noise on the helmet and that is around the lower part of the helmet - OK to be clear mid visor or below your neck. The critical area is possibly where you are finding the problem
Maybe Arai have some info in their manual.

[mjsracing]

Same results with the stock windscreen. Up/Down tilted forward or back with spacers, LOUD!
 
KTM 690 R ABS. No windscreen. Quiet and no buffeting at 79mph.
FJ-09 stock windscreen cut to below the speedo cluster, slightly louder and no buffeting.
 
Both bikes have a very similar seating position.
 
I have a CalSci for cold weather and run my hacked off stock above 80F.

[illies17]

When I put my hand by my mouth I mean like the front of my helmet, right on top of the chin vent right under the visor. Not under the chin, I even moved it up to make sure it wasn't come from blocking air through the chin/neck. It must be breaking up the airflow just enough to cut the buffeting or something I'm not exactly sure what was going on but there was a definite change in sound. Maybe I'll just glue and object to the front of my helmet haha.
 
I had an idea of trying to heat up the windshield and putting a slight upward vertical bend at the very top to try and shoot the air up more around my head instead of straight at my face. Anyone tried anything like this or think it would even work? Or I was also thinking of making a really little screen just to the speedometer to tidy things up and try and curve that up with a vertical lip to see if that does anything helpful.
 
The fact that a bike with absolutely no front end is quieter then a bike with a fairing and windshield is beyond me. You'd think they could have seen how bad this is with tunnel and design testing or something. It's like they angled it just right to buffet your face off. It's better with no windshield but far from great and far from a full naked bike. I'm sure a touring screen is in my future, hopefully it actually solves the problem though. Do you think any of this comes from the handguards too? I don't assume it does.
 

[trench]

This is essentially what I've been saying after some experimentation.  The noise is produced from the vertical edges creating turbulence.  I think this can be solved in a few ways.  Shape and dimensions need to be explored.

[thruster8999]

I wonder if you put two puig wind deflectors on either side if this would also reduce the noise. Of course it would be expensive having to buy two.

[Guest rszk]

From the UK MT 09 (Tracer forum) "I too had severe wind noise. I was intrigued by the fact that there was loads of noise but limited buffeting. I set up a sort of wind tunnel in my garage. After a few hours testing I noticed that the problem is not with the wind going over the top. It appears it does indeed go up and over a person up to 6ft 2in. I didn't have a taller model. The problem appears to be the wind coming round the side of the screen. What appears to happen is that as the speed increases, two wind eddies, like mini tornados, hit the rider in the lower stomach and move up the body and hit the helmet directly under the ears. I stuck some sheeting on the sides of the screen and went for a test ride. The noise reduction was brilliant, almost silent. I had to be careful as the German Police are out and about today and it isn't a TÜV´d screen. The conclusion to be drawn from my amateur findings is that the screen needs to be wider."

If you are riding with the OEM screen you can even feel the effect with just placing your hands around your helmet area.  The bike needs both a wider windshield at the base of the shield and also more spacing from the front area of the nose of the bike and the shield to allow air to pass under the shield thus negating the vacuum created by the shield and minimizing buffetting. Unfortunately the wider shield at the base affects the handguards so this has to be taken into account.

[toast]

I just bought my FJ yesterday and rode 6 hours for the first leg of my trip home. For reference I'm 5'9.
 
With the screen at the highest position the top is at mouth level for me. In normal conditions going 65-70mph (no strong head/side wind) it's quite comfy behind the screen but there is some mild buffeting at eye level to above my helmet. There is some minor turbulence at my shoulders (probably from the handguard cutouts). The 65-80mph range is the noisiest/most buffeting and the screen lip bounces around quite a bit.
 
Going slowly (under 25) I can ride with my visor up and the wind goes over my helmet.
 
85-100mph (I know) the airflow actually cleans up quite a bit. The buffeting goes from an off tempo "pat" on the visor to a rhythmic hum on the top of the helmet. The screen bends as far as it will go at this speed and doesn't move much so that may be why it doesn't buffet as much.
 
If I hit a strong headwind or cross wind the screen would dance all over the place and it was very turbulent for me. If the screen was made of thicker material and had a laminar lip on the top IMO it would be much more effective.
 
I always ride with earplugs but I went the first hour without. It was loud but tolerable (quieter then my old bike). My helmet is also very loud. I rode the rest of the way with plugs and I was very comfortable.
 
I'm coming from a motard dual sport so even with a little buffeting it is light years ahead in freeway comfort compared to my other bike. I don't have the wind blast pushing me backwards so I don't need to grip the bars for dear life and I can go much longer without shoulder/back pain.

[ayrton]

Me, too.  I bought it about 2 weeks ago.  I have 150 miles on it.  The noise and buffeting are substantial.  I am 6'2" and I am trying all windscreen positions and seat positions.  Seems like nothing hits my chest, but the flow comes in at my chin.  It was very bad in my shorty helmet, too.
 
One reason I bought it was a recent tour in Utah and Arizona on rented BMW R1200RT.  They have an electric height adjustment and a bigger windscreen.  Very good - no buffeting and much less noise.   But costs 2x's as much.
 
I imagine I'll wait and watch for review of aftermarket screens over a few months, then decide what to do.
 

[illies17]

What do you think he meant by "sheeting on the side"? I'm going to try and make a wide small windshield out of plexiglass that just covers the front up to about the speedo. I guess I'll see if wider does do anything. But if it's just the narrowness of the screen, it should not be bad with no screen at all, and it's still pretty bad with that. I might try handgaurds off to and see if that changes anything at all. That's what it sounds like though, 2 tornados right in my ears...

[ULEWZ]

With a small bike like the F-Jay, a windscreen that is tall enough for your 6'3" will look huge. I am very happy with my Cal Science medium, but I am only 6' tall. Every bike I have owned and will own will require custom tweaking. This bike will fit some perfect and others need to do modifications. You must fit into the latter. I mod just because I like to. Try a Multistrada, Now that windscreen is loud. Maybe try some better ear plugs?

[jimf]

I'm going to try and make a wide small windshield out of plexiglass that just covers the front up to about the speedo. I guess I'll see if wider does do anything. But if it's just the narrowness of the screen, it should not be bad with no screen at all, and it's still pretty bad with that. I might try handgaurds off to and see if that changes anything at all. That's what it sounds like though, 2 tornados right in my ears...

I'm of the opinion that the largely vertical orientation of the front of the bike and its screen makes it need quite a bit of bleeding somewhere to avoid major buffeting. The Ermax touring screen, while even bigger than stock and with the same orientation, has a couple of small holes near the mounting bolts that provide quite a lot more bleed through at the bottom than stock, and perhaps that's part (most?) of why it is a lot quieter than stock.   I think they might be positioned too low and too small to do a really good job, though. 
Your very small windscreen ought to be a lot better than stock just because it tears a smaller hole in the air.  Certainly the Ermax sport is quieter than their touring screen, despite otherwise being very similar.
 
I think, though, that you're always going to want some extra flow moderators -- the front of the bike is just not streamlined so it is going to build up a lot of pressure that has to go somewhere.
 
To that end, here are some thoughts:
 
- Adding spacers behind the screen, allowing more airflow underneath, should help reduce the front-to-back pressure differential.  I believe someone tried this and reported some improvement.
 
- Canting the screen more heavily should reduce the pressure in front of the screen.  I believe someone tried this, too, but I don't recall the result.
 
- Providing airflow flow through the middle of the screen is likely to make a huge difference.  Unfortunately punching a few-square-inch hole in the middle of the screen right above the windscreen mounting plate exposes the instrument cluster to the weather, in addition to creating a big stress riser below the unsupported portion of the screen, so this is an experiment I'm not likely to ever try.  If you're going to try that, I'd investigate adding additional support to the screen (e.g. steel supports through the mounting hardware, extending up above the hole).  Perhaps holes similar in position to those on the Ermax, but larger, would work well?  Or, this just occurred to me, airflow guides from below the screen to just above the instrument cluster -- guiding the air from the high pressure area in front of the bike right into the middle of the low pressure area behind the screen.  That's easy enough to cobble up from some square plastic tubing that I may just give that a shot.
 
- Flow moderators over the top of the screen, like a Puig visor, are a definite improvement.  They split the airflow over the top, breaking up that pressure spot.  Ermax touring + Puig is an acceptable configuration IMO, although it could certainly be better.
 
I've not been able to do a lot of riding for the last couple of weeks so I haven't been able to do much experimentation since installing the Puig visor, but this weekend I plan to play around with the Ermax sport + Puig, and perhaps with increased spacing between the screen and the mounting plate.  I'll report back as I learn more.
 
(Hmm.  I have a decibel level meter in a box somewhere.  If I can figure out some way to mount it behind the screen, and some way to read it without killing myself, maybe I can even make it somewhat scientific.)
 
 

[philkin]

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I have the Ermax Touring standard in the lowest position and added the Medium Puig deflecter. I have found this combo, for me, is
just about perfect. I'm 5' 10" and the wind noise and turbulence is almost non existent to at least 75mph. Just my experience.