Sorry for going off topic but...
... because the wind pressure shifts from arm to arm just slightly tweaking the steering and knocking me off course.
If the wind pushing you around is affecting your steering, you are probably holding on to tight. Instead of holding onto the bike to fight the wind, just go with it. As an excercise, you could try practising takeing one hand off the bars at a time and feeling how the rest of your body reacts. When the rest of your body barely notices, then the wind wont bother you.
Ah yes, I know about that, but I barely hold onto the bars even when on a race track.
I was really just trying to point out the difference between JoeRock's preference for being balanced on the airstream and my reasons for not liking it. Just shows you can't please everyone with a single riding position and was impressed that JoeRock's preference was the exact opposite of mine.
The problem is I am tall and very wide at the shoulder so the standard screens that come with all sports bikes and the original on the Fazer mean that I'm like a sail or a flag flapping about in the breeze and even sails flap about when the wind changes direction. On a motorway, you're constantly battered by changes in wind direction because of the turbulent airstream coming off other vehicles and that means that on long trips it's tiring and on short trips is just annoying.
It's just a size thing rather than a control problem. With a touring screen, it's not an issue. I once did 900 miles in a day on the Fazer and was completely comfortable, no wrist pains, no shoulder pains, no leg pains, not even much butt pain. Honestly, I could have done it again the next day, no problem. In fact, I went out later in the day and did another 120 miles to see a concert in London.
Also, thinking about it, since the force holding you up increases or decreases with speed, then it's only going to balance you at a very narrow speed range. That's another thing that makes me prefer the Fazer to my old ZX9 - it's much more upright so comfortable at town speeds when there's little air force, and with the touring screen it's fine at 90 on the motorway too. Gets a bit blowy at 120, but even so, with standard bars and Givi screen, I have a 120mph range of comfort and it takes minimal effort to keep straight and true.
If you do as you suggest and take a hand off the bars, if you are on a sportsbike and you're at the balance point then unless you are in perfectly non turbulent air, you will get knocked about all over the place and the rest of your body will be constantly reacting just to keep you in the saddle. I like to feel like a tripod when I'm on a bike - three points of contact, two hands with 20% of my weight, backside 80% and very little balancing air force. This will be heresy to some people who prefer a more 40/60 split or hang off the side more often, and I'd feel the same way if I only used it for sport riding and wasn't clocking up statospheric mileages. Certainly, when I'm on a track, I prefer the lower bars of my ZZR1400.
In fact, when I first got my ZZR1400, which had an even lower screen than the standard ZX9 screen, I found it was so low that I simply couldn't stay on the seat at 90mph, so the balance point was about 70. Not much cop for a 186mph bike I bought for the grand tour last year, and I couldn't even crouch low enough to get out of the airstream. If I went faster, I'd had to hold on tighter just to stop myself being blown off the back. I'm not joking. Same with a Blade and an R1 that I test rode, but now with a touring screen it's comfortable and effortless to control up to 140. Actually, I lie, it's pretty effortless up to 180. Then I have to duck down a bit. Sigh. Really have to go back to Germany this year . . .
Anyway, every bike forum I've been on has a huge number of posts about screens. I just wish manufacturers would provide a range of options on the showroom floor and you ride away with the one you want rather than just selling bikes with a low standard screen. It just seems like a monumental waste of time and money because everyone is a different size and has a different preference.
They could have an exchange service so you could swap at zero cost, rather than us consumers having to buy one after the other trying to find one that suits. The Fazer's a real case in point here. There is a huge divergence in preference. I think the Givi touring screen is spot on, others reckon a shortened standard screen is best. Some have double bubbles, some MRA varios. There's no one size fits all solution here and the same goes for bars and footrests too. On this forum, the stock answer to anyone asking about screens is not to get into it. Just buy a few and see which one you prefer.
Sorry, bit of an epic post there . . .
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