I replaced both my Parabellum windshield and my Caberg helmet recently.
I just wasn’t comfortable with how close the Parabellum was to me. If I slammed forward I was going to shatter my helmet visor on the top edge of the windshield — it just didn’t seem smart. The poor Caberg had served me well, but the 12,000 mile trip to Canada pretty much finished it off and it was falling apart — also didn’t seem smart.
I researched windshields and decided to go with a Ztechnik that wasn’t going to be released until January 2010. There was a delay due to required mirror extenders that weren’t released until February. I waited and ordered both and was a little dismayed when I realized the extenders weren’t necessary. I have no idea why they list them as required when I can go from a full left handlebar lock to a full right handlebar lock and the mirrors come no where near the windshield. They were nice about it and I’m returning the extenders for a full refund.
The Ztechnik looks great, works with the OEM handguards, and is well reviewed on other motorcycles.
I love flip front helmets and after looking at all available models the Nolan was the only one with the features I want. I wanted the recessed tinted visor, padding on the chin straps, and most importantly a good fit. It felt great when I tried it on. I was pleased it comes with a fog lens — wish I would have had that in Canada. It will be interesting to see if it helps. Since I stress in rain and fog maybe nothing will help except calming down and not breathing so hard.
The real point of both changes was to reduce helmet noise. I love to listen to music on long trips and if it was really windy, especially a head wind, I could kiss that idea goodbye. There would be so much noise in my helmet I couldn’t turn the music up loud enough to hear it. I wear ear plugs or I’d probably be deaf after a windy ride.
Friday I took off for San Antonio on a windy, gusty day. It was so windy that when I opened the visor to drink from my Camelbak I couldn’t breathe through my nose while drinking because so much wind was rushing up it. I never had that happen before so I’ll assume it’s a result of the new windshield.
I do feel my head got moved around more than it did with the previous configuration, but to my pleasant surprise I had excellent sound all the way down to San Antonio. And I loved not having a windshield right up in my face.
The ride was less windy on the way home so it was a better test. The sound was good in my helmet, but the windshield definitely was feeding wind to my neck and shoulders and the windshield vibrated when I got over 70 MPH.
I’m going to do a little adjusting with the windshield. Put some additional spacers under the top bolts to tilt it just a little upward. I just got finished making a couple small modifications to the Nolan and I’ll see how both do next week. But the bottom line is that helmet noise if vastly improved with the Ztechnik and Nolan.
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