Increased wind noise with top case?

[cv_rider]

I just installed the Shad SH46 and Shad rack (thanks to crazybiker and bcityroller for their detailed writeups, it went pretty smooth for me), and on my first ride after install the wind noise was really bad. I've been fighting wind noise for a while, some sort of interplay between my Shoei X-11 helmet with lots of venting channels and tall CalSci windshield. But I thought I sort of had it under control until I my first commute since installing the SH46. Wind noise was back to the level that there was no doubt it was damaging my hearing. Two days later my ear still feels a little weird.

It's hard to imagine that the topcase would be having an affect on the wind noise, which is (as I understand it) mainly a question of if there is turbulence on your helmet or if the air is laminar. Maybe it's acting like the spoiler on the back of a car and creating some sort of pocket of turbulence that is reaching up to my helmet. I'm not aeronautical engineer, but that just doesn't seem likely.

I haven't had a chance to ride without the SH46 since that incident, so I haven't been able to experiment much with it. Anyone else noticed anything like this?

 

[SANGER_A2]

Do you ride with ear plugs or noise cancelling headphones? I started it a year or so ago and never looked back. You can buy loads of cheap foam ear plugs on ebay (the laser ones are good) or some headphones like the Sennheiser CX-300s if you wanna listen to music.

You're always going to get a certain amount of wind-noise on a bike, we just have to keep trying different things to manage it. The more you block the wind pressure on your chest/helmet the more turbulance there is usually produced and the more wind noise.

I had a flip screen on my last bike that made a huuuge difference in the pressure put upon my head and chest. It was quite a bit noisier but I preferred the noise to being forced backwards at any speed above 40mph!

 

[steveindenmark]

I find it totally strange that a topbox could effect windnoise. The obvious thing is that it is behind you and you will not hear it. My partner can shout at me from behind and I cannot hear her. I never take my top box off so can almost certainly say the noise is not from your top box.

Looking at what you have written it seems you have fallen into the common misconception that the higher you get your screen the less windnoise you will get. I fell for that as well. We are both wrong.

I have the Givi Double Bubble smoke screen which looks great but in all honesty is about as bad as the stock screen. I did a lot of reading and decided to use what I had and to cut the stock screen down, partly because a lot of the Naked guys said they did not get buffeting or wind noise. It became pretty obvious that if you don`t have a screen at all then you don`t have the problem, it is the screen which causes the noise. Which makes sense when you think of it.

This is a thread I started a while ago about how I cut my screen down. Other people have added comments since then.

http://www.600riders.com/forum/how-tos/6519-2006-windscreen-mod.html

With the cut down screen I have no noise or turbulance. I am still suprised at the difference.

Other things you need to think about is earplugs. I bought some from e-bay whichI had to make up myself. They lasted a season but were cheap to buy and worked really well.

A helmet skirt is another idea but the ones I have used begin to fall apart in a week and are difficult to keep on the helmet unless you use double sided sticky tape.

Last and most expensive is a new helmet. The Schubert S1 is thought to be the quietest helmet in production.

I hope this gives you some food for thought.

Steve