customcruisers.com

My Ztechnik screen arrived from Custom Cruisers yesterday. Big success, what a difference! I agree with whoever said this is the screen BMW should be selling the bike with. I suspect it's like their seats these days - stylists and marketing men rather than engineers calling the shots.

A few comments for the benefit of anyone who's thinking about buying one of these (All just my views. I'm 5'10" with a 32" inside leg and I bought the smaller of the two screens they make for the RT. I like to look over the screen not through it).

- Very efficient, friendly service from Custom Cruisers who had it in stock. Ordered late Thursday night, confirmed on Friday and arrived on Monday morning.

- Screen was well wrapped with no marks or scratches and no problems fitting - very easy indeed, all the holes lined up exactly. I was pretty sure it was going to work looking at the shape as soon as I took it out of the box.

- It's nothing like as much bigger than the standard screen than +10" suggests. Mainly it's just wider at the top and with a 'flip' in the shape to direct airflow over/away from the rider. I've got quite a few pics if anyone's interested .
- In my view the shape complements the RT very well, better than the standard screen given the fairly wide fairing and especially the mirrors.

- The optics are much better than the standard screen. I used white centre lines and yellow parking lines as a test whilst on the move, and couldn't see a difference over or through the screen. With the old screen I found the distortion quite marked when going over bridges etc.

- The important bit. It works! Even on the test ride I was surprised at the amount of wind noise and buffeting on a fully faired tourer, and it seems to be because the standard screen isn't the best shape, or wide enough at the top.

With the std screen if I put my hand up right next to my helmet it got a lot of buffeting but with the Ztechnik it's 'still air' there and I have to move my hand out sideways about 9" to hit the airflow. Above my helmet it all depends on the screen height, which I like just high enough to deflect the airflow but without making me look through the screen. Using the new screen I had no problem achieving that. All in all much more protection from the wind and much quieter (I probably won't use earplugs much now).

No pillion view yet I'm afraid, but I'd be surprised if it's not a big improvement.

I had the new screen raised a couple of inches from the lowest position to achieve this and I'm happy about that because it leaves me the option to lower the screen in towns or when it's really hot. Also I think (from what I've read) that some airflow under the screen is a good thing because it stops a vacuum building up and reduces the turbulence behind the screen.

... money well spent.

Chris