I have had to make several trips down into the heart of LA over the past few weeks to visit my 80 year-young dad who is recovering from brain surgery, so to make these depressing times a bit better I have been slabbing on the ST - the joy of riding (even in the LA cesspool) helps me handle the seriousness of the the past month and what lies ahead (it sucks getting old - I don't recommend it at all).
I did see a PRISTINE early model ('68-'71) BSA Rocket 3 - red/burgundy with the square tank and side covers - drum brakes all around and the 'ray-gun' exhausts. Beautiful. Reminded me of a story Dad told me about always wanting a BSA Golden Flash when he was stationed in England in the 50's (USAF) to replace his BSA Bantam - and almost did not get married as my soon-to-be-mom threw a fit (and her engagement ring at him) when he kept on about it. Maybe it was to expensive? But at least we always had motorcycles around the house.
So, on my last trip yesterday, I started getting a almost constant very loud, severe buzzing/vibration surrounding my head at highway speeds. WTF? After a bit of trying to figure out what is going on including stopping to tighten the shield/visor screws on my Arai XD3 to no avail, I noticed that the very end of the visor/peak was vibrating. Not very much, just a slight bit of movement. There was no airflow hitting the visor (I am currently running a MRA Touring screen (the one without the spoiler) and a Touratech screen adjuster and the screen was in it's normal position.
What I found it that if I ever-so-slightly touched the end of the visor with my finger, the noise would stop. Remove finger, the buzz started up. No matter how I positioned my head the buzzing was there, until I touched the visor. Hummm....I sure didn't want to ride the 300 miles down and back with this racket, so I found a heavy duty jumbo binder-clip (the black one's with the two foldable handles) from some paperwork I was carrying and clipped it on the visor. Noise gone. Nice and quiet again.
I wonder if the many, many miles of 70+mph highways started to fatigue the plastic of the visor?
I could continue to ride around with giant paper clip on my visor, and I'd be OK with that but the shield would hit the clip when open so I needed to find something else. Whatever I found needed to be light, but not to light as you need some mass to help quell the random vibrations, firm but flexible to add rigidity to the somewhat flexible visor and be unobtrusive.
Looking around I found some self-adhesive felt furniture pads in junk drawer. It looks like it meets all my requirements. So I cut of a small piece (1.5" x 3" or so) and stuck in on the underside of the visor. Took the bike out and I could not get the visor to make noise, but being the engineer that I am I wanted to make sure that this was the cure, so I pulled off the pad and rode some more...and yep, the vibrations came back. So stuck the pad back on and rode home in peace.
My felt pad is beige, but I remember that they make it in black or a dark brown, which would make it blend in with the visor. I bought mine either at Home Depot or Wal-Mart. I think they are only a few $'s.
So if you have a Arai XD, Shoei Hornet etc and the visor is making noise, try this simple fix.
-steve
I did see a PRISTINE early model ('68-'71) BSA Rocket 3 - red/burgundy with the square tank and side covers - drum brakes all around and the 'ray-gun' exhausts. Beautiful. Reminded me of a story Dad told me about always wanting a BSA Golden Flash when he was stationed in England in the 50's (USAF) to replace his BSA Bantam - and almost did not get married as my soon-to-be-mom threw a fit (and her engagement ring at him) when he kept on about it. Maybe it was to expensive? But at least we always had motorcycles around the house.
So, on my last trip yesterday, I started getting a almost constant very loud, severe buzzing/vibration surrounding my head at highway speeds. WTF? After a bit of trying to figure out what is going on including stopping to tighten the shield/visor screws on my Arai XD3 to no avail, I noticed that the very end of the visor/peak was vibrating. Not very much, just a slight bit of movement. There was no airflow hitting the visor (I am currently running a MRA Touring screen (the one without the spoiler) and a Touratech screen adjuster and the screen was in it's normal position.
What I found it that if I ever-so-slightly touched the end of the visor with my finger, the noise would stop. Remove finger, the buzz started up. No matter how I positioned my head the buzzing was there, until I touched the visor. Hummm....I sure didn't want to ride the 300 miles down and back with this racket, so I found a heavy duty jumbo binder-clip (the black one's with the two foldable handles) from some paperwork I was carrying and clipped it on the visor. Noise gone. Nice and quiet again.
I wonder if the many, many miles of 70+mph highways started to fatigue the plastic of the visor?
I could continue to ride around with giant paper clip on my visor, and I'd be OK with that but the shield would hit the clip when open so I needed to find something else. Whatever I found needed to be light, but not to light as you need some mass to help quell the random vibrations, firm but flexible to add rigidity to the somewhat flexible visor and be unobtrusive.
Looking around I found some self-adhesive felt furniture pads in junk drawer. It looks like it meets all my requirements. So I cut of a small piece (1.5" x 3" or so) and stuck in on the underside of the visor. Took the bike out and I could not get the visor to make noise, but being the engineer that I am I wanted to make sure that this was the cure, so I pulled off the pad and rode some more...and yep, the vibrations came back. So stuck the pad back on and rode home in peace.
My felt pad is beige, but I remember that they make it in black or a dark brown, which would make it blend in with the visor. I bought mine either at Home Depot or Wal-Mart. I think they are only a few $'s.
So if you have a Arai XD, Shoei Hornet etc and the visor is making noise, try this simple fix.
-steve
