Today I’m riding a courtesy bike, and it’s Naked bike. It’s my first time riding one, and it doesn’t even have one of those tiny little screens at the front. While the bike is great fun around town, the moment you get above about 50mph it’s horrible. The wind tries to force you off the bike, and you’re hanging on for dear life. I did 40 miles on the motorway, and sitting at motorway speeds I could feel the muscles in my neck going taut and into spasm. I think maybe with a screen it could be a lot of fun as long as you don’t go too fast - but without, it’s simply terrible at high speed! Who on earth would choose to ride such a thing?
I felt a bit like that to begin with on my x11. I set off for Yorkshire like Streethawk on crack, and by Milton Keynes I was trailing a slow moving lorry and trying to find a position that didn’t hurt my neck.
Doesn’t bother me now, I regularly ride long distances at 70, sometimes even 75 mph cough and don’t notice it at all.
I’ve always ridden naked and, yes, it takes a little to get used to but it’s great fun even at high(er) speed…I’m very comfortable up to 70MPH…fairly comfortable up to 85MPH (not on public roads of course) but anything over 90MPH(as before) and I feel like someone’s trying to rip the helmet of my head…
Didn’t bother me in my Bandit, Hornet phase even though I was on the motorway a lot - but I had only ridden naked bikes and had nothing to compare it with - I probably would notice these days as I’ve spent a decade on faired bikes.
As mentioned - you just grow the necessary neck and shoulder muscles to compensate.
I remember reading a Bike mag article on the launch of the 600 hornet back in 98 where some French bike journalists bungeed the chin bars of their helmets to the handlebars to lessen the strain on their neck muscles when they were riding their test Hornets back from Spain to France at about a ton up all the way.
Just man up… there’s nothing wrong with naked bikes over a certain speed. You get used to the wind factor quite quickly.
They also look much more beautiful than all the semi faired monstrocities out there. Plus getting stuff off the bike takes a lot less when you don’t have to remove all the plastics.
The first time you hit motorway speed on a naked is an experience. I did on a CB500 in my bike lessons, it felt really fast and you really had to hang on or you’d fall off.
Ok, so the consensus is that I’ve been spoiled by riding faired bikes and I should just MTFU. I guess I can do that until tomorrow morning when this thing goes back and I pick my own bike up
I did an off-road day recently on a TTR-250, no screen wasn’t a problem at all - but then I didn’t get much over 40mph!
i do like the look of a naked bike, my hornet is OK up to about 90mph its comfortable, up to 120 its not too bad if it not too windy at all, bigger open roads mean it gets harder to hold on, plus with me being a lightweight in size i find on an open wide road anything over 115 gets twitchy.
wide bars no fairing rules in town and on B-Roads:D
Rode up to Glasgow from Fulham on a Kawasaki ER-5 with no screen. Didn’t know any better! Didn’t notice any neck or shoulder issues as my arse had gone so numb north of the M62 corridor. I travelled at ‘motorway speeds’ the whole way.
Bought a flyscreen in the Hein Gericke on Great Western Road for the journey back though…
You build the neck for it over time and you learn to use the blast as a leaning post ,sit right and its perfectly comfortable . On the superduke the wind hits you from the guts up but it does not bother me .
Just thinking about this today as I was bowling around the M25 at around about the legal limit. It must depend on the bike. Mine is fine with its tiny windscreen and wide bars. Up to 70 you can sit pretty much upright and no particular strain on neck or arms. Over 70 you need to lean forward a little (just so you are ‘head-butting’ the air- no need to put your chin on the tank) and then the tiny screen comes into effect- it deflects the wind, not over your head level, but over your shoulder level. Your head isn’t buffeted because it is in the ‘clean’ air and only has to deal with the wind coming directly towards it. The tiny screen effectively deflects the air over the much bigger surface area of your body and shoulders. I believe badly positioned huge screens make the situation worse, by ‘scooping up’ all the air deflected from the front fairing and screen and depositing it on the leading edge of your noggin.
Over a ton on autobahns and the windblast becomes quite pronounced on my bike though, and it does become quite tiring just to hold on over distance. Not to mention the onset of a bit of weave on the bars over 110…
Always remember my first faired bike - CBR600. Going from a naked, I was used to a healthy wind-blast at 80mph, which was an easy indication of speed without having to check the speedo much. First run on the CBR, I let it rip, started getting a good bit of wind-blast, thought I was probably doing 90mph(ish) so backed off a bit. Then looked at my speedo and it was dropping down to 135mph
You’d get used to it soon enough - toughens you up and builds up yer neck muscles
I think your lid makes a difference too. With my Xlite, I used to get quite a bit of lift. With my Shark, It tends to hit you more square in the visor.
What I noticed also was when doing shoulder checks at speed, the wind would whip your head around :w00t:
I started on a YBR-125 and moved up to an XJ6-S Diversion.
Good for town and motorways I thought. Except the supplied screen diverts all the wind into your forehead (I’m only 5 foot 9), so I had to buy an aftermarket double bubble. Plus, it canes the petrol at high speeds and, to be honest, it’s faster and more comfortable in a car most of the time. I can tell as they glide past me doing 100mph.
Now I have a CBF600N and I love being back on the naked. Sure, it’s not comfortable at high speed on the motorway, but then neither am I and the sat nav indicates I make up **** all time by caning it.
Plus, I don’t have bits of plastic falling off every time it drops, those irritating vibration noises from the panels or the need to strip down the entire bike to change an indicator.
Much happier. But then I only bought the Divvy because it had good finance deals.
Just like to say thanks to the scrotes who nicked it, so I could buy the bike I originally wanted
and, yes, it takes a little to get used to but it’s great fun even at high(er) speed…I’m very comfortable up to 70MPH…fairly comfortable up to 85MPH (not on public roads of course) but anything over 90MPH(as before) and I feel like someone’s trying to rip the helmet of my head…
