National Cycle VStream Special Edition - Product Evaluation

No motorcycle is perfect. That’s true even for Honda’s GL1800 Gold Wing, a bike that continues to be the superstar of big-rig tourers despite remaining essentially unchanged for 10 model years. Ever since this 1832cc luxury liner first hit the road in 2001, many of its riders have longed for even better weather protection than what the stock windshield provides. The shield is manually adjustable for height, but in any position, it allows just enough air to flow around the sides and over the top to lightly buffet the rider’s helmet and bump more squarely into the passenger. National Cycle’s latest answer to this question is the VStream Special Edition, a windshield designed specifically for the GL1800. The Special Edition is made of Lexan polycarbonate that’s 6mm thick (2mm thicker than the stocker) to reduce shield flutter at higher speeds and in gusty winds. It also includes National’s proprietary Quantum Hardcoating that’s claimed to make it 30 times more scratch-resistant than plain acrylic and 10 times more so than the coated shields used by other manufacturers. Plus, the surface has been treated with the company’s exclusive RainZip process that causes rainwater to bead up and blow away.

Good stuff, but the Special Edition’s real reason for being is its unique shape. It’s an inch taller than its OE counterpart and about 3½ inches wider at the top, and it slopes rearward another degree or so. Small vertical air-deflecting ribs are molded into the shield’s outer flanks, and its edges flare slightly outward, with curved rather than straight sides. National Cycle claims that all these shapes force the air to take a wider route so it flows out and around the rider’s head and lessens the blast that reaches the passenger.

Installation on a 2010 Gold Wing required about a half-hour, and it didn’t take much longer on the road for us to discover that the Special Edition does indeed improve the riding environment compared to the stock shield. The air pocket for the rider is noticeably calmer and quieter, even though some air still wraps around the shield and reaches the rider’s body. But that air makes contact at the shoulders instead of the neck; and buffeting around the helmet is somewhere between barely detectable and non-existent, depending upon the position of the adjustable shield and the height of the rider. Cracking open the adjustable air vent to its first notch further helps reduce turbulence in the cockpit. The passenger still is in the airflow, but it, too, is moderately less forceful and turbulent.

So, while the Special Edition does not quite effect a night-and-day improvement in rider comfort, it does make a difference. And as any experienced tourer can attest, small differences on long rides are meaningful differences.