[jgia]

I have barely ridden since the end of October. Life got super busy with work and family stuff. Then it got cold. Last ride I took in late November or early December, it was in the upper 40s. I felt way colder than I thought I should have. I had my electric jacket and gloves but just felt way colder.

Thinking about it the other day, this is my first winter with this bike and one difference between it and my old 09DL650 was that that bike had a larger madstad windshield. My Versys X has one. The V650 was just rocking the stock with an added deflector.

So looking at old photos, I realized the difference was I was getting a lot more wind on the V650. Looked at several windshields. All looked good but ended up spending more for the madstad shield and adjustable brackets. It arrived yesterday. Installed today. My GPS bracket did interfere but some fiddling and turning the side brackets for 5hw GPS got everything to clear. New shield is a good 5 inches taller and maybe 5 inches wider along with being able to adjust for tilt and height. Photos below giving a comparison of oem shield and a view of the mounting brackets. No test ride yet. With the moose foam handguards over the OEM handguards, the bars may barely hit. I don't think the OEM guards by themselves would touch but my tank bag gets in the way at full lock so I'm not positive.

 

[jgia]

Not today but Wednesday, tried to go for a ride on the X 300. Rolled it out the garage but then it wouldn't start. I've let it sit too long and the battery didn't have enough juice. So I rolled it back into the garage. Dejected, I pulled out the V650 instead. Went for a nice ride. This was the first ride with the new 20 inch madstad windshield. It is a huge difference in the air pocket behind it. I can feel the smooth air with my hand an inch or two over my head with the shield all the way up.

Put the 300 on the battery charger and it starts right up now.