6'2" and a Cee Bailey #2 +4 1/2" euro took care of the turbulence for me. The stock shield was too short for my height and body position and my bride was uncomfortable with the buffeting.

Welcome back to the saddle !

Please do yourself and family a favor and sign up for a MSF or Harley RidersEdge basic rider course to brush up your skills.

We get a lot of re-entry riders in my courses and they all say they were impressed with what they did not know even when riding before.

Stay safe out there !

Welcome back Tom.

My best recommendation is to read Proficient Motorcycling by David L. Hough.

Thanks. I took the MSF course (worth it), and I just picked up Hough's book. Now I get to read 'till spring.

I came back to riding also after 30+ years. Started with a 2002 R1150R for the past 1.5 yrs. Now just bought late summer a 2004 R1150RT. It has an after markest CB windshield. I can dial it in and have very little buffeting. Good luck, I just love how this bike rides.

Regarding the buffeting, I found an Aeroflow windscreen almost completely eliminated this for me on my R1100RT. Other shields may have similar improvements,but I only have long term experiene with the Aeroflow,

It was kind of hot in the summer, so you may want to keep your stock shield through one summer before selling it in case you want to swap them.

Welcome back!

Good for you to get back into riding again. You did the right thing by taking an MSF class and picking up a book or two about riding.
Someone else said it already, but traffic has changed a lot and you have to pay exta attention to the new crop of texters/cellphone addicts....

I,too, have returned to riding after a 20 year lay-off. Although I came from a dirt background,with a little street mixed in there,I'm living the dream on my beemer.
I noticed a lot of buffeting at first but since I replaced the original screen with a Cee Bailey's 3 1/2" over stock screen, I don't have the problem anymore.But I don't have it all the way up very often, just when it's raining or very cold.I still like to ride with the wind in my face.

Buffeting is a symptom of the air curling around and over the fairing/windscreen/helmet and collapsing into the partial vacuum.

Some windscreens have slots or vents cut in them, or are raised slightly off the fairing, to allow some air to go behind the screen. That reduces the vacuum, and the two air flows come together at the top--similar to wind moving over and under an airplane wing. Some folks call this "laminar flow"

Manufacturers have not always designed their windscreens for best airflow. And of course, the position of your head and torso in the equation may be different from the ideal for which the screen was designed.

Some riders attach a "laminar lip" to the top of the screen, to help create some laminar flow. I've built a small pivoting wing for the top of a windscreen on a different machine. I can tilt the wing to produce the least buffeting.

I prefer to have the top of any screen just below my line of sight, so I'm looking over the top, not through the screen. Sometimes it's better to lower the screen even farther.

If you feel the air around your screen and helmet while riding, you may discover that the buffeting is at the back of your helmet. The solution to that may be a different helmet or a different riding position.

pmdave

Tom

Welcome back
Buffeting from other traffic is a likely source; you could try:
"Officer, I was doing over 100 mph in an attempt to stabilize my bike, as the buffeting caused by other traffic was threatening my life" (i.e. plead necessity)

Don't try this on a motorcyle officer.....

Andy