Like with so many bikes, the windshield is always a hot topic of debate. Some will claim miracles occur with a particular replacement windshield and another person buying the same windshield will scream foul as their expectations were not met to the degree of the first person's. I think it is important to remember, if you don't like wind, drive a car. Pretty simple isn't it? While you can achieve success at redirecting the wind on a relatively clam day, your miracle fairing may loose some of it's appeal on a day where you have 10-15 MPH gusts of wind which are amplified in relation to the speed of your bike. Crosswinds and changing wind direction can not be successfully countered by any windshield on the market. Windshields are designed to counter winds coming directly at you. Henceforth, enter the wind tunnel. You don't ever see pictures of how well a fairing works from the side or from anything other than a 12:00 angle now do you? Look at the marketing material from Honda as an example. Look, two happy people out for a "ride", in the wind, with the wind blowing directly at them. Ok,  duh, it's a wind tunnel, but the concept is the same, simulating the forward speed of the bike. Now when that wind rolls around to say the 10:00 position, do you think that stream of smoke is going to still be over the top of the windshield? No, it will hit them in the chest and arms and push them over towards the right or left side of the lane. So it is important to set your expectations before you go out and upgrade to another windshield expecting miraculous results which will cure all you woes.

The ST1300 does not have to worry about the low stream buffeting syndrome which my Nomad suffered from, in which, on that bike, I installed large lowers which hung next to the either shock tower, on the front of the bike, to discourage air coming up from the road, under the handlebars and ultimately hitting you in the neck and shoulder area. Bobble-head syndrome was contained in this fashion. This is resolved on the ST1300 with all the pretty plastic, also known as Tupperware, around the front frame area.  So, that being eliminated,  you can focus on the top part of the bike and wind management.

I went with a Clearview, medium fairing with the built in 5 position vent. It is 3 inches wider and 2 inches taller than stock. The install consists of removing the plastic cover plates which can be seen on the Honda picture to the left. Once these are off there are 2 more bolts per side and the windshield pops right off. Stick the new windshield on and reverse the process.  John is the owner of Clearview and is a super nice and responsive guy to work with.  http://www.clearviewshields.com

The Honda windshield hardware has a nice feature which allows you to further adjust the windshield height by moving the mounding bracket itself up or down. Loosening the 2 bolts which hold the mount guide brackets to the rest of the assembly allows you to slide this  bracket to the HIGH or LOW position. You can pick up probably around 3 or so more inches of height using the HIGH bracket position or conversely decrease it as well if you are sitting on HIGH and didn't know it. 

Click on the picture to enlarge it

I mounted in the LOW bracket position and when the windshield is raised to its highest position via the electric motor, I can not see over the top of the fairing.  Nice, too tall and a great place to hide in the event of an unexpected downpour. You can see the difference comparing the pictures of the stock windshield to the Clearview to the left. With the windshield all the way down, buffeting and wind impact speed on you is about the same as stock. Raise it up 2-3 inches and the noise and pressure drop by 80%. With it all the way down it is most pleasurable to ride the bike as the blunt force of the wind is blocked and you get a nice blast to the shoulders and above but no below so you are not fighting to stay on the bike. I forgot how much I missed the panoramic beauty of Tennessee when I was hiding behind my cruiser extra tall fairing on my previous ride.  I am also glad I have a flip up Noland helmet as well. Between the adjustable windshield and the helmet opening options, I can get happy under just about and weather condition.... ok lightening still makes me skeered...

The vent all the way open and closed......

This is a picture of the curved lip at the top section of the screen. Look at your stock windshield, it is flat in this area. This lip helps direct the wind further upward than the stock version. I have no idea why Honda didn't do this.

CALSI's Winshield

California Scientific

Another windshield is make by CALSI, California Scientific. I bought the Medium size. The climate here in TN isn't that severe so I need airflow in the summer and eye level wind blockage in the winter. The medium offers plenty of height to accomplish this however, I would prefer a shorter version as I do not have the tools needed to chop this one down a little more. I do get plenty of air movement in the lowest setting in the summer but the flow of air is a little dirtier than the Clearview in the same setting. However in the higher setting I feel the CALSI out performs the Clearview. I added a Bucksports dash shelf after I bought the CALSI and I think the dash shelf has altered the flow of air behind the windshield substantially as I am experiencing some buffeting where I did not previously.

Over all , I am 95% happy with the windshield and consider it to be far better at higher speeds in the stability department in and out of traffic than the Clearview . The Clearview windshield has a good bit of flop to it at higher speed especially in and around trucks and SUVs. But in summer months, to me, the Clearview allows more air to move toward the driver in the lower position.

I ride one up so I can not comment about passenger comparisons.  

I had a bit of trouble mounting the windshield to the receiver brackets on the Honda as it seems the holes in the windshield are out of alignment with the receiver brackets. I followed the instruction at the link shown below, but the windshield has not "curved to form to the brackets". I can get the bolts in but it requires flexing of the windshield to accomplish. The bolt thread are partially stripped now. There must be a reason they designed it like this but I have no clue, All I know is everything I take it off it requires flexing if the windshield to get it back on. Just seems a bit odd to me. The Clearview did not have this issue. Yeah I know, what you didn't send it back? It's a pain in the butt to ship things back and forth so I'll live with it and try not to add additional accessory items in the front cowling.