from the top of the headlight to the top of the windshield is how many inches please?
Unfortunately, I can’t go out and measure because I ended up sending the windshield back. I think it’s a lovely piece of kit, created some very nice still air, but I just couldn’t get it to fit on my Himalayan. This is odd, given that there are plenty of people who’ve installed them and had good results. But on my bike, the shield brackets (at the mounting point) were almost a half-inch wider than the rails (on the bike), meaning I had to compress the shield more than a little to bolt it in place. Despite this, the cross member/dash panel wouldn’t stay in place; it fell out in the first mile and after that the brackets flexed more than I would like. Also, the cross member obscured my view of the speedometer (45-65mph range) and tach. Even after removing the hand guards, I found the mirrors banged into the windshield far before the bars were at full lock. An email conversation with CalSci led to the best hypothesis, namely that there is variation in the tank rack/windshield support on the Himma, and it appears I have one that just doesn’t work. Shame, given that (when going straight) I really liked the calm air bubble behind the shield. Someday I might re-style my Himma, removing the tank racks and mounting the headlight to the forks. If/when I decide to do that, I will probably look at a CalSci windshield that can be fork mounted. They work that well (if I had bought one for my GS four years ago, I might still have that bike). For now, though, I took advantage of CalSci’s generous return policy and sent it back for a refund.
Here’s a picture of the windshield in place.
Knowing that the headlight shell is about 8“ high, one might deduce how much windshield is above the lamp. A rough estimate (very rough, as my right arm is in a sling after shoulder surgery and it’s hard to move the ruler) is a bit more than 22 inches from the top of the headlight cutout to the top of the shield. I will note that at this height, despite my being 6’1” tall and having a Seat Concepts tall seat kit, the top of the shield was just barely below eye level and I wondered if the short shield might have been a better choice (this one is a medium).
Also on the subject of windshields: when I couldn’t get the CalSci to fit, I ended up chopping down my stock shield to just barely tall enough to cover the back of the instrument cluster:
This worked surprisingly well (with an open face helmet!) on a 4000-mile trip to Moab in July and a nearly 2000-mile trip to Arkansas in September (ride reports are over on ADVrider). The stock shield seems to be in the awkward part of the size range: big enough to cause a lot of helmet buffeting, but too small to provide any real wind protection. I suspect the best options are effectively no shield (no weather protection but no buffeting) or a barn door like the CalSci (big enough to provide protection without buffeting). The stock shield seems like a decorative item… or perhaps it increases the fuel economy by about one mpg.
Hope this was helpful.