Yep, I Too Got Impatient...

[Smitty]

1. Cross winds can make your eyelids flap

2. You will only ride in shorts once. Grasshopper guts are tough to wash out of your leg hair.

3. "Crotch rockets" can not be driven slowly. You must sell it, lose your licence...or die. My ZX7R will be missed.

 

[Coss]

View attachment 10494
Mesh and pads. While you're moving, it's like going bare-chested.
It doesn't matter how hot it is. I've always got at least this...
A 3/4 Lid, Jeans, Finger-less Gloves and Milwaukee Boots on.

I had a pair of boots that looked like this:

Steel toed, and probably the most comfortable boot I ever wore; paid like $280 for them in 1979 and wore them every time I rode; had them resoled once, and had the heel replaced at least 3 times if not more.
I had them for <I think> 15 or 18 years.

The Gorilla standing on chest feeling you get from riding a bike with no windshield I got away from around 1982; went to a full faring and windshield and turned into a long distance rider after that. 500 miles in a day was typical.

 

[msmith5150]

View attachment 10494
Mesh and pads. While you're moving, it's like going bare-chested.
It doesn't matter how hot it is. I've always got at least this...
A 3/4 Lid, Jeans, Finger-less Gloves and Milwaukee Boots on.

I found that jacket online for 60 bucks, it sounds like a great jacket for the money, definitely going to get it! thank you

 

[Maurtis]

Excellent choice. Textile mesh jackets have come a long way. And that is a killer price!

 

[Neal]

Very cool. I had a V-Star. Great bike. Enjoy!

 

[Jeff Miller]

The Gorilla standing on chest feeling you get from riding a bike with no windshield I got away from around 1982; went to a full faring and windshield and turned into a long distance rider after that. 500 miles in a day was typical.

I love that gorilla

A long time ago the wife thought she needed a windshield and after her bike broke two quick silvers she listened long enough to learn that windshields weren't for her.

Every few years I take a dresser out for a test ride and so far I keep coming back to thinking I'm not old enough for that yet.

I do try to avoid the monster freeways and putt along on the 55 mph side roads. It is amazing how much more wind gets generated at 65+ and how much more comfortable and enjoyable it is to simply slow down and take the back roads. A 400 to 500 mile day is what I try to do when doing long trips.

 

[Coss]

I love that gorilla

A long time ago the wife thought she needed a windshield and after her bike broke two quick silvers she listened long enough to learn that windshields weren't for her.

Every few years I take a dresser out for a test ride and so far I keep coming back to thinking I'm not old enough for that yet.

I do try to avoid the monster freeways and putt along on the 55 mph side roads. It is amazing how much more wind gets generated at 65+ and how much more comfortable and enjoyable it is to simply slow down and take the back roads. A 400 to 500 mile day is what I try to do when doing long trips.

And that would be the difference; I / we would cruise all day it 70-75 (or 80 and maybe just a bit more); at that speed, a windshield is great; along with the faring and lowers.
Not old enough for a bagger? I didn't know there was an age requirement on them.
Have you ever tried what they're calling Sports Baggers?
The new member we have owns a good example

 

[Elio Amazed]

I had a pair of boots that looked like this:

View attachment 10495

Steel toed, and probably the most comfortable boot I ever wore; paid like $280 for them in 1979 and wore them every time I rode; had them resoled once, and had the heel replaced at least 3 times if not more.
I had them for <I think> 15 or 18 years.

The Gorilla standing on chest feeling you get from riding a bike with no windshield I got away from around 1982; went to a full faring and windshield and turned into a long distance rider after that. 500 miles in a day was typical.

The boots are an almost exact match.
These Milwaukee harness boots aren't steel-toed...
The toe area has a tastefully integrated synthetic "scuff guard" layer.
I guess it's primarily there for the wear that the shifter dishes out over the years.

I got them for $50 new in the box on Ebay.
I didn't like them so much when I first got them two years ago.
But now that they're actually starting to break in, and I'm no longer walking funny...
I know I've got a pair of keepers that I hope to have for a few decades to come.

I always rode with bugs (and joints) in my teeth as a young man.
I rode my present two bikes for a couple of years before finally trying out the windshield that came (detached) with the 650.

Instant epiphany! Immediately started a search for the right windshield for the Virago.

I'd always thought that you had to look through the windshield instead of quite a few inches over it.
I've got both of them mounted low enough that I'm not even really aware of them. Duh!
There's no going back. It's like night and day. It's a more pleasant ride at any speed.

 

[Coss]

The boots are an almost exact match.
These Milwaukee harness boots aren't steel-toed...
The toe area has a tastefully integrated synthetic "scuff guard" layer.
I guess it's primarily there for the wear that the shifter dishes out over the years.

I got them for $50 new in the box on Ebay.
I didn't like them so much when I first got them two years ago.
But now that they're actually starting to break in, and I'm no longer walking funny...
I know I've got a pair of keepers that I hope to have for a few decades to come.

I always rode with bugs (and joints) in my teeth as a young man.
I rode my present two bikes for a couple of years before finally trying out the windshield that came (detached) with the 650.

Instant epiphany! Immediately started a search for the right windshield for the Virago.

I'd always thought that you had to look through the windshield instead of quite a few inches over it.
I've got both of them mounted low enough that I'm not even really aware of them. Duh!
There's no going back. It's like night and day. It's a more pleasant ride at any speed.

"Instant epiphany!" Is exactly what I went through; I rode choppers for years, and just straight stock bikes in my early days and I always said people with windshields and faring's were sissy's; then I bowered a buddy's bike that had a Windjammer faring on it; and my goodness what a difference.
Had the same faring on my bike a week later.
I put a cigarette lighter in the faring; and after losing 2 of them, figured out to tie a string around it and anchor it to the faring.

 

[Jeff Miller]

Different strokes for different folks. I can appreciate the comfort of windshields and fairings but as I said, I keep trying them and so far always walk away with the thought that I'm not old enough yet.

That isn't meant to be a slight on people that like the added protection, it is just what I think. When younger I too used to say "whimp shield" but I'm smarter now and recognize it isn't about style, or being a bad ass, its about having fun. For me to have fun, I need to be able to look ahead with nothing in front of me. I need to be able to look down around the headlight and see the road. And I really need to have the wind in my face, well, now my full face helmet. But that is just me.

This is what I want to look at when I'm cruising the nations byways:

and when I'm carving twisties:

and when I'm running to the hardware store: