I've been riding with a standard screen for the first 12 months of my TDM life and while I don't seem to suffer from the buffetting that some people report I do think that it is excesively noisy. In spite of all the warnings on many posts here that a taller screen doesn't make things any better I saw a new MRA touring screen at a reasonable price and bought it. It's all true. It's just as noisy, just a slightly different noise. I decided to investigate what was happening with the air flow over the screen and did this by the simple expedient of taping a few 20cm lengths of garden twine to the edge of the screen. The way they move in the slipstream soon demonstrated that the air flow was very turbulent and was often directed downwards as the air came over the top of the screen.
Many new bikes have screens that allow air to flow up the back of the screen and this is the principle behind the Palmer Products brackets. Being a cheapskate I am unwilling to shell out £80 for a couple of brackets so I cast my eye around the junk heap that masquerades as my garage to see what I could improvise. I spotted a length of old rubber pipe, about 6mm bore but very thick walled which could be cut into short lengths for spacers to lift the screen from its normal position to let air flow up the back of it. Then I needed to make some plates which could be attached using the original fixing points and then be drilled to take the new 40mm set screws to hold the spaced out screen. I'm not much of a metal worker, wood is my thing, but I spotted the ideal material in the form of a piece of black square section guttering that any normal person would have thrown out 10 years ago. It cuts easily with a tenon saw, can be planed, filed and drilled and has a matt black side which blends in very nicely with the fairing inners or a shiny black side which doesn't look out of place next to my black bodywork (I mean the bike's).
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It's a bit tricky getting everything lined up nicely but eventually a test ride showed some improvement but the bits of twine were still swirling all over the place. The air was coming under the screen but not being directed upwards. A black plastic plant pot provided the material to make a baffle to fit over the instrument panel and that transformed the air flow. Now at all speeds above 20mph the bit of twine on the top edge of the screen rose to an angle of maybe 30 degrees above horizontal and stayed there completely steady.
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These pictures show the latest version where ths screen is moved up about 40 mm as well as out by about 25 mm. The bracket for the lower central mounting point is made from a strip of guttering plastic bent to shape with a bit of gentle heat from a heat gun. I think I could make a neater one!
There is still wind noise but the flow is smooth so the noise is more of a steady whooosh rather than the thrumming roar it was originally. I will still wear earplugs even though short rides without them at speeds up to 80mph are possible without feeling I'm damaging my hearing. And it is nice to hear the engine. I think a lot of air comes round the screen and off the bodywork onto the helmet so I doubt it's possible to make things much quieter but I haven't finished fiddling about yet.
By the way I am 6 feet 1 inch tall with a longish back. Anyone a few inches shorter would be able to easily get right behind this raised MRA screen. Not that they would be able to see through it, its a very dark smoke. I think I'll be able to use it next time there's a solar eclipse!
Sorted and on the Road Mick 
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