The Honda PCX / Forza / ADV150 / SH Forums

I think beans might be less expensive

Alibally wrote:

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1397726877.707622.jpg

Boy, that looks like a box of 'high-speed blowouts". Sounds dangerous to the bikes behind you.

I clean our bike windscreens with Novus plastic cleaner #1. It not only cleans the bugs off without scratching, but it also helps to repell the rain. We don't ride in the rain if we can help it, but sometimes we get caught in it, so I use that stuff all the time.

Lemon Pledge (or Wally World version).

bobontour, I bought a Forza a little over a week ago and I know exactly what you are talking about with the wind.

On my way home from the dealer I had to go over a very tall, long bridge (Antioch Bridge) and it was a very windy afternoon - windier than "normal". For about one minute as I neared the top of the bridge, at the top, and down the other side, it felt like the wheels were going to be pushed or blown out from under me.

It was a very weird sensation that I'd never felt before. I was very concerned that the bike was going to be swept out from under me.

I have crossed the same bridge several hundred times in cars, SUVs, six different motorcycles and three other scooters and none ever felt like this. I am fully aware of the usual winds that tend to make the bike lean to one side and I've felt the wind blast from passing trucks. But this was not like that at all - it was different.

Also, I live in a very windy region of the San Francisco Bay Area where the "Delta Breeze" begins and travels up the Sacramento River. We have hundreds of the large wind turbines in the hills less than a mile from downtown. I know wind and have no problem riding in it. In fact, I now have over 300 miles on my Forza and most of it was done through the wind mill farm area where it is windy & hilly. I've had no problem there.

I expect to ride over the Antioch Bridge again in the next couple of weeks or so when I take the scooter back to the dealer for the 600 mile service and the installation of a Givi top case mount. If I am unable to install the tall windscreen myself, the dealer will install that for me as well.

So when I do that ride over the same bridge, I will report on that. It is almost always windy on that bridge because of the area and the fact that the bridge goes way up high and then back down.

Are you still experiencing that problem with your scooter?

Tony

Well, I am just a green horn of riding scooter for a few years in Cambodia when I started to work there. Wind factors is definete a big thing here because this country always got thunderstorms during the rainy seasons. When I was riding those communters bike (Honda's 125 machine) with strong wind, there were no significant problem because of that skinny bike is naked and running very slow (around 30-40km/hr), but when I changed to ride PCX, those whole thing changed because the 'BIG HEAD' of PCX really dragging wind at the front and a vortex is actually created on my cheat, helmet and even at my back. Think about that unique fish head looking PCX aerodynamic is really designed for in-city riding, it is perfect when everyone ride it inside a "modern city". But anywhere that is outside the downtown, PCX would stepped into the zone that it's absolutely not DNA designed for....

So, my solution was only an occasion to solve unintentionally because I am not an expert, I just changed the windsheld to a H2C version and put a SH29 Top box at the back, so the effects created by those vortexs has been reduced to a very minimal impact, the bike is still being pushed by crosswind sometimes but it just being pushed more evenly on the bike, another thing is a bit surprise is the fuel economy is getting better now... a least 1km/L more

Anyway, anyone who doesn't mind taking the ride with the top box at the back everyday, they can really think about this solution, I hope that will help in some way.

I also ride by the coast. I find the PCX better than my last Honda Scooter (Vision 110) because the centre of the bike is more aerodynamic. But my previous Fes was much heavier and better.

A couple of things work for me:
I'll never add a top-box.
If necessary, I wear a backpack when I need extra storage.
I wear bike clothes that are relatively tight-fitting, regularly waxed and not bulky or full of folds so my gear isn't catching a load of turbulance.
I've added the tall Givi which does create downward pressure on the bike (but is noisier on my lid), and means I'm not feeling the wind on my chest so that I can concentrate on the road. Nikwax is useful on visor/screen to force the water to run off, but I can see over the screen anyway.
Ride lightly and lean in to the wind slightly.
Ride left of my centre line when I'm leaning into strong gusts so when they drop suddenly, I don't end up on the wrong side of the road into oncoming traffic.

I find the most challenging part of the ride is when I pass a collection of 4-7 storey buildings that cause the wind to whip from one side of the bike to the other quite sharply and is impossible to predict or lean into. Luckily that happens on a slow section of road and I'll find myself riding at 10-20mph with the breaks very slightly on.
I find the PCX good enough in gusts of up to 50mph. When the wind-speed starts to hit 55-70mph side-on the coast, I go 'the back way' - a slightly longer route inland.

And finally, I have felt that not all 50mph winds are alike and might be more or less forceful depending on the weather/air pressure - but maybe that's in my head, I dunno. I call them thin and thick winds.

I hate really strong tailwinds. Sure the mpg goes up but speed control is harder. I have one speeding ticket in over 40 years of driving and it was on a Honda Forza 300 in a 50 kmph tailwind. The bastard officer pulled me over 10 meters from my driveway. Yes, I was speeding but it did not feel like it.

I had a tailwind in Saskatchewan. The CB125 motorcycle's exhaust pipe was turning blue with no cooling. I decided to turn off the motor and coast to a stop. The wind was so strong that 5 minutes later I was still moving. I got really high mpg for that tank.

Alibally wrote:

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1397726877.707622.jpg

LoL - Nice !!!!!