Clearview Just got my Clearview 3 with PRV style venting. It’s amazing. I’ve owned several Honda bikes over the years and always bragged on their engineering and design work. On all the bikes I’ve owned, I’ve thought about things Honda could improve upon, but never found anything I considered a complete miss before. Until that is, I rode behind the Clearview for the first time. I was hoping for improvement over my Hondaline tall shield, but I didn’t realize how badly Honda botched the wind protection and noise until I rode with it fixed by the Clearview. The day I bought my PC, I rode two up on my buddy’s GL1800 to pick up my PC and rode it back home a little over 400 miles approximately two years ago now. If I had it to do over, I’d buy the clearview prior to taking delivery of the bike, ride 400 miles with it strapped to the back of the ‘wing, and switch it out before I rode the 400 miles home. It’s that much better. Some data points to consider: • I’m 5’10 with a 32” inseam, (pretty short torso) • I had the tall Hondaline screen for several months (which I’ve read is 3” tall over stock?) • I cut 1.5 inches off the tall Hondaline so it intersected my sightline when looking at a point 50’ ahead • I have the stock Honda Seat • The Hondaline tall as I had trimmed it measured 25” along the surface of the shield from top of the vent cutout to the top of the shield. • The Clearview measures exactly like their website specs out (23.5”), but for clarity, the measurement for the PC is not vertical, it’s along the surface of their shield, from the top of the OE air vent cutout to the upper edge of the shield. • The Clearview is at a much steeper angle than the OE shield, so while it’s shorter length wise (see above) it actually intersects my sightline to the ground at a spot about 200 feet in front of the bike, making the shield feel and behave as if it’s taller. • Noise with the OE shield (both before and after I trimmed it) was pretty quiet with my visor all the way up, but extremely noisy with the helmet closed. With the clearview there is almost no difference, open or closed, and volume levels are just a touch more noisy than OE with my shield open, but waaay quieter than visor closed with the OE shield. • Buffetting is significantly less with the clearview • The tendency for the wind to put weight on your hands from behind you that was present with the OE shield is gone. • The OE tendency for the wind to shove the upper edge of your helmet’s viewport into your forehead (due all the fairing wind getting dumped on you at that level) is completely gone with the clearview, making even your helmet more comfortable (no kidding). • With the OE shield you sorta found a sweet spot for seat comfort, combined with acceptable wind protection, and on 800 mile days you just waited until your rear hurt enough that the wind drawback was worth it to move, then when you got tired of the wind, but your rear had gotten a break, you moved somewhere else. With the clearview, the noise and wind is much more consistent in a substantially wider envelope of seating positions, resulting in your ability to just move around wherever your butt’s comfort dictates without having to play the wind into the equation at all. Overall, I highly recommend the Clearview. Short of going from no fairing at all to a Windjammer full fairing on my ’84 Nighthawk 650 back in high school, it’s the biggest single improvement in comfort that I’ve ever made to any bike I’ve owned. If you’re trying to be cheap and still fooling around with cutting, adjusting, and tweaking on the stock hondaline shield, just give up, and start spending your time collecting aluminum cans during your Sunday afternoon ride. You’ll collect enough to fund a Clearview in a whole lot less time than it would take to fix the stocker, and you’ll enjoy the ride a whole lot more. -Jonathan Huddleston 1994 PC800 – Pacifically Correct
