I have now had the 2016 Ducati Multistrada 1200 for one year. One of the main reasons for upgrading to the Multistrada, besides the fact that it is all around awesome, was better wind protection than my previous bike to help extend the riding season in the northeast. Now the fact that I am an All The Gear All The Time (ATGATT) person, which for me is boots, pants, jacket, gloves, and full face helmet regardless of the weather, and the combination of the recent high temperatures and humidity have had me wondering what I can do to improve the warm weather riding while still having the benefits of the extended spring and fall riding.
The first thing I did was look at smaller windscreens to not deflect as much air away from the rider. After much research I purchased the Shorty windscreen from California Scientific. The CalSci Shorty windscreen for the Multistrada is about 5″ shorter than the stock windscreen at the center-line of the screen.
The windscreen comes with the mounting hardware which is just 3 machine screws with black button top covers.
There are a couple of extra button covers included which should be nice since I will be swapping the screen at least once a season.
Also included in the package was a microfiber towel, cleaning solution, and a tire pressure gauge.
Swapping the windscreens is very straight forward. Just remove the three Allen head bolts from the OEM screen, swap the screen, and screw in the CalSci Shorty with the machine screws and pop on the button covers. The OEM screen is a little nicer in the mounting details to me with the flush mount Allen head screws vs. the button covers on the CalSci screen.
I believe that CalSci has put a lot of research into their alternative windscreens. One thing you can see with the shorty screen is that the leading edge does not sit flush with the body work as the OEM screen does. This may help with turbulence around the screen by allowing some air to flow in behind the screen and reduce the differential in air pressure from the front to the back of the screen.
While under way I am satisfied with the additional airflow and the smoothness of the airflow. It still gets hot if you are stuck in traffic though… Nothing you can do about that.
