Guinea Pig Report - Rumble Strip
A little pertinent background. I have been working for weeks on improving wind management on my Burgman 650. I have attained what I would consider 98% success by way of a Givi windscreen, a SAENG Winglet on top of the screen, and some hours spent finding the best tuning for the Winglet (angle & height positioning adjustments). Under most riding conditions, I have no helmet buffeting, and wind noise is so reduced that I can often hear the engine & transmission sounds at 65, even 75 mph. Wind gusts from the side are still annoying, but not nearly as disruptive as they were before. This is a better success rate than I had hoped for.
At this point, my Rumble Strip arrived. As I reported yesterday, it looked really great installed on my helmet. I rode at least 60 miles today with the Rumble Strip installed. My impressions were that it may have quieted wind noise around the helmet a bit more, but that it was INDUCING mild but consistent fore/aft helmet buffeting! After a while, the consistent buffeting gave me a headache. Came home, took an Advil to kill the headache, and removed the Rumble Strip. After dinner, I went out and rode about 25 miles. Helmet buffeting was gone. Wind noise was virtually the same with or without the Rumble Strip.
With a different windshield setup, different height rider, different helmet (there are a lot of variables that can affect wind management) maybe it would have a positive effect, but for me it was a step backwards.