Cleaning your visor on the move

[m3psm]

With the cold foggy mornings and the spray from wet roads, how do you clear your visors on the move?

When it’s raining properly a turn of the head at speed or a quick wipe with the glove clears it, but when it’s fine, dirty road spray the glove just smears it making things even worse.

I’ve seen wiper blade type gadgets in the past that slip onto a finger of the glove. Has anyone tried these, or do I need a tub of wet-wipes taped under the screen to clean it?

I do a 45 mile commute each way every day and on mornings like today I can’t see a whole lot by the time I get to work.

[sjtscott]

m3psm said:

With the cold foggy mornings and the spray from wet roads, how do you clear your visors on the move?

When it’s raining properly a turn of the head at speed or a quick wipe with the glove clears it, but when it’s fine, dirty road spray the glove just smears it making things even worse.

I’ve seen wiper blade type gadgets in the past that slip onto a finger of the glove. Has anyone tried these, or do I need a tub of wet-wipes taped under the screen to clean it?

I do a 45 mile commute each way every day and on mornings like today I can’t see a whole lot by the time I get to work.

I clean my visor every morning before setting off but with the fog recently it just gets smeared when I use my gloves to wipe it.. luckily my commute is only 6.5 miles. I think the key if for me to wash my winter gloves... assuming its possible as they have a number of years of london commuting grime that just gets transfered to the visor
I think for you keeping a damp cloth or similar inside of the fairing and using it to wipe the visor might help a bit. This might mean needing to pull over to clean it unless you have any lights to wait at to help.

[Stig]

If you manage to solve this, you'll be rich!

I have a similar length commute into the West End and it drives me nuts having anything less than a spotless visor. I clean it before setting off and you can guarantee that within 2 miles it will be filthy.

The finger visor blades aren't bad (only had the ones that are integral to the glove), but other than that, you just have to put up with it I s'pose

[m3psm]

I think you might be right. A wet soapy and slightly sponge in a plastic cup behind the fairing and a rag to dry could do the trick.

My journey is now 15 miles of country roads and about 30 miles of motorway filtering, so nowhere to pull over safely.

I got a face full of washer fluid from a car who was not happy to be filtered past this morning, but it was actually quite welcomed and allowed me to clean the visor

[Steve_T]

I have the Bob Heath V-wipe that you're talking about. It works to an extent. If there's just a fine mist of water on your visor - for instance from the fog this morning, or misty rain, then it works well for clearing the centre of the visor where the water always collects are you ride at slower speeds. If there's lots of sh!te in the air, from salt on the roads etc, then it's very effective at smearing the stuff all over your visor and you can end up making things worse not better. You just get a feel for when to use it and when not to, it's no silver bullet.

Steve.

[Steve_T]

m3psm said:

I think you might be right. A wet soapy and slightly sponge in a plastic cup behind the fairing and a rag to dry could do the trick.

My journey is now 15 miles of country roads and about 30 miles of motorway filtering, so nowhere to pull over safely.

I got a face full of washer fluid from a car who was not happy to be filtered past this morning, but it was actually quite welcomed and allowed me to clean the visor

I'd suggest a sponge on one of those retractable things that you stick keys on, so you could grab it, use it and then it will return to your fairing automatically. It'd look pretty daft, but would probably work quite well, if you used a v-wipe to clear the water off your visor afterwards.

Steve.

[Hooli]

sod the dirt, monday morning i have ice inside my visor coming down the A12. now that was fun! rode most the way with the visor open & im not sure my face has thawed out yet.

[308mate]

Erm....sorry to sound obvious but you do know what tear-offs are dont you?

Why dont you just get a tear-off visor and have clear vision at the flick of a wrist?

[Hooli]

arent they expensive?

[Stig]

m3psm said:

I think you might be right. A wet soapy and slightly sponge in a plastic cup behind the fairing and a rag to dry could do the trick.

My journey is now 15 miles of country roads and about 30 miles of motorway filtering, so nowhere to pull over safely.

I got a face full of washer fluid from a car who was not happy to be filtered past this morning, but it was actually quite welcomed and allowed me to clean the visor

Are you sure you're not doing my commute? Sounds exactly the same

[Stig]

308mate said:

Erm....sorry to sound obvious but you do know what tear-offs are dont you?

Why dont you just get a tear-off visor and have clear vision at the flick of a wrist?

Yes and I've got about 1000 of them at home for off-road hoonage

However, on the road I'd end up using about 30 of them for every ride. I'm not an environmentalist by any stretch of the imagination, but I wouldn't chuck litter out the window of the car, nor would I lob that many tear offs away on a regular basis (the odd one or two when off road doesn't seem too criminal though).

[sjtscott]

For some reason I was thinking there was questionable legality of using tear offs on the road.
You would go through so many in any case for roadriding in winter, I do agree they would come in handy at times though.
e.g. Riding through a mass of little green flying bugs hovering in front of you, had this in the summer in france.. literally coated my visor and helmet green it was nasty had to stop as soon as possible to clean the visor.

[Hyperion]

I have a chamois sponge attached to a retractable pass badge type thingy.
A bloke down the local monthly town hall 'tool sale' sells nice small ones for 79p which are ideal. They last quite a while as long as they don't get too wet (otherwise they dry hard).
Again, it works to a point, but never gets the visor perfectly clean.

As said, whoever finds a perfect solution will be rich.

Mini windscreen wipers would be great!!

[catso]

Hyperion said:

As said, whoever finds a perfect solution will be rich.

Mini windscreen wipers would be great!!

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4027354.html

[robstvr]

I keep a handkerchief folded up in my breast pocket. Be sure that it matches your tie...

[m3psm]

Hyperion said:

I have a chamois sponge attached to a retractable pass badge type thingy.
A bloke down the local monthly town hall 'tool sale' sells nice small ones for 79p which are ideal. They last quite a while as long as they don't get too wet (otherwise they dry hard).
Again, it works to a point, but never gets the visor perfectly clean.

Sounds like a plan to me

[m3psm]

Stig said:

m3psm said:

...My journey is now 15 miles of country roads and about 30 miles of motorway filtering, so nowhere to pull over safely...

Are you sure you're not doing my commute? Sounds exactly the same

I now do A414, M11, M25 and A1. Is any part of that your route?

The bikers of note I've spotted so far (only moved to this site last week) are an old 'blade with plumbers lagging around the fairing screen, a blue R6 in tidy condition and a Maroon Buell, all of which are bloody quick through traffic, especially the loon on the R6

[Hyperion]

catso said:

Hyperion said:

As said, whoever finds a perfect solution will be rich.

Mini windscreen wipers would be great!!

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4027354.html

Filing Date:12/01/1975
(checks ebay)
We're all waiting Louis!!

[m3psm]

After trying various sponges, chamois and cloths thoughout the week I recon a small damp microfibre cloth is best at clearing road scum and drizzle off the visor while on the move. I did find reaching for it from my pocket a pain though. I decided to cable tie a plastic cup behind the fairing and it works a treat



I'll now attach the cloth to the cup with a piece of stretchy cable as mentioned above so it doesn't get dropped.

Obviously not the best solution for the aesthetically minded, but on a commuter work-horse it does the job

[sjtscott]

m3psm said:

After trying various sponges, chamois and cloths thoughout the week I recon a small damp microfibre cloth is best at clearing road scum and drizzle off the visor while on the move. I did find reaching for it from my pocket a pain though. I decided to cable tie a plastic cup behind the fairing and it works a treat



I'll now attach the cloth to the cup with a piece of stretchy cable as mentioned above so it doesn't get dropped.

Obviously not the best solution for the aesthetically minded, but on a commuter work-horse it does the job

Awesome, now if you develop it some more.. go on dragons den (punch the Scottish bloke cos he's an idiot and won't invest anyway) get some dosh and turn it into a commercial product I'll certainly buy one!