Thanks, guys...
What kind of bottom gap are we talking about here? In the photo, I have about 1/4" space between the screen and the headlight. Is a 2-inch gap going to help, or hinder? I'm sure it would look goofy, but at this stage in my life I can move vanity to the back seat - to a point!
It's interesting to give this further consideration. I understand about the optimal windscreen height concept, and I'm telling you, this screen is not close. Maybe it's mounted all wrong - pic 1 shows more of a side angle. Keep in mind that I'm at the extreme ends of the mounting bars; the bottom of the shield is back to where it's almost touching the pilot lights. I can't tilt it forward, to make it more vertical, any more than it is now without longer mounting bars, and I'm not sure I could do it even then because of how the handle bar clamps end up controlling the shield angle. Regarding the previous photo showing the mounting, is it possible that I have the handlebar brackets on "backwards"? Would they fit, and function, with the cylindrical mounting clamps forward rather than back? I wonder...
The other problem may be my height. I'm not a giant by any means; I'm 6 feet, 1 inch tall, and a lot of that is inseam. The bike feels like a good fit, and standing on its own, it looks normal to me, but I've always thought that in photos of me on it, it looks small beneath me. In the second pic, I'm sitting up, taller, I think, than I would be in riding position, but it seems to me that with the screen's top edge about a foot above my mirror tops (see the pic from my previous post), there's no way I'm going to get that shield up to where it's 1 inch below my eye height at riding position.
My helmet may be my problem, but geez, it cost me almost $400 - I wasn't going to skimp on protecting my noggin. I can't afford to just keep trying new ones until I find one that makes my afterthought windscreen quieter. But the pitfalls of helmet buying are another subject...
I don't know - everything is in storage and in pieces at the moment, so I can't really do any experimenting until riding season returns. We've already had some days that I would consider warm enough to ride (above freezing would be fine with me if I could solve my cold hands problem), but those days also include melting snow and there's still a ton of salt and sand on the pavement, so I'm just going to have to wait...