Yepp windscreen not all it cracked up to be shock!
I haven’t even ridden it with the boy yet but there’s already a problem. An unfortunate side effect of the use of the screen is that, when riding into the wind in snowy conditions it becomes impossible to see. Kind of defeats the object huh? What happens is the falling snow is deflected upwards and rushes over the top of the screen – straight into the rider’s eyes.
I’m riding along – peering out from under my peaked cap – thinking; ‘Why the hell can’t I see in this?’ It wasn’t until I put a hand up against the edge of the screen to dam the air flow that I could see where I was going. It really was quite horrible, tyres sketching on the slush whilst riding virtually blind. Am I the first person to have noticed this? Shirley not. I dread to think how it will behave riding into rain.
The solution is simple. Install a gutter to disrupt the airflow. So why didn’t they design it so? I’m happy to do it myself – if I can find the right material in a good profile. I just seems a bit odd to me that the Dutch – who get plenty of weather – sell/use something which is so flawed.
Was the device designed and sold as a windscreen to shield an adult ? The only similar devices that I have seen were designed to protect a small child sitting on a crossbar mounted child-seat from a cold wind.
Hi Simon, Yes, the screen is indeed designed to protect a child in a front mounted seat. Great that it keeps kiddy out of the wind. Not so great that the grown up can’t see where he is going!
I think you have it too high. It’s definitely intended to keep the child sitting on a front seat warm, not protect an adult from the weather. You’re supposed to be looking over the top of it, not through it.
I prefer the design of the bobike version.
Mick, I put a photo here which includes a bike with one of those windshields fitted. As you’ll see, it should be much too low to look through as you ride.
Hi David, thanks for your suggestions, but I have fitted it correctly – to the vertical shaft of the stem – and it protects little Rufus very well. I’m not trying to see through it. On a recent ride to work (into the wind as always!) I did a ‘wet finger’ test to give me a better picture of what’s happening with the airflow. As I suspected, the problem is that the air coming over the top is directed straight at my face, a problem which was long ago identified and solved on motor-cycle fairings and even F1 cars with the addition of an airflow disrupting lip. A spoiler. Not a difficult thing to add I’m sure… I’d be very interested to know if other owners have experienced the same thing.
Rob Bushill posted this comment to FB in response to my criticisms of the Yepp screen:
Here what the designers said in reply to the question…a standard reply you might say but impressed that there was a reply at all…
Hi Rob,
Thanks for informing us on the blog discussion on the Yepp windscreen. We passed it on to our client that sell’s the Yepp, GMG. We haven’t heard of this complaint yet and I doubt if they did. But it’s good to know and a thing to improve when a new version is to be develloped. I leave it up to GMG to post a comment on the blog or not.
Thanks Rob.
Oh, I see your point now. If you can’t change the angle to avoid this problem, then perhaps attaching a small strip of self-adhesive draught-proofing material, or something similar, along the top might do the trick to trip up the airflow ? It won’t be pretty, though. The Bobike windshield has a more complex shape at the top which might avoid this problem. I’ve not used either myself, though, as my teenagers don’t want to sit on the front of my bike…
Thanks David, I’m sure I can dredge out some old tat from the garage which I can bodge on there!