Bike cover windscreen damage

[ST-Traveler]

Can a loosely fitted bike cover damage a poly carbonate windscreen?

I have a Nelson Riggs XL that I use daily. My windscreen is getting replaced this week. It has become hazed over- I am assuming from cleaning it incorrectly over the years.
On windy days the cover beats the bike up pretty good. Can this also damage a windscreen?
Thinking about getting a separate windscreen cover made of a cotton sheet ( similar to bed linens) before I put on the bike cover for the day.

Thanks for any input.

 

[TPadden]

Guessing here it's chemical. Used NR covers for over 10 years. Not a problem hazing.

Tom

 

[red one]

I think a nice high quality cover that has a soft pad for the wind screen would not cause any damage. You do know only water and car wash soap on wind screens right? My feelings on bike covers are they have pitfalls as abrasions on windy days and when you are storing your bike it forms a nice, dark, cozy place for mice and insects.

 

[Andrew Shadow]

Many covers have a soft windshield liner built in to them precisely to prevent this damage to the windshield. If your cover does have the soft windshield liner built in it should be good. If it doesn't, you might want to look at adding protection if the bike is regularly left outside with the cover on and subjected to high winds.

I once transported a bike to Florida. The bike cover was loose around the forks. The constant flapping wore the finish clean off the forks. An extreme example I realize but the point is if the cover flaps around on a plastic windshield for long enough over time I can't see how that eventually it will not cause some level of abrasion damage. If your cover doesn't have the liner why risk it with a new windshield?

 

[MajorTom]

Yep, I stored my Seca 750 outside one winter. I noticed that the sun had started to fade the paint on the south side. So the next winter I used a bike cover, which wore the paint off the edges of the hard luggage over the winter. Some days you just can't win.

Use a cover that has a soft windshield liner and tighten the cover down as much as possible to minimize the flapping around and possible wear.

 

[Bikeric]

I have put 6mm elastic cord (available on ebay) to keep my cover from flapping. Seems to work well as no abrasion to the paintwork noted!

 

[ST Gui]

I use a Nelson Rigg cover and my windshield is in good shape except and not damaged by the cover at all. If the cover was loose and the bike parked outside where it got a lot of wind then you might have a problem. I haven't look inside the cover to see if the windshield area is lined or not.