My new 2009 Yamaha FJR1300A motorcycle has an electric windshield with an adjustable height. It is too hot to really deploy the screen in any other position but “low,” as I need as much airflow as I can get. However, the screen makes a very nice barrier against rain when adjusted to its full height.

Such was the case this evening, when I was riding around with Xamot on the way to meet his wife. We had just swooped onto a highway onramp, hoping to minimize our exposure to the elements. Rain had just started to fall.

I shifted up into fourth gear and signaled my intent to merge. It felt like being in the trench of the Death Star. I thumbed the windshield control, and up the screen came, slowly but surely.

Before I realized what I was doing, I screamed out to no one, “switch your own deflectors on, double front.”