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Old 08-29-2010, 09:51 PM   #7 (permalink)
ecofreak
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bicycle Bob View Post
Craig Vetter stopped his MC economy competition due to worries over crosswind safety. His current experiments employ ballast in the nose. Extra side area is never good in a crosswind, but the effect is much worse if the shape works well as a wing. I'd use a fairly abrupt transition from front to side, to have the shape stall at low side force, and other variations to keep the stall from being abrupt.
His bike is also very tall, compared with what AMDparts wants to do. Begin to reduce the rider's height as much as comfort allows, and then, instead of approaching a teardrop cross-section shape that has sides perpendicular to the ground, try using the uppermost profile of an airfoil, with a more domed front profile a la VW 1L. The "hump" profile in theory should nudge off any sidewinds, and the low center of gravity wouldn't allow much of a loss of control anyway.

Last edited by ecofreak; 08-29-2010 at 09:57 PM..
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