Quote:
Originally Posted by Bicycle Bob
The trouble with wings on a tilting vehicle is that they wind up pushing you to the outside of a turn. Downforce affects traction, but won't help with basic directional stability.
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I do agree that wings are a problem for single track vehicles, however BMW does add down force on the front wheel of the 1988 - 1993 K1 to counter-act the pitch moment that reduces the down force on the front wheel of most motorcycle as speed goes up. The fairing of the K1 is designed to add a messured amont of down force on the front wheel. The K1 fairing is one of the few that was developed with aerodynamics in mind, and in fact it has one of the lowest drag coefficiants of any production bike [see chapter 10 of Hucho]. If I am not mistaken Hucho also mentions that some down force on the front wheel can in fact help basic directional stability. Motorcycle aerodynamic design is alway problematic in that ...some may be good but more may not be better..., I suspect that this is the case with downforce on the front wheel. Although some work has been done to generate downforce on the wheels of a racing motorcycle, to incrrease traction and cornering speed, the systems proved to be overly complex and no one has ever gone beyond the prototype stage.
