Quote:
Originally Posted by minimac
I'm really late to coming around to these streamlining discussions, and I understand a lot of work has been done by a lot of people, but why does this shape have to be accepted as being best? Airplanes go through the air well and are not that shape. Rockets are shot into space and are not that shape. Land speed vehicles are usually not that shape, nor are missiles. I think that would prove that the best shape for cutting air would be a pointy cylinder. What am I missing?
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your pretty much right,just cut the cylinder in half,we don't need all that extra surface area.Generally speaking in the front, it can be narrowed for a good low cd, coefficient of drag[keep the front to a reasonably small amount of surface area] and that long tail lets the air run clean and doesn't create any any bad air to swirl around and come back,creating drag].The idea is to keep the air running clean,undisturbed by mirrors,sharp edges,short corner's etc.The worlds fastest bicycle goes 82 mph,on a non air-streamed bike,90 percent of your pedal power,goes to overcoming air resistance.So you see how important it is,done right you can double the mileage of a motorcycle,but it's not easy to do.Banning it on early motogp bikes,because of crashes and the high speeds they saw,didn't help the learning curve.The manufactures weren't to concerned about aerodynamics,more about packaging and keeping up with all the other square boxes with rounded corner's,though it seems to be changing a little.I'm really surprised BMW hasn't put into a limited production,their concept the Simple,which is a showcase of good technology,that can be built right now.Hope this helps a little,putting all the comments together should answer your question pretty good.