Quote:
Originally Posted by Grant-53
Two things that limit automobile use are cost of operation and traffic density. Both affect the cost of convenience in time and money. More streamlining will be used to get the US fleet to the next CAFE of 56 mpg. Because more money will be spent on R&D and better materials the unit price of a small car will not come down. Comfort, reliability, and safety are the real selling points. Horsepower numbers are no longer as important as the feel of going from 30-60 mph in a rush. As more of us join the newly poorer, the aero commuter bike and trailer will get more use within the daily 25 mile radius. Aero motorcycles and trailers will get more attractive for longer trips up to 5 hours duration. The latest Craig Vetter attempt at streamlining, the electric motorcycle, has proven successful. The electric motorcycle still costs about double price of a 250cc bike. The Cd of such machines could be as low as 0.30 but no measurements have been published yet to my knowledge. The typical sport bike has a Cd of 0.60 because of the lack of a tail piece; such devices are still banned on race bikes.
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Most of the streamlined motorcycles,combustion engine powered,double the MPG,the added weight of the body ,seems to have no effect.Motorcycles are not much better than a brick running down the highway.BMW built a couple of concept vehicles,the Simple and the Clever,the mechanical's were a failure[as far as safety]but the body design and interior were well thought out.The Simple had a 0.18 coefficient of drag.Take that body,add four wheeled tilting,small turbo diesel or gas engine or ? and you could easily travel 150-200 mpg USA 1-2 liters,per 100Km at highway speeds with 2 onboard in comfort.Narrow tilting eliminates gyro's[who's time may not be ready just yet,we have not seen the C-1 take a short drive at highway speeds as of yet] outriggers ?[forget and you fall over,caught on a gate post or ?]the 4 wheel tilting stands up by itself,it adds very little to the overall width,its by far the best solution right now.I'm hoping one of the many companies that are interested in this technology,takes the dive,if its done right,it surely will be a big success.A affordable vehicle,the looks good,[Monotracer with a door comes to mind as a nice design,BMW Simple design looks great]that is fun to drive,safe,and cheap to run.Can you imagine all the traveling you could do ?It may not ever happen ,but I refuse to let it go.