Quote:
Originally Posted by sendler
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Ok now my head is spinning. So basically to do a straight tail of say 17 degrees I need to make the curved section before the tail, in this case at the seating cowl, for it to attach properly and even then it will have double the drag of a nicely arched 'ideal shape' tail of same length.
The good news is Kamm tail id ok if that curve is there.
The issue then is the gap. Do you recondition the air flow by lipping it up and out before the gap, do you use air curtains, or just leave it be to ensure reattachment at the seat/rear. Also what about the head rest, currently where the license plat goes on Vetter's design. It seems it would be better to extend it out into the tail and go with a proper Kamm tail.
The issue then for me is fabrication. Vetter uses sheets of milk carton paper to skin his bike since it is cheap and easy to repair which is why the bikes profile has a straight tail of 11 degrees. To do a proper tail I would need to bring back my model airplane skills and skin it up that way or go with full composite materials.
There is a good chance I might end up making two tails, one with the ideal shape and Kamm and the other to Vetter's spect with a little modification to shorten the tail. But it am having a hard time thinking they would produce radically different results given the open cockpit.
@elhigh
This bike was previously used for racing so everything not essential has been removed. This is a 2013 S 11.4 but I have been told it is lighter than the 2014 SR and faster, much faster. that stated I will likely be adding chargers to this equation and those add a lot of weight, but without then I cannot tour on the bike.
The chargers will be easy to remove for my weekly commuting via highway at 65 to 75 mph 26 miles one way. Ultimately though I want to be able to ride this bike much farther.
@Grant-53
I assume then the best course of action for the proper tail would be to find out the shape of the seat pan and recreate it in a graphing program decrementing it to figure out bulkheads first. This likely will not happen till June at the earliest as vetter only just finished the seat pan last week.