Quote:
Originally Posted by 3-Wheeler
Phil,
Just curious. Has anyone from EcoM ever written to Craig and mentioned the Streamlining Template to him?
I noticed that many of the CV fairings, drop quickly behind the rider. And there is a reference to a aero specialist that gave mention of making the rake even steeper.
I'm at a loss on some of the things I've seen there. The overall premise of an airfoil around the rider is great however, and he gives great ideas on how to mount them.
Jim.
|
I'm not sure for certain.
When Low & Slow came by a few years ago we talked about MC aero quite a bit and Vic is acquainted with the Template and also a friend of Craig's.
So I figure Craig has at least been exposed to it.
I think Craig has used symmetrical wing sections as a template,and I think it's more appropriate for bikes.
And with these 2-D flow shapes,we don't want to truncate them as we would a body of revolution.Any kind of pointed curve in the aft-body is better than a chop-off.
The Summers Brother's Goldenrod would be a good example.Walter Korff,who did the aero on this record car,found the tail so important that he enclosed the parachute tubes entirely inside a boat-tailed cone which could be shot off the car as a prelude to parachute deployment.
Last September,at Bonneville I was happy to see the Vesco family streamliner with this feature added finally,along with a few other teams.
I feel like Craig and his associates are on top of MC aero and have done well with their designs.
Here's one example of the clamshell rear
This bike would suffer larger drag with it's truncated tail
Here's the lowest drag 2D profile (in the center)
This table gives an idea for drag penalty when the tail is mutilated
