[The Toecutter]

Originally Posted by arcosine

That Carp would wiggle through air currents, no other bike I've built since has done this. It does better in cross winds with the top on. Yes, it would sail. I won the Calvin's 12 hour challenge race in 2009, I rode 278 miles in 12 hours. There a question, which is better in cross winds, swb or lwb? Lwb has the wheel out front, but the fairing is longer with little weight in the nose. Swb has the wheel further back, so there some leverage effect, but the nose is shorter and FWD has the drive weight in the front. For cross winds a LWB with and open front wheel is probably the best, but some speed is lost.. Conclusion: Sense of speed is greater in the swb, 20 mph seems fast where in the lwb 20 mph is just smoothing out. With gusting side winds, I keep the swb under 25 mph on the down hills, never know when gust will hit. Climbing is easier in the swb, as it is easier to balance under 5 mph. Swb is moer maneuverable and better in town. On the open road the LWB is better. After riding the SWB for a thousand miles, I will build another Carp.

Thanks for sharing this. If I ever build a two-wheeler, this is something I will have to keep in mind. I like the static stability of at least three wheels and probably won't be giving that up.

278 miles in 12 hours is more than double my own personal record(I ride on public roads in traffic for long rides though), so I'm quite curious what all it took to make that possible(other than a low-frontal area streamliner like the Carp). That's an impressive distance in such a short period of time for not using a motor. Was it a set course or was this done on public roads?

Ive been stopped but never told that I couldn't ride it, if they did I would ignore it.

I've had bad experiences with cops when I was doing nothing wrong before, and I currently live about 1 mile from where Michael Brown was shot and some riots occurred, so I will need to be extremely careful.

See what you problem is that by LAW motorized bicycles are limited to 20 mph and it is illegal to modify them to go faster. Me, with no motor, am not limited to 20 mph. So I think that you'll need a motorcycle plate and registration to legally exceed 20 mph on your motorized bicycle.

It varies from state to state.

In Texas, 20 mph is the limit for an electric bicycle without the application of human power, but as long as human power is applied, you're legally allowed to go faster and remain an electric bicycle.

In Missouri, if the vehicle's top speed on flat ground doesn't exceed 30 mph and as long as it has an "automatic transmission", it is a "motor-assisted bicycle" and requires a driver's license, but no registration or insurance, even though it will be treated as an automobile for household insurance purposes. This applies even if you have a kids' BMX bike with a 250W setup geared to do 10 mph.

I flew by that same cop doing roughly 35 mph downhill with low effort and I think that made him upset. 35 mph was the speed limit though.