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Originally Posted by aerohead
I'm still struggling with the original 'shape' of the the trike:
* the belly should all be on the same plane.
* the belly should not slant upwards towards the rear by more than approximately 3-degrees.
* the lower body, behind the front wheels should not have a reflexed surface at all.
*the lower body should just have a 'cambered' contour, like a fish, dolphin, falcon, the 'same' width as the upper portion of the body.
* the 'loose' fit of the canopy, compared to the body suggests that there would be some unwanted interference drag all around the gap, as well as the exterior surface.
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All true. But luckily the canopy in its present state is already an improvement. Which does not mean that i am not thinking about further improving it.
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*the volume of the wheelhouses seem 'enormous' compared the needs for 'wheel-flop' of the steering.
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But the wheels actually do touch the inner walls.
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*if the front wheels cannot be enclosed, the wheel-arch-to-tire gap should be the absolute minimum.
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AFAIK, there should be a different shape in the upper half of the wheel streamlining the vortex coming out of the wheel box. Learning on that is one of the reasons why i left out that area for now and concentrate on the front part of the wheel box before i do the back part.
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* the wheels should be completely covered with shallow, convex, 'MOON'-esque wheel covers.
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As the old ones made of fabric are worn, they will be replaced but such discs. The manufacturer is in summer holidays...
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* a one-piece, slip-on, quick-release truncated boat-tail, would be the single-most effective streamlining addition you could make.
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I still do not understand why my attempts failed - and i have to improve the stiffness of the velomobile in order to make a better one like the tail made by the other guy.
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* if you use epoxy resin, you'd still need to ventilate your apartment, as with polyester resin, but there'd be no 'odor' and no upset to your neighbors.
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I am currently doing my 1st attempts with epoxy - soaking the cardboard covers added into the wheel boxes with epoxy. Tomorow i'll see if that idea works. They actually do close the gaps to the wheels as far as possible. And if that works i can continue toward the back and also into the interior of the wheel box and take away unnecessary volume.