My Visit to the Vetter Workshop
 

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to visit Craig Vetter’s workshop as he worked with elite hypermiling motorcyclist, Alan Smith to adapt the Vetter streamlining to Alan’s 250 Ninja.

The day began with me meeting Alan at his home in Castro Valley and us riding our bikes southward to the Carmel Valley. Traffic was still fairly heavy but we knifed the stoppages with our narrow, streamlined bikes with ease. In the gridlocked urban roadway environment the 2- wheeler is king! Alan’s 250 easily maintained a comfortable pace and demonstrated the adequacy of 20+ horsepower for our transportations needs.
We were able to enjoy some twisty backgrounds as we neared Carmel and Craig’s home.

Craig has a beautiful home on some wooded hillside acreage as well as his workshop/storage building. Craig welcomed us warmly and we proceeded to the workshop. Craig and Alan had been working on developing a kit so other Kawasaki Ninja 250 owners could quickly add streamlining that has the proven benefits of the Vetter design. The concept is to develop templates that that can be laid out on aluminum stock and cut to the correct shape for assembling into the framework. The framework is then attached to the motorcycle and covered with the milk-carton sheeting, similar to what Craig has done with his Honda Helix scooter.

It was interesting to see the plans and detail work needed to make and assemble the planned frame members. Alan and Craig are both very accomplished fabricators while my skills are those of a hobbyist. We worked on assembling the bulkheads for the long tail section. After a couple of hours it was time to break for lunch so we rode our bike down to a nearby Mexican restaurant.

At lunch we discussed quite a number of topics, among them, the need for our nation’s energy independence from foreign oil. It was great to be able to talk with my new friends on subjects that we are passionate about; motorcycling, personal responsibility and mechanical efficiency and individual freedom.

After lunch we returned to our work. Unfortunately my visit was cut short by a family emergency that needed my prompt return to Livermore. None the less it was a wonderful experience. For more details on the Ninja project check out Craig’s website, Craig Vetter, designer and inventor of the Windjammer fairing,Triumph Hurricane Motorcycle and fuel economy motorcycles . Also Craig asked me to extend an invitation to motorcycle hypermilers to join us in our next fuel economy run, a ride from the Red Rock Casino in Las Vegas NV to Barstow CA on the morning of 11-20 -2011. Please RSVP if you plan on joining us.

All the best

Wish I was there! Thanks for sharing!

Pictures pleeeese.

Sounds like a neat day! I have been following Craig's and Alan's work on the Ninja. It will be interesting to see just how much of an improvement the tail will deliver.

Post some photos if you have them.


Jay

Thanks for the report. Craig is doing what many of us would like to do.

Most importantly of all though, he is the one person documenting is efforts and those with a similar train of thought thoroughly on his website. This is a great effort so we all may learn and support the research he and others are doing.

I urge everyone that is doing mods to establish a build thread for thier vehicle. Take time to document as thoroughly as possible with repeated results.

I'll be in Las Vegas for the ride but I'll be in a rental car as I'm there for work. I hope to take alot of pictures and assist with recording and documenting the event.

Thanks for your comments. I plan on taking lots of pictures of the fuel economy run and the ride there from the SF Bay Area to Las Vegas. Alan Smith and I will be riding our streamlighters to the event. It will be interesting to see how well Alan's new Vetter- developed tailsection works as well my latest tweaks to my bike and be a lot of fun.

Beater 911, It will be great to meet you in Las Vegas. I'll send you a PM with my contact info . Also Alan and I were thinking about riding up to the Lacey WA fuel economy event next year so any info you could share with us would be appreciated.
all the best , L&S

Have you posted info or photos of your streamliner here anywhere?

I'd like to see it and learn more about it.

Thanks.


Jay

Hi, I have made quite a few changes since I last competed at the 2011 Quail Run Vetter Challenge; I made a frame-mounted fairing with lowers to replace my handlebar fairing, made a fully faired front fender, added a longer and taller boattail, made smaller mirrors, faired in the turn signals and put on a larger rear tire to lower the engine RPMs. These changes have improved fuel economy about 10% to 15 % from what I was getting previously.

During the Vegas to Barstow Challenge , my bike handled the direct headwinds with only slight movements. The side winds were pretty strong and forced me to slow down to ~ 60 mph at times to maintain control of my motorcycle. I then sped up to catch up with the group. I was also forced to lean and counter-steer strongly to maintain my lane position during some of the strong side gusts. Passing the numerous trucks produced some movements but I was usually able to maintain my speed to complete the pass. Compared to the other bikes mine was the most affected by the winds.

My 550cc Vision ( 62 hp) had plenty of power to easily maintain the 70- 75 mph cruising speeds including the climbs up the passes and the 80+ mph runs to catch up with the group.

My fairing provided good protection from the wind with only my helmet, hands and feet exposed. I was quite comfortable during the ride.

IMHO the length of that front fender in front of the tire is causing your xwind steering sensitivity.

Frank You are absolutely correct. When I changed from a large fender to a fixed nose on my Burgman the steering under cross wind conditions was remarkely better.