Simple (and practical) streamlining?

[sendler]

The biggest reasons to mod a motorcycle are to make it more useful by allowing it to carry things and to protect you from getting cold in rain. A plank style luggage system is very versatile and cheap and a small windscreen that you can lean down behind to get out of the rain are big improvements.
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[elhigh]

I can't remember where I read it - it was literally decades ago, possibly in an article (Popular Mechanics? Science? God knows) about human powered vehicles, that said at 25mph about 75% of a bicyclist's energy went to aero drag. A motorbike isn't going to be any better.

Aero starts to become an issue at jogging speed and only gets worse from there.

I expect your biggest gains will come from a tail, though your greatest riding experience improvement may come from a nose.

[Michael Moore]

Originally Posted by woodsrat

Thanks for the ideas.

Here's a question for you. At what speed does aerodynamics really start making a difference on a motorcycle?

Look here:

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...tml#post277230

cheers,
Michael

[2005_rs]

I've been looking at the same problem for my '08 CBR 125. Tucking makes a huge difference at 50 mph and above. The bike is very well streamlined but I'm not, especially at 6'2".

Has anyone heard of streamlining the rider as opposed to the bike itself? I'm thinking of a stretchy lycra 'cape' that would snap onto the front fairing, go over the shoulders (the least aerodynamic part) and tapering to the tail of the bike.

[jkv357]

Originally Posted by 2005_rs

I've been looking at the same problem for my '08 CBR 125. Tucking makes a huge difference at 50 mph and above. The bike is very well streamlined but I'm not, especially at 6'2".

Has anyone heard of streamlining the rider as opposed to the bike itself? I'm thinking of a stretchy lycra 'cape' that would snap onto the front fairing, go over the shoulders (the least aerodynamic part) and tapering to the tail of the bike.

Interesting idea, can't say I've seen or heard of that before.

Any air that got under it would make it a parachute, and any buckling or flapping would create drag.

I would think it would be difficult to make it work.

[sendler]

Originally Posted by 2005_rs

Has anyone heard of streamlining the rider as opposed to the bike itself?

Streamlined recumbent bicycles have used lycra bodies.
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[Grant-53]

The old rain capes had loops for the hands on the brake hoods. No tail section See "Effective Cycling" by Forrester. I have had a nose piece collapse at speed so a hard shell front piece is needed for highway speeds. Behind the rider's back plate lighter materials can be used. Lycra does not provide the abrasion protection of other materials.