time to fully enclose my bike

[bschloop]

Originally Posted by jjackstone

Great idea if you have lots of money or an inexpensive source for the TEG's. It's been a couple years since I checked into them but at the time quality generators were prohibitively expensive. What would you do to keep the cool side cool to maintain the temperature differential?
I assume you have already checked into sources but here is one that I'll toss out.
Hi-Z Technology, Inc.
I have no affiliation with this company--haven't even bought anything from them but ran across their site when I was researching TEG's a few years ago.
JJ

I have been looking at this site for TEG's. Thermoelectric Generator . I have purchased a cheap peltier cooler and tested it at similar temperatures to my motorcycle exhaust. it works, but only puts out .3 watts, and costs $6. They have a small module that they claim puts out 5 watts and only costs $18. That would be <$4/watt making it comparable to many small solar panels. I want to test them out, but it will have to wait until the fairing is finished.

[jjackstone]

Nice find. Not a bad price. Depending on how much a cooling system costs it might make the overall system viable. If you swapped all the lighting circuits out to use LED's the setup could be useful. IIRC most states require headlights to be turned on at all times. That's 50-60 watts hi-beam. Older tail/running lights are probably 12V,2A= about 24 watts. So you could definitely make a good dent in basic operating power. Not sure what power a bike pulls to power the plugs. For some reason I never did check that power level. Good luck with your design.
JJ

[MisterInnovation]

The bike is on hold till after I replace the clutch (bummer) but I can still answer some stuff about it:

All of my lights sans headlamp, are led.
Signals: 0.3 watt leds x2 on at a time = .6w
...............0.3 watt brake light x 12 = 4w
..........55/65 watt h4 headlight = 55w most of the time

Total power draw: 60w most of the time.

The truck to peltier cells is to make a junction with three of them (buying in bulk is cheaper anyways, you can always sell what you don't use.) Two hots on the engine, one flipped on its cold side and attached to the cold side of one of the others. Then wiring the solo cell to heat pump from the engine/exhaust to your power generating cell.

The solo cell acts as a boost to your power generating cell. Using the third cell to to create more intense cool, and a higher temp difference, giving you more power.

As for the skin:
I have hundreds of 4x8 coroplast signs that I can use to test fairing designs before I cut a skin for it.

The car comes first until it warms up enough to want a bike again.

[bschloop]

Originally Posted by MisterInnovation

The bike is on hold till after I replace the clutch (bummer) but I can still answer some stuff about it:

All of my lights sans headlamp, are led.
Signals: 0.3 watt leds x2 on at a time = .6w
...............0.3 watt brake light x 12 = 4w
..........55/65 watt h4 headlight = 55w most of the time

Total power draw: 60w most of the time.

The truck to peltier cells is to make a junction with three of them (buying in bulk is cheaper anyways, you can always sell what you don't use.) Two hots on the engine, one flipped on its cold side and attached to the cold side of one of the others. Then wiring the solo cell to heat pump from the engine/exhaust to your power generating cell.

The solo cell acts as a boost to your power generating cell. Using the third cell to to create more intense cool, and a higher temp difference, giving you more power.

As for the skin:
I have hundreds of 4x8 coroplast signs that I can use to test fairing designs before I cut a skin for it.

The car comes first until it warms up enough to want a bike again.

This is a good estimate of power draw for my bike as well with one major difference. I will be running a cooling fan @ about 40w. this brings electrical load for lights and cooling to around 100w. I do not see 100w being viable from a motorcycle muffler, especially not one getting over 100mpg. less power used means less waste heat to power the TEG's. I think 50w will be a closer estimate. I can do one better for reducing the load by using an LED halo for DRLs and disabling the low beam, and I am looking into an all LED headlight. this might reduce the load to about 75w. as for cooling the TEG modules, a simple aluminum heat sink works so long as it is about twice the size of the module. using peltiers to cool it sounds like a pretty large load added for a much smaller gain. the other option is small liquid cooling blocks like those used on CPUs, but that seems a little excessive.

[sendler]

I wonder if it would be worth it for even 100 watts. If you ride on the highway at 60 mph for an hour at 120 mpg, You will have burned 17,000 Watt hrs of gas. Figure a worst case efficiency of gas to electric of 20% and the 100 Watt hrs of conversion electric has saved you 500 watt hrs of gas or 2.9%. If you only get 50 Watts out of the system you will be at 1.5% gas savings or less.

[bschloop]

Fairing work is moving along apace. I have managed to finish the first of the mounting brackets. here are a couple pics





the long sides have been removed, and will be used as doors at some point. I still need to fabricate the upper mount. I have not yet decided if I will reuse the bracket I made last year, or try to come up with something new. Modifying last years bracket is tempting.

[greenjoe]

Very nice, any idea on cost so far? Do you have to cut out for the front wheel turning, or is there enough room as is? Great job, thanks for the pics.

[bschloop]

any idea on cost so far?

cost estimate so far on this fairing is as follows.
Glass csm $100
resin $100
foam $50
other $50
total $300

These are all estimates, as I've not kept track as well as I should have. Also, it must be noted that the price for CSM includes enough to do the tail as well, and I am using the cheapest available resin.

Do you have to cut out for the front wheel turning, or is there enough room as is?

I have not yet cut out for turning. I will be working on that, as well as adding an upper mounting bracket today.

[bschloop]

I have been set back a little by car maintenance issues of late, but I did have time to adapt last year's upper bracket to fit the new fairing, and cut for the steering clearance. I have been trying to come up with a cheap way to make a mold of this fairing, and have come up short. it seems I will have to bite the bullet, and order pva and lots of resin when I get to that point. the question is, which would be more likely for people to want, a front fairing, or aerodynamic trunk? I could even set up the tail as trunk and panniers that would fit just about any bike with or without the front fairing.

[godscountry]

looking at your cost outlay,I would contact Craig Vetter and see what he has,you might end up spending about the same amount,but your rewarded with a nice professional looking fairing and Craig has a section on his website showing how to cut it out properly for the wheel.I'm all about doing things yourself,but working with messy fiberglass and resin,without the proper tools,ventilation,know how is just a waste of time and years of your life,that fiberglass hangs around,your inhaling it months,maybe it just me?