Why streamline bicycles vs. just add a fairing ?

[Cd]

I was waiting for the doctor ( just under three hours ) and had some time to look over the magazines there.
The headlines on the cover said " worlds fastest bike ".

But it was a bicycle not a HPV ... and not the Velox3.

I was just wondering why it is that so much effort and expense* go into improving the aerodynamics, when a simple fairing would cut the drag in half !
Why spend over ten times the cost of a standard bicycle frame, shave your legs to cut drag, etc, when a simple piece of bent cardboard would drastically reduce drag ?

( *the bicycle costs $ 12,000 dollars ! )

[Cd]

Wow - I had no idea how stupid expensive bicycles can be.
This thing goes for $ 500,000. 00
That's five
hundred
thousand
dollars

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Cd

Why spend over ten times the cost of a standard bicycle frame, shave your legs to cut drag, etc, when a simple piece of bent cardboard would drastically reduce drag ?

Because the rules of the organizations that govern bicycle racing allow shaved legs &c, but not fairings. (Otherwise all the Tour de France competitors would be riding recumbents.) A lot of recreational cyclists are wannabe racers, or at least appear so from their choice of apparel.