Oh boy now you've done it!
:lol:
* Dons Flame Retardant Suit *
There have been very controversial back and forth discussions on the use of fairings, and in my own research online I have seen so many conflicting reports and wind tunnel tests that I am trying to go with those who have the most years of experience using them myself.
I have only used a fairing on my up-right DF Tidal Force bike (yes I still own some wedgie bikes even though I am now a devout 'bent biker! :wink:
)
but at the same time I also added a mid-drive test rig, so all I can say is that the fairing definitely made life much easier even when just pedaling as I was performing hyper mile tests initially and using the pedals most of the time, saving the motor for hills on about a 37 mile trip.
I noticed right away that I was virtually unaffected by headwinds since the fairing eliminated the least aerodynamic part of my body, my chest area that seems to act like a sail in the wind with out a proper fairing.
I would think if you are really serious about getting more miles per charge, it's going to be MUCH more dramatically effected by the use more effective gearing than it will be by simply adding a fairing.
According to some I have spoken to with over 25 years of experience building and developing such fairings for both up-right and recumbent bikes, (Zzipper Fairings) there isn't as cut and dry of methods to testing such things, and wind tunnel tests aren't the end-all be all of tests.
There are several factors that go into what makes them work better, and many aren't what you would think.
In their experience, wind socks have often added drag over bents with out them, also cutting back the sides of a front fairing such as these: (from Zzipper's site, not trying to defame any other company or say I have expert knowledge personally)
On the sides where you see cut outs as opposed to this style of fairing:
(just using this as an example, not saying this would be a less efficient fairing than the first)
Depending on the bike, and specific application, they have determined that such simple changes can increase the speed and effectiveness of a fairing.
I cannot give anything more specific in my own experience other than to say it dramatically reduced the effects of a headwind of about 10 MPH IIRC in how I felt while pedaling alone, but I need to get more tests in with a mid-drive set-up and using the fairing and with out the fairing on my Vision R40 to really offer you more.
Zzipper has been building these kinds of fairings since the mid 70's and supplying teams in the Race Across America (RAAM) it's a good read here about the founding of the company and how they got started with building fairings:
http://www.zzipper.com/about.php
Here is a portion of my build log, and if you start on page 4 at the top you can see how much difficulty I have with a nasty headwind with-out a fairing, and how much less with a fairing towards the bottom of the page.
Again, this is all "anecdotal" I don't claim to be a scientist, just recording my experiences and trying to show a repeat of the process under similar conditions, however, these things are affected by soooo much, including temperature, wind, humidity, etc. and I think real world experiences speak for themselves.
I am going to order another fairing from Zzipper as soon as I can decide what style/type makes the most sense, and I might even build a coroplast rain cover of some sort, if I can find enough convincing information and data to make that the most sensible choice.
I too would love to have more of an "all weather" style set-up, and personally, the "Velomobile" option really isn't that practical when you consider how much your body sweats especially when it's hot inside a rolling "green house" that most of them become.
If I build anything, it will be much more open maybe similar to this design that Lightfoot Cycles is experimenting with:
http://www.lightfootcycles.com/FST_allweather_cycles.php
If they can truly come up with something that is going to be four season capable and practical (and we are talking through winter in Montana!) I will be very interested!
I would have a Zzipper front fairing as part of it however.
I'm a little surprised they aren't using a Tadpole Trike for this experiment however, I would believe that would be a very stable platform to work from, especially if you're going to ride in slippery winter conditions.
