Sorry – no leads. However if I may comment? Anytime front fairings and tail cones are installed, there are significant variables that will come to play – what bike used – component position for rider size. What may be a best for you would be different for another sized rider. There are ways to find out your personal cd and cdr by Google-ing other websites to use their math formulas. For this site – It will be simple as “101″ of aerodynamics with illistrations. All data that I aquire is seat of the pants observation while riding “real time” with other faired/non-faired bikes.

Windcheetah makes a beautiful/efficient fairings for road use.

Thank you for you interest ~

Most Velomobile riders are lone wolf riders until they socially gather into pods. I saw approx. 40 velomobiles Roll Across AMerica “ROAM” having no difficulty traveling faster than a well season’d upright bike rider.

“Refined” velomobiles are way faster – if – the rider knows how to utilize the generous amounts of available momentum to attack the face of a up-coming hill. If your uncomfortable with 50 mph + down hill speeds – then you will never tap into valuable momentum that feels like kinetic energy.

As you have pointed out – the performance envelope is quite different than up-right bikes. This is where the incompatibility of the different human power vehicles are challenging to deal with. The Velomobile may be of heavier vehicle but can climb slower/easier uphill for no fear of falling over. Velo’s are rocket fast down hill and cruise missles on the level. So where are the up-right bikes now ? ? usually waaay behind. The up-right bike can do only one thing well – “climb”. That is only “one” out of “three” categories of bike performance it does well. I will take being the best of the other two categories any day.

I ride a Socked ti-Rush – - yes the wind buffs me around sometimes when out in the central plains – if it becomes too much – I remove it and tuck up under the front fairing. More times than not – I can wind tach/sail “with body sock” in winds up to 25 mph. The front fairing has always shown to be an improvement in winds from all directions.

You mentioned – going faster with same effort. Yes – I too do a lot of coasting when riding along with upright bikes – even un-faired bents – they say I’m cheating – I say they too can buy one of these comfortable efficient machines. By the way – my first recumbent was a 1997 “Tour Easy”. I immediately noticed I climbed one cog faster than I was on my Cannondale upright. So bents “can” climb.

Take note that picking the flock you want to ride with is important when choosing the bike.

Thanks you for your comments Maciej ~

When riding faired – just one fairing component makes big differences. The difference between the two categories faired/un-faired is huge. The closest faired platform to the un-faired would be the use of a tail box. The lowracer is the platform of choice that gets the most from a tail box.

I’m always in a testing mine set when riding my body socked Gold Rush. When I built my streamliner “Varna shell on a steel Zephyr lowracer” there was so much aerodynamic gain – (like warp speed) comparitivly. I then knew that a body sock was nothing more than a user friendly compromise of minimal aerodynamics – which equated to 30% improvement over a up-right bike. The next cd improvement step from the GR would be the F-40 – then a F-40ized lowracer – then a composite streamliner – the Battle Mountain racer would mean getting back into the Chung research mine set. All of these different platforms I mentioned have huge gains over the other. Tweaking more cd from a given platform like the GR means going out on a few rides with known friends for terrain riding comparisons. This is how I know the Aero Wing tail frame is more efficient than the other two brands on the market. It’s not that theirs isn’t working – the Aero Wing has on going changes from R&D every season.

Thanks for your comments ~

I too like the Quest for open road touring with it’s self-support capabilities. My choice to go Milan SL is based upon my intended uses of TT and credit card touring. I have found that a light weight aerodynamic package is a nice balance for this rider. I have since passed the desire to self-support tour any longer. Warm beds/showers after a hard days ride are more appealing for me than camping. It must be mentioned that the Quest can also provide similar choices with their new XS carbon model. I have ridden both. The Milan SL smaller size seemed to fit me like a glove. Isn’t it wonderful that we have choices of quality velomobiles with active R&D.
Thanks for your comments.

Thank you for visiting the Recumbent Aerodynamics BLOG.

In reference to your concern of the position of the upper mount bar location. Your upper fairing mount may not be in the same location as my bike. Why? There are short stacked bars that are generally found on med and shorter bikes. Then – there are the more standard tall ones usually spec’d on M/L bike and larger. Another element to consider is – where is the rider going to position the bars “high or low” ? ? Take a look at the image I sent. The bike with the clear fairing has the short bars adjusted high, where as the silver painted fairing has the short bars bottomed out. Quite a difference between the two. If you already have the Easy Racers fairing mount – this is where the Aero Wing mounts would also be positioned. The upper mount can be position most any where the rider wants it to be logically. Once the preferred location is determined – “if necessary” – new holes can be bored in the fairing to maintain proper pre-load for the fairing.

As for the lights – – I paint the back of my fairing so to control the green house effect of a clear fairing. I leave a un-painted area near the middle of the fairing for lights to shine through. In the image you can see the lights mounted on the lower horizontal part of the chopper bars. This would be right where the stem clamps on to the handle bars. By mounting lights at the lower location – it leaves the dash board with more space for visual data accessories IE bells, phones, Heart Monitors, Computers, GPS, map holders, etc.

The fairing is Zzipper experiementers kit. Cut as wide and tall as possible.

If you have any more questions regarding the suspension fairing mounts – don’t hesitate to call for details.

Lonnie Morse
503-449-3079