Author Topic: Front fairing  (Read 3209 times)

Front fairing
« on: 17 March, 2018, 12:45:21 pm »
Has anyone tried one of these as a front fairing:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Polisport-Childseat-Wind-Screen-Clear-Front-/281987563306?clk_rvr_id=1469365261980&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=twenga&utm_campaign=twenga&utm_param=eyJlcyI6MCwicyI6OTcyMDIzNywiY2kiOiIwMzc3NTgzZDM3MWVhMTc0NmJiMWYyYzU0NTE3ZjY4OCIsImkiOiIyODE5ODc1NjMzMDYiLCJ0cyI6MTUyMTI5MDQ4MiwidiI6Mywic28iOjE1MDAsImMiOjU2ODA4fQ%3D%3D&rmvSB=true

It's quite heavy - 1.4kg; and smallish.  But cheap so might be a good way to try a front fairing for the first time.  And I suppose if I'm happy with that I could upgrade to something lighter.  It would be for a two wheel recumbent conversion, based on a classic Moulton f-frame.
Sunshine approaching from the South.

First time in 1,000 years.

Re: Front fairing
« Reply #1 on: 17 March, 2018, 06:41:21 pm »
It won't work as it looks to flat.
Look at the shape of the bowl at the front of a Steamer/Windwrap fairing.
That the shape your after.

Why are you after a fairing.
If it's speed then a good tail box will give you a better aero advantage.
If it's weatherproofing, then spray still come in from the sides.
The best advantage of a front fairing is it hold the front of a body sock in place.

I use a Streamer fairing on my bent trike because it makes the trike look bigger from the front (better for bullying cars on single track roads) and it deflects bugs over my head at speed ......  ;D

Re: Front fairing
« Reply #2 on: 18 March, 2018, 10:25:32 am »
thanks Tigerbiten - looks like the front fairing experiment can wait.  I have a nicely shaped 'Radical' bag for the back which probably serves as a reasonable bit of streamlining at the back so that will be sufficient.
Sunshine approaching from the South.

First time in 1,000 years.

Re: Front fairing
« Reply #3 on: 23 May, 2020, 01:23:06 pm »
I probably have too much time on my hands at the moment, but have been curious about front fairings since I recently saw someones trike fitted with a Windwrap fairing.

I'm very practical,with an engineering background and have often constructed items for a fraction of the cost of buying a proprietary item. So I often look at things with an 'How could I make that' attitude.

I've seen front fairings made of perspex, corex and fibreglass, but I've never seen a home made front fairing made of clear, flexible PVC sheeting.

Obviously, stiffening pieces would be needed both for rigidity and to hold curvature. Also struts for attaching to the trike frame. But looking on the internet reveals that for about £30 you could buy enough sheeting to pretty much create a velomobile front end.

Has anybody tried this method or even considered it?

I don't want to grow old gracefully. I want to grow old disgracefully.

Re: Front fairing
« Reply #4 on: 23 May, 2020, 05:52:47 pm »
I saw something from ICE Trikes a few years ago for them to race a fully faired trike at the World Champs. It didn't do much in the way of curves in the shape, but it worked.

A friend of mine has opined that the kind of shrink-wrap stuff ones makes RC model airplane wings out of would be pretty good. We've never got round to trying it.

BHPC consider any front fairing as equivalent to a full fairing for classification purposes, whereas anything that starts level with the rider and extends to the rear only rear-faired. There's a big advantage to be had by getting rid of the complex bluff bodies that a cyclist makes up front. And finally there's a benefit to foot and hand warmth and dryness. Terracycle do a series of things here: https://t-cycle.com/collections/windwrap-fairings
Cruzbike V2k, S40

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Front fairing
« Reply #5 on: 23 May, 2020, 07:46:02 pm »
BHPC consider any front fairing as equivalent to a full fairing for classification purposes, whereas anything that starts level with the rider and extends to the rear only rear-faired.

No, the BHPC consider the presence of either a front or rear fairing to be part-faired, and the presence of both to be fully-faired (that is to say, not eligible for Unfaired or Part-faired classes).  A cycle with only a front fairing[1] would count as Part-faired.

IIRC there's something pedantic about the rider's head and torso being visible from the side for the Part-faired and Street[2] classes.



[1] My understanding is that this is aerodynamically silly, as a rear fairing gives a greater benefit.
[2] Where a bicycle with front and rear fairings is permitted, but a streamliner or velomobile isn't.

Re: Front fairing
« Reply #6 on: 23 May, 2020, 09:56:01 pm »
I remember in the mid '90s, I made a front fairing for my homebuilt SWB (with USS), out of a blue plastic barrel, which I remodelled the bottom of, by heating with a hot air paint stripper.

I fitted it for the second race at Abbey park Leicester, and was noticably quicker.

About the same time, there was a fully faired lowracer, which had a polycarbonate (IIRC) 'cockpit cover' that the owner 'blew' by clamping it under a cutout profile, heating in a homebuilt oven, and blowing air under with a track-pump.

Photo of the bike here:



If it ain't broke, fix it 'til it is...

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: Front fairing
« Reply #7 on: 24 May, 2020, 10:33:08 am »
That be sometime F1 droid Nigel Leaper in the imaginatively-named Leaper Low.  It met an untimely end when it lost a 40 mph argument with a sturdy fence post at the Hetton-Lyons circuit.  He subsequently built the Notso1 with bigger wheels and more ground clearance for added cornering ability; this latter is now in the hands of my grate frend Mr Woolrich, who is slowly but surely turning it into a moderately competitive device for Shawn Ballantine, Liam Goodman or any other victim stooge rider who'll fit in it.

1. Because it's not so low as its predecessor.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Re: Front fairing
« Reply #8 on: 24 May, 2020, 04:02:51 pm »
I probably have too much time on my hands at the moment, but have been curious about front fairings since I recently saw someones trike fitted with a Windwrap fairing.

I'm very practical,with an engineering background and have often constructed items for a fraction of the cost of buying a proprietary item. So I often look at things with an 'How could I make that' attitude.

I've seen front fairings made of perspex, corex and fibreglass, but I've never seen a home made front fairing made of clear, flexible PVC sheeting.

Obviously, stiffening pieces would be needed both for rigidity and to hold curvature. Also struts for attaching to the trike frame. But looking on the internet reveals that for about £30 you could buy enough sheeting to pretty much create a velomobile front end.

Has anybody tried this method or even considered it?

If you want to measure one Blade, I have one here to fit on my Trice when I have decided if it gets a motor, or not.
Never knowingly under caffeinated

Re: Front fairing
« Reply #9 on: 26 May, 2020, 08:42:41 am »

If you want to measure one Blade, I have one here to fit on my Trice when I have decided if it gets a motor, or not.

Thanks for your kind offer Nobby. Should I at some point move forward on this I'll take you up on it.

My principal reason for posting was an interest in how anyone that had worked with PVC sheeting had coped with some issues in construction that I'm a novice at. Things like, Do you make a set of cardboard templates first? How to join edges together? melting? hot glue? aluminium H section and pop rivet? What thickness of sheeting did you use?

As someone who's never worked with PVC sheeting, it's very much unknown territory for me.
I don't want to grow old gracefully. I want to grow old disgracefully.

Re: Front fairing
« Reply #10 on: 26 May, 2020, 10:43:12 am »

If you want to measure one Blade, I have one here to fit on my Trice when I have decided if it gets a motor, or not.

Thanks for your kind offer Nobby. Should I at some point move forward on this I'll take you up on it.

My principal reason for posting was an interest in how anyone that had worked with PVC sheeting had coped with some issues in construction that I'm a novice at. Things like, Do you make a set of cardboard templates first? How to join edges together? melting? hot glue? aluminium H section and pop rivet? What thickness of sheeting did you use?
As someone who's never worked with PVC sheeting, it's very much unknown territory for me.

Ian 'Fards' Fardoe may be able to help you there. He has built a couple of velomobiles over the years of corrugated plastic, zip ties and hot glue gun.
He lives out Coven way, I believe. I was told that he has a Fb page but I can't find it, anybody BHPV may well have a phone number or address.
Helpful chap currently using a bright yellow velomobile, I believe.
He used to work with Mike Jenkins. HTTH

Never knowingly under caffeinated

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: Front fairing
« Reply #11 on: 26 May, 2020, 10:53:46 am »
Fards was calling himself Ian Eff in Mr Zuckerberg's Walled Garden last time I looked, but I think he may have been conflated with Lee Wakefield in the Correx velomobile building thing.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Re: Front fairing
« Reply #12 on: 26 May, 2020, 11:55:58 am »
Fards was calling himself Ian Eff in Mr Zuckerberg's Walled Garden last time I looked, but I think he may have been conflated with Lee Wakefield in the Correx velomobile building thing.
I saw him building one in the Waterside nature centre, Wolvo and I think he may have had one from Lee Wakefield, as well.

Ian Eff on Fb; that's him and he is ageing well.
Never knowingly under caffeinated