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Upright Bike Fairing

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T O P I C R E V I E W
Upright Mike	Posted - 01/12/2010 : 16:33:52 Below is my conception of a new idea for an Upright bike fairing. Some history of upright fairings: Around 1913-1914 the first streamlined human powered vehicle race was held between two faired upright bikes. In 1914 they were banned by the UCI. Former UCI hour record holder Marcel Berthet went 49.99 km in one hour with a faired aluminum upright in the 1930's. He was 47 years old at the time. In 1974 Olympic cyclist Ron Skarin pedaled Dr Chet Kyle's streamlined upright, sewn by Joyce Kyle to a world record 43 mph. This event helped launch the first speed championships in 1975 as well as the IHPVA. Ron remarked that the streamliner swerved with heart stopping unpredictability. In the late 1970's more streamlined uprights emerged to set records. They too had problems with swerving due to their tall thin shapes with large side areas. In the 1980's fully-faired Moultons (folding bikes with 17 inch wheels) were ridden and raced quite successfully by a team of engineers (Doug Milliken, Dave Kennedy). Jim Glover, Will Kennedy and others were the riders. In 1989, a RAAM team used the AeroEdge fairing. At this time within the HPRA racing circle, only Bryan Tucker http://www.wisil.recumbents.com/wisil/tucker-memorial.htm and myself raced uprights with fairings. With the passing of Bryan, I think I'm the only one left racing them. I'm not going to build a SAIL like has been done in the past by enclosing the bike and rider top to bottom. I figure something up top and then Aero-Boots (please don't steal my patentable idea) around the bottom should help people to go faster on their uprights. World Record speed for an Upright fairing was set by Jim Glover at I think 52-53 mph on the Indianapolis speedway. My speed lists have him doing 51.2 mph at the 1986 speed championships in Vancouver. In 1998, I spent about 3 months devised this fairing during a Masters-level engineering problem solving class. My classmates and I found 14 patents related to upright fairings for bicycles. Its an idea I've had languishing now for all these years. It's not my goal to break this mark, as I know my fairing will not be as aero as some of these earlier fully faired machines. I hope I go at least a respectable 40 mph over 200 meters and maybe 30 miles in one hour. With the design I show, I hope it would be lot more controllable than the earlier fully-faired machines. Someone's got to bring some respectability back to uprights! I welcome all comments and criticisms! Mike Mowett My past experiments with the spandex bag - AeroEdge fairing. This was developed in 1989 for RAAM. I narrowed it, but still only get about 1.5 mph average cruising speed increase (from say 23.5 mph to 25.0 mph) from it. It definitely needs a tail fairing section. - Here I'm doing 37 mph in a 200 meter qualifying run at Battle Mountain in 2005... Wearing prototype Aero-Boots installed at Battle Mountain in 2005... These were just cut up detergent and Armor All plastic bottles taped together.
25 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First)
Speedbiker	Posted - 03/02/2013 : 16:29:10 Looks just like what you used to be able to buy.
Upright Dave	Posted - 03/02/2013 : 15:11:08 I have short video of me warming up. Now I know why everyone is laughing or has big smiles when I go by. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDuj2q6zVM8&feature=youtu.be
Grant-53	Posted - 02/27/2013 : 16:51:16 I appreciate what you have done so far. Using the basket as a frame for the fairing is logical. It is the fact that the basket is attached to the fork and handlebars that gives wind load input to the steering. The fairing needs to be mounted to the frame. If the fairing is large enough the basket can turn inside the fairing. Another option is to use low rider front panniers and blend the fairing with them. Once I get my fairing smooth and stiffened I will look at a unified paint scheme.
AviationMetalSmith	Posted - 02/14/2013 : 10:00:13 The wind is worst when you are near the water. Coroplast can catch the wind. Two weeks ago I was riding along the Glen Cove Waterfront Bikeway, and I encountered wind with gusts as high as 50MPH. It took great effort to move at 3MPH. Direct headwinds weren't that bad, but the crosswinds made me stop near a lamp-post , so I'd have something to hold onto, LOL. I was on the paved path, not the floating dock. The bike would've ended up in the water; this photo was taken on a different day. The design is meant to combine a Fairing with a Handlebar Basket. Here is one more photo: This shows the "Type Eleven" after a midnight ride, when I picked up a piece of furniture someone left out-at-the-curb. The Fairing and Panniers were wrapped in gift-wrap. I would like to re-do the whole setup in Carbon Fiber, instead of Coroplast. But this is it, for now.
Upright Dave	Posted - 02/13/2013 : 18:34:52 Update: Everything is working fine. Performance is down though coming out of winter. I won't be getting different handlebars. Its too dangerous in crosswinds. Much safer with the drops in 2 foot margins if the winds are up. I can signal to turn too. I just reach my hand out the bottom of the sock while on the drops.
msol	Posted - 01/05/2013 : 14:36:07 http://www.zzipper.com/documents/HPV_Paper.pdf features a drawing of ihpva founder Chester Kyle upright streamliner; are there pics of this bicycle?
Grant-53	Posted - 12/22/2012 : 08:51:18 I am also finding that having a tail box on a standard diamond frame makes for a hassle throwing my leg over the seat or top bar. I bought some hinges to make the rear section tip back some day. The pivot point would be near the back of the rear tire. Some kind of lock or latch would be useful to hold it in both positions. Thanks for the pictures.
Upright Dave	Posted - 11/29/2012 : 18:00:40 The seat post clamp would work for the tail fairing, then maybe some steel rod attachments going to the rear stays. Problem is getting your leg over the whole thing. So maybe if it pivots down while you mount the bike, then pivots back up. With the Moulton, it has a low step height so no problem getting on the bike. With the smaller wheels, overall length is shortened. Still just as upright as a regular upright though.
Grant-53	Posted - 11/29/2012 : 17:40:25 It looks like you could mount the ZZipper to a piece of angle aluminum clamped to the head tube. This would let you extend the Lycra or coroplast lower to just below the knees. A seat post rack could be the support for a tail piece ala the Oscar Egg Rocket.
Upright Dave	Posted - 11/29/2012 : 08:37:16 Nice pics! I knew they were hiding in here somewhere. The only bullhorn bar that would work for my bike without changing everything would be a nitto b264. Kind of pricey for such a small handlebar.
Upright Mike	Posted - 11/28/2012 : 18:19:33 Some picts of me racing at Waterford in 2006 - I had my fairing on my slower Trek upright bike, not my Cervelo. My Trek upright has a front Rockshock that I added to it. Also it has an old Profile one-piece aerobar/cowhorn bar. http://www.wisil.recumbents.com/wisil/racing2006/waterford/waterford2006.htm World-famous low-racer Sean Costin was much faster than me that day. Front view - my bars stick out alot.
Upright Mike	Posted - 11/28/2012 : 18:08:14 Upright Dave! It's exciting seeing the progress of your fairing! Finally - a brother of mine after all these years! Yep, I do tuck the back of my fairing underseat to keep it from riding up. Also I had slots cut in my spandex in order to let my hands out to grab the drops. There was of course some aerodynamic penaltly, but not alot to notice. I did over 39 miles at an avg of 23.4 mph with this setup on the Waterford track in 2006. I've also bought a bull-horn handlebar but never got around to trying it. I also bought the narrowest drop handlebar you can buy - I think it was a 38 cm wide bar. I also got a pursuit bar (moustache bar) None of these three bars made it onto a bike setup. My faster configuration was the bike I rode below - (best of 25.4 mph average over a hilly loop course) As you might now, I took the risky route and just cut off both sides of my drop bar, leaving the section in the middle that my aerobar was mounted too. Then I took out my frame that was spreading my fairing apart. Getting rid of these two things allowed me to squish my fairing about 4 to 5 inches narrower. Riding with just the aerobars might seem risky, and admittently I didn't ride it much on the street, only on the track and in races. I have a Profile bolt-on aerobar with flip-up armrests. Underneath the armrests is the cut-off portion of the main bar, only about 8 inches wide total. this gives me something to grab onto when I want to get a bit more upright, but I had no brakes or shifters mounted there. They were on the ends of the aerobars. In races like the kilometer sprint or 1/4 mile dash (best of 30.9 seconds, nearly a 30 mph average from a standing start), I would start out by gripping the straight bar, accelerate, then drop onto the aerobars and start shifting.
Upright Dave	Posted - 11/27/2012 : 18:33:32 I could extend the sock lower and cut slits for the drop levers. No problem there. Then cut access slits for my hands to go through it and grab the drops. How much more speed will I get? Probably not much. I was thinking of making an adjustable tensioner in the back since I can already tell its stretching a bit. Since there's no hems on the spandex bottom, the edge does flutter some when I'm on the aerobar. It doesn't move much if I'm on the drops since my arms are touching it. I don't have a sewing machine yet. I thought about the tail fairing and did a mock up with the paint program and it looks pretty ugly. The steering tension was a little weird at first but I'm ok with it now. This was just a quick sock to see if it worked. I may try to improve it later.
Human	Posted - 11/27/2012 : 01:13:22 I do not understand why covering the handles behind the lycra is an issue? How does the lycra interfere with the steering if the handlebar is behind the fairing that is holding the lycra. Have you given any thought to a "tail fairing"
PUGZCAT	Posted - 11/16/2012 : 16:26:10 Switching the handlebars to narrow mustache style flipped upside down should tuck things up inside the fairing and you will be able to use the drop bar levers on the bends and shorten up the cable housings a little.
Upright Dave	Posted - 11/15/2012 : 12:00:10 Good news! The body sock works! Did my run again and got a whopping 25.5mph avg! Up .67mph from just the fairing. Every little bit helps. Stability seem to be ok with 2 foot margins at times. Turns a lot of heads too.
Upright Dave	Posted - 11/10/2012 : 22:28:02 Thanks. I can't go lower with the spandex unless I change the handlebars. Maybe the bottom middle. I wanted to retain the drops for the added control of the bike in traffic. The fairing is the same frontal area as me so the drops stick out. I pondered going to a bullhorn bar but decided not to. Probably won't be able to hand signal. So oh well. I can get to all 3 positions on the bike with no problem with the semi open back. Picture: Drops/brake levers sticking out.(lycra not stretched)
warren	Posted - 11/10/2012 : 20:27:07 Looks good, Dave. You could fill in a fit more with the Lycra on the bottom side of the bubble for some more speed.
Upright Dave	Posted - 11/10/2012 : 15:16:29 Success! Well almost anyway. It feels pretty fast! I used upholstery thread, needle and plyers to help pull the needle through the industrial strength velcro. Got the football heavy weight spandex on ebay for $5 a yard+ shipping. Velcro was $8 for 5'x2". I cut it in half to make it 1". Just one issue with the spandex lifting off the back seat. Need some velcro back there to keep it in place. It seems there's two ways to do this. You can either sit on the bodysock or wrap it under the seat. From Upright Mikes's 200m video it looks like he has wrapped it under the seat. My body sock:
Upright Dave	Posted - 11/01/2012 : 19:39:21 My first run with fairing #3 was pretty good at 24.9mph. Need a couple more runs though in case it was a fluke. Best run without the fairing was 23.9mph. Best run with fairing #2 before it broke was 24.4mph. I will be doing the body sock but it might be awhile.
Upright Dave	Posted - 11/01/2012 : 19:31:04 quote: Originally posted by Grant-53 http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/z385/wgconnor/P6290050.jpg This is a photo of my commuter fairing That has a nice shape to it. Less time consuming to make also.
warren	Posted - 10/30/2012 : 09:18:45 Nice!
Upright Dave	Posted - 10/29/2012 : 20:34:01 New Fairing! The last petg fairing I will ever make. It's my best looking one so far.
Upright Mike	Posted - 10/28/2012 : 07:15:27 I have information and/or have owned all those fairings. It will take me a while to dig it up. I've own and still own the Zzipper and BreezeCheater and AeroEdge. I believe the story goes the BreezeCheater was turned upside down and the AeroEdge mold taken off that. I got this information many years ago from talking directly with Brian Spence who created the AeroEdge. The Breezecheater is currently at my friends house, so I couldn't get a picture of it now, plus I'm heading out for a ride. Earlier this year in the basement of the Bicycle Museum of America in Ohio, my friend and I saw the 4th commercially available upright bike fairing, the Breeze-Eaze, I think it was called. This was made I think in Grand Rapids Michigan.
Grant-53	Posted - 10/27/2012 : 10:17:50 http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/z385/wgconnor/P6290050.jpg This is a photo of my commuter fairing

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