Recumbent - I got a Faired Recumbent

The bike is a Worksman Y3K, now out of production.
The fairing was designed by my Daughter Mellisa and her friend Patricia in 1991.
The fairing has a storage compartment inside, and the "hood" can be raised or lowered. I found the fairing works best when the "hood" is set at a 53 degree angle.

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q119/hotbike/photo002.jpg
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q119/hotbike/photo004.jpg
Hood up:
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q119/hotbike/photo005.jpg
Hood down:
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q119/hotbike/photo006.jpg
Rear View
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q119/hotbike/photo007.jpg
Fairing mount detail:
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q119/hotbike/photo008.jpg

Nice. You just missed the Wasco Wild West recumbent race (http://wascowildwest75.com/). You could have tested out your bike against some of the other sporty designs!..:eek: :D

maybe someone can tell me how that bike resembles a recumbent...... maybe I'm missing something here.

sorta crank forward, maybe

The Y3K was marketed as a semi-recumbent.
Look at the length of the chain.

Yes, it would be called "crank-forward".

There are a lot of bikes that don't fit into catagories, so please excuse me while I await a new forum to be started. The Crank-Forward Forum hasn't officially opened yet, this is just a "coming attraction".

Didn't know Worksman made ever made bikes like this. Is it heavy? Got any stats about the effectiveness of the fairing? There is a crank forward forum on 'Bentrider Online. They'd likely be interested.

maybe someone can tell me how that bike resembles a recumbent...... maybe I'm missing something here.
Crank Forward, custom, Comfort Bike, whatever! Think it is a recumbent, and it has a back; why argue? Call it a full fairing and that is where arguments begin! ;-)

countersTrike

Is that fairing made out of sheet metal?? I think you'd get a performance gain just from removing all that excess weight! Cute little CF design though, pretty neat.

Bentrideronline says if the seat adjustment is more or less vertical, it's not a bent. I always look for a seatback and the absence of a saddle as the other two qualifiers; so the Workman only gets a 1 out of 3 score. I'd go with semi-bent though; so if hotbike wants in, it's OK to teach him the secret handshake.

Looks a lot like a Huffy Venice, doesn't it?

No, the fairing is not sheet metal. It's fiberglass with about ten coats of metalic paint.
The Navy says it's okay to call fiberglass "Aviation Sheet Metal", that's what I was taught.

I just got back from riding this Y3K bike to Westbury. It only has seven speeds, so it hurts my legs when I climb hills, I can't stand on the pedals (if that makes it a recumbent) , and it has no high gears when I'm coasting downhill.

This bike is a bastard. Worksman no longer makes it. I can't add a triple chainring, on account there's no place to put the deraileur.
It is not DF, or diamond frame. If you stand on the pedals, you whack your knees on the handlebars.

But between the 70 degree seat tube of the DF, and the flat zero degrees of the recumbent, or even negative 15 degrees on some SWB's, there is a lot of room to change the geometry.

As for the fairing, my Daughter told me make a fairing more like a trucks spoiler (She went on a cross country ride in her uncles Kenworth) and designed this, the Type 9:
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q119/hotbike/00000024-1.jpg

But her friend Patricia said to make the angle of the spoiler adjustable, and to experiment to see what angle the wedge shaped spoiler works best at. I did that, and the best angle , for the least coeficient of drag, is 53 degrees.

WTF is a Huffy Venice?

I don't know how much money you want to sink into it, but you can turn it into a 24/27-speed bike by having a rear wheel made using a SRAM Dual-Drive hub, which has a 3-speed internal hub and a cassette drive that takes an 8/9-speed cassette. It's about halfway down the page here. (http://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/sram.html)

Huffy Venice, 40 pounds, MSRP = $159.95:
http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/I/41Q0VVF7J6L._AA280_.jpg

As for the fairing, my Daughter told me make a fairing more like a trucks spoiler (She went on a cross country ride in her uncles Kenworth) and designed this, the Type 9:
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q119/hotbike/00000024-1.jpg

But her friend Patricia said to make the angle of the spoiler adjustable, and to experiment to see what angle the wedge shaped spoiler works best at. I did that, and the best angle , for the least coeficient of drag, is 53 degrees.

WTF is a Huffy Venice?Oh....you're serious! I thought this thread was a joke til ^ ^. Do you find you go faster with it on there? I'd have thought it would only manage to slow one down, what with the extra weight and all :)

Oh....you're serious! I thought this thread was a joke til ^ ^. Do you find you go faster with it on there? I'd have thought it would only manage to slow one down, what with the extra weight and all :)

To answer your question, I really haven't pushed the Y3K. I don't know how fast it will go. I said earlier, it's only seven speeds.
The Fairing was tested on an upright bike *before* the Y3K was available.
Yes , it did help the bike go faster BUT ,there is a "notch-effect", with the top of the spoiler/ fairing tilted at exactly fifty three degrees , the bike accelerated. I was coasting downhill and the bike must have exceeded 50 MPH, I put the spoiler up to 90 degrees at that point and started using it as an airbrake.
But that was an upright bike, and I was "crouching" behind the fairing, using as a windscreeen for my face.
The Y3K is a recumbent, or has such recumbent geometry, that I cannot crouch over the handlebars.

The best thing about this Type 7 fairing is it serves as a bumper, and has on occasion , dinged or dented a car or two that strayed into the bicycle lane.