Recumbent - underseat rack or front fairing

I've got about $150 to burn on my Rans V-Rex, and I need to choose between

a. Terracycle under-seat rack for Rans - about $130
b. Front fairing for SWB (Mueller bubble with mount) that would fit the V-Rex on craigslist - probably $200

In the ideal world, I would get both, but I have to choose one. If I reaaaally convince myself, I might spring the extra $$ for the fairing. Basically, I use the bike as a commuter but tend to use a different bike in the rain. I also like to carry a lot of stuff with me when heading to work. But, it's hard to deny the coolness of the fairing...

What would you all do? Thanks in advance :)

I'd go with the rack. I have a faired bike. I don't think the fairing helps that much unless you reach speeds of 18+mph. My commute involves city streets and intersections. That means lots of stops and starts. I never reach speeds that would take advantage of the fairing. Your commute may be different, of course.

I'd go with the rack. I have a faired bike. I don't think the fairing helps that much unless you reach speeds of 18+mph. My commute involves city streets and intersections. That means lots of stops and starts. I never reach speeds that would take advantage of the fairing. Your commute may be different, of course.

I don't know how effective the fairing may be on the Vrex.
I think the fairing effectiveness starts to kick in at around
15-16 mph for my Tour Easy.

Remember that it's the combined air speed that determines
how effective a fairing may be. Around where I live, 15-20mph
winds are not uncommon. Even at only 10 mph bike speed,
with a 5-6 mph headwind I feel the difference with the fairing
on my Tour Easy. The fairing is always on my bike.

I have an underseat rack on my Tour Easy when I am touring.
It is much better than rear rack mounted panniers for carrying
loads. I have a rear rack that stays on the bike all the time,
but I generally use it only for light items on top.

Iy you regularly carry moderate to heavy items in panniers,
then the underseat rack is probably a big win in terms of
imporved handling.

Jon

thanks for the advice - i've decided to hold off on the fairing in favor of the rack :-)

thanks for the advice - i've decided to hold off on the fairing in favor of the rack :-)

Since I'm friends with the Terracycle guys (visited there yesterday), good for you! :)

Remember that it's the combined air speed that determines
how effective a fairing may be. Around where I live, 15-20mph
winds are not uncommon.

I ride home against 15-20 mph winds quite often which is why I'm considering one for the EZ-1. I also think it would be a big asset for riding in rain and cold weather. The Mueller, however, would about equal the value of my bike so I may have trouble getting this purchase past the family budget auditor!:) It may be time to take a shot at another coroplast project.

The advantage of the fairing is largely dependent on your riding position which is related to the type of recumbent ie. short wheel base vs long wheel base. The fairing on my Gold Rush is a must and you will see must Easy Racer riders with them. I used to ride a Rans Screamer with a fairing and did not find that the fairing helped that much. The low profile of the SWB rider with their feet out in front of their body make them more aero then the LWB rider. I agree with the previous post that a fairing really does not kick in until 15 mph. But as in airplanes it is all about airspeed not ground speed. If you really want to go fast get a LWB with a fairing and body sock.

The other thing about a fairing is that on a TourEasy the fairing extends to about where the rider's hands are. On most SWB bents, the fairing is not that close to the rider. The result is a 'draft' behind the fairing, and the wind flowing over the top hits the rider in the chest. That negates any aero benefit the fairing might have had. The other thing is what shortboat mentioned, the smaller your frontal area is, the less you need a fairing. Still, a V-Rex benefits from one if it's shaped properly.

On a related note, underseat panniers won't be protected by a fairing; they'll hang down in the lower air flow. If you want speed, you should put your gear in an aero shaped tailbox or seat bag. So while they're very useful, they're sort of at odds with the use of a fairing.

'Still, a V-Rex benefits from one if it's shaped properly'

It is true there is a benefit with a faired SWB but not as great as the LWB TE. Alone I do not think it is worth it on the SWB. You have to weigh the cons (extra wt. and harder to transport) aginst the pros. (cost, aero, warmer, necessary with the body sock, looks cool)

The TE was made for a fairing. I feel naked without it and with the body sock you can ride naked!

There are statistics from trials with fairings on the TE. I think it is around 12% increase efficientcy dependent on the test speed.


http://www.pghs.org/science/rubin/bike/

http://www.easyracers.com/vbb/showthread.php?threadid=3708&highlight=fairing

From the Easy Racers forum

I finally found the fairing tests info that were sent to me by Karl
Abbe of ZZip Designs.

One of the tests was conducted by Gardner Martin and his
brother Walter, using a 10 % grade hill that was about 2/10ths
of a mile long (coasting,no pedaling). AVG max speeds reached:
No fairing: 45 mph
ZZipper bubble fairing: 46.3
Tear Drop fairing 47.6
Wind Wrap fairing 48.8
Super ZZipper fairing 50
SZ with body sock 52.6

In another test conducted by R.R.Parks in La Jolla, California,
using a 6-7 % grade hill that was 1.4 miles long (pedaling at
~ 15-17 mph until reaching the top of the hill, then coasting),
the Tear Drop performed signifcantly better than the SZ.
Max speeds reached on individual runs:
No fairing 33.4 mph
Bubble fairing 36.1, 38.8, 39.1, 38.7
Super ZZipper 36.8, 38.0
Tear Drop fairing 40.1, 39.8, 40.5, 40.7
Body Sock not tested

From the Easy Racers forum

I finally found the fairing tests info that were sent to me by Karl
Abbe of ZZip Designs.

One of the tests was conducted by Gardner Martin and his
brother Walter, using a 10 % grade hill that was about 2/10ths
of a mile long (coasting,no pedaling).

Interesting. I wonder, however, if there is a difference in "real world" cycling when the cranks are exposed and your feet are thrashing about in the airstream. Would the tear drop, which doesn't cover the crankset, be as good? And will it keep your feet dry in the rain? I'm still leaning towards a Windwrap for my EZ-1.

I'm not disputing the effectiveness of a fairing on a TourEasy-type bent, but most, if not all published material on SWB fairings are based on commercial lexan fairings that are simply too small to do any good on a SWB. So maybe we're saying the same thing: commercial fairings don't help much on a SWB. So I made my own. Here's the succession of fairings that I've gone through.

My first ones were fairly crude. They helped just enough to tell.




The next attempts were refined a bit. Result: noticeably better speeds. Still heavy, though.





Through these experiments I learned that positions and angles on the trailing edges were very important. You can't fine-tune the commercial offerings enough; so although a compound curve is a slipperier shape, it doesn't necessarily yield a faster fairing. Finally, using what I'd learned in previous fairings, I tried to get the same results in a lighter package. Using this version combined with the spoke covers in back, my cruising speed was about 15% better than unfaired, and I could (and did) pick up another 5% by adding a tailbox. The 'final version' fairing weighs about 3-4 pounds complete with mounts and frame, can be removed in less than a minute, and gets thrown in the back seat for transport. I consider that much easier than transporting a LWB bike, especially one with a front fairing.




I should add that these fairings work best if I have the seat set a notch or two more upright than I would normally ride without the fairing. To make fairings work, you have to go after two somewhat mutually-exclusive ideals: 1) minimize the wind shadow behind them, and 2) make sure your body is in that wind shadow. Zzipper fairings on a TourEasy work because they have just enough coverage to protect the rider's profile and the upright seating lets the rider get close enough for it to work well. Plus, a good setup will have trailing edges that are parallel to air flow. Duplicate these properties on a SWB fairing and it'll work, too.

If weechey is a tinkerer and can find some Coroplast, it can be pretty inexpensive to work with. I had a source which charged $7.20 per 4x8 sheet. All the other parts -- aluminum, hose clamps, pop rivets, etc, are available at a hardware store. My last fairing cost about $40 to make, with some leftover material. Now that I'm into lowracers, I don't work much with fairings anymore. Even a faired V-Rex is slower than a lowracer -- but between the two I'd rather commute on the V-Rex.

That's some nice work, BP! I have a coroplast guy just down the street--$8 a sheet. I built a full fairing for a P-38 several years ago but I started with one of Karl's experimental bubbles. Any pointers on constructing one for an EZ-1? I guess I can start by digging through my old VCR tapes for the original Ed Gin fairing workshop video.

Thanks Dave. Here is the Internet version of Ed Gin's fairing seminar (http://www.recumbents.com/home.asp?URL=http://www.recumbents.com/wisil/gin/fairingseminar.htm), held in Chicago in 1998. I learned from that! I don't use PVC, though; it's too heavy! Instead, I use a combination of 3/4" and 1" square aluminum tubing, and 3/4 x 1/8" aluminum bar. Stuff gets put together with a hodge-podge of velcro, zip ties, pop rivets and glue, and even hose clamps.

A full 'hard' fairing for an EZ-1 would be somewhat of a problem because the front fairing on a LWB almost has to be connected to the handlebars - or have a big slot for the tire to move back and forth. Body socks are a GREAT alternative to a hardshell on a LWB. If I had a TE type bike, I would probably put more effort into prototyping something, but with my emphasis on my SWB, I never figured out how to make a good Coroplast front fairing for a LWB. The ones I saw that seemed to work were crude squares with darts at the 4 corners to create sort of a 'pyramid with the top chopped off' shape. Inexpensive and easy to make, but definitely not as pretty as a lexan fairing. And I don't know how much extra speed, if any, they were good for.

Thanks Dave. Here is the Internet version of Ed Gin's fairing seminar (http://www.recumbents.com/home.asp?URL=http://www.recumbents.com/wisil/gin/fairingseminar.htm), held in Chicago in 1998.

Thanks for that pointer. I found some interesting stuff going through some of Ed's old links including some ideas on a couple fairings that could work on the EZ-1. Ed also had a link to my site at the time but none of the photos survived. It's too bad because the site just disappeared from Geocities and I had accidentally trashed my back up. I recently sound some of the photos on an old zip disk:

Texas P38 Squadron (http://picasaweb.google.com/dave.clary/CoroplastBicycleFairing#)

On a related note, underseat panniers won't be protected by a fairing; they'll hang down in the lower air flow. If you want speed, you should put your gear in an aero shaped tailbox or seat bag. So while they're very useful, they're sort of at odds with the use of a fairing.



On my Tour Easy, the underseat panniers are near the same plane as the crank. Not close enough to the fairing, probably to be "protected", but not making much more frontal area... For touring, the lower center of gravity and better front/rear weight distribution make underseat panniers a big win over rear-mounted panniers in my experience (Tour Easy). You can always add a tail sock or body sock, of course. :)

For some SWB models, there are a number of really nice shaped side/under/behind seat bags. And aero tailboxes, -- though I'm not sure how practical those are for carrying heavy cargo.

Jon

I've got about $150 to burn on my Rans V-Rex, and I need to choose between

a. Terracycle under-seat rack for Rans - about $130
b. Front fairing for SWB (Mueller bubble with mount) that would fit the V-Rex on craigslist - probably $200


And speaking of aerodynamics and racks, are you using one of the more-aerodynamic panniers on the market? The only two I'm aware of are the Rans Crescent (http://www.shoprans.com/proddetail.asp?prod=BPAC0075-65) panniers and the Angletech Techwinds (http://www.angletechcycles.com/accessories/techwind.htm).