It is necessary for the next step. All it does currently is hold my commuting stuff and remove a trivial but measurable bit of drag. It's going to take a couple of weeks to completely finish my scheme.

You've never so much as upgraded a wheel? I have the same mentality as the weight weenies and guys with upgrade fever, always wanting to improve some portion of it although I have a different approach to it.

Tell me seriously, you've never ridden in freezing rain and thought wouldn't it be nice if I was warm and dry? You've never wanted to go three or four miles per hour faster with the same effort?

I don't want to rain on your project, even if the rain is something you are looking forward to, but I find rain wear pretty light in contrast to the additions on your winter bike.

That said, how about adding a propeller to generate some electricity that can power your lights?

Seems like the fairing thing should help.....if the kids don't tease you to death :)

You can take the fan OFF of your car......as long as you don't stop for too long.

My wind protection is a jacket w/zip vents to adjust airflow.

Do you have pictures of what you were using for the front, or are you finishing something different now and don't have pictures of what you had before?

I fit a Zzipper fairing to the front.. It helps a Lot. aerodynamics of air flow improves
and the wind goes around, rather than thru the front of your clothing.

this is what I had last year:
http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment...3928[/url]

The kids love it - it's mostly just roadies who look askance at me. ... which they do anyway given my platform pedals & predilection for casual riding attire so that's no loss.

Sure - I meant that I don't change my bicycle between seasons. I change my clothing quite a bit!

3-4 mph faster by building a huge blue thing and mounting it on my bike somehow? Can't say I've thought about it ;). Actually, I took my fenders with the extra long mud flaps off -- I don't mind the rain and wetness that much, and I've ridden in tropical storms on 2 occasions. Fenders for me are just one more thing to bang around on the vertical bike rack and rub, vibrate, etc. They're annoying, and cause me to have to adjust things -- which sucks. I'm too lazy for that anymore.

Quite a bit more than the blue thing; that's just the beginning. I am hoping get more than the 3-4 mph if I build it right.

It's not rain that bothers me. In the summer I don't even bother with fenders, rain gear and so on. I just ride through the storm. It's the cold and rain - mostly the cold - that stops most people. I don't know about you, but around here morning cycling traffic dwindled down to one or two people every few days when it got below freezing and even those diehards appeared to be pretty miserable. I'm not trying to break records for extreme cycling - all I can say is it works and far better than fenders and cold-weather clothing.

Cold doesn't bother me.....much at all really, but I run about 10F hotter than most people it seems like ;).

Rain + cold does suck though, I can't argue with that.

Actually, I love when the trail clears out in November around DC. That's one of the benefits of winter cycling. I see some of the same people out in the winter mornings....so some folks do it, but not nearly as many as this time of year.

After a while you'd think you've seen it all here on BF, but this? This takes my breath away.

:)

The OP has taken some heat over his mods but I applaud him for it. I suppose that winter commuting in Minneapolis will always be something left to fanatics no matter what, but I've thinking more and more that there needs to be a different kind of bike to make it less unappealing. ;)

Something enclosed and on 3 wheels perhaps. I know that these things exist but they're very expensive. I also know that pushing 3 wheels through a few inches of snow is even worse than 2 so maybe the idea is a non-starter.

Anyway, as much as you can use clothing to protect yourself from the elements, a fairing/windscreen would be helpful. Even snowmobiles have windscreens and those guys are wearing full helmets and a lot more gear than cyclists.

how did you steer/shift/brake that sucker with the fairing behind the bars? And fact that there's no top doesn't seem like it'd do that much against freezing rain. I mean I know a lot of it comes from the front when you're moving fast forward, but the top looks like it'd let a lot in.

Had side cutouts for the steering, for full range. I'm trying something different this time, if it works.

In heavy rain your back is going to get wet; it's just a matter of degree. In fact even if you cover the top (too hot no matter what's outside) the spray from under can't be stopped.

Front and sides, almost ready to mount and ride test. I might chance it on tomorrow's rainy commute, if the paint dries enough.

http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment...7&d=1315348683
http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment...6&d=1315348669

edit: oops, I'll fix the attachments this evening.

As just a casual report, I did wind up commuting (approx 10 mi) with it this morning, just some drizzle and light rain but not much cold at 62 degrees. I finished bone dry except for the knees down. Unfortunately what with the storm debris and wet leaves I keep to low speeds and can't say much about handling or wind resistance. Hopefully I'll get a chance this weekend for some solid data with coast-down tests.

It needs some adjustments in the bar panels, as the rub on the handlebars is a bit twitchy. I also still have to construct the bottom front fairing comprised of leg shields and bridging the gap under the fairing dashboard.

Fairing mounted
 

Here is the fairing mounted on the bike, about 3/4 complete. After two commutes I'm pretty confident that it's going to be workable with some adjustments.
http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment...3&d=1315440215

I cant help but like this.. I'm all for being the 'odd man out'. Just needs leg protection like a metropolitan scooter. Pretty sure the leg warmers will hinder aero performance though..

what are you going to do about lateral/rear vision?

Thanks dobbs. What does the leg protection look like on the metropolitan scooters?

himespau, it's not as big as it looks without a rider for perspective so the vision is not an issue. The top is about chest high riding on the hoods and I have to get really low on the drops to look through the windshield. I may move it all up 3-4 inches though.

Personally, I don't understand all the negativity. Do whatever you want with your bike, go for it. (obviously, you are!)

One thing I was wondering about though, and maybe it's been asked and I didn't see it, what about cross-winds?

Where is the door?

The left side swings open, with velcro fasteners at the back. Thanks for bringing that up - I should have said somewhere since that's what most people are curious about.

I haven't ridden this one enough to fully know yet but my impression is it may be more twitchy in cross winds than earlier versions. Mainly I think due to the front being 5 or 6" further forward and greater overall length. That could get worse when I add the leg shields. I'll have to reduce the front somehow. Generally speaking though if I can keep the center of lateral pressure behind the vertical center of gravity the crosswinds are mitigated. It will naturally turn into the wind which counters the wind pressure.

I don't think it's negativity, but rather confusion.

Why make something so much more complicated than it needs to be?

As many people stated, the OP lives in Georgia--curious about the climate in his location, I googled Alpharetta and found that the average low through winter is right at, or just below 32ºF. That kind of weather barely even necessitates long bib tights, I wouldn't even consider thicker "winter bibs" until 15ºF or so. 32ºF doesn't even require winter gloves, just a thin pair of windproof gloves. At first I thought the rear box was to stop road slop from flinging all over the place (even though side spray has never been an issue in my experience), but it doesn't even snow where he lives.

He said he doesn't want to hassle with "extra layers," and wants to reap the "aero benefits" of his fairings--I'm no aerospace engineer, but from the looks of his project, he's actually managed to make the bicycle significantly less aerodynamic than it was at the onset of this project. There are huge gaps everywhere, relatively flat faces at near 90 degree angles, and pockets to cause drag. He's probably spent more time conceptualizing and building this contraption than he would ever (even after several years) spend removing "extra layers."

For 32ºF weather, I can't even imagine wearing more than a pair of full length bib tights, and a thin baselayer under some sort and a jacket. If he was really sensitive to the cold and wind, perhaps a windproof shell over the jacket. I wear those things regularly in the winter and it takes me maybe 5 minutes to change, and I'm no clothing removal wizard (like this guy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNnQx8AoveE).

It's a very confusing endeavor. I remember someone on here in Seattle created a "cockpit" of sorts because he hated the constant rain/mist--that was a much more logical endeavor. I don't mind wearing jackets, and I don't like adding junk to my bike, so it's not anything I'd ever mess around with.

This just seems unnecessary. You're right though, it's his bike and he can do whatever he wants. More power to him.

I'm sure this is fun for him or he wouldn't do it. So the fact that he's spending more time on this than he would dressing in additional layers doesn't matter. He likes doing this and he can work on it at his convenience. Dressing in additional layers is a daily task that he doesn't like.

If I were to be honest, the additional time it takes to get dressed is one of the more annoying aspects of riding in the winter. It probably takes anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes out of my day. This is in addition to the extra time it takes to get where I'm going in cold weather. Now for me, it's cold enough here in the winter that fairings aren't going to allow me to get rid of any layers, but for him, it sounds like they can.

As far as the temps go, the average low is also just that, an average. It means that a on a fair number of mornings it gets colder than that while on other mornings, it's warmer.

omg that thing rules!

The bottom line on that is test data. I spend more time testing and refining from test data than actually conceptualizing and building. I don't have any quantified data on this one yet (I need a clear day and a new digital recorder for that) but I am confident that there is a significant aerodynamic improvement. It's at least one gear better for a given perceived effort.

There are no 90 degree angle surfaces - the front is elliptical and then a slight convex shape on the sides. If you could slice a plane from the handlebars to the tail light it would look a slightly fat airfoil, about 6 to 1 length to width ratio. It is true that covering the gaps improves performance. That's a difficult compromise. At one extreme, I can't imagine trying to actually ride around in one of the fully enclosed low profile HPV. But the gaps do not eliminate aerodynamic gains; look at how street racer motorcycles are designed for example with an eye to aerodynamics. Turbulent air in the gaps can pull the air flow in so that the boundary reattaches to the surface further to the rear. It depends more on shape and angles than on the visual impact.

My decision on the compromise is to retain all of the utility and handling characteristics of a road bike as much as possible, and improve aerodynamics within those parameters. If coast-down tests don't show appreciable performance improvements I'll shift the compromise back towards the more full style.

:thumb::thumb:

Darn straight. What's the point of it all unless you have fun? When I've tried out enough different ideas maybe I can synthesize a more optimal design from them.

It was 57 degrees this morning which is what I like about Georgia; just a little cooler and I won't even need to change at work. It does get bitter cold in the winter mornings though and it will be only me and a couple of die-hards on the roads.

15 below zero last winter was 2 pair of socks, one layer of long johns under jeans, a baselayer and a wool sweater under my jacket, a pair of chopper son my hands and a balaclava on my head. I was toasty warm.

I just don't think we should use the same word for what happens in Alpharetta Georgia in January and what happens in Edmonton, Alberta. In both cases we say "winter" but they are two entirely different animals.