hotbike

Got new MC headlights to replace the MR16 track lights.

Both new headlights installed

LiFePO battery on order, shipped, awaiting delivery...

The new lights have a ring of LED’s around the main beam.


I installed these headlights on my 18th prototype “Model 318”.

hotbike

Maybe a better photo of the lights:




These were sold out by the time I ordered a second set. Not sure if the second set is identical, I’m waiting for them to be delivered.


I’m not at all happy with the UCI rule prohibiting Fairingszz, I find fairings make it easy to pedal into headwinds, and deflect windchill. Also this fairing design has interior space that is equivalent to a handlebar basket, and has a dashboard display. Also a USB charger to keep my iPhone shooting pictures and sending them...

njkayaker

??? The UCI rules don't pertain to your riding.

hotbike

Yes, I know, but the rules stifle innovation in the bicycle business.





I shouldn’t have to build my own. But now that I have gone out of my way to make my own, I shouldn’t have to answer repeated questions as to whether it helps the bike go faster, of course it does. Needs a bigger chainring sure, but it cuts through headwinds nevertheless.

hotbike

1913, aircraft construction consisted of canvas stretched over wooden stringers.

Prior to the 1913 UCI prohibition, this Streamliner set a few world records


This would be a nice project to repeat with carbon fiber /Kevlar.

njkayaker

The point of UCI bicycle racing isn't to encourage innovation. The point of having the rules is to not to have races between different technologies.

hotbike

That may be true, but 99.9% of bicycles still use chain drive, so there is a common technological base.

adamrice 

You can absolutely buy factory-built bike fairings and velocars. Zzipper makes fairings for diamond-frame bikes, but most faired bikes are recumbents (and are trikes).

Tourist in MSN

I do not understand this thread, what does a motorcycle lighting system on a bicycle have to do with UCI and fairings and some photos from over a century ago?

hotbike

Zzipper fairings lack many of the features that I build into my own fairings.
Especially the cargo space.


Coroplast panniers

Creating an airfoil around the panniers

Panniers, shelf space on top of the panniers, and the top compartment, together with bottle holders. Zipper can’t compare.

I was talking to a banker yesterday. I said I could have started an electric bike business in 1986 for $40,000 , but now it’s going to cost at least $7,000,000 , account the ebike industry has gotten so large, and he said “more”.

hotbike

LED motorcycle headlights like these weren’t available in 2018, we were forced to use track-lights.





Lithium Iron Phosphate battery is half the weight of lead/acid

The LiFePO4 battery is fantastic. Saved 1,600 grams ! I’m becoming a weight weenie!

hotbike

Reflection on glass

Bald Paul

You're kidding, right?

hotbike

I’ve done everything within my power to create a Human Powered Vehicle , based on an upright bicycle. (Not a recumbent).

I’m sorry, but your question has to be more specific. I always try to maintain excess capacity, if that’s what you mean.
Cargo version has 6 times more cargo space, but doesn’t give much aerodynamic advantage.

(Edit: yes, I was kidding about becoming a “weight weenie”).

hotbike

Video

adamrice 

Clearly they need to get with the riveted-coroplast program to catch up.

If you want to move your goalposts, then sure, there are no commercially made fairings exactly like yours.

hotbike

To give a synopsis of my project, I started with sheet aluminum and rivets, moved to fiberglass, then moved to Kevlar. Joined the navy as an Aviation Metal Smith (AMS) in 1991, did fiberglass and aluminum repair aboard an aircraft carrier, loaned my Kevlar tools to the HMS Invincible (the Sea Harriers use Kevlar) . And the girls designed two new cargo bikes of the cycle-truck variety
...
So, in my estimation, the difference between a cargo bike and a touring bike is that the cargo bike has the front cargo platform mounted to the head tube, and it does Not rotate around the headset, whereas the touring bike has its fairing (plastic box) attached to the handlebars.
Something could be said for each approach. The handlebars mounted fairing can have nacelles for each hand to protect fingers from windchill. The head tube mounted box exerts downward force against the steering axis and gives the bike a tendency to stay in a straight line.
Now , the catch is, I have no control over the geometry which is welded into each bike. I am now making Coroplast fairings specifically for each bike receiving the fairing. I was naive to assume manufacturers would continue making a specific model bike, and as it turns out, that is not the case. So I would end up making an aftermarket fairing for a bike that is out of production.
Anyway, the cargo version got stolen before I could make a mold of the fiberglass, and that’s the main reason I went back to my 3rd prototype, only in cheap Coroplast instead of fiberglass.

hotbike

This guy is using circle-logic in the design

hotbike

Device Specifications

hotbike

Battery is inside the downtube. Milk crate is tough, what I had in mind for molded plastic fairing.


I have a plan to make the fairing similar to a milk crate, but I would need a plastic injection molding machine with 260 ton press and 5 axis’s.

Bald Paul

Funny, I sort of thought that an upright bicycle was a Human Powered Vehicle. Your version, with the 12v battery, lights, horns, etc, just make the human power part a lot more difficult. All the aero in the world won't help overcome all that additional weight.

Just buy a Chevy Bolt. You can probably get one cheaply now. You'll find them on the lot, parked far away from any other vehicle or structure.

hotbike

You are correct . Every bicycle is a human powered vehicle. I’m just making a statement that , with the sheet-metal (or plastic) and the lights, including marker lights, it’s definitely easier to convince people that the bicycle is a “Vehicle”.

veganbikes

What? What are all these mysterious people classifying a bicycle then? I am going to classify an apple as a ceiling fan.

hotbike

I want to start a movement to have the term Human Powered Vehicle become the politically correct word for “bicycle”.

veganbikes

What about tricycles, unicycles, quadricycles, pedal powered aircraft and boats and the multitudes of other human powered vehicles that are not bicycles? Why do you feel the need to change something just because you put some lawn signs and motorcycle headlights on a cheap old Fuji? I am baffled. I see no issue with calling a bicycle a bicycle, just like I call a door a door. I don't need to call it a "carbon based portal separation device" or something goofy like that.

No need to genericize everything and turn it into this sterile language all the time. A bicycle is a bicycle because it is a cycle with two wheels, there is no need to change that and I can assure you making it more generic won't help. You turn into Ms. Swan from MadTV "he looka like a man"