I'd like to see what time you would get with the Shimano Alfine 8 speed hub. Would suit your bike! the 11 speed will be even better but double the price.

puppypilgrim, I'm impressed by the fairing. Please let us know if you're still satisfied with it when the cold weather comes.

OT from the fairing, what rear rack are you using? I might want to put it on my Swift.

Urbanis,

I can already surmise that it is a safety device when the cold and wet comes. Why a safety device? Because the rider will be more comfortable and therefore, more alert instead of being distracted by the discomfort of wind and cold. On a portion of the ride home today, the wind started gusting and turned into a headwind in some portions of the commute, while the fairing bore the brunt of the headwind, my chest did not feel it. It is easily worth 1 layer of clothing. Yes, some people think its goofy looking and people stare (could be good or bad). It works for me.

Truth be told, I miss the ability to fold the bike. But everytime I'm not fighting the wind and cold and my visibility with other motorists sharing the road is improved, I think its worth the trade off.

For me in the city I live, I am only happy to be a visible bicycle commuter using the city's bike lanes so that the budget for bicycle infrastructure appears to be justified. The route I take is on the main roads. Many cyclists use the designated bicycle route which is away from the main road leading some of the driving public to conclude that money is being wasted on cycling infrastructure.

As I need to duck below the top of the fairing at times, I am feeling the need to modify my cockpit to stretch out more into a time trial\triathlon position. Flat bars with bar ends alone won't let me do that. <sigh> Upgraditis in full blossom here...

Urbanis,

Oops forgot to answer your question about the rack. Its a generic rack from another bicycle so it doesn't have a name :-(

Some stare because they're interested or its a novelty, others well they are just sad people.

I love eccentricity, and I understand eccentricity, if that's possible....Heck, I include mulleady as one of my 'net friends...now that is eccentric!!, but if I were to use that screen around here I would get beat up.

Notice how I used the words eccentric, eccentricity and mulleady in the one sentence?

..... sorry, Francis.

Just don't include 'love' and my name in one sentence or I'll eccentrically send Sesame to oz to crunch you!

Besides aren't all folding bike or quirky bike users eccentric because we appreciate something that's different from the majority? Ahh got you there Gor with your R20's lol!

After being surprised by essentially the same time taken during the 20 km commute with the fairing compared to without, I am thinking that any gains on the flats is being lost on the climbs. Hmmm, isn't this how the Tour de France is won? LOL.

The fairing only adds weight and does not assist during climbs and except for small portions of downhill, the second half of the commute after the bridge is pretty much uphill. Sooo, after putting my daughter to sleep, I went from 66 gear inches to 62 inches. I will ride this this combination for tomorrow's commute and see whether my time improves. 62 is also a magic gear so no chain tensioner needed. Regardless of time taken, I'm a lot more comfortable behind the fairing. A lot. This benefit should not be underappreciated.

Puppypilgrim
I think the screen is a great idea. One benefit would be riding in the wet behind other bikes, and I think Jur's suggestion of putting more of an angle on the screen would make it more aero-dynamic, thus increase your speed.

Mulleady, I know you need and would a big hug right now.... ya big lug ya

I remember all the "fun" keeping an Ice hockey visor clean!

Might be interesting in the UK winter. Interesting.

About to head out to work. It rained all day yesterday so the road is now wet and dry in patches but definitely cold. I'm going to be glad for the fairing. I figure the lower gear (62 gear inches) will help keep me warm and speed my climbs on the hills. Tell you about it later. My time so far has been 51 minutes 29 seconds.

So its 20 km door-to-door and usually takes me 51 mins. 29 seconds which is an average of 23.3 km/h (the long uphill from Kent Ave. to Kind Edward Ave is a killer). Last night after I put my daughter to sleep, I switched my bicycle gear from 66 gear inches to 62 gear inches. This lowers the gear and makes it slightly easier to climb uphill although speed on the flats is reduced. This has the effect of increasing my cadence.

I woke up early this morning before the alarm rang and had 2 tablespoons of peanut butter and 2 pears with a cup of coffee for breakfast before heading out. The higher cadence meant my legs felt "light" most of the time. Climbing inclines, I did not feel as if I was going as fast as before because I did not feel as much resistance.

Contrary to my expectations with a lower gear, it took me 49 minutes 15 seconds door-to-door this morning which amounts to a reduction of 133 seconds (2 minutes 13 seconds) or an improvement of 4.3%. This is a fairly notable gain.

For my commute with includes a fairly long portion uphill, I am 4.3% faster spinning a lower gear of 62 inches and averaged 24.4 km/h (roughly 1.1 km/h faster average). I don't know how much of this to attribute to the fairing. A fairing generally helps one of several ways:

- maintain a given speed with less effort than without a fairing
- achieve a higher speed with the same effort than without a fairing
- increase rider comfort

Since I don't have multiple gears, I am unable to go faster on the flats to raise my average speed on the flats than what I can spin with 62. The gains must be coming from the uphills portions of the ride. I also note that 62 gear inches allows me to accelerate more rapidly from traffic lights and reach my cruising cadence sooner. 100 rpm equals 18.4 mph (29.6 km/h).

So there you have it. Lowering a gear and spinning yields a faster time than mashing - even with a fairing. Its also less stress for your connective tissues. Of course, one individual's experience does not a principle make. Your mileage may vary.

But it is anti-fold! Now find a folding fairing and we can talk lol!

My Dahon Helios does not permit a normal stem extension to move the handlebars foward. After about 240 km of commuting with my previous setup you can see in the pics above, I needed to stretch out and lower myself a bit more to take advantage of the fairing more efficiently.

I experimented with a long stem which moved my flat bar with bar ends forward and higher. However having a too long a stem negatively impacted steering and prevented me from out of saddle acceleration and climbing.


The picture above shows the bike mounted with Kalloy trekking bars. The yellow line shows where the bar is clamped to the Dahon handlepost. The red line shows where the handlebar would be clamped to a forward stem. The closer this point is to the front wheel's axle, the stranger the bike's steering will be. To move the handlebars forward so I could stretch out WITHOUT mounting a stem to the handlepost, I resorted to trying a trekking bar.





There are varieties of hand positions:
1 - Feels like being on the drops of a drop bar
2 - Feels like large bar ends but provides better leverage for climbing since the trekking bar is wider
3 - Is for easy cruising and "sitting up"



This setup allows me to achieve a better tuck behind the fairing without being uncomfortable. Out of saddle climbing is also stronger due to better leverage from the wide bars.

Just updating this thread...after commuting regularly for a couple of weeks, I have made the following modifications to my setup:

- removed the fairing (for now)
- raised my handlebars about 2 inches above seat height
- adopted an Alexander Technique to riding posture
- removed trekking bars & returned to narrow flat bars and very short bar ends
- re-installed 8 speed gear cassette yielding a gear range of 31" to 91"
- removed Zefal toe cups\clips
- replaced MKS quick release pedals with BMX platform UV glow pedals (that's what the store had) for stop & go city traffic

Wow, you went back to geared!?

Your experiment was fascinating for us to follow. I learned somethings about fairings, that's for sure. Thanks for documenting this journey and sharing with us.

Sesame,

Yes, I have the gears back on for now...I still prefer the ride of a singlespeed. Several surprises for me...(I emphasize this is a N=1 city commute ride):

- riding posture doesn't seem to change the time taken for the commute very much. I rode tucked in like a racer, I rode upright using Alexander Technique. The plus\minus times was within 2 minutes on a 20 km ride which averages 51 minutes 30 seconds plus or minus. Therefore, I decided to ride using a posture that maximized comfort and motoring visibility for safety as I ride among traffic in the city. This for me meant the Alexander Technique.

- One's attitude when dealing with hills is more important than whether one has gears. One can mash the pedals or sit and spin. With lower gearing, the heart doesn't race as high as if one was mashing and grinding. I do think with our folders, that sitting and spinning favours our type of bicycle.

- I realize how much I hate having to shift. One has to shift before coming to a complete stop at every light. I may yet revert to a 62 gear inch single speed and be done with it.

-

It's been a while since I've posted here. I have a compact non-folding 2007 Dahon Smooth Hound. I really liked your fairing experiment. You should tell us why you now aren't using it. Are you now preferring to fold the bicycle?

I chose the Smooth Hound because it had a front suspension. I added a Cane Creek Thudbuster for a rear suspension. I like having gears but I don't like the derailleur system with the bar end shifters. Due to my back and neck having some problems I now need to ride sitting upright. My Smooth Hound will be getting major changes this year. I want to add tall handlebars and the latest version of the Fallbrook Technologies NuVinci infinitely variable hub. To do this I'll need a new rear rim because the stock one doesn't have enough spoke holes.

Perhaps you could use one of these in your bicycle. It would allow you to have the perfect cadence in all conditions and you can shift it while stopped. Those features are the reason I want one. Additionally I won't need to worry about maintenance on the derailleur system.

In the upright position I don't think a fairing would be tall enough to help me unless it was customized. Years ago I saw a Moulton with a very tall fairing (over the tucked in riders head) win his class. He was racing against many recumbents and fully faired recumbents. He came in third overall which put him ahead of most of the fully faired recumbents. His fairing was mounted to the handlebars. It was just in front of him. It didn't wrap around at all.

Hi Smallwheels,

The Nuvinci hub sounds great. Be sure to give us a report once you've ridden it a while. I took off the fairing because it elevated road noise and of course no longer permitted the bike to fold. It does keep the rider a lot warmer since the wind is no longer hitting the rider in the chest. The enhanced road noise takes away some of the zen of riding a bike but I can certainly push harder with a fairing than without.

Can you elaborate on the fairing road noise - is it extra wind sound?

Jur, Normally when one rides to above 27 km/h (17 mph), the wind noise buzzes one's ears. If you have a quiet chain or a singlespeed or fixed gear, the road noise from the tires is louder than the sound of the chain. In such instance, the rider feels a steady progression along the road with mainly road noise from the tires.

Using a fairing in the pictures seen in this thread, the chain noise is collected by the fairing instead of being dispersed and re-directed back to the rider (the concave shape of the fairing the rider faces causes this). So the rider hears a mechanical sound of the bike's chain instead of just the rushing of air in their ears. In normal riding, the level of my ears is above the fairing. In this position, I hear both the sound of the chain being reflected by the fairing, road noise and wind. When I duck below the fairing, I only hear chain and road noise with zero wind sound.

There is some truth to the fairing providing some degree of protection from small stones and road debris kicked up by other motorists. However, the fairing would be impractical for daily use I think because it is easily scratched (polycarbonate made by 3M). If the edge of the fairing touches the fork of the bike, any ruts or rough patches of road will cause the fairing make a noise caused by the contact of the fairing against the fork. This can also be an irritant.

Sesame,

Another reason I switched back to gears and spin while sitting is that it makes my bike creak less. When I grind and mash up hills, the Dahon makes these little sounds like its not happy at the torque its being made to suffer.

Figured out that aside from some rare occasions that my days of riding a fg/ss are probably behind me as with one bum back / leg I can't rock things like I used to, standing and hammering is something I should not do as it results in a lot of pain and will take me off the bike and my feet.

And if you push a taller gear you will have to be able to get up and out of the saddle for some conditions.

Could always spin like a gerbil on speed but have spent the last few years and worked very hard this season to improve on that even further and on long rides can maintain a spin in the 100-110 rpm range for extended distances while running a 76 inch top gear and have some tight spacing up top so I can maintain a high rpm.

This is pretty close to my old TT form although I can't quite get up to that 40kmh cruising speed... might need to build a lighter bike for that and bump up that top gear by a few gear inches as spinning to fast also aggravates my back.

SixtyFiver, I've basically recovered from my accident, broken back etc etc, and I have most of my strength back hence a return to Masters racing. However, there are still times when I do serious climbing training that my back/torso says " Hello, remember me?, I'm the thing that aches like hell when you do this climbing gig". So I have to train smart and listen to my body, if it hurts I train flat land, if it doesn't I climb. This has been very frustrating because I've had to make excuses to Jur for not riding some of his epic Alpine rides with him.

My mind wants to mash every incline with just a singlespeed but my knees say spinning results in less pain ;D