Fairing for Greenspeed

Baalzamon
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Re: Fairing for Greenspeed

Postby Baalzamon » Mon Feb 11, 2013 9:08 pm

The only time I've been down Welshpool Rd was on a loaded tourer and was doing 60kph on 38mm tyres that were designed for both on & offroad
This time around it would be on 25mm tyres designed for road
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Joeblake
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Re: Fairing for Greenspeed

Postby Joeblake » Thu Feb 14, 2013 4:42 pm

Sent the money to Flying Furniture this morning. So now I also can join the waiting throng. :roll: :lol:

Joe
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Joeblake
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Re: Fairing for Greenspeed

Postby Joeblake » Sat Feb 23, 2013 9:32 pm

Ta daaaaaah

Image

Arrived on Thursday, waited until Saturday, as it was meant to be much cooler (and it WAS :mrgreen: ) Took a couple of hours, very small amount of blood (scrapes on bits in the workshop), LOTS of sweat ("cooler" is not the same as "cool") and no tears.

I had no idea how far forward I was supposed to mount the hardware, so I put it on the frame behind the adjustable boom. Once it was assembled the fairing was far too close to the pedals, so had to take it all off and start again. :roll:

A tip which I reckon should have been in the instructions. When mounting the hardware, remove all the adjustable pieces beforehand, it makes it SO much easier to hold them in place while putting the clamps on.

I had to replace the speedo after the incident going down Welshpool road, so the one in the piccy is not there any more. Interestingly, when I'd removed the computer, I tested it and found it was still working, so I re-mounted it on the GRT 20/26 trike in the background, which had been suffering from a partially defective computer for a year or so.

General impressions? Very light, and looking very closely at it, very well engineered. Seems to sit firmly in place, but I've only done a couple of km around the block, so I can't say how much (if at all) quicker or easier to push it is. If the weather is fine tomorrow (and the forecast is indeed for such) I'll go for a bit of a trip down Welshpool road and see how we go.

Very glad I opted for the folding mount, makes it much easier to get on and off.

Will hopefully be posting some video of my descent in a while.

Joe
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Baalzamon
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Re: Fairing for Greenspeed

Postby Baalzamon » Sat Feb 23, 2013 10:33 pm

Looks like you got both clamps together, that is the way I had mine and got the flare up going down Jarrahdale Rd. Did it when I was doing 60kph, but going along Nettleton Rd I did hit 60kph and it didn't flare up. But after I moved the top clamp rearwards, never flared again.
Looking good tho :)
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John Lewis
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Re: Fairing for Greenspeed

Postby John Lewis » Sat Feb 23, 2013 10:35 pm

That was quick service from FF Joe.
It looks very nice. I'm looking forward to your test report and vid.

John

Joeblake
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Re: Fairing for Greenspeed

Postby Joeblake » Sat Feb 23, 2013 10:59 pm

Baalzamon wrote:Looks like you got both clamps together
I can't move the mounts any further to the rear because of the clamp for the adjustable boom.

BUt tomorrow will tell.

Joe
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Baalzamon
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Re: Fairing for Greenspeed

Postby Baalzamon » Sat Feb 23, 2013 11:34 pm

I had the top half of the clamp on my adjustable boom, just meant if I had to adjust the boom, I would have needed to loosen 2 extra bolts.
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Joeblake
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Re: Fairing for Greenspeed

Postby Joeblake » Sat Feb 23, 2013 11:40 pm

I don't think I'll need to adjust the boom for a while, unless I find a short lady who likes trikes. :lol:

Joe
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Baalzamon
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Re: Fairing for Greenspeed

Postby Baalzamon » Sun Feb 24, 2013 12:59 am

Joeblake wrote:I don't think I'll need to adjust the boom for a while, unless I find a short lady who likes trikes. :lol:

Joe
My reason I put mine there as well :lol:
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Joeblake
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Re: Fairing for Greenspeed

Postby Joeblake » Sun Feb 24, 2013 2:51 pm

First Fairing test

Since I had a new computer installed, I had to normalise the readings against the old one. I took the trike with fairing out to the local shopping centre, which was about 1 km or so, but it had a nice flat section of road which I use quite often and know that the motor, without any pedal assistance will take the trike up to 16-17 kph on the old computer. With the new computer it registered 15.9-16.5 kph, so the speed was pretty much the same on both, which would give me consistency. (The motor is rev limited to 197 rpm so maximum speed depends upon the wheel size. With the 26" wheel I can reach motor up to about 26-27 kph.)

I then rode to the roundabout at the top of Lesmurdie road, which I've descended on many occasions, reaching about 60 kph in the "luge" position, with my chin tucked onto my chest and both calves resting on the pedals to give least wind resistance. According to the computer this morning I maxed out at 60.7 kph.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kULHC3Z1NmU" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The fairing showed almost no tendency to behave badly, barely moving at this speed, apart from some flutter on the left down where it bulges out a bit.

So I'll have lunch then this afternoon I'll go down Welshpool road.

Joe
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Joeblake
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Re: Fairing for Greenspeed

Postby Joeblake » Sun Feb 24, 2013 5:58 pm

After lunch, I took off down Welshpool Road. The computer tells me I maxed at 67.2 kph, but I suspect before that the fairing bowed up, and started fluttering. I pulled in to the side of the road and saw that the bottom edge of the fairing was pivoting around a bolt on the horizontal rod. I tightened it until there was some more friction (it has nylon bearings so is probably meant to have a fair degree of freedom) then resumed the descent.

but ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eex-NAIMqTk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

By the time I'd hit the flat I was not interested in going up then coming down again, so I loosened the clamp around the horizontal rod and pushed the front of the fairing closer to the pedals to alter the angle as suggested, then climbed up the till to home and left the trike in the sun to recharge the batteries, which had received quite a hiding as I was in a hurry.

I was hoping that all this would happen on the Lesmurdie road descent as that was much shorter and I could go up and down quite a few times to test it and adjust as necessary, but the bowing only happens at speeds of over 65 kph, which I very seldom reach, so I'm not going to spend too much time worrying about it, I'll take it as it comes. I'm not after more top speed, but simply a reduced effort at lower speeds, which I won't be able to determine until I've done a fairly lengthy ride.

(A fairly simple suggestion occurs to me and that is one of those suctions cups with a hook on and a piece of string to hold the fairing down. :wink: )

Will work on a longer ride and see what happens.

Joe
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Baalzamon
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Re: Fairing for Greenspeed

Postby Baalzamon » Sun Feb 24, 2013 10:21 pm

Yep exactly what happened to mine, hence I moved the top clamp. I also would make sure after moving the fairing that the adjustable clamps at the front where around the 45% mark or lower, I could use my foot to push them down. After a while I managed to get it tight enough so it wouldn't move very easily and it stayed put around the 45% mark
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Joeblake
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Re: Fairing for Greenspeed

Postby Joeblake » Tue Feb 26, 2013 1:03 pm

Depending on the weather (thunderstorms predicted but hot) I may be able to take the trike for a moderately lengthy ride with some moderate descents this afternoon.

Following my own suggestion I purchased a few suction hooks and used one to brace the top of the fairing.

Image

If it works, then I'll use some silicon sealer to fix it more strongly to the fairing. I put a small dob of sealer in a fairly inconspicuous spot on the fairing overnight to see if it would work. This morning I found the sealer had set but it peeled off with a small amount of effort, leaving little residue to mar the surface.

Will let you know how it works.

Joe
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Baalzamon
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Re: Fairing for Greenspeed

Postby Baalzamon » Tue Feb 26, 2013 7:32 pm

Thing is you should have to do that if the fairing is setup correctly
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Joeblake
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Re: Fairing for Greenspeed

Postby Joeblake » Tue Feb 26, 2013 7:49 pm

Since this only seems to happen at very high speed on one steep hill (so far), as I said earlier I'm not inclined to take the time to fiddle about getting it "just right" by riding up and down Welshpool Road four or five times a day to tune it. If the next time I go down there the fairing doesn't puff up and dance around, that's a win as far as I'm concerned. The hook was only a couple of bucks. :wink: If it happens again, it'll be back to the drawing board. :lol:

Joe
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Re: Fairing for Greenspeed

Postby Joeblake » Thu Feb 28, 2013 6:42 pm

An interesting couple of days.

Yesterday (Wed 27 Feb) I had to ride to my LBS to buy some tubes, and I decided to go down Lesmurdie Road again, where I had previously peaked at about 60.7 km/h, with the fairing unbraced, there was fluttering, but no bowing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kULHC3Z1NmU" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This time I peaked at 64.9 km/h, but the fairing was braced. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera mounted, but there was no sign of bowing but again slight fluttering.

The weather bureau has forecast a series of wet days so I thought I'd go down Welshpool Road again while it was still dry, but this time I'd have the fairing braced with the string and suction hook.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ho3QzwPhIVY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The max speed was 76.3 km/h. Interesting here is that when I'm approaching the slow low loader in the left lane I'm already maxing at 76.3 on the computer, but the road dips a little more and I feel like I'm speeding up, but this doesn't show on the computer. Perhaps this is the maximum speed the computer can calculate.

Here is (part of) the same descent without the bracing, showing the fluttering and bowing. Maximum speed recorded was 67.2 km/h

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eex-NAIMqTk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And the same descent without the fairing. No max speed as the computer fell off during the run.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmTi27Et2Yg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Finally, a little bit of kitchen-sink physics. While I was waiting for the video to be rendered for uploading, I took my kitchen scales, another suction hook and a piece of twine, stuck the hook on the fairing just above the brace hook, and lifted the fairing to what seemed to be the same height as in the videos (very rough I know). It showed nearly 2 kg. So you could read this as saying that the fairing is generating nearly 2 kg of lift. (With the brace on the force is going down to the horizontal fairing mount.)

My average speed for both ways was 18.8 km/h, but I was using the motor quite a bit because I was in a hurry to get back to work.

For what all that's worth.

Now there only remains my 100 km ride to see what average speed I can achieve over that distance.

Joe
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Re: Fairing for Greenspeed

Postby Joeblake » Sat Mar 02, 2013 2:53 pm

Using the two videos of the descent (one without the fairing and the other with the fairing braced) I timed the events using roadside signs as start/finish points. (The blue sign on the left to start, the "End truck low gear" to finish.)

I make the difference in time to be one second - 101 seconds (without fairing) vs 102 seconds with fairing. Pretty minuscule difference there. Too close to call anything significant I'd say.

Joe
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missinglink
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Re: Fairing for Greenspeed

Postby missinglink » Tue Mar 05, 2013 5:33 pm

From my layman’s understanding of aerodynamics, this type of fairing is not going to provide much, if any increase in speed performance. While the front of the fairing improves air penetration, the big open area behind the fairing generates a low pressure zone and coupled with disrupted airflow, adds drag to the equation. The faster you go, the greater the drag.

I read somewhere, on the IHPVA site I think, that in the absence of a full fairing for a recumbent, a streamlined tailbox provided more aerodynamic assistance than just a front fairing.

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Re: Fairing for Greenspeed

Postby Joeblake » Tue Mar 05, 2013 5:37 pm

Yes, I'd thought of that, but I've got photovoltaic panels at the rear, which must remain open to the sun. :lol:

Joe
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Baalzamon
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Re: Fairing for Greenspeed

Postby Baalzamon » Tue Mar 05, 2013 6:36 pm

I found different with my fairing vs unfaired.
I did spot a speed increase and found it much easier going doing 25kph or faster. Also acts as a great sail if you have a tailwind pushing you along :)
Going down Jarrahdale rd unfaired against Phil's Vortex he pulled away from me and hit 80kph easily and I maxed out rolling doing 71.4kph unfaired vs 83kph faired just rolling as well.
On that run where I hit 83kph as well I had moved my fairing mount so the fairing was more sleeker as well giving a more streamlined effect and less surface area at the nose
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Joeblake
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Re: Fairing for Greenspeed

Postby Joeblake » Mon Mar 25, 2013 4:29 pm

At last the weather gods were smiling yesterday and I had went on my planned 70 km ride. Down Welshpool, along Roe Hwy, Canning River, Mt Henry, South Perth foreshore, cross over the footbridge at the Red Castle, down through Carlisle Star Street to Kew St, onto Orrong Road, back up Welshpool Road.

From the computer 68.6 km, max speed 76.3 km/hr, elapsed time 3:36:56, av speed exactly 19.0 km/hr.

I stopped for meals along the way, so I wasn't going flat out, just high speed ambling.

A couple of points. Max speed - I was following about 6 or 7 cars/trucks down the Welshpool hill all they way, and keeping up with them. Since it's an 80 km/hr speed zone, I can assume I was doing 80 and that the 76.3 figure is the maximum the computer will handle. This of course would have affected my final average speed, since it would have been higher than calculated, but not by much.

As I started the descent (coasting) I came up to a DF rider. I don't know whether he was riding his brakes (I couldn't hear anything) but I belted past at about 10 km/hr relative speed and left him way behind. I weigh 99 kg, the trike with motor, batteries, solar panels and fairing weighs in at about 34 kg, so that's a fair amount of momentum coming into play.

I have to say that even allowing for the error caused by the maximum speed on the computer, I do not ever recall an average speed of 19 km/h on any ride which involves climbing Welshpool Road. I always use the motor to get up, so I'd have to say that the fairing has made a slight difference. But I also definitely need a larger big chain ring, as I'm starting to spin out on some flat parts of the circuit.

Actually glimpsed a velo-shaped object on the section heading to the zoo, riding in the other direction amongst seemingly dozens of riders returning from the ride down the freeway. I don't know whether he'd been on the ride but if he did I'd be interested to know what it was like.

Joe

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Re: Fairing for Greenspeed

Postby just4tehhalibut » Mon Mar 25, 2013 11:03 pm

Joeblake wrote:Actually glimpsed a velo-shaped object on the section heading to the zoo, riding in the other direction amongst seemingly dozens of riders returning from the ride down the freeway.
There was a guy with a Logo trike under a built up coroflute and hard plastic nosed full body fairing, he did the Freeway Bike Hike from Mandurah and you would have met him heading back to Kwinana. The fairing was his second attempt but the work ain't over. He works with leather so had access to good quality metal upholstery studs, used these to fix his coroflute to his fairing's ali frameowrk.
Didn't get time to see if any other recumbents were at the start.

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Re: Fairing for Greenspeed

Postby Joeblake » Mon Mar 25, 2013 11:12 pm

Sounds like him. I could see through the front of the fairing and notice he had twin head lights, but I think I turned my video off a couple of minutes before he went past - drat.

Joe

Lefinch
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Re: Fairing for Greenspeed

Postby Lefinch » Wed Jul 31, 2013 12:43 am

Hi Joe. Interested in your comment re fitting the fairing to the Greenspeed. I can't get foot clearance either on my GTO and terratrike instructions leave something to be desired. I think I saw your setup on Welshpool Rd late last summer. I'm new on this forum and can't figure how to emai but would be interested in any hints.

Regards

Steve

Joeblake
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Re: Fairing for Greenspeed

Postby Joeblake » Wed Jul 31, 2013 11:46 am

Steve, I've just sent you a pm.

Regards,

Joe
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