November 30, 200718 yr Does anyone have any methods or ideas on what could be done to maximise the top speed of the bike (cheap and nasty methods?). Is there any way to make a normal road bike more areodynamic, other than leaning down while riding, or putting the electric motor on a recumbent bike instead?
November 30, 200718 yr None of the attempts at cowlings have succeeded in doing this, the added weight combined with the relatively small influence of air drag at low speeds meaning no overall gain, though purely on the flat there could be a gain. As you'll have seen, triangular and oval sections have been used on frame tubes, forks and rims to minimised drag, but the gain in road use is vanishingly small. The real villain of the piece is the rider, the drag from that necessary accessory being many times that of the bike. And the nearest to an answer to that is a slim athletic shape covered with tight fitting uncreased lycra and the like, together with an airflowed helmet and goggles. Then with training to use the optimum limb/body profile to the airflow, the best is attained. .
November 30, 200718 yr Aerobars I put aerobars on my bike. They take a little bit of getting used to but are particularly good for headwinds. Adds about 2 mph to my top speed. This link Bicycle Speed And Power Calculator is good for calculating the speed you can expect from different setups.
November 30, 200718 yr ..or putting the electric motor on a recumbent bike instead? Did you see this Not exactly aerodynamically optimized (for a recumbent), but feel free to copy the idea on one of these : http://www.hamberg.dk/pix/hpv/nocom/nocom_05.jpg And you can have a look at youtube for EA trikes - theres some speedy monsters out there :-) Cheers, Torben
November 30, 200718 yr is there a photo of this from above to get an idea of what it looks like,i know its not but could just be a flat picture..ha ha..seriously i know its not, but it looks very cool...
November 30, 200718 yr is there a photo of this from above to get an idea of what it looks like,i know its not but could just be a flat picture..ha ha..seriously i know its not, but it looks very cool... VeloKraft NoCom is the google term.
November 30, 200718 yr Life in Ancient Rome answer ... is a slim athletic shape covered with tight fitting ... . Sorry, I seem to have stumbled into the wrong forum.
November 30, 200718 yr I was surprised that my tongue-in-cheek description took so long to be commented on! .
December 1, 200718 yr I've been looking at cycle clothing lately, and to help reduce drag from the rider, without quite resorting to lycra, I've found that one can get windproof cycling jacket & hiking/climbing trousers which are very slim fitting, slippery-ish material & both breathable & water repellant too: combined with a thin but warm base layer such as merino wool top & leggings, this makes a very comfortable, lightweight, slimline, water repellant & fairly 'slippery' setup, clothing wise at least - I'm afraid I can't help with the slim, athletic build aspect... . There is some possible weight loss involved though , depending what you normally wear when cycling - a lightweight wool top & windproof jacket (plenty warm enough even in the cold) can weigh as little as around 130-150g each, and trousers probably not much more, so thats a total clothing weight (excluding shoes, helmet etc.) of around say 7-800g or so, which feels very light indeed! - On the bike I keep feeling I must have left something behind, its so light! :-) I think even with a slippery & slimline rider 'outline' the correct rider position still makes most of the difference, and that doesn't look too comfortable to me, so I'll maybe settle for much slimmer & slipperier with a slightly improved aero ride position (at least you feel faster when you're more streamlined & in lightweight clothes ). SPDs can also be used to increase speed, about 1 or 2mph or so, if you want to work more :-). Stuart.
December 1, 200718 yr the human shape is about 80% of the wind resistance so you should try growing a pot belly...tape your ears backward with masking tape, and glue some little perseus wings to the back of your shoulders...would probably be faster.
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