Does anyone know of a site that compares the aero of sportbike like the
Busa or GSXR to a cruiser style bike like a Harley or Metric Cruiser? A
lot of cruisers have a relatively small frontal area compared the bigger
fairings.
I understand that the aerodynamic effects help the overall air fow, but
was curious about the drag of the two styles.
Thanks,
Shawn
John Fisher wrote:
we had some long talks about aero bodywork on the chassis list ( I
listened, they talked) . It isn't used in racing ( ok its used
minimally) because heavily-aero bodywork is against the rules for
aesthetic, cost and safety reasons.
the gist:
a long smooth tail is more important than a pointy nose.
gas-engined race bikes need so much cooling, theres not much you can
do to close up the nose - an advantage for e-bikes with less power.
bodywork that covers the wheels and extends past the rear wheel makes
the chassis twitchy to the point of deadly in crosswinds
You must allow for the shape of the bike leaning at 45 degrees as well
as 90, which is very hard.
doing something ( BMW K1?) about the front wheel and front fairing
would help a lot because the cavity there makes a lot of drag
the HPV folks have a lot of designs that might be usable for a slow
long wheelbase streetbike, google human powered vehicle.
There are pix buried in Michael Moores site
http://www.eurospares.com/graphics.htm and some of the same or better
at http://tonyfoale.com/ choose gallery/feetforward .... Tony is a
very well-known authority on chassis design.
love this stuff, HTH
John
lyle sloan wrote:
Finally found the article I was looking for the last
year. I forgot to save this link from an old article
comparing drag for the Hayabusa and a kawasaki.
http://www.qsl.net/n5mya/aero.html
Save this article. It also says how to figure frontal
area using a photo, adobe photoshop and a good scale.
Anyways in case you are interested:
Suzuki Hayabusa = 0.561
Kawa ZX-12R = 0.603
RS125 = 0.664
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