I think if you were to go along the route John Bidwell has done in his mountain bike component electric bike, he redesigned the frame to handle a higher output motor, and of course lowered the expected top speed to I think 45. Now if you took that lightweight design and the proportionally smaller/lighter battery pack and did a fairing as Vetter describes I think you would see some gains if the vehicle spent most of its time in the >30 mph range.
Jeff On Wed, Mar 12, 2008 at 12:43 PM, john fisher <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I have been thinking through an ultra-lightweight project and I think the > aero has a much greater effect than you are > implying here. In fact you can get substantial improvements over an unfaired > chassis even at bicycle speeds. Just try > riding your bike into a headwind for example. > > Trying to figure out which body work is better is much much harder, and may > require experimentation or very > sophisticated CFD software. Its way beyond me at any rate. I figure if you > can get 80% there by copying known successful > designs, thats good enough for a low-budget project. The electrathon designs > are proven, for example. > > Now for two-wheels, I think its very different. You can get in real trouble > trying a so-called dustbin fairing. I'd > probably go with a race fairing and close up the holes. Bikes just have > terrible aerodynamics. > > try these calculators for a rough idea of the advantages > http://www.geocities.com/hempev/EVCalculator.html?200629 > http://www.evconvert.com/tools/evcalc/ > http://www.kreuzotter.de/english/espeed.htm > > HTH > John > > damon henry wrote: > > It seems to me the changes should be proportional. .... > >
