• Inspiration

• What do I do with my HPV? I race it and ride it on the road. Racing is just for "fun" and covers maybe 300 miles in the whole year. This is equivalent to three weeks of commuting.
• What are the disadvantages of commuting with my present HPV? It's cold in the winter and wet when it rains.
• Why not just use my race fairing? It's uncomfortably tight and sweaty, floppy and fragile, difficult and time-consuming to get into and out of, and it makes it well-nigh impossible to get into the luggage space.
• Anything else? Yes, luggage space is a bit limited, especially once you've got all the usual stuff - lock, pump, tools & spares, waterproof jacket, battery etc. - on board. This makes it much harder to build a better life by stealing office supplies. And it's getting old and tatty. Therefore, I want a hard shell. This might even bring the added advantage of making the bike faster.

• Inspiration #2

The FWD Rotator Coyote run by Dean Peterson in the 1996 IHSPC. Not much troubled by crosswinds, apparently.
Photo: Bill Volk / RCN



Joachim Fuchs' Aeolos - read all about it at http://www-ifia.fzk.de/personal/fuchs/13.htm
Photo: from the above web site



The Aerolope featured in the RCN Buyers' Guide
Photo: RCN



The BumbleBike. If the likes of Klaus Schlager can use one daily, I don't see why I can't!
Photo: from "Das Liegerad" by Gunnar Fehlau



Andy Wilkinson's faired Speedy
Photo snaffled from the Windcheetah web site

After much deliberation, the decision was made to go for a shell with a forward-opening lid. The Aerolope and Rotator are designed to allow the rider in and out through large side openings, but you've still got to get your machine in and out, so you may as well have a (removable) lid, with smaller side openings for hand signals, much like a faired Speedy. The holes could easily be closed off with fabric or GRP side-screens for racing or really filthy weather, while the lid can be left off for sunny day cruising. Important when you need to work on your tan.

• "Design" Process - Part 1

• Get a nice accurate scale drawing of the "chassis" in side elevation. You don't have to go over the top with this, just ensure all the salient points are present - wheels, seat, steering, bottom bracket etc. are present. Here's one I prepared earlier:




• Measure the position of awkward extremities of your body while in a riding position. Such things include head, knee, foot, shoulder, hand and a whole bunch of other stuff you usually forget first time around. These will define certain fixed points inside which your fairing cannot go, unless you plan to be either very cramped (e.g. big lads like Sam Whittingham in small machines like the Varna) or the subject of major surgery.




Varna Orpheus (38cm wide!)
Photo: Jeff Wills

• Depending on the height of your eyes, steering, knees and bottom bracket, you may find it more practical to have bumps for your knees and / or feet - examples include Eggert Bülk's machine at the 1997 World Championships and the Evolvente - to allow you a better chance of seeing the road.




The Evolvente
Photo: Encycleopedia

• Decide how much wheel you want sticking out at the bottom. I went for 1/3 of the diameter of the front wheel, because it seemed like a good idea at the time. This may change, however, depending on how much higher my head and shoulders are after fitting a new seat - the old one had a broken frame and felt very laid-back compared with the new one!
• For a RWD machine, decide whether you want the rear wheel inside or outside the fairing - inside is easier to build but harder to get at, unless you don't have a problem with grovelling around on the floor trying to persuade a recalcitrant wheel through a narrow slot.
• How long do you want your tail? Long tails can impose undue stresses on the rest of the structure, and the aerodynamic benefits are dubious - whether you subscribe to the theories of Sir Sydney Camm or Dr. Wunibald Kamm, the principle of the chopped-off tail is well-known. But if it's all short and stumpy, you'll lose cargo capacity.
• Where do you want you windscreen? If it's close up to your face, it will be more prone to steaming up in cold weather, and possibly a bit claustrophobic, but if it's somewhere down the sharp end, seeing out in the wet could be a problem, and operating a wiper more difficult. A ready-made NACA duct with a dinky little deflector lip - as used on Nigel Sleigh's Plastic Maggot - can be purchased from car accessory shops of the "Max Power" variety and can blow air up the inside of the screen.




Nigel Sleigh's Plastic Maggot
Photo: Jonathan Woolrich

• "Design" Process - Part 2

• Once all the above has been sorted, you should be able to come up with a nice side elevation of your proposed machine.




• In order to get the curves right on the plug, you will need to measure the vertical distance between some hypothetical baseline and the curve in question. Repeat at suitable intervals for the duration of the curve.
• Then you will need to do a plan view, and front and rear elevations. It's probably for the best if you make this symmetrical about a longitudinal axis. The ends will come more or less by default (mine did, anyway). For mounting lights and other bits and bobs, you might feel the need for a reasonably uncurved area to avoid unsightly lumps.





 
• Ensure that the fairing is wide enough to fit both your machine and yourself inside, comfortably. Small may be beautiful, but if you're planning to spend a lot of time inside, slightly-larger is comfortable.
• Important dimensions include the width of the shoulders, separation of the hands (allow some extra space for turning the bars), seat width and width at the pedals. If you use clipless pedals, ensure that there's adequate space to twist your foot enough to unclip yourself, as you will look silly if you have to unfasten your shoe every time you want to put a foot down.
• If you are intending to use "bomb doors" for your feet, rather than holes (and bomb doors are much sexier), you had better ensure that the ground clearance is sufficient to allow them to open fully. You didn't? Shame!
• If, like me, you want to be able to extract the rear wheel without a prolonged fight, you will need a wheel arch with adequate space for hands, freewheels and other nasties to be able to co-exist in harmony. This dictated a wide rear end (oo-er, Missus!), but also meant that I could utilise the vertical panel above the opening for a "hatchback". There's little point in having plenty of carrying capacity if you can't reach it. It may also prove sensible to divide the general behind-the-seat area into smaller spaces, with plywood, Corriboard or somesuch. Ensure that however you divide it up, you can actually reach the furthest extremities thereof without turning the bike upside down and shaking it vigorously, as that spot is precisely where your tool kit will end up when you have a puncture.

• "Design" Process Part 3

• Congratulations! You now know precisely what the finished article will look like (irony)! Recheck all dimensions carefully, and write them on the drawings, so you don't mess up later. Too small, and your machine will be unridable; too large and it will not fit in your shed. Both are Bad, and should be avoided.
• There's no need to go over the top with the accuracy of the drawings, unless you're building a record-brekaer and/or are capable of marking out a line over 2m long, drawn with a Magic Marker, with that kind of precision. I wasn't, and I'm not.
• I reckon that using some kind of computer program will make life a lot easier, though you will be limited to 1:10 scale unless you have access to a weapons-grade printer. I used TurboCAD, from Imsi, which came free with my father's PC. I also used, for some bits, a little Windows program called "Optimum Fairing Design", by Warren Lemoi (downloadable from this site). This does all the hard sums on pp 100-103 of "Bicycling Science" and gives you a series of x-y co-ordinates which you can input into your CAD program or pencil. It kept crashing when I tried to print the listing (under Windows '95), but apart from that it works fine.

• Build Process - Part 1

• The first stage is to build a plug. The traditional method is to use some variety of woody product, often MDF. This is not such a good idea, as MDF is difficult to cut accurately, dissolves when wet, smells horrible and weighs enough to require a fork lift or a team of Sherpas when you want to move it. And you will want to move it. No, what you want is some sort of lightweight plastic foamy substance, such as polystyrene or Styrofoam. This can be purchased from larger DIY emporia or insulation dealers, is light and can be cut with almost anything. I used Jablite, an insulating board which can be bought from B&Q - an 8'x4' sheet of 2" thick costs about seven quid (cheaper if you buy in bulk). A hot wire tool is very useful for cutting the stuff - I bought one from Tiranti's, an art supply shop with branches in London's Warren Street and Theale in Berkshire. Or you could build your own from wire and a car battery charger. Avoid fusing yourself to the National Grid - this smells worse than MDF. It is worth pointing out that many, if not most, car battery chargers have some kind of cut-out which switch them off when they short out, so you might have to experiment with wire gauges to get it to work.




Sixty-four cubic feet of Jablite (and the neighbours' washing)

• Build your basic shape in sections. It's my view that by splitting your shape:
• lengthways, and
• into vertical sections
will be easier, as you can start in the middle and work outwards with symmetrical pieces.
• If you, like me, are inconveniently tall, you may find that the overall height of your plug is slightly greater than the width of the foam sheets. To get round this, build the main part of the body separate from the "greenhouse" above the shoulders, then unite the two.
• Join the layers together with something sticky. If using glue, ensure that it doesn't dissolve the material from which your plug is made - test it on an offcut first. Superglue has a tremendous appetite for Jablite! Recommended is thin double-sided carpet tape.

Curses! Due to the odd shape of the CX Safari's roof, my roof bars won't fit. B&Q can only deliver to our area on "Monday". No, they can't be any more specific than that. Buy other things and go home to think.

Saturday January 24^th

After a week spent investigating the cost of trailer and van rental, a brainwave and some bodging (Imperial nuts onto metric bolts, anyone?) sees the roof bars and Moby firmly conjoined. And what a stirring sight he made with twelve 2" sheets of 8'x4' insulating board on the roof. If you're planning on doing this, try to pick a day without a howling north-easterly gale. Haul down boards and stuff in shed, pending purchase of hot wire cutting tool and gas bottle for stove to heat conservatory (my enforced "workshop" space).

Saturday January 31^st

Hot wire tool and gas bottle obtained. Sit down in nice warm conservatory and practice cutting up off-cuts of Jablite we actually bought for its insulating properties. Hmm, not as easy as it seems.

Sunday February 1^st

Drag first sheet out of shed. Cut large lumps off it so as to make it easier to handle. Oops, too large. Never mind, we can re-use that one for one of the "outer" pieces. Drag second sheet out of shed. Trim more sensibly. With tape measure, set square, pair of compasses, various bits of wood and a ruler discovered in the shed which is exactly the same length as the main part of the fairing is high, mark out the first sheet. Start cutting. Knock sheet off Workmate. Sheet lands on the floor with wood, cutting tool and extension lead on top of it. It breaks into two pieces. Harsh words are said. Repeat from "Drag second sheet." until dinner time sets in. So far have filled four six bin-liners with scrap foam.

The Rest Of February And Well Into March

Continue to mark out remaining sheets. Progress is slow due to:
 

1. A bout of gastric flu which left me unable to do anything very much for about a fortnight
2. The fact that the conservatory is a little too narrow to allow a complete slab inside so as to be able to cut it roughly to size. So it has to be done outside - tricky when it's dark, raining and blowing a gale
3. The Newsletter

A partially-Edited sheet of insulation foam.  Note vast size of workshop...

However, once this is out of the way, progress will be made. Watch this space for more details!