Recumbents - Vision R40 Fully Suspended with fairing
Double Vision - you will note the obvious similarities between my homebuilt and the Vision R40.
I finally bought a commercial recumbent. Seized by the impulse after reading RCN, I checked out the websites of some dealers who ship worldwide and made a few email enquiries. Ed Deaton from Foolscrow gave me a great deal on a full suspension Vision R-40 and was very quick and efficient at checking out the things I needed to know, like shipping costs. I plonked down my credit card number and got a number of accessories as well like fenders, seat bag and ASS kit.
I did not like the USS because the seat frame kept rubbing into the back of my arms, so installed the ASS after a couple of days. Ahhh, that's better.
The bike may have been lighter than my homebuilt, but it seemed harder to go fast, so I decided it needed a fairing. So I built one in about half an hour. Instead of coroplast I used some sort of compressed styrofoam, which is a bit stronger, but just as light. It's available in bookstores and stationery shops, and is used for making signs. It's very easy to cut wth a paper-cutter or pen-knife and the whole thing was entirely duct taped together. No glue, no zip ties, just duct tape.
I think that should be self explanatory. You do the sides first, then the top, then the bottom, then the front.
It kind of looks like this after it's done
The bottom is cut pretty high because it has to clear the rear wheel which is suspended. It does make for a pretty laminar flow from the bottom of the seat upwards, so I guess it's OK. You may also notice that the seat back does not look like a Vision seat. That's because without the seat bag the top of the seat mesh was cutting into my shoulder blades, so I got a car-seat cushion from an auto accessories shop and just plonked it down onto the back. Instant comfort. I don't sweat much, so it's OK.
This is how the fairing looks like off the bike:
The whole thing is tied on to the seat frame with string at four points. Comes on and off in less than a minute.
The grommets were bought from a hardware shop (outdoor camping section). They were necessary because otherwise the string would cut right through the styrofoam. They work very well. The structure is quite strong because it's like a monocoque thingy. In fact one night I transported a 2 kg bottle of oil, bread, 2 packets of diapers, clothes and shoes in the thing. The combined weight of my load was enough to make the bike weave, but the styrofoam structure took it very well. I was prepared to have everything break open and spill all over the road, but I was very pleasantly surprised. Without any load, the fairing itself weighs, oh, about 200 grams?
The box opens at the front like so:
The hinge is just duct tape. There's a little tab that keeps it closed, and the handle is made from some twisty wire that happened to be lying around.
This is how it looks like from the back. The rear edge is as sharp as I can make it. You can see a bit of the rest of my "garage" as well, which includes an upright trike, an upright tandem, a road bike / MTB hybrid and a folding bike. Notice that the top is pretty flat for now. I'll be adding an R2D2 unit and some X-wings or maybe a couple of jet engines in front and then we'll be really flying.
The fairing works very well. Immedately I could pedal at around 2-3 gears higher than my usual (I hate bike computers, so I can't be more specific about my speed). It also incidentally serves to replace the lousy rear fender which kept slipping and finally broke off one day at the wimpy aluminium bit that holds it to the frame.
