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Welwyn Velodrome |
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LeeW
BHPC Member Joined: 10 March 2005 Location: Grimsby Status: Offline Points: 2379 |
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To start off with, you maybe better to have a hand launch/catch. Once you have mastered that then try self launch. Darly moor was my first ever race fully faired on two wheels and I fell over on the start line because I left it in a high gear after doing some practice laps. Always make sure you are in bottom gear before starting!
I'm not sure how well the davis copes with flopping over, the correx fujin seemed to cope very well actually with falling over although I had to replace some panels after I stacked it at 34mph at tilburg. |
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Current fleet: Milan SL MK2 #027, Fujin SL II, Beany!
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GeoffBird
BHPC Member Joined: 20 September 2005 Status: Offline Points: 2397 |
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Just go for it Alan! Starting and stopping shouldn't be too hard with the Davies fairing (although it's surprisingly easy to forget to retract the bomb doors!). The hard bit is cornering in crosswinds at 30mph - your motorsickle experience will help alot here - I find a bloody-minded attitude helps - you need to wrestle that wind - which is why tiller steering is a bad idea on a sreamliner IMO...
It gets MUCH easier with practice though, so get out there! |
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Right Time - Right Place - Wrong Speed
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martinbguk
Visitor (regular) Joined: 13 July 2009 Location: Bicester Status: Offline Points: 246 |
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It's not just me that does that then! |
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HRSO2 No 59
www.mbg-recumbent-racing.blogspot.com |
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Yanto63
Visitor (regular) Joined: 06 October 2008 Location: N Leics Status: Offline Points: 677 |
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Geoff can you explain why a tiller precludes any wrestling in yer fairing? |
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Ian
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Adrian Setter
BHPC Member Joined: 04 March 2005 Status: Offline Points: 1606 |
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Some of us have enough problems with tillers without having to deal with the effects of a cross-wind on a full fairing.
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Challenge Hurricane - MicWic Delta (Front half) - Burrows Ratracer
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JDub
BHPC Member Joined: 01 November 2005 Location: Egham Status: Offline Points: 466 |
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We have raced there several times. I think that old pic of gNick on my Velocino was taken there. The railway side collapsed and has been remade better but the rest is very bumpy, especially in a streamliner. I think Tim Costen won last time we were there. There was no demand to go back.
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jdub... Got the T-shirt
http://s1127.photobucket.com/user/Protobikes/library http://protobikes.org.uk/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/150386999@N02/ |
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I missed the original quote, but if you are having to wrestle, something is wrong. A faired bike is quite a lot different from an unfaired. I had some experiences with early versions of Oscar. It was quite a difficult bike because it had about 60% weight on the front wheel. 50% or less is better. When I had a normal amount of rake/trail, the wind blew it all over the track. When I reduced the trail, the problem was cured. The wind should push you a little, then the bike settles in to an equilbrium. If there is a lot of trail and a lot of side area at the front, the bike will tend to castor off the wind. I don't have any experience of it, but a bike with the centre of pressure too far back will try and turn into the wind. I'd have to think about how to fix that.
You should not have to fight the bike. If you do, you will loose adhesion in a corner and ruin your bike. Might even injure youself. You should be able to let the bike sail and make small changes under low stress. Streamliners should be able to push the rubber to it's limit. If you are wrestling they can't.
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GeoffBird
BHPC Member Joined: 20 September 2005 Status: Offline Points: 2397 |
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The problem is mainly turning into a corner against a strong crosswind, which can require you to be quite forceful with the steering. From what I've seen, people generally acclimatise quicker to a streamliner with steering with little offset than to one with tiller steering.
My streamliner originally had tiller steering, which I found required Zen-like calmness to steer accurately and it's hard to be Zen-like when being buffeted by a 20mph wind in a 30mph corner (It's not just me - alot of people have trouble with tiller steering even on an unfaired bike). As soon as I switched to Kingcycle-style bars things were massively improved. Which is not to say you can't build an easy-to-ride streamliner with tiller steering, it's just less likely IMHO Edited by GeoffBird - 02 August 2010 at 12:07am |
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Right Time - Right Place - Wrong Speed
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gNick
BHPC Member Joined: 22 February 2005 Status: Offline Points: 1977 |
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I only once had a problem with the wind on the Fish which is tillered, but it was VERY strong at Zandvoort and my bars had managed to come a bit loose as well. I ran off onto what I though was grass at the edge of the track and turned out to be sand - stops you quick does that sand! I ended up leaning on the Armco and unable to open the bomb doors because the bike had sunk in the sand.
I found that the best thing is to leave yourself with plenty of room to move and let the bike run, I certainly never had to be forceful on the steering though that might be due to the steep head angle and zero fork offset minimising wind induced steer. It might be that I have no problem at all with tiller steering though! Thinking about it I do remember a very windy Castle Combe where I was worried about the wind blowing the wheels out from under me if I leant too far over when coming past the tyre wall on Quarry... |
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gNick
"I'm afraid it's definite, Mrs Banker - your son has bicycles" |
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Never tried Geoffs bike and I don't get on with tillers, but I have never had to steer forcefully in a streamliner once it is set up right. I did one race at Hernia Hill with too much trail. Gusts were pushing me all over the track. Worth experimenting a bit to get good handling. A pair of long horizontal dropouts on the forks are ideal, but I have used bolted on plates in the past. I don't think the Davis has tiller steering.
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