Aero mods?

[MotoRandy123]

I found a couple of spots where the air could flow smoother on the Yager. Remember
we can go faster if there is less drag and that's probably easier than making more power.

Here are 2 plates I added to the underside;




Cars are much slipperier than bikes (mainly because of the large flat areas) but they need to improve
too. They have lots of info and don't want to spend a lot to get results. The wheels are particularly
"dirty" so what they have come up with is these tiny bumps to clear a wake for the wheel to go through;



I thought I'd add something similar to the Yager and see what it does;


It's just a 2"peice of angle aluminum glued to the bottom of the motor. Not sure it does anything
waiting for warmer weather to find out!

[Pimpy1]

Good try but don't get too carried away.

[Zimmerman]

Randy,

This mod reminds me of an idea I've been meaning to bring up.

I wish there was a gadget we could plug into the diag port to log system parameters with a time stamp.

It would be super handy, after making any mod, to take a repeatable known test run and have data collected that could later be reviewed and compared on a computer. That way the effects of any given mod could be easily quantified.

Speed, RPM, etc, etc . . .  

Not sure if this technology has reached scooters - no reason that it couldn't,  but keeping purchase prices competative prohibits techy add-ons.  But it would be neat if the sensors were in place and those that wanted could buy the gadget as an option.  Even better if the gadget was universal, ie useable on all scoots regardless of make or model.

Oh yeah, and for Christmas I would like a new sports car . . . . and World Peace.

KZ

PS: Pimpy good job finding the photo - you've got a gift - I laughed my butt off.

[MotoRandy123]

Well I was just reading yesterday about someone quantifying his mods with a device like this;

http://www.audioallies.com/getitem.asp?item=fx1

You can do speed runs and check your acceleration. It doesn't tie into the bike though.
I had a gadget that used the ODB II port on your car to log data but it was mostly a list of
numbers like current speed.

[MotoRandy123]

Something like this would be nice. I don't like the cobbled together look of colorplast.

[fshfindr]

Randy I 'm waiting for the results of your test.  I like the simple stuff that makes sense.
Richard L.

[Cortez]

I highly doubt this will make a noticeable improvement.
Even if it does, it could be anything else, from temperature to
rolling resistance etc. You'll have a bigger improvement overinflating
the tires by 5-10% (which is not a good idea).

I've noticed a consistent 5mph difference in top speed (132.5 vs 137mph) on
my other bike just wearing tight motorcycle clothes vs everyday clothes.

Bigger windscreen on that same bike made it go even faster.
Bigger windscreen on my current 300cc scoot made it slower.

[MotoRandy123]

Well if I went naked, I might go faster but it would scare the wildlife!

 Aero is tricky. The air sometimes acts like water with the vehicle creating
a "wake", other times it acts like a gas, with it flowing from higher pressure
to lower pressure.

 On some vehicles the air through the radiator goes backwards as it builds up
under the car and pushes back out the front! This site has some interesting
articles on measuring airflow; http://autospeed.com/cms/A_112736/article.html
 
 So it's not easy to make improvements, sometimes tiny changes make a big
difference.

 Our 2 wheeled vehicles do not have large flat surfaces. The air turbulates off
and creates a big parachute of slow air that gets dragged behind. Our goal is
to lessen that drag. One guy says to point the exhaust 5 degrees toward the
center of the bike to fill the wake with hot air, he says it decreases drag.

 I don't know, I just try something if it seams to help I keep it. The goal being
a more stable ride at speed. I took a cruise and jumped on the highway and
she went fine but then I got blown from the side and the bike felt too small to
be out there.
 

[Zimmerman]

I have to agree that aero is tricky . . . and it's odd in general how a certain mod turns out to be valid, but is so counter intuitive no one would have ever guessed it would work.  So thanks again for all the experimentation - let us know what works !

KZ

PS: I'm gonna put flame decals on my scoot and beat all you guys !
Plus with the baseball cards in my spokes, I'll sound cooler too !

[MotoRandy123]

 So I bent the exhaust tip today (it might have already bend done at the factory)
to fill the turbulent area behind the bike. I doubt it will do much if anything but if
you don't do it, it can't help. Maybe a lot of little things will add up.

 From the factory the tip is not a straight pipe. It seams I didn't do much so I
imagine it is 5 degrees off center from the factory. It also is pulled into a bellmouth
on the bottom. Not really sure what's going on there but maybe some high tech
engineering!