Modding My Road Bike for Aerodynamics: Ideas & Suggestions?

[Shawnzyoo]

I have been toying with the idea of modding my road bike (pedal) for increased aerodynamicy;
for starters of adding a small fiberglass shell on the front to channel the air around my legs and lower bike frame
possibly eventually adding a shell to control the flow around my shoulders more
does anyone have any ideas/suggestions/comments
i am interested to hear anything
thanks

 

[Clausius2]

I have been toying with the idea of modding my road bike (pedal) for increased aerodynamicy;
for starters of adding a small fiberglass shell on the front to channel the air around my legs and lower bike frame
possibly eventually adding a shell to control the flow around my shoulders more
does anyone have any ideas/suggestions/comments
i am interested to hear anything
thanks

I have a road bicycle too. But I think you are not going to take advantage of any modding about increasing aerodynamics. Maybe Lance Armstrong or Jan Ulrich who rides at 60 km/h counter-cronometer will take advantage of it. But if you are not a professional cyclist (like me) don't think too much about it.

 

[Shawnzyoo]

clausius

this is what i was looking at
http://www.wisil.recumbents.com/wisil/speedruns2000/worlds-fastest-bicycle-2000.htm
just interesting to read about

do you know of a decent program that i could model it in?
thanks for the reply

 

[faust9]

clausius

this is what i was looking at
http://www.wisil.recumbents.com/wisil/speedruns2000/worlds-fastest-bicycle-2000.htm
just interesting to read about

do you know of a decent program that i could model it in?
thanks for the reply

What do you mean by model? Are you asking about CAD or CFD?

 

[Shawnzyoo]

i meant CFD sorry about that
i honestly have never used one before
is there one that is easier to learn for beginners?
thanks

 

[faust9]

I use Fluent( http://www.fluent.com/ ) though it is by no means easy---very powerful though. I've played with solidworks Cosmos ( http://www.solidworks.com/pages/products/cosmos/cosmosfloworks.html ) it's fairly easy to use and is integrated rather nicely into solidworks.

There are some F/OSS CFD packages out there too. What you decide to use will be determined by how accurate you need you flow model to be, how much you want ot spend, and how much time you want to invest in learning how to use said software.

Just as a frame of reference, I work in engine controls so the extent of flow modeling I do is to put my sensors( airflow meters mostly for new designs or thermocouples in exhaust systems) into the intakes and exhaust headers in locations that give the Data Acq units representative samples with as little flow disruption as possible. CFD helps me do this but most of the flow analysis is done by different groups.