faired uni

what the heck is the 'banana' for?

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It's a fairing. it's to drop air resistance.

I doubt unicyclists can really go fast enough to warrant having one.
There are some bikers who do over 100 mph on faired bikes, but unis
really are limited as to speed. there's not going to be enough air
resistance to make the weight of the fairing worth carrying.

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ok. I think this thing does not really make sense, unless gears get into
a mature state for unis.

I'd like to see somebody doing freestyle-tricks with that things.
Hahahah, a uni-spin might get tricky 🙂

wogri

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goldenchicken said:

*Are there any records of faired unicycles ever been built? In this
dreary weather I wouldn't mind riding something like this: *

I'm not buying it. I can imagine some funny UPD's - to watch, not to
experience. Mounting and dismounting may be more cumbersome. Unicyclists
hardly go fast enough to have substantial benefit of a fairing. A
unicycle rides like ~~~~ so you would be slinging your banana through
the air which might actually -increase- air resistance. The extra weight
wouldn't be nice for belancing. Finally, a unicycle doesn't offer ample
opportunity to attach a fairing - but that is a technical issue that I
imagine can be solved.

Some of these issues might be solved by attaching the fairing to the
rider as opposed to to the unicycle.

Klaas Bil

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Klaas Bil said:

*Some of these issues might be solved by attaching the fairing to the
rider as opposed to to the unicycle.*

I'm partial to the 'bumbershoot'
(http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=bumbershoot) fairing.

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Klaas Bil said:

* A unicycle rides like ~~~~ so you would be slinging your banana
through the air which might actually -increase- air resistance. *

How long till that ends up in some ones sig?

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Klaas Bil said:

* A unicycle rides like ~~~~ so you would be slinging your banana
through the air which might actually -increase- air resistance. *

How long till that ends up in some ones sig?

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Originally posted by Klaas Bil
A unicycle rides like ~~~~ so you would be slinging your banana through
the air which might actually increase air resistance.

daino149 said:

*How long till that ends up in some ones sig? *

Great! This rendered my biggest laugh on this forum yet.

I understand if no one buys my faired uni, I wouldn't buy it myself.
After all, as UniBrier points out, there already exist such things as
unibrellas.

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Fuego said:

There are some bikers who do over 100 mph on faired bikes...

I think the fastest faired bike is "only" 81 mph.

See: http://www.ihpva.org/hpva/hpvarec7.html

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81 mph sounds like the record for *non-paced* cycling. I think speeds up
to 150+ have been managed with motorpacing. Mile-a-minute Murphy did a
one-minute mile about 100 years ago (paced). Surely bikes have gone a
lot faster since then?

Why use a fairing? I can think of three major reasons:
1. Improved speed
2. To look cool
3. Possibly to keep the rain off

1. Improving speed only works if you're going pretty fast in the first
place. Before messing around with fairings, a geared recumbent unicycle
design should be worked out. Got to get the frontal area down first,
before a fairing is going to help at all.

2. Yup, there's always looking cool. Only if you're fully enclosed,
you'd better have a lot of help starting and stopping! Not to mention
riding with any kind of wind. More about this below.

3. The purpose of a fairing, per-se, is not to protect you from the
weather. A weather-proof unicycle sounds pretty ridiculous. You can use
an umbrella to keep the rain off, but you still need something major to
keep the backs of your legs from getting soaked and dirty because of all
the water you're picking up and "wobbling" all over yourself. So I'd
recommend a rain suit and goggles.

Fairings make bike handling unwieldly. That's on a bike. Take away one
of the wheels, and a little bit of wind will keep you from being able to
ride in the direction of your choosing. Even a large wheel unicycle is
susceptable to wind. I remember once riding across a giant parking lot
at Jones Beach, Long Island, with Ken Fuchs. We were on 40" and 45"
wheels, trying to cross this parking lot with a very strong headwind,
hitting us at kind of a 45 degree angle. We literally had to tack, like
sailboats, to avoid flailing our arms all over the place!

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johnfoss said:

81 mph sounds like the record for *non-paced* cycling.

Correct, and truly amazing, engineering-wise and athletic-wise.

Quoted message said:

I think speeds up to 150+ have been managed with motorpacing.

Also true, and plenty crazy, but not as awesome of a record, IMHO.

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johnfoss said:

81 mph sounds like the record for *non-paced* cycling.

Correct, and truly amazing, engineering-wise and athletic-wise.

Quoted message said:

I think speeds up to 150+ have been managed with motorpacing.

Also true, and plenty crazy, but not as awesome of a record, IMHO.

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johnfoss said:

*1. Improving speed only works if you're going pretty fast in the
first place. *

For bikes wind resistance becomes an important factor even at moderate
speed. When going faster it will offer far greater resistance than
rolling resistance.

But as you imply, the upright position of the rider makes the fairing
quite useless for this purpose.

Perhaps in a downhill race with unis using coaster hubs ...

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Think of a fairing that looks like the tail of an air plane. The rider
is housed in the upright part and the wing with its flaps could be used
to balance the unicycle, rather than the pedals. Alowing the rider of a
geared uni to really crank with there legs and balance by ajusting the
pressure of the air passing over the wing.

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There's the one shown in'this'
(http://www.unicycle.com/shopping/shopexd.asp?id=554) picture.

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goldenchicken said:

*For bikes wind resistance becomes an important factor even at
moderate speed. When going faster it will offer far greater resistance
than rolling resistance.

Perhaps in a downhill race with unis using coaster hubs ... *

I agree. I hit about 40 on hills going home from school on a good day,
and the thing that stops me is wind resistance and a crappy bike. Then
again I'm in jeans and a t-shirt, so it's not like I have the most aero
clothing.

And when do you expect there to be a DH uni race on coaster hubs? I'm
thinking a time scale of 5 years to NEVER.

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Ottawa Dave said:

Think of a fairing that looks like the tail of an air plane. The rider
is housed in the upright part and the wing with its flaps could be used
to balance the unicycle, rather than the pedals. Alowing the rider of a
geared uni to really crank with there legs and balance by ajusting the
pressure of the air passing over the wing.

Ha, I wanted to post the picture I once saw (and thought I had saved
but I can't find it) of a blimp with an undercarriage consisting of a
single wheel and ask "Is this what you mean?"

The T-shirt tomblackwood linked to is NOT the one I mean.

Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
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Thanks all for trashing the idea about a faired unicycle. I have learnt
that the fairing would not increase speed, it would make my banana sling
and hence cause frequent UPDs. The fairing would not even make a decent
rain cover!

So unless you fill the whole thing with tobacco and smoke it, the only
meaningful way to use it is to plaster it with stickers. We all know
that many companys would sponsor unicyclists if only the machines
offered more space for advertising.

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Like this perhaps

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| Attachment filename: stickeredfairing.jpg |
|Download attachment: http://www.unicyclist.com/attachment/264728|
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