Tuesday, March 22, 2016
7. FINALE? WHAT FINALE?
“It Aint Over Till It’s Over Baby”. OΚ Ikarus have been working like a charm for months now... but something is bugging me... The next time I saw it next to the Desierto the bug crawls up toy me again and something doesn't feels right. I mean I know it works better... got better materials... and better aerodynamics... and it is lighter... But there is something that doesn't fit me right...
At first I thought that it was the fact that I had to get down from the bike to adjust the upper screen...
Nop...Maybe the color?... Nop... I scratch my head and look at it and then it hits me!
As long as I can the racks on the outside the setup kind of yells it is an amateur's makeshift hack. It needs a more clean look and the racks have to disappear somehow.
At first I thought that it was the fact that I had to get down from the bike to adjust the upper screen...
Nop...Maybe the color?... Nop... I scratch my head and look at it and then it hits me!
As long as I can the racks on the outside the setup kind of yells it is an amateur's makeshift hack. It needs a more clean look and the racks have to disappear somehow.
Have your ever felt that you are getting in troyble as soon the idea passes through the back of your mind? That was the case. Now I "had" to dismantle everything to pieces and spreading everything on the bench again I had to find a way to hide those racks. Which mend only one thing... The lower black fairing -product of many hours labor- had to go under the knife. If I need to go Desierto style I have to make two parallel cuts where the racks are, from where special made brackets would go to the back side of the fairing.
Easier said than done. Would the fairing survive the operation? Would all my fingers?
To be continued...
5. FINALE!
And then it was finally springtime at last, so Ikarus could be fully tested. By testing I mean ride the hell out of the bikes with it on them. On this long term test, Ikarus flew with high speed winds on highways and he traveled inside Greece and from Athens to Bulgaria. He kept performing as before and didn't cracked or had any sign of problem from wind, vibration or bumping around off road with the bikes, in forests...
...in Greece...
...or around the Balkans...
...flying with 200 klm/hour...
...keeping the cockpit vibration free...
...and killing bugs in and out of the borders.
8. "LEARNING TO FLY -LOOK MA' NO RACKS!"
How do you cut up a thing that took you an incredible amount of work and study to make? Do you start meditating, fasting and do yoga to get a steady hand? Or you just crack open the volume on the manhole's radio, pop up a beer and go to mayhem mode listening to the blues? The blues. Its always the blues... With my dremel like I started cutting my way through epoxy using as starting and ending points for my cuts the holes that the racks were bolting on to the fairing. Four songs later they were done. And with no fingers gone!
Sanding time was here again and filling and finishing followed, mainly because this kind of laminating composite materials hate humidity getting between the layers and can cause them great damage in the future.
Next up the bracket's set. Since I wasn't able to find anything "readymade" to do what the aluminum racks did, I had to also make them my self. I choose 3mm thick plastic and the cutting and drillin' begun.
Several hours of curving time later I got to this... On the floor around my feet layed the little plastic corpses of all failled attempts. I take a break and while looking at them I realise that ...I need bolts! So off to the hardware store one more...
Rushing back to the cave, I start bolting things and soon... yeap it works! Ok after some more cutting and sanding and trimming... but it works! So I dismantle it again... Nop it wasn't a stroke, but I had to paint them all black to also check the looks of my setup. Then I assemble it and take it out to the sun to have a look...
But then I remember something else I always wanted to try, as I have noticed that many fairings of this kind have a window like cut on the lower front to maximize air intake between the two surfaces and additionally reduce buffeting. So a little bit later...
But before I assemble it -again and for ...I cannot remember how many times... in a row- I thought, "lets get a picture of the complete cast for historic purposes". So I lay them all down and ...click.
Then I bolt it on to the bike and start riding. It works as before, only a little better in higher speeds. The moving mechanism works easily. Then as I look at it from the sides I get an idea. I measure the angles to the point where the support bracket meets the bikes sidepanels.
I think that it could get more steady if I reverse the angles so that I could get wider bends. Back in the shed and on to the bench. Again. So the aluminum tubes run down to the back of the lower bolting points and then turn forward instead of the other way around.
And a last detail: The hand bolts are working ok but are lame to look at. So next day I go thump nuts safari and I find some wonderful thump nuts made from bakelite, with bronze inner threads.
The epilogue is another disassemble of the complete structure, a proper spray-paint of the plastic parts and then a assembly with fresh secure nuts. And of course some last photos...
Total maximum height is 47 centimeters at full deployment. Minimum height completely retracted is 35 centimeters.
...and a small trip to Kisavos mountain for a test ride...
In the meantime another one in the riding crew just got a twin Bmw F 650 GS, test rode the Ikarus and wanted one. So here we go and at his we tried a slightly bigger air duct upfront.
The Ikarus family keeps breeding...
4. A HIGHER ΙΚΑRUS
ΙΚΑRUS: THE ULTIMATE CHALLENGE
And then it was time for some hardcase senario testing. A guy tested my fairing and liked it BUT it was a little bit on the sort side for him. To be exact the owner of the beautiful Lava Orange F 800 GS is 195 centimetres high and he had tried many fairings in the market with no smiles. His Ikarus had to go a liiiiiittle bit higher. So back to the shed I was...
For starters I build him another kind of plexiglass screen. The main profile fitted the one of the black base but it was almost 10 centimetres higher. I had to work with a bigger plexiglass piece and it was a tough one as it almost didn't fit in my oven and it could easily get burned, touching its walls. But it cooked nicely -no crisp ends- no melted plastics in the oven! Then I build some longer spacers and racks, so that the bigger screen would have better stability and more air passing between it and the base (black) screen. I guessed that otherwise it would have more vibrations as its center of gravity is higher and its heavier, and its bigger surface would have more resistance to the air stream. Of course now the top end is higher but so is the head of the rider, and we agreed it would be safe in any case.
I also formed a support bar with different angles so it would surely hold on to the extra stress, but one that could be more easily bolt on and off to the motorcycle. I 've made a support bar for my bike that was rock solid but being bolted to the rear bolts of the instrument and lights bmw plastic subframe, it would be a pain for the guys at bmw service to work -assuming they could find the way to unbolt it if needed- so we went another way. I tried to follow the angles and curves of the Bmw turing screen support bar. It wasn't easy but after some cursing and aluminum throwing away it came up nicely. I also found some heavy duty P clips to bolt it on the base with good quality rubber covers. It is stable but the vibrations -that used to make my gps screen tremble- are gone.
The Lava Orange Princess insisted -as if things were not hard enough already- that it wanted his front total black. So I had to paint the aluminum bars without having the ability to powder coat. So I painted them with a simple small brush and when they dried I coverde them with a layer of epoxy resin. They seem ok, but I don't know if and how long they will stay that way. But we can always repaint them. As everything on the built. Oh and playing with mat black spray paint I got a finish close to the look of our bikes black plastics (beaks end, hand protectors, air intakes etc).
...so it was time for... TESTING-TESTING:
Take 4 (and last?)
Motorcycle: BMW F 800 GS
Rider's height: 1,95 cm
Helmet: HJC HQ1-LORDSHIP CARBON
Wind: Moderate (4 on the Bofors scale
Screen's max height: 50+ cm
Test field: Athens to Lamia National Road
My results: Ikarus works. On is basic form you cat ride up to 180 klm/hour comfortably, without buffeting, noise, or vibrations. You can have your helmet visor open up to 130 -depending on wind speed and direction- and generally a rider of a hight up to 180 cm can have a decent coverage almost up to the bikes top speed. Its aerodynamic is decent, as it doesn't seem to slow the bike down on acceleration, or increase its fuel consumption. With the clear screen down on its lower point you can get to ride off road without hitting it, no matter how low you bent your body. Gps mounting is good as you need a slight lower of your line of sight to have the gps on its center. It also covers the gps from the rain sufficiently.
Built-wise: Ok, it wasn't easy. You have to learn how to work with epoxy resin and aeroglass cloth(or fiberglass), hand bending of aluminum tubes -without denting them, on the last farting curve forchristshake!- and thermoforming of straight common plexiglass sheet, cutting it drilling it (without cracking it at the end...). BUT neither the cost of raw materials nor the ...learning curve are punishing if you want to try it.
You won't need any special tools. Most "exotic" things you should buy is a cheap heat gun and a tube bending hand tool (to the dimensions of the tubes you gonna use), and -assuming you have a drill and a dremel-like thing- you 'll be set to go. There is going to be a lot of sanding though, but you can do it by hand. If you are going to buy a tool for the job, make sure its the most maneuverable you can buy and has a small head that can fit in inner corners.
Overall is a fun procedure ideal for a winter hobby, and by starting around October you can surely have your new fairing ready by the time the weather clears again for riding. The key ingredient in the mix is free time and ...persistence.
"So why so few solutions in the market?"
Manhours are expensive. Skilled manhours that is. That is the main reason we don't see a thing like that as a kit from any big companies that produce after market motorcycle stuff. They big majority of them prefer compact one piece plexiglass solutions that can be made almost automatically, with industrial mass production and have a great profit margin. But plexiglass as a base would break when epoxy won't.
Then you got the prince Desierto from Touratech, which is made as a big metal esoskeleton and then covered with cheap plastic. My guess is because that way they can mass built it cheap -either inhouse, especially the metal parts, or outsource them- and then control assembly.
Most interesting thing I saw researching my project is the Mirage by Britannia Composites. But I wasn't able to get one on my hands and play with it. Its has a really clever -back to basics- approach to the subject and is cheaper than the Touratech part. Come to think of it its only natural as the company is smaller and focused on fairings, so has invested time and money on getting good with plastic. They use cheaper plastic (fiberglass front /abs back I think) that the epoxy resin I chose and the make for it by adding a cheap/strong metal part to reinforce it. Which is fine but I guess the thing would be heavy. And it requires the instruments to get off the bike to install it and then bolt them on it. But provides a good area for switches and gps and a good shelter for ballast set-ups under it.
Anyway I will have to give you a more detailed report of all the screens I have tried on my bike or on friend's bikes in my next blog post.
Bottom line: If you gonna try something like that you need epoxy cause it provides a good, solid yet durable to stress/vibrations base that looks good. Ok it is more expensive than fiberglass (6 times more I think) but the total built was hands down cheaper than a Desierto or a Mirage. And fun.
3. TESTING
Phase Eight: One Step Up and Two Steps Back
Its riding time at last! I tie my gps on the bolts that tie the racks holding the plexiglass and off I go. Oups! There is a construction crew in the neighborhood digging the streets, that turned the place to an enduro trail, and my fairing starts swinging back and forth like a hoola hoop champion. So its back in the shed, as I obviously need some kind of support, cause if It dances like this now, up in the mountain it will fly away.
I pick up my son's tablet computer and I start searching what the major companies have done to support their screens. I get some 10mm aluminum tubes from hardware supplies and start bending them. After a bunch of broken ones on the floor, and a couple -ok, a lot- of hours of try it on and face palm splashing and I get one to fit -in a dakar instrument tower like angle- just where the plastic instrument bridge bolts on the bike's frame. GPS mount on, gps "ON" and "Houston we are ready for lift off".
After a short ride around the hood the hole think seems steady enough for the open road. The only problem seems to be that it is too steady bolted on the bike and the vibrations pass from the motor straight to the screen complex, as my gps screen showed me, blurring on idle. I use some rubber coated washers to isolate it but with little affect. Anyway I will have to relocate my support bar anyway cause it would make taking off the screen system complicated.
Phase Nine: If only we had an wind-tunnel...
Take One:Rider's height: 172cm
Helmet Type: HJC FG-15 (street/simple/ no beak)
Wind: 4-5 on the Beaufort scale
Screen Position: Top Up
Test field: "Katehaki" highway
Results: I can go up to 120 klm/h with the helmet fully open, althought the wind is pretty strong. The main flow of the air is on the top of my helmet and there is a very small draft of air just on top of the instrument panel. Ypu can only tell if you move your hand there going 120 klm/h or more. Its the air that passes between the bottom black base of the screen and the plexiglass part, and it does perform the miracle of "no buffeting" praise the lord of all aerodynamics!
My shoulders seem well protected from the airstream, and I don't even hear the "boom- boom" sound that the air makes closing behind big "barndoor" type screens.
What is really impressive is the sound of the bike speeding up. Its so quiet I can hear clearly the engine! Furthermore is that the front end of the bike seems more stable that before. Its probably the supporting bars job, because the bikes instrument bridge was always vibrating a lot, causing eve the beak to move at high speeds. On my way back there is a big Ford Transit with elevated roof in frond of me, the kind of brick like van that cause turbulent airstreams. I move on purpose into its streams behind it. Wow, this think really works! Its steady, smooth and quiet!
Next day I change the lower aluminum sliding racks, only for aesthetic reasons, as I want to make them less protruding and bulk and to make them follow the lines of the base fairing.
Take Two
Rider's height: 172cm
Helmet: HJC FG-15 (street/simple/ no beak)
Wind :4-5 on the Beaufort scale
Screen Position: Top Up
Test field: Athens to Lamia National Road
Results: I can ride with the helmet open up to 130 klm/h! Air coverage remains the same. Road is empty so I decide it is time to push it a little bit more. I close the helmet and I speed up. The bike is completely stable and I am covered up to 170 klm/h. Up to 160 klm/h the only thing that reminded me of previous -no fairing- rides is the lower end of my blue jeans that slap around like crazy. I slow down and then speed up rapidly to see if the bigger frontal surface gave me more wind resistance. Nop. Bike accelerates as before, just more smoothly! Of course only gas consumption will tell me for sure.
I reach a big 18wheels truck, sailing with its nylon cover flapping around in the wind and I put the bike in its air stream, behind it. Wow indeed!
It seems that this bike IS stable. It just had poor aerodynamics from the start. Its the first time I can ride over 140 without even thinking about it, or struggling with buffeting or wobbles.
Only thing is that the gps -for the first time in a place where I can look at it without taking my eyes from the road- reflects the sun in my face. Got to built it some shade flap.
Back home, checking everything again. No bolts loosen, nothing cracked, nothing bent. Nothing deformed. Now I have to run more miles on it to stress test it. Every bit of spec they gave me about epoxy was confirmed so far. It can really stand its ground and it is worthy of its extra euros, compared to polyester. You can see it even when you try to cu and drill it. Now I got to get some nicer nuts and bolt and to decide on the color. Red like the rest of the bike or black like the plastic fender extender the bike carries on the beak? Will see...
"Testing -Testing": HOW DARE YOU!
Its was a quiet night when Ikarus met a Desierto of the Touratech family. One word led to another and soon the night involved a test drive of them on the half empty streets around town.
Take 3:
Rider's Height: 180+ cm
Helmet HJC RPHA-10 (street, with good aerodynamic profile)
Wind: Moderate
Screen position: Top Up
Test Field: Sigrou Avenue/ coastal avenue
Results: "Air flow at the top of my helmet. No turbulence up to the head. No wind noise even with open helmet's screen, up to 120 klm/h. In the city full wind coverage up to 175 klm/h. Wider air pocket than the Desierto's, especially up to the shoulders and head. But the height adjustment system is not so easy to use as the Desierto's one. Impressive!
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