hotbike

This shows how the fiberglass box/fairing is mounted. I used 1"x4" polyethylene barstock to make the mounting bracket.
This was also posted under "recumbent".

Very shiny because I sprinkled aluminum powder between coats of paint.

This is a photo I took a few months back.

This bike was developed at the same time as the other one, but I molded the fiberglass directly to the frame, so it cannot be unbolted. This is the bike appearing in my avatar. Both these bike fairings are based on diesel truck spoilers.

hotbike

Hello Again,

I am bringing up this old thread instead of starting a new thread. I have more photos related to the subject, "Mount a Box to Your Headtube".

Before:

The Type 10 had a 1982 Suzuki fairing, which wobbled side to side, and had several large cracks. It was not good for carrying goods.


I had the Type 10 stripped down to the fiberglass cantilever rack:



I gave this rack a touch-up with some fresh paint:





Next, a plywood sandwich was made for the rack. I used plywood from furniture, so it fairly high grade. There is a top and a bottom, with 5 1/2 inch by quarter twenty carriage bolts to hold them together:





Photographs from different angles,

hotbike

For a "box", I used the plastic case from an old iMac computer!



There are some #8 machine screws, with fender washers, holding the case to the plywood:



There is a piece of foam poster board between the plastic case and the plywood.




So this is my new Utility Bike. The plywood sandwich may look ugly, but the lower shelf can carry SLA batteries (sealed, lead acid, 12 volt).

The iMac plastic case is almost just as good as the fiberglass fairings which we showed at the start of this thread, maybe better, because I couldn't make the fiberglass translucent like that. Note the similarity?

The iMac case is 15 inches long, 15 inches wide, and 15 inches high. The overall length is now 77 inches , or six foot five.

I use this bike for hauling gravel, to improve off-road bicycle trails.

fietsbob

this is so much more elegant : https://www.brompton.co.uk/explorer/a...index.asp?bp=9
and the bag comes off , quickly,
there is a frame in the bags, that can come out, a sleeve and velcro.
and you can tie a box onto it. no fiberglass Kludge is needed.

hotbike

The Type Ten Kludge can hold a lot more weight. This is not handlebar mounted, but as the title of the thread states, the cargo box is mounted to the headtube. The headtube mounting is easier to steer when fully loaded.

I think the only problem with the iMac-Bike shown in these pics is the clash of colors- the blue-green iMac plastic and the yellow bike frame don't match; and I agree that color-wise, it looks horrible. I don't want to paint the iMac yellow, and every time I suggest that I might repaint the frame a color other than yellow, people tell me not to. They like the yellow color. Apple made the iMac in several different colors, including yellow, but I don't know if I could find a yellow iMac. I have talked to someone who has a blue iMac in their basement, so there are others out there.

No, I wouldn't trade this bike for a Brompton. (Do you, by any chance, have a Bakfiets? I'm guessing that you do, on account of your screen name...)

Let's compare this bike to a Bakfiets, instead of a Brompton. The Type 10 is so big, at 77 inches lengthwise, it almost doesn't fit into an elevator.

I like the streamlined shape of the iMac, I find it pleasing to look at. Granted, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, not everyone likes it, but I do.

After all the time it took to cast fairings myself, using fiberglass, the gist of this story is that I saved hundreds of hours by recycling the iMac plastic, which is so similar to the Type 9 fairing (the dark green one , above), that it would be hard to tell the difference by looking at it from a distance.

I suggest that you go to:
https://www.speed101.com
and learn a little more about aerodynamics before you criticize.

dscheidt

Ugly is still ugly, whatever the supposed aerodynamic advantage.

jtgotsjets

Yeah, I don't buy that strapping an iMac to your bike will make it faster or better. Weight is weight. No need for unnecessary crap.

Nightshade

If a person want's to play with their bike and add , or change, something that's fine just don't post it online so people have to look at the ugly junker.

John Montgomery

Can you run the Mac off a hub generator, and mount the keyboard/mouse on the bars? Then you could be on Bike Forums while riding! (I'm at least partly serious here, that would rock!)

hotbike

Well, I had to remove the iMac plastic , so if you thought it was ugly, the bike is back to looking like this now:

I didn't explicitly say that the iMac case would make the bike go faster, in fact, the vent holes, IMHO, would probably make the "fairing" more like a Wiffle-Ball.
There were two problems, the plastic case swayed fore and aft, and there were some small cracks in the bottom near one of the mounting screws.

I hope you all will tell me your opinion on the aesthetics of the small plywood platform, is that ugly too? Last night I actually gave a woman (she said she was "Bike Mama") a ride around a local parking lot, so this can serve as a seat for a passenger. Please don't underestimate the load capacity. There's at least seven layers of fiberglass in that 2"x4" spar.

Today, I am going to purchase some pea-gravel, and the bike will be used to carry said gravel to the muddy parts of a local trail. I will use a plastic tub strapped down with bungees.

What I was waiting for someone to notice is, there seems to be a similarity between the iMac case and the fairing on the Type 9 (bottom photo in the Original Post). Please take note of the date on the original post. I failed to mention the numerical designation of those bikes in the photos- the first three are the Type 7, the fourth is the Type 9.

GiantDefyGuy

I'm trying to understand the purpose of the "fairings" on these bikes.

I like your whole "DIY" mentality and your sense of "I don't care what you think." Those are admirable qualities.

But I just can't figure out the purpose behind the fairings. (The motorcycle one looks the best out of them all, btw.)

Let's talk about the Macintosh one.....you said you were going to haul gravel in it. But you weren't going to put gravel in the Mac case (right?). So what exactly is (was) the Mac case there for? It doesn't look like you could store anything in there, and it seems to obstruct your view of the road. So I'm just really trying to figure out why you built this huge and super-strong contraption on the front of your bike so that you could mount a box at an angle that doesn't allow you to store anything in it and blocks your vision? Was it just for aerodynamics? Looks?

Also, (criticism here) you posted the picture of the yellow bike after you re-painted the fiberglass, and it doesn't look very smooth at all. I'm guessing that you need to spend a little more time smoothing/sanding your fiberglass. You could have these things looking professional with just a little extra time spent on smoothing out the fiberglass.

Anyway, I'm really curious about the "fairings" and what their intended purpose is.

hotbike

There are other cyclists who have tried fairings, several websites have faired bikes in their archives. you might want to try:

https://www.speed101.com

https://www.ihpva.org

https://www.wisil.recumbents.com

What I've done different is that I stuck with an upright bike, instead of a recumbent.
However, I always wanted a utility bike, for haulage. The aerodynamics are secondary. My theory is that it would be easier to test an experimental fairing on a utility bike that has a front platform. This gives me more protection if a car cuts me off, like in one of those dreaded "right hooks".

As for the iMac, It really looks a lot like the Type 9 fairing, but it's not fiberglass and I therefore can't trust it to be load-bearing. With fiberglass, I can add layers and small pieces to re-inforce the shell in critical weight bearing areas. But the similarity is superficial. The Type 9 is one piece, including frame and fairing. The iMac case, is three pieces, one of them colored, the other two translucent clear.

I've tried lots of ideas, and many things that people said would never work, actually worked. The Type 6 was a velomobile, and the Type 5 just had the front end of the Type 6. Both Types 5 and 6 went faster than an unfaired bicycle due to their aerodynamics. Types 7 and 9 however, were designed by people in Florida, who had test ridden the Type 5, and said it was too hot, on account the fairing blocked most of the wind. So the Types 7 and 9 are really too small to deflect wind around the rider, and don't offer any speed advantage.

I have more ideas, but I don't have the time or the money to build all of them!

I've come to the conclusion that fairings work best when the rider is completely enclosed, like a velomobile. But as I said, the Floridians say it's too hot, maybe that's why velomobiles are produced in Northern countries like the Netherlands and Denmark. Those countries also have lots of bike paths, where the people don't have to worry about getting hit by a car.

Lets get back to the original subject: The Box. I'm not thinking "outside the box", I'm just thinking about the box itself. This may be dull and unimaginative, but let's talk about the box. I could have mounted a box on the bike, it would be fine for carrying groceries. Maybe I should stick with quadrilateral & rectilinear boxes, instead of adding compound curves?
A front mounted box would block the riders vision just as much as a fairing, though , wouldn't it? I've tried coroplast boxes on other bike recently, one a ten inch cube, the other a twelve inch cube. There's a big difference. I could make a variety of front boxes, besides ten and twelve, I might try eight inch cubes. I might go bigger and try fourteen and sixteen inch cubes. Coroplast is pretty cheap. Now put on your thinking hat: a sixteen inch cube is Eight times the volume of an eight inch cube! Don't think outside the box, just think inside a different box.

Size and proportion are important factors. There are many parameters. Refinement of a design from this year to the next is an option.

What if I am riding a bike with a large , cubic box on the front end, and I have to negotiate a tight turn, where I might brush against some fixed obstacle (car, fence, pedestrian, shopping cart, another bike, etc.)... Would it be better if the box had rounded corners, say, to a minimum of one inch radius? The rounded corners might prevent the corners from digging into the obstacle, so that I might glance off, rather than snag, would they not? Would the rounded corners reduce wind drag as well? Yes they would.



Well, I've been droning on quite a bit. I'll let you digest this reply, and you can ask more questions if you wish.

chaadster

Hotbike, you are a far-out dude! You may not think so, but I consider you a trailblazer; I've never seen anything like those bikes before! I'd think you could just bolt on a trailer and be done with it, but since you didn't, keep at it man...you may hit upon something really cool! I mean, your consideration to round the sharp corners on the box so as not to get snagged on a pedestrian (or something similar) shows you're thinking in the right direction!

Keep us up to date with pics! Best of luck! Have fun!

mackerel

heh

Sixty Fiver

If you are hauling gravel I will assume that your speed is not that high and that your bike is geared relatively low so there is not much to gain from adding a fairing except additional weight.

hotbike

Yeah, I keep the speed down with the gravel. Actually, I swapped out the fairing for a 4 gallon bucket. The yellow bike has a Sturmey-Archer three speed hub, and the wheels are twenty inch. This makes for low Cg, and a low gear-inch ratio.

fietsbob

the Dutch do it Right... https://clevercycles.com/products/bic...es/workcycles/

subcinco

I appreciate your work. I now thinking of building a box. More pics of what your working on please.

Carley P.

This thread is pretty old, but I don't know how old a thread has to be before someone can post "BACK FROM THE DEAD!!!"

Either way, I'm not sure exactly what the logic is behind these bikes. Hotbike, I admire the fact that you go around making trails better for people, but I don't see why this would be any better than a basket, trailer, or even panniers. I'm all for "Doing it yourself," but I think it would be easier (and more practical) to modify a trailer that could carry gravel.

Maybe this thread would have been better if it was posted in the "Alt Bike Culture" forum, seeing as how these bikes have been so intensely modified that they now look like mopeds, motorcycles, or spaceships. It's very artsy; I just don't see the practicality.

vXhanz

Well I give you credit for creativity, but to steal my friends stolen line, "a horse can pull more than it can carry". Maybe I'm not thinking of the sacks of gravel you're thinking of, but it doesn't strike me that you could carry a very heavy load with this and keep it stable. Mainly due to the height and location of the load. If you lose your footing you're going to tip over and with an awkward weight, no matter how rounded the corners of the box, you're going to dump your load and cause damage to an object. If getting through a tight spot is the issue, why not use a single wheel trailer or a narrow two wheeled trailer and haul your gravel that way?

As far as velomobiles in Florida, yeah, I can see them being too hot. Now if you could find a way to incorporate vents to allow better airflow without compromising the aerodynamics, then I think you would have a good product/project to tackle.

And yes, your iMac fairing does match your blue bike from above... though I have to say your blue bike looks better than the yellow bike by far. Now, while I've never worked with fiber glass so I don't know what difficulties you are facing with it, but why not attempt to make it more smooth? I think with the skills you've picked up thus far you could easily make a shell for your bikes that would really look sweet! Add some sparkled/flecked paint to it and you would really have a one of a kind bike.

V

hotbike

Have you ever ridden a utility bike, with a front, frame mounted (head tube mounted) box?

This configuration is extremely stable, and actually becomes more stable with more weight in the cargo box. (it has to do with the rake and trail of the fork, it is self centering).

The headtube mounted box can carry seven to ten times more weight than a handlebar basket. It is nothing like a handlebar basket.

Sorry, I was not able to get to a computer on the 26th or 27th, due to heavy snow on Long Island. I am busy catching up on email and such.

hotbike

No, sorry, I don't want to post any more pictures. You can do a forum search for my name "hotbike", and maybe you will find more pictures already archived here at bikeforums.net.

I plan to concentrate on strictly utilitarian cargo bikes for the time-being. I must be the only builder who tried to combine utility heavy cargo bikes with aerodynamic streamlining. I had marginal results. The Type 5, was a Type 6 without the roof, and lately I have realized how bad this was. The attempt was to create "interchangeable parts" . So instead of a fairing, the Type 5 has the front end of a velomobile, which always encumbered my arms and forced me to saw down the handlebars to 20 inch width. Then the Florida testing proved the Type 5 to be too hot. Mellisa came up with the Type 9, which can NOT support a roof... every design change is a compromise.

Fiberglass can take a high degree of polish. Most people only see the glossy paint and assume it to be fragile- this is not the case with the Type 9, it can carry over a hundred pounds (>100 lbs.)

I want to say a few words about crash protection. You may have seen my thread titled "a fairing is a protective shield" . I think any utility bike with a front, head-tube mounted box has better crash protection than a conventional bicycle. Or maybe the cargo box can do damage to the cars that I hit. Or maybe the motorist thinks he can win if it's your flesh versus his metal, but metal-on-metal makes the motorist think twice?
I'd rather hit a car with a cargo box than with my face.

Carley P.

Hotbike, I would assume that even with a head-tube mounted box, the extra protection in the event of a collision with a car would be minimal. Regardless of what you have in front of your bike, you're probably going to flip over the handlebars and end up on the car's windshield. I really can't see how it would make a bike any safer than it already is.

As for aerodynamics, I don't see why you would ever be carrying a heavy load of gravel at any high speeds where an aerodynamic setup would even be necessary. Furthermore, a pull-behind trailer shouldn't add too much wind-drag, and it could be made to haul more than 100 pounds. Also, it would be easier to detach from the bike.

If you're set on front-mounted things, why wouldn't a frame mounted rack do the job? It should be more aerodynamic because the bars would have less drag, and if you made it out of steel I'm sure it could hold a ton of weight.

Like I said before, I think it's cool that you're pushing the boundaries with bike modifications, and I think these bikes would make great art-bikes, (specifically the "type 10" before it was redone).



These bikes would make great art bikes, and i admire the amount of work put into them, but I still don't see how they would be any more useful than a bike with a trailer or a steel frame-mounted rack.

hotbike

I'm trying to combine funtionality with good looks.
Your last statment contradicts what you said earlier, I have removed the fairing from the Type 10, exposing the rack beneath. You say you like the looks of the fairing, but the heavy carrying rack is right underneath it, it's just as functional with the fairing.

The Type 9 fairing is much more solid than the Suzuki fairing. I would not trust the Suzuki fairing in a crash.
The Type 7 & 9 fairings have rounded corners, which allow me to glance off of car surfaces, and continue steering into the swerve, to keep control. The fairing allows the front wheel to continue turning, while the car and my bike are still in contact. It may require a lot of skill to survive a crash, this is no "passive" system. As I said, you have to steer into the skid. But I crumbled a number of cars rear quarter panels. I don't like to break tail light lenses, on account the bulbs are too bright without lenses, and the light hurts my eyes.

The rear edges of the Type 9 are styrofoam, Yes, I hit my head on the styrofoam once, when a car right hooked me. But the car needed a new quarter panel.

As for going over the bars, think again. When a regular bike does an "endo", the weight of bike and rider pivot around over the front axle. The front rack, however, strikes the car fifteen inches higher than the axle, and forward of the front tire, so the tire continues turning.

The fiberglass used in the Types 7&9 is much stronger than you realize . It is ten times thicker than the steel used in automobile bodies, and it bounces back , rather than crumbling.

You need to go to a hardware store and study some fiberglass axe-handles. Not all fiberglass is weak.

AdamDZ

Use the Back button and you don't have to look! Or someone is pointing a gun to your head?