stone, someome sitting normally on a naked bike.
like a ribelle?
the difference between race hunch and sitting upright sticking out like a dick on a dog... at 70 mph can be 10kw. a number of things affect this.
wind is huge, after around 35 to 40 mph, my experience, your number one thing killing speed and/or efficiency is wind drag.
even with fairings, the difference is a lot. you have a screen that tells you your consumption on an Energica, give it a try, get on the highway, set cruise control at whatever.....let it settle out, and do minute or two minute runs both tucked and sitting straight up and see for yourself the differences in how much power you eat, just for sitting up.
how much drag coefficient is this, i couldn't tell you, i have not done any math, just looked at power use.
another tidbit, my truck, towing an empty trailer, get shitty gas mileage, the trailer is a huge parachute basically. towing the same trailer *same drag* but with 1200 lbs of shit in it, mileage goes up a lot, because now it's not just wind pushing you back, but all that mass on it pushing you forward too, helping maintain the momentum.
even an open bike trailer, empty it's a parachute, put an almost 600 lb bike on it to split the wind before hit hits the back ramp, mileage goes up 4 mpg. sometimes things that are not even in the wind path can change outcomes.
ps, the ribelle can touch 150 with bags on it on a good day, rider crunched way down, not recommended though. normal street speeds tend to be lower anyways, the condition of the road can really cause issues at higher speeds, even little things add up to a lot of problems at 160 mph
aero for street bikes IS important imo, even though people may not be doing everything right, it can make a difference, especially if you are racing, drag, or just saturday night street racing. 10 to 15 mph is very significant.
aaron
Author
Topic: Worlds Fastest E bike (Read 30580 times)