t-cycle/wintr-fairing-kit

Wondering has any one used this fairing and if so comments Looking to use on Catrick Thanks

 

I had one for a few months. I live in So Cal and found this fairing to act like magnifying glass to my shins when the SUN was overhead. I also sweat a lot and found the deflected air to my body dehydrated me faster than I could replenish it. It needed to scratch too easy also. Swirls began to appear in it after the first ride or two even though I cleaned it with the solutions the makers suggested and clean Terry cloth towels. I bought bottles of polishing and shining compounds to remove the swirls and inevitable tiny scratches. Still couldn't get it anywhere near back to brand new.

I ride a Catrike 700 and at the top of the pedal stroke * the 12 o'clock position the fairing has to be high enough for the tips of the cycling shoes to not touch the shoe with about a 1-2 inch clearance.

On a 700 ones knees alone can be above ones head at the 9:00 position and the feet at or above eye level * Noon position meaning the fairings top surface has to be above eye level.

The manufacture says we are suppose to be able to see over the top of the fairing as the looking through the fairing the view is pretty severely distorted and fuzzy - especially as the swirls and scratches accumulate!

Forget about having to look through it if morning humidity is high and the inside fogs up! Or even a light sprinkle comes along... You're completely blind visibility wise!

On the plus side it did drastically reduce wind drag and buffeting in head winds and resulted in almost mind blowing accelerations down hills or on mountain descents.

Having designed and prototyped many different bicycle related components in past chapters of my life I feel that the design needs to be further developed as in a harder more scratch resistance fairing material and cast to eye glass specifications. Perhaps making it as 2 parts whereby one half of it can be hinged slightly to both allow for flow through ventilation, air to clear internal rider facing fogging, and rider to road visibility during fog or rain moments when safety is more important than all out speed.

The mounting hardware was way too heavy for acceleration and climbing performance and still didn't keep the fairing from gyrating and oscillating when going over rough surfaces or rail road tracks. It could have been as wide as the front wheel tracks also.

Something like the front nose cones of most well designed velomobiles in clear aircraft grade plexiglass would be pretty state of the art in my opinion with as mentioned - ventilation for climbing and inclement weather built in.

There is always a market for well thought out designs and great implementation.