Sunday, February 26, 2012

Initial Rider Measurements

Now it was time to take measurements of Meghan to to get an initial view as to how she would fit in the fairing. Full  scale side and top profiles were printed out and taped to large flat pieces of cardboard.  There is plenty of room for Meghan so hat is great news. We also took body measurements as well. The next step is to create a 3D mannequin CAD model of Megan to see how laid out she can in the fairing.  











Friday, February 17, 2012

So It Begins

Using a 48" x 96" piece of cardboard, Jose and I put together these two full scale profile outlines so we can start fitting our rider Meghan and designing the prototype recumbent bike frames. This is a classic example of high tech, cutting edge engineering CAD (Cardboard Aided Design). Hahahahahahaha! (I got that joke from a poster over at www.recumbents,com). These profiles are of the two sets of fairing molds we acquired from the Cal Poly, SLO HPV team (the Atlas and Artemis HPV's). We intend to modify the profiles and the molds to get shorter fairings by placing the Meghan in a more laid out recumbent position. We are even considering getting rid of the canopies all together if possible. We haven't decided which one to to focus on but the Artemis is the front runner since Meghan is our lead rider and she likely fits better in the Artemis fairing. We are also considering recessing the wheels deeper into the fairing body to lover the overall fairing height even further. This will necessitate that the rider straddle the front wheel (something that the riders of the Artemis riders didn't do because of their frame design). This seems to be a common design attribute with many of the fastest bike that race at Battle Mountain. But that has yet to be conclusively determined. We plan to measure Meghan's key body dimensions to get a better idea how she may best fit in the Artemis fairing. 


Artemis Fairing Profile


Atlas fairing profile