An Investigation of the Performance of a Motorcycle Fairing

摘要

The addition of strakes to the fairing of a racing motorcycle to improve handling and stability by decreasing front wheel lift was studied. A full size Suzuki 500 motorcycle was adapted to accept a Yamaha racing fairing and a 1/9th scale model of the Yamaha motorcycle was used in the wind tunnel for force measurements. Flow visualization was used to compare the full scale flow to that over the model. A theoretical analysis of stability was also performed. It was found that the strakes could greatly reduce the lift with no consequent drag penalty. There were no unexpected disturbances in the flow, although one separation line, emanating from the handlebars on the model was not found on the full scale machine. Problems encountered during the course of this project are in included.