214mpg on a scooter?

[maddiedog]

http://thekneeslider.com/archives/2010/ ... e-project/



If my PCX gets trashed, I might try to build a shell like that. 214mpg and almost complete waterproofness sounds AWESOME!

[Fiah]

Not really a scooter, it's based on the Honda Innova 125, with the 4 speed semi-automatic gearbox. The main thing that makes it efficient is the streamlining.

[edscoot]

Apart from the great mpg there is also the benefit of covering up the pig ugly Innova.

Maybe a streamlined pcx could get 260mpg? Wouldn't be good in cross winds though.

[Fiah]

Apart from the great mpg there is also the benefit of covering up the pig ugly Innova.

Maybe a streamlined pcx could get 260mpg? Wouldn't be good in cross winds though.

A streamlined PCX would be less efficient than that Innova, the CVT is less efficient than gearbox + chain.

[maddiedog]

The PCX would be less efficient, but it's still cool.

The Innova is basically a scooter. It's got 2 wheels, is little, and is good for commuting.

I'd be more interested in something like this for the added weather protection, rather than for the mileage (though that would be a major plus too). It'd be awesome to be a 1-car family because I could take the scooter regardless of weather.

[gn2]

The Innova is basically a scooter.

Wrong way round, a scooter is basically a motorcycle.

[duive01]

The Innova is basically a scooter.

Wrong way round, a scooter is basically a motorcycle.

I agree with you completely but many motorcyclists don't!

[edscoot]

251mpg here: http://www.fuelly.com/motorcycle/piaggi ... ra%20fuoco

I think someone hasn't entered their data correctly.

[maddiedog]

Misplaced decimal point probably. You see that a lot on fuelly.

[Urbanian]

If he doubled gas mileage by adding the aerodynamic shell, and the PCX averages 92mpg, I could expect at least 180mpg on my bike if so altered, no?

[gn2]

The Innova in standard trim can do nearly 160mpg.
It has a far more efficient gearbox and transmission and modifying the gearing is much easier.
Which is probably why an Innova was used rather than a CVT twist and go job.
If you gave a PCX the same treatment you might see 140mpg.

[maddiedog]

I agree with GN2 -- the reason the Innova had such good results is because of the manual gearbox. CVTs are inherently inefficient relative to manual gearboxes. In addition, you couldn't tweak the PCX's gearing in the same way the Innova's was (at least as easily).

[sendler2112]

More on Alert's streamliner at Ecomodder.
.
http://ecomodder.com/blog/diy-aero-fair ... e-214-mpg/
.

[Cooley_PCX_Rider]

My friend Craig Vetter of the Vetter motorcycle fame has been working on this for over thirty years.

See his work at www.craigvetter.com

I sent that article to him. He most likely knows this person. Craig will throw up some quick refutes like what
is his top speed? How does he put his feet down? What is the weight of this beast? Can it run 70mph into a 20mph head
wind and maintain 120mpg. If it can't it can't beat his work and that of his friends.

Craig says that for humans to exist in the future we must do "more with less". That was the Mantra of the inventor of the geodesic dome
Buckminster Fuller.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckminster_Fuller

[Cooley_PCX_Rider]

http://www.velomobiel.nl/allert/Recumbe ... orbike.htm

This website shows the full story and be sure to catch the references to what Craig Vetter has done.

Craig who is from my area of Illinois and a personal friend of mine became very wealthy from manufacturing
the Vetter Windjammer fairings from the 1960's through the 1980's.

Craig told me the first bike he built a fairing for was a 250cc bike then he built the next for a 160cc.

His dream was making small cc bikes get better fuel economy and have zero wind buffeting for a more comfortable ride.

Truth is the big bike builders like Kaw, Honda, Suzuki all co-opted his product and demanded he build larger and larger
fairings for larger touring bikes.

Craig is personally responsible for bringing the Honda Gold Wing into existence. Had it not been for his products no
person would have known the need for such a beast.
However the MPG sucks on the Gold Wing

[sendler2112]

I rode with Craig at the Fuel economy challenge at the Vintage Days in Ohio last July. He is doing great work but is two steps ahead of most Americans who are still hung up on style. But history will one day prove him out when he says " Someday all vehicles that go fast will be round at the front and pointy at the back".

[gn2]

Strange that Honda's Goldwing first saw the light of day with no fairing, I doubt Mr. Vetter had much to do with it coming into existence.
Strange too that in the UK and Switzerland, feet forward streamlined motorcycles weree being built in the mid 1970s years before Mr. Vetter's streamliner of 1981.
Also the low seat/low drag concept was first seen on the 1920s Ner-a-car, a production motorcycle made in Great Britain.

Some stuff to look up on Google:
Royce Creasey
Malcolm Newell
Jack DiFazio
Arnold Wagner
Quasar
Mono-tracer
Peraves

And while you're at it, look up Tommy Flowers, the British man who designed and built the worlds first programmable electronic computer.

See, I know interesting stuff as well as being a grumpy old git.

[you you]

Strange that Honda's Goldwing first saw the light of day with no fairing, I doubt Mr. Vetter had much to do with it coming into existence.
Strange too that in the UK and Switzerland, feet forward streamlined motorcycles weree being built in the mid 1970s years before Mr. Vetter's streamliner of 1981.
Also the low seat/low drag concept was first seen on the 1920s Ner-a-car, a production motorcycle made in Great Britain.

Some stuff to look up on Google:
Royce Creasey
Malcolm Newell
Jack DiFazio
Arnold Wagner
Quasar
Mono-tracer
Peraves

And while you're at it, look up Tommy Flowers, the British man who designed and built the worlds first programmable electronic computer.

See, I know interesting stuff as well as being a grumpy old git.

I don't think he mean't Vetter had anything to with the design of the Gold Wing, rather that his fairing designs had a lot do do with it being picked up as a tourer by the North Americans

[you you]

I rode with Craig at the Fuel economy challenge at the Vintage Days in Ohio last July. He is doing great work but is two steps ahead of most Americans who are still hung up on style. But history will one day prove him out when he says " Someday all vehicles that go fast will be round at the front and pointy at the back".

All atmosphere bound vehicles?

[gn2]

I don't think he mean't Vetter had anything to with the design of the Gold Wing, rather that his fairing designs had a lot do do with it being picked up as a tourer by the North Americans

Craig Vetter's fairings were fitted on other bikes so why didn't one of them become the icon that is the Goldwing?
The success of the Goldwing is down to the flat four engine layout married to shaft drive and liquid cooling.
To say that Craig Vetter is in any way responsible fo the success of the Goldwing is akin to saying that Giuseppe Visenzi is responsible for the success of the PCX.