This series of three photos shows an Ecomobile being driven through the Daimler sidewind test facility in Untertürkheim at 80km/h (50mph) circa 1991. A similar sequence of photos with a standard BMW K100 shows it leaning less but deviating more from its path. Arnold Wagner sent me the photos in response to my ruminations about Craig Vetter's comment that 'streamlined is round at the front and pointed at the rear'. Arnold commented: "Round at the front has nothing to do with head or feet first. It’s a necessity to get decent crosswind behaviour. The BAUMM streamliners and other record breakers sinned by pointed front ends and long overhang before the front wheel to get the cross section down. They were instrumental for the bad crosswind characteristics attributed to fully faired motorcycles. I still do not know of any measurements in crosswind facilities like Daimler’s at Untertürkheim and BMW’s at Ismaning except of our own with ECOs. This means that so far only we have the knowledge how to design a good and practically useful front end supported by our testing and calculating evidence.
Best ARNOLD
Also see www.craigvetter.com
Photos courtesy of Arnold Wagner. PNB