Whenever you might have got into the ocean of automobiles, you’d have heard this word “aerodynamics”. It is the Aerodynamics which lead a motorcycle or a scooter either towards the safe and fast zone or towards an untoward disaster.
Did you ever think why your dad’s Bajaj chetak never ever hit a top speed higher than 85kmph??? The reason was the aerodynamics. There is a calculated aerodynamic drag coefficient for every 2-wheeler. This drag coefficient depends upon the shape of the motorcycle. Ah it sounds more like a science class. Ok, we will explain it to you in simple terms:
Now, scooters have flat surface at front so while moving, the body of scooter dissipates least amount of air/wind, resulting into the maximum resistance faced by them and making them comparatively slower then the motorcycles with curvaceous or more contoured body which help them to dissipate the air/wind in a better manner.
Kawasaki Ninja ZX-14R and the Suzuki Hayabusa are bikes with the top speeds that holds world record for the fastest production bikes. They both carry a full fairing at front with a 5 sq.ft. calculated frontal area of 6 ft and drag coefficients of 0.313 sq.mt. for Hayabusa and 0.341 sq.mt. for Ninja ZX-14R, so these fairings with their better aerodynamics not only aid to the stability of bikes at high speeds but also help them to reach their maximum speeds.
If you are keen on reading the motorcycle reviews, then you would have also come across the words like "wind-blasts" and "cross-wind effects". The reason behind these terms coming into action while riding is the aerodynamics or the air-flow.
Wind Blast:
The wind-blast is the phenomenon most often experienced on the naked/roadster bikes. The naked bikes lacks front fairing so the air blast is experienced on rider’s body, which can also disbalance the motorcycle. There are many after-market screens/visors available in market to dissipate air away from the riders and hereby saving the riders from wind blast.
So the main component to achieve a lesser drag-coefficient is the fairing. Fairings come in many forms. Starting from most basic bikini fairing to full-fairing. Bikini fairing actually does not help in any way to reduce the air drag and the drag coefficient. Because, in this type of fairing only headlight is the part which is covered with some plastic fairing. The bikes like Stunner and Yamaha Fazer have the quarter fairing, while the Yamaha R15 and other supersport motorcycles sport a full fairing. Once you overcome the air-resistance by the fairing it means that now you can exceed the limits of the motorcycle. That’s why the motorcycle used in the racing events have fibre glass fairing, to reduce weight and aid strength and stability to motorcycle, its not done for the styling purpose!!
Hence, we’d recommend you to go for the most aerodynamic and faired motorcycle if you love hitting to the limits!!!
By: Mohit Bhardwaj
Did you ever think why your dad’s Bajaj chetak never ever hit a top speed higher than 85kmph??? The reason was the aerodynamics. There is a calculated aerodynamic drag coefficient for every 2-wheeler. This drag coefficient depends upon the shape of the motorcycle. Ah it sounds more like a science class. Ok, we will explain it to you in simple terms: "Aerodynamics is something that relates to the effect of wind on the moving object and here in our case it is the motorcycle or the scooter". So in short the study of the effects of wind or the other atmospheric factors on our moving bike is called aerodynamics.
Now, scooters have flat surface at front so while moving, the body of scooter dissipates least amount of air/wind, resulting into the maximum resistance faced by them and making them comparatively slower then the motorcycles with curvaceous or more contoured body which help them to dissipate the air/wind in a better manner.
Kawasaki Ninja ZX-14R and the Suzuki Hayabusa are bikes with the top speeds that holds world record for the fastest production bikes. They both carry a full fairing at front with a 5 sq.ft. calculated frontal area of 6 ft and drag coefficients of 0.313 sq.mt. for Hayabusa and 0.341 sq.mt. for Ninja ZX-14R, so these fairings with their better aerodynamics not only aid to the stability of bikes at high speeds but also help them to reach their maximum speeds.
If you are keen on reading the motorcycle reviews, then you would have also come across the words like "wind-blasts" and "cross-wind effects". The reason behind these terms coming into action while riding is the aerodynamics or the air-flow.Wind Blast:
The wind-blast is the phenomenon most often experienced on the naked/roadster bikes. The naked bikes lacks front fairing so the air blast is experienced on rider’s body, which can also disbalance the motorcycle. There are many after-market screens/visors available in market to dissipate air away from the riders and hereby saving the riders from wind blast.
So the main component to achieve a lesser drag-coefficient is the fairing. Fairings come in many forms. Starting from most basic bikini fairing to full-fairing. Bikini fairing actually does not help in any way to reduce the air drag and the drag coefficient. Because, in this type of fairing only headlight is the part which is covered with some plastic fairing. The bikes like Stunner and Yamaha Fazer have the quarter fairing, while the Yamaha R15 and other supersport motorcycles sport a full fairing. Once you overcome the air-resistance by the fairing it means that now you can exceed the limits of the motorcycle. That’s why the motorcycle used in the racing events have fibre glass fairing, to reduce weight and aid strength and stability to motorcycle, its not done for the styling purpose!!
Hence, we’d recommend you to go for the most aerodynamic and faired motorcycle if you love hitting to the limits!!! By: Mohit Bhardwaj