Here it is with the canopy liner sitting on top of the fairing. It looks like the canopy will integrate with the fairing with a minimum of hassle. 

It's still unknown just how fast this bike will be, or how well it will handle cross winds.

There's still a lot of work to do, as only one side of the bulkheads have been attached to the inside of the body. It's still too cold out to do epoxy work, but very soon it will be warm enough to allow the epoxy to set up properly in a foam enclosure heated by a small space heater.

Reg is building a mold of the top half (or bottom depending how you look at it, the fairing is symmetrical) of the fairing, that he'll use to build the wheel fairings and canopy mounts. 

Also the fairing is plenty deep, so deep that I had to sit up straighter just to see out. I did notice that the bottom of the fairing is a bit narrow for my butt, that means I'll need to build a seat bottom into the fairing. This is actually ok, as I was planning to do that anyway. It's best to have the seat tilt up in front a bit so you don't slide off. 

I tested out the canopy too. Looks like that should work out fine. I had about 3 fingers between my head and the inside of the canopy, which should be enough space for my helmet without too much cramming.

I now have to work on the drivetrain to complete it and integrate it with the new fairing.

7/29/05
I raced the old Barracuda at Northbrook, but whether due to the vehicle or the engine, I was beaten by Rick Gritters, and even lapped. I'm hoping the new bike is enough faster to close that gap...
It's been too hot to work out in the barn for the last few weeks, but it's looks like this weekend should be cool enough. I verified that the frame does still twist and move side to side a bit (though not as much side to side movement of the front wheel after I tightened the steer tube!). I will be building the rear frame mount reinforcement this weekend, but I need to get my torch bottles refilled. Arg! I added the brake cable guides for the rear brakes, and have confirmed that the shock does not deflect at all when I get into the bike (!). Now I just need to confirm that the bike sits level and I can mount the rear wheel at the right height and then epoxy the brake bridge into place. Whew! Once I get all that stuff done, I think it will be ready to race next weekend at the North Indiana HPV races, with the Cuda-W configured just like the picture above, no canopy. I have not added any chain keepers to the drivetrain yet either. Hopefully I'll have time to do that. I don't want any lost chains in the middle of the race!

8/03/05
The rear brake bridge is now installed, and I added some spiffy CF tube chunks to use a cable guides, which worked out nicely. 

I decided to add a single tube between the frame at the bottom of the suspension shock, and the side of the fairing to triangulate the rear of the front sub-frame. This should prevent the side to side movement back there, but still allow the up-down. I think that the side to side movement was causing the worst part of the lateral wheel movement. If after the test ride it's still bad, I'll need to build a whole rear frame mount reinforcement assembly.

I also reinforced the inside of the seam between the right and left halves of the fairing. Now I just have to put it all back together and take it for a test ride. It's much tougher getting in and out of this bike than the old Cuda, which makes going on self-supported test rides difficult. That's mostly because there is no landing gear, but partly because it's a tight fit! 

The bike now has some scrapes that will need to be fixed up before Battle Mountain, but other than that is fine. 

Things I learned:

• One of my feet hits the front "T" bracket, so I have to move the clamp there.
• My leg hits the rear shock brace that I just added on the backstroke, so I need to move that back further.
• My left leg bounces off the remote steering rod, causing it to graze the inside of the fairing. I need to make a new one out of something stiff with a bend in it to accommodate my leg.
• My right leg grazes the drivetrain gears, but I think that's because of the other stuff it's hitting...
• Because the Q is so narrow, and I have about 1" of crank to tire overlap, if I turn the bike when my inside foot is in the down position, the tire hits the crank, which caused some crashes.
• The Cuda-W bounces over 6" high concrete curbs nicely while sliding backwards on it's side at a high rate of speed. Kids, don't try this at home... This is OK for Battle Mountain as it's a straight line run, but I'll need to build a different drivetrain or use really short cranks if I want to race this bike in the HPRA races.
• If I hold my inside foot in the up position, the bike corners nicely, and feels very stable at speed, but if I start pedaling too soon out of the corner, my heels strike the fork and sometimes kick the chain off.

More digression: 
I have a surplus silk drogue that's about 6 feet in diameter that I am planning to utilize as an emergency chute on the Cuda-W (Not this year!). Through a series of extensive calculations and rigorous testing I have determined that this chute will work well to stop a high speed HPV in a safe manner. OK, so really I'm just guessing, but the chute can't be much bigger than 6 feet or it either wouldn't open, or it would tear the back of the bike off when it pops open. Smaller than 3 feet may not slow the bike down fast enough. Remember the chute will be released when the bike has crashed and is sliding along the ground on it's side, so would need to pop open while being dragged at approximately ground level. Also it will need to deploy very quickly, since the bike begins to spin as soon as it hits the ground. If it pops out when you are going backwards, it won't deploy too well. NASCAR uses pop out spoilers which deploy when the car is sliding backwards to prevent the vehicle from going airborne. Something like that would help prevent the sliding backwards issue, but that's probably too complex and lossy for HPVs. Also what determines when the chute pops out? An automatic system would be nice, but you don't want it deploying during a starting mishap. A manual release is probably the best idea for now, but the pilot would need to pop the chute quickly!

9/21/05
I noticed I still had to modify the drivetrain to gear it up for 70MPH+ capability. I need to add a 32 tooth cog to the intermediary gear to get to 70MPH at 100RPM. I found a suitable gear and tried to drill some mounting holes in it, but could not. I ruined 3 or 4 drill bits before giving up. After asking on the web I decided to use the heat to un-harden method. I torched it until it was red hot in the areas I was attempting to drill holes. It warped the cog nicely, AND when it cooled it was still too hard to drill. Arg! I found a 28 tooth cog that drilled out just fine, but that one will only get me to 70MPH at 120 RPM (the same RPM that I was going when I went 58 MPH in the Barracuda a couple years ago). Later I tried a titanium coated drill bit, which dulled as fast as the normal bit, then found a carbide drill bit, which cut through the cog fine. Now I know to use carbide bits when drilling cogs!

Here are the tabs made from the carbon fiber sandwich above. I attached them to the fairing with epoxy/cotton flox.

I use epoxy in 3 basic types of composite. To wet out fabric, with cotton flox for structural joins, and with micro ballons for body work (home made body putty. Versatile stuff...

I doubt the body will be completely done by Friday, but I'll take some sandpaper and cans of yellow paint to make it the proper color at the races next week.

I stuck the frame back into the body. Clearances are much better with the shorter cranks, but now my feet rub a little on the sides of the fairing. Arg! Upon closer inspection, they were rubbing on the end of the main rib, so I took the frame back out and spent too much time cutting away about 2" of rib on each side. Much better. Now I can flail away inside the fairing and crank up the drivetrain to a virtual 70 MPH. Hmm. There is quite a bit of vibration from the front wheel at that speed. It will need to be balanced. Hopefully that's something I can do at BM. 

I cut the hole in the front of the head bubble, put on my helmet and sealed myself in. It's very tight. My head touches the top of the canopy. I discovered I will need to "assume the position" of head tilted back to be able to see out of the bike properly (see pictures of Sam in the Varna). I'm crammed into this thing like a big lanky sardine. It should be fast! 

I bought the Econo-Kote (AeroKote) film to that I will use to make a wheel disk out out the 700C tri-spoke CF wheel I have. It should be pretty cool. 

Battle Mountain 2005
Sean Costin and I flew out to Reno, and Garrie Hill graciously gave us a ride to Battle Mountain. Sunday we got settled in the hotel, had the first racers meeting, and got our speedbike support crews worked out. 

At the qualification runs on Monday I couldn't keep the bike above 20MPH. My knees hit the inside of the fairing, and my head was crammed into the canopy. Not good. 

Thursday I pulled the subframe out again. Rubber on the frame showed that I did not beat a big enough dent in the frame last time. I borrowed an actual ball peen hammer and made the dent bigger (and more nicely shaped...). 

Friday I found that a bolt on my front subframe had sheared off due to my over-tightening it. I spent all morning walking around Battle Mountain looking for the right hardware to replace it. 

Saturday was cold and windy. 

Most speedbikes need to be launched by hand, then caught at the end of the run. This year my bike was no exception, as I had not built a landing gear. The first picture below shows Al Krause and Larry Lem running out to catch me. The next picture shows (L to R) Alice Krause, ?, Andrea Blaseckie, and Larry Lem, busily un-taping the canopy while holding me up, while I was practicing fogging up the windscreen.

Thanks to Thom Ollinger for carting my bike out to Battle Mountain and back. It's now back in the barn, awaiting the next modifications.

Stuff I need to do for 2006:

• Build new front subframe with no crank to tire overlap to allow me to race the bike in HPRA races.
• Make a new Aerokote rear wheel disk, this time use rubber cement to attach it to the rim. The one I made for this years races began to pull away from the rim and I trashed it. 
• Build Landing gear
• Build front wheel fairing
• Cut down the rear wheel fairing a bit. 
• Paint spiffy stripe and Cuda-W on side.          

I'll post the updates on the Cuda-W drivetrain II  page. 

5/31/06
The new front subframe and drivetrain has been completed, and I'm very happy with it. As the front of the bike now sits 1.5" lower, I modified the rear wheel mounts so they are 1.5" lower too. I had to hack a couple inches off the rear wheel fairing to allow the bike to sit on the tires, and then did the obligatory lean test. The bike still can lean wayyy over. Probably farther than I'll have the cajones to bank it in an actual race... 

Hopefully I'll be able to use parts from the removed wheel fairing to build a new one.

Shown here is the lateral support arm. It's a stainless steel tube compliments of Dana Barlow.

I'll put it all back together, make sure everything is very tight and try it on the road again.

Also I made the NACA duct. Still need to install it.

I installed the NACA duct. It should work well. 

Unless I position my legs just right, they graze the inside of the fairing. That makes things difficult when I am trying to *go fast*, which will be potentially painful during a long race. I'll need to lower my seat a bit to fix it. The air shock works very nicely, I can see it moving up and down when I go over bumps, and while pedaling. It currently has 0 pressure in it, so it looks like I need to add a little air to reduce the pedaling induced deflection.

6/21/06
I took the Cuda-W to the Waterford event anyway, just for show and tell, and rode it around the track a couple times. Stability and handling were fine, though I didn't hit any corners at high speeds, or try it with the canopy. After returning from the races I added foam and CF in some of the frame spaces to stiffen it up. I can still get it to wiggle in a test ride, but a least it's self correcting. Each time I tweak the bike and take it for another test ride it feels better. It's probably race-able now, but it still needs more work before I will feel safe throwing the bike into a fast corner. I also lowered the seat, and that appears to have fixed the knee clearance issue, but I need to move the rear stabilizer arm back further to prevent contact with my thigh. Nothing's ever easy.

I have decided to not use wheel fairings for now.
 

I still haven't started the landing gear...
 

Saturday's 50 lap race was tough. The winds were gusting between 10 and 30 MPH. I was very impressed with how the Cuda-W handled the side winds. I don't think they slowed me down at all, and I averaged 38MPH and won the event. Dennis Grelk raced my old Barracuda, and came in second. Dennis had purchased the Barracuda in the summer of '06 when I decided that the Cuda-W was going to actually work for me.

I suppose I should take this assembly out to the cold, dark barn now and see how well it fits inside the fairing. It will be hard to mount this into the bike, as I'll need to work through the narrow slot in the seat back to do all the epoxying.

I use epoxy and cotton flox to initially attach the parts together, then added some carbon cloth. I still need to add some carbon cloth reinforcement to the end caps. I wrapped the end of the high stress slider tube with some Kevlar roving to make sure it doesn't go anywhere (yellow string).

The spring was mounted inside the leg. The aircraft cable to pull the landing gear down is attached to the leg with a T-nut to provide clearance for the spring. 

As I have had very little time this year to work on the bike or train in it, I took it to the Michigan races with the thought that I'd try to race it and if I had problems I'd just race the NoCom. Turns out that's what happened. The landing gear worked fine to launch the bike, but after 3 laps of the hour race, the bike developed an uncontrollable wobble of the front wheel at slow speeds and high power at the top of the hill. I bailed into the grass with no damage other than my pride. It was disappointing but the bike ran and cornered well, and was ergonomically good. Besides the wobble issue, the canopy was not fastened down and the rattle was incredibly loud, and the Rohloff hub has developed a mysterious squeak at speed. The next day I discovered a lose bolt in the remote steering system which allowing excess play in the system. Arg.

This weekend I had a day to work on the bike, and I affixed the new mirrors, built a bungee system to hold the canopy in place, added a rear wheel fairing, and tweaked things. Next weekend is the Tucker 100! Just for grins I weighed the bike. It now weighs 60 lbs, which is 10 lbs more than in 2005 when I raced it in Battle Mountain.

The rear wheel fairing is now glassed into place, and mostly faired in.

 

Also I have built the landing gear door. It needs some filler and sanding too, but at least now the hole is filled. Here's a video of the landing gear door in action.