Is an F-40 Fairing practical for everyday use, commuting and touring? How is the handling in windy conditions?
Is the speed increase over the unfaired P-38 as much as what Lightning claims?
I just wanted to give a ride report from ride today, while the wind speed was fresh in my mind. WeatherBug reports the wind was 23 - 25 mph out of the west and gusting to 35 mph this afternoon. We rode west into the wind on the way and south a few miles, for a distance of 20 miles on the way out. It took us 2 hours. The return flight took us 1 hour.
Headwind on the way out was no problem at all from a handling standpoint, but we could only average 10 mph.
Cross wind was fun going south or north, as I could coast at 20 mph on the flats as the wind pushes on the tail section like a sail, as it is angled at 12 degrees from the seat to the rear of the tail section. I lean into the wind at about about a 23 degree angle to counteract the sidewind force. This also reduces the side profile a little I believe, and presents an angle surface to the wind instead of a vertical surface.
Tailwind coming back was nice, as we could cruise at 30 - 35 mph easily.
It was 52 degrees and we only saw two other bikers out, so it was windy enough that most DFers would not ride in the wind, but the bent heads were out.
KJLeibold
Waterloo, IA
F-40 since 2001.
Vison R-84 tandem since 2000.
WizWheelz Sport, flaming orange, since 2007. Plus a few DFs, Mtn, & 1960s classics.
I was riding Sunday with a crosswind of 25 mph, and was feeling pretty good about the way the bike was handling. All of sudden a big gust of wind (over 30 mph) starts pushing me towards the side of the road. I leaned back into the wind, but I ran out of road before I could get things back under control.
I hit the gravel shoulder going over 20 mph, and knew I was going down. I hit the gravel and slid for a ways. My buddy thought I was going to be hurt, as he was behind me when I went down. I had a little road rash on my leg, elbow, and hip, but no real serious bleeding. The fairing and lycra took the brunt of the gravel, scraping the fairing and cutting some small holes in the lycra.
This is the first time in 15,000 miles of riding the F40 that I have had a wind related accident.
I will continue to enjoy riding in the wind, but will be just a bit more careful with crosswinds. I should have been a road hog and taken the whole lane, and then I think I would have avoided the crash. It was exciting ride, but I don't want to repeat it.
KJLeibold
Waterloo, IA
F-40 since 2001.
Vison R-84 tandem since 2000.
WizWheelz Sport, flaming orange, since 2007. Plus a few DFs, Mtn, & 1960s classics.
Sounds like you did not get hurt very badly. Just lost some skin. Glad to hear that you came out mostly OK.
But a crash like that can shake you up for a while, and not just physically.
The fiberglass fairing scrapes can be patched up with Bondo, then sanded smooth, and finished with rattle can paint. I do not know how to patch up Spandex. If you can find someone with a special sewing machine (is it called a "surge" machine?), it may be possible to repair the stretchy cloth part of your fairing. If it is really badly torn up you will have to purchase a new one from Lightning.
Even if you are extremely careful, if you ride bikes long enough, especially something as fast as an F40, eventually you are going to crash.
I have heard of special bandages that are particularly good for allowing road rash injuries to heal. I do not remember the name of these bandages, but if you Google around some you might find them. The people who hang out at the usenet group rec.bicycles.racing would probably know.
Thanks for all the info. I am wondering how much space there is for gear in the tail of the F-40. I am planning a cross country trip and would need at least 5,000CI of space. Or enough room for an ultra light tent, sleeping bag, change of clothes, and a few other odds and ends. Probably around 25 pounds of gear.
Don't know exactly how many cubic inches of space are back there, but it certainly could not be enough to stuff in all the things you want to haul. The storage area is pretty modest in size.
If you go to the links section of this site, there is a story by Paul Gracey about a cross country trip he took in his P-38. My memory is fuzzy, but there may be some information in Paul's account about how he stored things in and on his bike.
He must have done it somehow!
Good luck with your trip, and please tell us how it goes.
I had my P38 for about 8 years before I added the fairing to it, making it an F40. I would agree with the earlier comments that it adds about 7-8mph to your speed, but then everything depends on the "engine".
You can get this bike going so fast, expecially downhills, that it can scare you, which may not be a bad thing as it makes you more careful. To me, this is not a "casual" bike. It is one you have to be thinking on when your ride, especially in stronger winds.
The biggest minus for the bike is how hot it can get inside when it is above 80-85 degrees outside. You can, however, pull the side zippers down, which helps, or remove the spandex cloth fairing completely. Taking the whole fairing off is really too much work for me.
The fun factor on this bike, however, is incredible. Its nice just to wiz by the snobs on their designer bikes who tend to sneer at recumbents in general.
I have only a small number of miles on a real F40, but a lot of saddle time on an F40 clone I built with the help of Rick Wianecki. My bike has a fiberglass nosecone and Coroplast for the middle and tail sections instead of Spandex cloth. My cobbled-together bike is heavier than the Lightning original, but is similar aerodynamically. I would expect it to be close to the F40 in speed on the flats.
Practicality: 1) you can ride in colder weather with fewer layers of clothing. 2) commute time will be significantly reduced, especially if you are not doing lots of stop-and-go riding in dense urban traffic. 3) there is a storage area in the tail section. 4) a neon yellow or blaze orange fully faired bike has got to be much more visually prominent than an unfaired bike, and thus safer. Staying alive is the most important form of practicality. 5) On the down side, the faired bike is bulkier than an unfaired bike, and will be more cumbersome to haul up and down stairs and the like. Getting in and out is going to be a little more involved than just hopping on and off an unfaired bike.
Safety in gusty winds: My experience is that handling the F40 (or my similar faux F40 clone bike) in strong gusting side winds depends on overall bike handling skills/balance, rider body weight, and maintaining prudent speeds. If you are a very light weight person, say 130 or 140 pounds, you may get pushed around quite a bit in strong gusting winds. If you are more the Clydesdale type, the bike will be much easier to control. If like me you fall somewhere in between, you can still ride safely. But you will need to be vigilant in gusting winds, and slow down when things get too hairy. If you just space out and go into a cycling-induced trance, you can get into serious trouble when the sidewinds pick up unexpectedly.
Speed: The Lightning website says that if you presently cruise at 18 mph on your unfaired P-38, you can expect to cruise at 28 mph on the fully-faired F40. So you can boost your speed 10 mph with the same effort! In my experience this seems too optimistic. I did not conduct scientific comparisons in my riding, but think something along the lines of going from 20 mph unfaired to 25 or 26 mph fully faired - with similar effort - is more likely. But this is still an incredible increase in bicycle speed. There is no other way to accomplish this sort of performance boost, short of having your brain transplanted into Lance Armstrong's body.
There is a down side to the F40's speed potential. You can get intoxicated riding this bike, especially downhill. What at first just seems extremely fast can quickly become scary-fast. So make sure you have excellent brakes - such as Magura hydraulics - and good tires - and above all be cautious.
I share Blue F40's enthusiasm for the bike. If you enjoy speed, you should at least give the F40 a test ride.
You asked: Is an F-40 Fairing practical for everyday use, commuting and touring? How is the handling in windy conditions?
Is the speed increase over the unfaired P-38 as much as what Lightning claims?
During the riding season, I ride my F40 everywhere I go. I ride to the start of the club rides. I made mine more practical with a few simple mods. I don't use the left side support bar that is intended to hold the lycra away from your legs. And I don't use the foot holes...I use the Texas style of unzipping and sticking out my left foot, which is a wider stance than the foot holes allow.
Wind - I love the wind. It always helps you go faster.
Head wind - you go 5 - 7 mph faster than anyone else.
Side wind - you get a push from the wind cause the tailbox is at an angle to the wind, and you are like a sailboat with a cross wind. I can handle up to a 20 - 25 mph crosswind. If it is a gusty wind, I keep my speed under 20 mph. But if it is a steady crosswind, you just lean into it. I have never come close to having a problem with winds up to 25 mph. If over 25 mph crosswind, I have to be careful. If over 30 mph, I would not ride.
Tail wind - surprisingly the least help, as the other riders are less aero so they get more help from a tailwind. A tailwind helps, but not as noticeable. A quarter tailwind is fabulous, as the sailboat/kite action is at it greatest. You can coast uphill with a strong quarter tailwind.
Speed claims - are true.
I ride alone and ahead of the pack unless I am riding with the club racers at 30 mph on the flats. I can't keep up to them for more than a mile or two, cause I am a FOG.
I am really glad I got the F40 when I was 50, cause it made me feel like I was 25. I can't wipe the grin off my face when I am going over 40 mph downhill and still have some gear left to go.
I rode mine regularly as a commuter bike and for solo and group rides for years until it got mashed up in an accident, then rode it as a P-38 with just and F-40 nose for a long time. Now tranferred the nose over to the R-84 I recently bought and want to buid up a bodysock setup to keep it light and aero. F-40's are lots of fun and very practical. One advantage is having the spandex zipped up keeps the sun off your body, I would usually ride with just running shorts and shortie socks on. The speed is pretty addictive. I'd go out on group rides and at the sprint to the break at the half way point sprint from behind the group and pass everybody, even the guys getting on it in the front paceline. I never had anyone pass me. This one guy said: "I thought we were going fast (in our paceline) until you blew by". Try not not be an AH, it kind of alienates some DF riders, but if they want to race....
Rode in 25 mph wind, gusting to 35 mph today with the F40...
I just wanted to give a ride report from ride today, while the wind speed was fresh in my mind. WeatherBug reports the wind was 23 - 25 mph out of the west and gusting to 35 mph this afternoon. We rode west into the wind on the way and south a few miles, for a distance of 20 miles on the way out. It took us 2 hours. The return flight took us 1 hour.
Headwind on the way out was no problem at all from a handling standpoint, but we could only average 10 mph.
Cross wind was fun going south or north, as I could coast at 20 mph on the flats as the wind pushes on the tail section like a sail, as it is angled at 12 degrees from the seat to the rear of the tail section. I lean into the wind at about about a 23 degree angle to counteract the sidewind force. This also reduces the side profile a little I believe, and presents an angle surface to the wind instead of a vertical surface.
Tailwind coming back was nice, as we could cruise at 30 - 35 mph easily.
It was 52 degrees and we only saw two other bikers out, so it was windy enough that most DFers would not ride in the wind, but the bent heads were out.
KJLeibold
Waterloo, IA
F-40 since 2001.
Vison R-84 tandem since 2000.
WizWheelz Sport, flaming orange, since 2007. Plus a few DFs, Mtn, & 1960s classics.
Update on riding in the wind...
I was riding Sunday with a crosswind of 25 mph, and was feeling pretty good about the way the bike was handling. All of sudden a big gust of wind (over 30 mph) starts pushing me towards the side of the road. I leaned back into the wind, but I ran out of road before I could get things back under control.
I hit the gravel shoulder going over 20 mph, and knew I was going down. I hit the gravel and slid for a ways. My buddy thought I was going to be hurt, as he was behind me when I went down. I had a little road rash on my leg, elbow, and hip, but no real serious bleeding. The fairing and lycra took the brunt of the gravel, scraping the fairing and cutting some small holes in the lycra.
This is the first time in 15,000 miles of riding the F40 that I have had a wind related accident.
I will continue to enjoy riding in the wind, but will be just a bit more careful with crosswinds. I should have been a road hog and taken the whole lane, and then I think I would have avoided the crash. It was exciting ride, but I don't want to repeat it.
KJLeibold
Waterloo, IA
F-40 since 2001.
Vison R-84 tandem since 2000.
WizWheelz Sport, flaming orange, since 2007. Plus a few DFs, Mtn, & 1960s classics.
Bummer
Thanks for the update. I have an F-40 fairing on the way. I will keep this all in mind when I get on the road, especially when the wind is gusting.
Organic Joe
Osage, MN
"We must be the change we wish to see in the world"
Gandhi
an intimate encounter with the gravel road shoulder
Sounds like you did not get hurt very badly. Just lost some skin. Glad to hear that you came out mostly OK.
But a crash like that can shake you up for a while, and not just physically.
The fiberglass fairing scrapes can be patched up with Bondo, then sanded smooth, and finished with rattle can paint. I do not know how to patch up Spandex. If you can find someone with a special sewing machine (is it called a "surge" machine?), it may be possible to repair the stretchy cloth part of your fairing. If it is really badly torn up you will have to purchase a new one from Lightning.
Even if you are extremely careful, if you ride bikes long enough, especially something as fast as an F40, eventually you are going to crash.
I have heard of special bandages that are particularly good for allowing road rash injuries to heal. I do not remember the name of these bandages, but if you Google around some you might find them. The people who hang out at the usenet group rec.bicycles.racing would probably know.
Hope you recover fully and soon.
Safe riding,
Joel Dickman
Luggage Capacity?
Thanks for all the info. I am wondering how much space there is for gear in the tail of the F-40. I am planning a cross country trip and would need at least 5,000CI of space. Or enough room for an ultra light tent, sleeping bag, change of clothes, and a few other odds and ends. Probably around 25 pounds of gear.
Joe
how much space?
Don't know exactly how many cubic inches of space are back there, but it certainly could not be enough to stuff in all the things you want to haul. The storage area is pretty modest in size.
If you go to the links section of this site, there is a story by Paul Gracey about a cross country trip he took in his P-38. My memory is fuzzy, but there may be some information in Paul's account about how he stored things in and on his bike.
He must have done it somehow!
Good luck with your trip, and please tell us how it goes.
Safe riding,
Joel Dickman
F40
I had my P38 for about 8 years before I added the fairing to it, making it an F40. I would agree with the earlier comments that it adds about 7-8mph to your speed, but then everything depends on the "engine".
You can get this bike going so fast, expecially downhills, that it can scare you, which may not be a bad thing as it makes you more careful. To me, this is not a "casual" bike. It is one you have to be thinking on when your ride, especially in stronger winds.
The biggest minus for the bike is how hot it can get inside when it is above 80-85 degrees outside. You can, however, pull the side zippers down, which helps, or remove the spandex cloth fairing completely. Taking the whole fairing off is really too much work for me.
The fun factor on this bike, however, is incredible. Its nice just to wiz by the snobs on their designer bikes who tend to sneer at recumbents in general.
Bob Krzewinski
Lightning F40 practicality, safety in gusting sidewinds, speed
Hey Joe,
I have only a small number of miles on a real F40, but a lot of saddle time on an F40 clone I built with the help of Rick Wianecki. My bike has a fiberglass nosecone and Coroplast for the middle and tail sections instead of Spandex cloth. My cobbled-together bike is heavier than the Lightning original, but is similar aerodynamically. I would expect it to be close to the F40 in speed on the flats.
Practicality: 1) you can ride in colder weather with fewer layers of clothing. 2) commute time will be significantly reduced, especially if you are not doing lots of stop-and-go riding in dense urban traffic. 3) there is a storage area in the tail section. 4) a neon yellow or blaze orange fully faired bike has got to be much more visually prominent than an unfaired bike, and thus safer. Staying alive is the most important form of practicality. 5) On the down side, the faired bike is bulkier than an unfaired bike, and will be more cumbersome to haul up and down stairs and the like. Getting in and out is going to be a little more involved than just hopping on and off an unfaired bike.
Safety in gusty winds: My experience is that handling the F40 (or my similar faux F40 clone bike) in strong gusting side winds depends on overall bike handling skills/balance, rider body weight, and maintaining prudent speeds. If you are a very light weight person, say 130 or 140 pounds, you may get pushed around quite a bit in strong gusting winds. If you are more the Clydesdale type, the bike will be much easier to control. If like me you fall somewhere in between, you can still ride safely. But you will need to be vigilant in gusting winds, and slow down when things get too hairy. If you just space out and go into a cycling-induced trance, you can get into serious trouble when the sidewinds pick up unexpectedly.
Speed: The Lightning website says that if you presently cruise at 18 mph on your unfaired P-38, you can expect to cruise at 28 mph on the fully-faired F40. So you can boost your speed 10 mph with the same effort! In my experience this seems too optimistic. I did not conduct scientific comparisons in my riding, but think something along the lines of going from 20 mph unfaired to 25 or 26 mph fully faired - with similar effort - is more likely. But this is still an incredible increase in bicycle speed. There is no other way to accomplish this sort of performance boost, short of having your brain transplanted into Lance Armstrong's body.
There is a down side to the F40's speed potential. You can get intoxicated riding this bike, especially downhill. What at first just seems extremely fast can quickly become scary-fast. So make sure you have excellent brakes - such as Magura hydraulics - and good tires - and above all be cautious.
I share Blue F40's enthusiasm for the bike. If you enjoy speed, you should at least give the F40 a test ride.
Safe riding,
Joel Dickman
Fairing is practical...
You asked: Is an F-40 Fairing practical for everyday use, commuting and touring? How is the handling in windy conditions?
Is the speed increase over the unfaired P-38 as much as what Lightning claims?
During the riding season, I ride my F40 everywhere I go. I ride to the start of the club rides. I made mine more practical with a few simple mods. I don't use the left side support bar that is intended to hold the lycra away from your legs. And I don't use the foot holes...I use the Texas style of unzipping and sticking out my left foot, which is a wider stance than the foot holes allow.
Wind - I love the wind. It always helps you go faster.
Head wind - you go 5 - 7 mph faster than anyone else.
Side wind - you get a push from the wind cause the tailbox is at an angle to the wind, and you are like a sailboat with a cross wind. I can handle up to a 20 - 25 mph crosswind. If it is a gusty wind, I keep my speed under 20 mph. But if it is a steady crosswind, you just lean into it. I have never come close to having a problem with winds up to 25 mph. If over 25 mph crosswind, I have to be careful. If over 30 mph, I would not ride.
Tail wind - surprisingly the least help, as the other riders are less aero so they get more help from a tailwind. A tailwind helps, but not as noticeable. A quarter tailwind is fabulous, as the sailboat/kite action is at it greatest. You can coast uphill with a strong quarter tailwind.
Speed claims - are true.
I ride alone and ahead of the pack unless I am riding with the club racers at 30 mph on the flats. I can't keep up to them for more than a mile or two, cause I am a FOG.
I am really glad I got the F40 when I was 50, cause it made me feel like I was 25. I can't wipe the grin off my face when I am going over 40 mph downhill and still have some gear left to go.
F-40 is practical
I rode mine regularly as a commuter bike and for solo and group rides for years until it got mashed up in an accident, then rode it as a P-38 with just and F-40 nose for a long time. Now tranferred the nose over to the R-84 I recently bought and want to buid up a bodysock setup to keep it light and aero. F-40's are lots of fun and very practical. One advantage is having the spandex zipped up keeps the sun off your body, I would usually ride with just running shorts and shortie socks on. The speed is pretty addictive. I'd go out on group rides and at the sprint to the break at the half way point sprint from behind the group and pass everybody, even the guys getting on it in the front paceline. I never had anyone pass me. This one guy said: "I thought we were going fast (in our paceline) until you blew by". Try not not be an AH, it kind of alienates some DF riders, but if they want to race....