My naked Reflex  By  bandito2 (Read 7,719 times)

Wow, it should look pretty "sci-fi like" when you're finished. Do you suppose the streamlining will create unwanted crosswind instability?

Whew!

THIS is going to be GOOD! Before finishing, please do check out the "Blastolene Brothers" streamlined stuff. You're SURE to get some good ideas!

Best wishes on this build for sure!

Leo in Texas

Been there, done that quite some time ago. BTW, did you see how much that one scooter he built a fairing for sold at auction?............ $23,500!!!! 
Boy, now that's a sack of cha ching for a little 150cc scooter covered in beer can material.
I'm not really into the art-deco look. Kind of reminds me of stuff in that animated movie "Robots" Still kind of neat though.

Actually, I'd like to see something (no pun intended) with a stealth fighter kind of look. Flat black paint with tough looking angular lines yet still slippery in the wind. I know, I know.... Flat black is not exactly high viz, but when they did see it, it would absolutely have their attention!! 

Thinking about that, carbon fiber is not high visibility either. Good thing I'm using reflective tape along seams on the side. (yes they do make reflective black tape... Neat stuff)

Actually, to do it properly, I should start from the beginning. I have loads of pictures of the project process. Some videos too that a couple friends sometimes post on their youtube channels for me. Parts of this story are pretty interesting IMO. For example; the flat panel parts used on the side of the rear "fin" were laid up on the glass of an old storm door. It was lifted off the glass when the epoxy got done curing after a couple days and it turned out mirror smooth. It was just so totally awesome; the results just blew me away!!

The curved half cone top part of the rear "fin" was laid up in a form that some friends helped me fabricate. It was made with a big sheet of high density polyethylene plastic. (HDPE) The same stuff plastic milk cartons are made of. I knew epoxy would not stick to it because I remembered helping a friend build a wooden airplane and epoxy would not stick to the HDPE plastic mixing cups. The form was made by using my propane powered salamander shop heater and waving it around at that plastic like a king kong sized blow drier until it got hot and soft enough to bend into shape. It was a crazy idea that worked near perfectly. Stuff like that should make for a good project story...Yes?

Anyway, it's not done yet and has kind of been put on hold since other things were going on. And now it's getting too cold in the garage for anymore epoxy/composite work until I build a big temperature controlled box to cure epoxy/fiberglass/carbon fiber layups in. Temperature control is important. Yeah, that's yet another episode in the story along with some other disappointments as well. 

For a good long while I was keeping a weekly progress report for my pals on another forum, but that practice ground to a stop back in mid summer after some discouraging disappointments, interruptions and well ...... procrastination. Hey I'm just a human with human weaknesses like anybody else.

In any event, it will just have to be done before next summer's riding season. So I've got work to do to it. It just won't go as quickly as it progressed earlier this year. 

I'm not totally sure about it though.... Like I said, there are a lot of pictures and comments for them. And as you can see, I tend to tap out lots of words. So the possibility of it being "epic" is not far from reality... it could take up a lot of space. I'll have to think about it some.

Mike B.

(Rochester Hills Michigan Dark Side Rider)
(4 Honda Reflex scooters and a FSC600A Silverwing too)

The naked Reflex sure does resemble a Big Ruckus. Hmmm.

An awesome scooter. I really like the reflective black tape Idea, I'll have to find some for my scooter. The salamander as a source of heat for bending the plastic form is one of those hilarious seeming ideas that worked great. It sounds like something I would do.

Would you consider a kamm back design for the next one?
www.google.com/search?q=kamm+back

Crazy ideas? Well yeah. I mean I use a car tire on my scooter. How nuts is that?    I've got a few less than conventional ideas, but so far they have worked out pretty well. Gives me confidence to try more.

I certainly would consider the Kamm back design. In fact, I thought about doing it to this project but decided I will keep it as is and do a Kamm back on the next streamlining project. I seem to recall it being something like % to % as effective as a full length fairing but I'd have to check on ecomodders.com to be sure. A Kamm back would likely take less time and material to build, would take up less space when mounted for use making the bike easier to move around than with a full length fairing. That, and there might only be a very small penalty in the amount of protected, lockable storage on the bike compared to a full length fairing. Really couldn't go wrong with a Kamm back. So yes, I will likely use that type of design next.

Late summer 2013, (end of August) after 3 1/2 years of sitting in my garage, I finally fixed my Honda FSC600A Silverwing scooter and put on some new plastic so I could ride it. So when doing a Kamm back fairing for the Silverwing, I could recoup some of that by selling the newer plastics on Ebay fairly easy since they are still in primo condition.

I would like to use the Silverwing on the longer trips since it would do better in the mountains than any of my Reflex scooters. Since I ride solo, the storage space would be huge. I'm already amazed at the storage space on the Reflex streamlined fairing.

Actually, for the Kamm back, I'd like for the rear cover top and sides to be a one piece construct and the bottom rear and back pieces to be individual parts. Not sure if I'll be able to make a form to lay-up fiberglass in that will work like I want, but I certainly could try. It would be easier to build fairings that way and would look much better as well without a seam line along the upper sides. Maybe make 2 forms, one for each side with a seam on the top. That might make it possible to adjust the width by adding a strip down the middle to make it wider to fit a wider bike. 2 seams close together along the top may not be so bad. I might actually be able to sell something like that..... hmmm


Anyway, the work on the Reflex fairing resumes in the spring. It needs to get done before starting on the Silverwing.

That depends on how far back it gets before being truncated. Even so, like we both said, not much space is lost by cutting off some portion of the pointed end. Besides, it's not a good idea to carry too much weight behind the rear wheel anyway. The more weight behind the rear wheel, the more likely handling problems like head shake/wobble will show up. (at the worst possible time.....which for that is AT ANY time)



So, half way back from the widest point to the theoretical zero point, the truncated end will be half of that width while still keeping 75% of the storage space "floor area". (assuming mostly straight lines) Similarly, cutting off at 75% of the full length will leave the truncated end just 25% the width of the wide end while only loosing 1/16 of the storage space "floor area".



This is only speaking of the 2 dimensional storage "floor space AREA" The dimensions from top to bottom are not as linear like the sides. But for the purposes of VOLUME approximation, floor space calculations should suffice. Our biggest concern is with the length. We don't need to cut down on height too for more manageable parking etc.

I suppose the actual volume could be closely approximated by filling full the storage space with loosely packed bags of shipping "peanuts" then measuring all of that in boxes. (just so you could state a certain volume number) Other wise, just put your stuff in. From an engineering point of view, if it all >JUST< fits, then it is the proper size. Other wise it is either too big or too small.