Ride faster than the dust............
Looks like what this calls for is some posts, and sticks, with a big tarp, and a big fan for some amateur wind tunnel testing.
.....
I didn't do
that, I just stuck heaps of 3-4 inch long tassels of wool all over my RT & then rode, watching which way the tassels blew... it's a great look, especially if you choose a variety of wool colours to add some accent to the air-flow patterns... :roflblack: I even went to the extent of getting videos made of the bike with tassels riding along the road at various speeds/conditions to see where the tassels blew &/or didn't blow; then once I had a good idea of where the airflow around the Spyder was going as it moved along, I started playing with cardboard cutouts & spoilers duct-taped onto the bike to work out how/what worked best, and on the original body style RT's, that Rivco adjustable rack was
waaayy ahead of anything else I tried!
hyea:
When it's got something on it, the rack works pretty much like the 'Whale Tail' spoiler on the back of a Porsche Turbo, and for when there's nothing on it, I made up a thin plywood tray (ie measured it, cut out a rectangle of 1/8th ply, & painted it black!
) that sits on the rack to convert the 'open lattice carry-deck' into a flat shelf, so the Rivco Rack sticking out horizontally from the top of the trunk actually performs/works almost like it
HAS been '
wind-tunnel tested & designed'! :thumbup: We have since done quite a few looooong rides on dirt roads &/or in the rain (and we've done some involving both dirt and rain at the same time!
) and the Child Bride & I are both convinced that it's made a massive reduction in the turbulence that was lifting dust, rain mist, exhaust fumes, & other road debris/crap up behind the Spyder and dumping it down our backs, so much so that we no longer notice any of that! :thumbup:
And just between you'n me, I can tell you that after just
one experience of riding 16 hours in solid rain on dirty muddy roads without the rack there... there's
absofreakinlutely NO WAY that the Child Bride would
EVER put up with getting
ANY of that stuff, let alone
ALL of it dumped down her back EVER AGAIN!! Anand, I'm living & breathing testimony that she's very happy with the improvement the Rivco Rack has made! nojoke - Sure, we haven't tested it out with
another 16 hours of riding in the rain on marginal roads - that
was a bit of an '
isolated incident' that with any luck, will never need to be repeated again!
But we
HAVE done a few good 8 hour runs since without any dramas, a couple of them both on dirt roads
and in the rain,
AND I'M STILL HERE to tell you this, so she hasn't ever felt the need to rip one of my arms off and beat me to a pulp with the wet end since, which is something that she very seriously promised me that she'd do if we didn't fix that turbulence dumping crap down the back of her neck pdq after that 16 hour ride!! And when she gets
THAT look in her eyes.... :yikes:
Just Sayin'
hyea:
