How much would a fairing around front panniers help?

[Rex Kerr]

I usually ride to work with just front panniers. I recently had the
idea that a permanently mounted fairing that only smoothed out the front
surface of the bags might have a significant impact. Has anybody tried
this? Obviously the bike, being a touring bike, is already far from
efficient (rather upright riding position, heavy wheels/tires, etc), but
riding into a headwind makes you consider those small improvements!

 

[Jeff]

Rex Kerr wrote:
> I usually ride to work with just front panniers. I recently had the
> idea that a permanently mounted fairing that only smoothed out the front
> surface of the bags might have a significant impact. Has anybody tried
> this? Obviously the bike, being a touring bike, is already far from
> efficient (rather upright riding position, heavy wheels/tires, etc), but
> riding into a headwind makes you consider those small improvements!

It would depend on a variety of factors (weight of the fairing, friction
of the fairing, speed of the bike relative to the air, etc).
Realistiically, unless you ride quite quickly, or ride in a very windy
area, after you offset the cost of the weight of the fairings, you're
probably not going to gain anything (might even lose out).