Wind warp fairing

[Robert Milligan]

Put fairing on Nov. 15 and rode til Dec. 11. Put the bike in the basement, no cracks. I started
riding again March 15 and when I brought the bike up from the basement, the fairing was cracked on
both sides of the supports where it is attached. My LBS is contacting RANS to see what can be
done. Any suggestions out there? I did tape the cracks and they haven't gotten any longer. Bob
Milligan RANS V2

 

[Ben Fox]

Sounds like the fairing was streched too tightly on the mounts.When I bought my V-2 the fairing was
streched way to tight and I had to cut off some of the handlebar mounting bars . The mounts are too
long and when you tighten down the wingnut bolts it bends the fairing and puts stress on the bolt
holes. After I shortened the mounts the fairing had a nice round arc at the top and the bolts
tightened down with out bending the fairing around the mounting plates . Ben Fox "Robert Milligan"
<[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> Put fairing on Nov. 15 and rode til Dec. 11. Put the bike in the basement, no cracks. I
> started riding again March 15 and when I brought the bike up from the basement, the fairing
> was cracked on both sides of the supports where it is attached. My LBS is contacting RANS to
> see what can be done. Any suggestions out there? I did tape the cracks and they haven't gotten
> any longer. Bob Milligan RANS V2

 

[Robert Milligan]

Thanks Ben .That's what I thought too. Bob Milligan V2

 

[Andrew Douglas]

[email protected] (Robert Milligan) wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> Any suggestions out there? I did tape the cracks and they haven't gotten any longer.

Yes. Stop-drill the cracks.

The end of the crack is now a point of great stress, and the crack will grow unless you relieve that
stress. Drill a small hole (say,
1/8") either right at the end of the crack or just beyond it... it is critical that no portion of
the crack extend beyond the hole, so it's safer to drill just beyond the end of the crack and
allow the crack to reach the hole on its own.

What this does is distribute the forces evenly. The bigger the hole, the more the force is
dissipated... so you have to balance the size of the hole with effectiveness (too small a hole won't
stop the crack).

This is routinely done on airplanes to control cracking of non-structural parts such as
fiberglass fairings.