VUN Mini Fairing

One of the areas where the VUN suffers compared with other sports bikes is streamlining. The standard VUN is basically a naked bike with sports handling in the café racer style.

Lack of streamlining affects the VUN in three critical areas:

• Top speed,
• Fuel economy,
• High speed comfort.

A standard VUN is easily capable of 180 km/h. This is quite a reasonable speed (illegal in most places), but is still pretty slow when compared to most other sports bikes. Going out for a Sunday run, your friends will be amazed at the VUN's speed around a tight road, but once you hit a few long straights you will be left in their dust.

My VUN is fitted with clip-ons which allows me to ride in a lower, more stream-lined position. It has also been tuned to provide a bit more power. Lying flat on the tank on a flat road I have managed to hit 200 km/h but, above that, wind resistance wins the battle.

Sustained speeds of more than 170 km/h on the VUN is impractical and uncomfortable. What the VUN really needs then, to keep up with bigger bikes on the straights, is streamlining. But how to make a streamlined VUN without spoiling that beautiful, minimalist silhouette?

Below are presented three conceptual drawings of a VUN front fairing design. I would like to know your opinions: (a),(b),(c), or (d) on which option you like best (click each image to enlarge).

Option (a) - Bezzi Design #1

Italian motorcycle designer Oberdan Bezzi was kind enough to create this rendering of a VUN mini-fairing design.

Here Bezzi presents a minimal front fairing which utilizes the standard headlight and bolts directly to the existing carbon fiber instrument support. The bottom half of the fairing flares outward to wrap the leading edge of the side mounted radiators.

Option (b) - Bezzi Design #2

In this image, Bezzi has removed the radiator cowlings to keep the side profile as small as possible. The lower fairing has a straight line of attack which then curves upwards to meet the lower line of the fuel tank.

Option (c) - Modified Bezzi Design

I modified the bottom profile of Bezzi's #2 design to provide a more flowing curve starting from the front of the fairing and blending into the fuel tank. The change is hard to see here, but click on the image for a larger view and you will notice the difference.

This image also adds a lower oil reservoir cover for some visual balance. The oil reservoir cover is already available from CR&S as a standard option.

Option (d) - Standard Fairing

The standard VUN fairing is shown here to provide a reference point for comparison.