A big box arrived from the Netherlands the other day. IntercityBike finally sent my order containing some pants and another set of front wheels for the DF XL. The pants enclose the front wheels and are supposed to give a nice little speed gain at the higher end. Front wheel clearance is a bit sketchy with the pants so Ymte at IntercityBike recommended a set of narrower offset front wheels.

Ymte provided some very thin tape, Nitto 21, to attach the pants. I decided to try something a little more substantial so I’ve gone with magnets. Here you can see the magnets glued to the pant. Mating magnets are taped to the inside surface of the DF’s interior.

In these photos you can see that I actually did tape the seams using red electrical tape just to be safe.

Since retiring, I’ve been having fun designing and building new pieces for my DF XL. Here’s a little update on these designs.

NACA Duct

The idea here is to be able to use the race cap (hood) more often to boost my speed. Up until now, I could only use the race cap on very cold days due to the heat and steam that builds up inside. Adding a new air inlet in the form of a NACA duct to the front access panel should help solve that problem. It definitely moves a lot of air so it succeeds on that goal. Now I need to do some roll down tests to see if the extra drag created by the duct offsets the benefit of running with the race cap. It might turn out to hurt more than it helps. I’ve posted more details here…

DF Carbon Fiber panel with NACA Duct

Zefal Spin Mirror covers

I decided to go back to the very small stock Zefal Spin mirrors. I never liked the way they looked. I also thought that their aerodynamics could be improved. At the urging of PeterB on BROL, I designed this little mirror cover using Fusion 360. I doubt that it will make any difference at the speeds that I travel ( ~20 – 25mph most of the time), but I think they look a little more finished.

Zefal Spin Mirror Covers

ABS Plastic Heel Bump Guards

I first saw these on my former Milan GT. Then I saw that Ben Dover on BROL had put these on his DF. The heel bumps are the first things to scrape going up driveways. They’re compound shapes so making a guard from flat ABS plastic sheet is a bit tricky. So I took some measurements of the heel bumps and shaped this mold from some rigid foam. This allowed me to heat up the ABS sheet and press it into shape.