Motorcycle Fairing - Types

Types

• Streamliner: This is a full fairing as found on land speed record machines. The entire body of the motorcycle is covered to provide the lowest drag coefficient ratio attainable. The NSU Dolphin II (Delphin II) is a streamliner.
• Dustbin fairing: A single-piece, streamlined shell covering the front half of a motorcycle resembling the nose of an aircraft, sometimes referred to as torpedo fairing. It dramatically reduced the frontal drag, but it was banned by Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) from racing in 1958, because it was thought that the frontal point of wind pressure made them highly unstable even with small amounts of yaw. Other reasons cited for the ban were to ensure adequate steering range (lock-to-lock) and stability against crosswinds. FIM regulations forbid streamlining beyond the wheel spindles and require the rider's arms and legs to be visible from the side.

• Dolphin fairing: It was called so because in early models the front wheel mud guard streamlined with the rising windshield part of the fairing resembled the dolphin's beak from the side view. They had become the norm since the ban of the dustbins.

• Full-fairing: Bodywork that covers both upper and lower portions of the motorcycle, as distinct from a half fairing, which only has an upper section, and the lower half of the motorcycle is exposed. The fairing on a race or sport bike is meant as an aerodynamic aid, so the windscreen is rarely looked through. If the rider is sitting up at speed he will be buffeted by his rapid progress through the air and act as a parachute, slowing the bike, while if the rider lies flat on the tank behind the windscreen he generates much less aerodynamic drag. The high windscreen and handle-bar width of a touring fairing protect the upright rider from the worst of this, and the windscreen is functional. Full fairings can also provide protection to the engine and chassis in the event of a crash where the fairings, rather than the engine covers and/or frame, slide on the road.

• Half-fairing: Fairing that features a windscreen and fairing extending at least below the handlebars, even as far as down to the sides of the cylinder block, though generally half-fairing doesn't cover the sides of the crankcase or gear box. A number of half-faired models have aftermarket kits available to extend the original half-fairing into a full fairing. Due to the popularity of these kits some manufacturers have started to supply their own full-fairing conversion kits and even offer their half-faired models new with a full-fairing kit fitted at the factory.

• Quarter fairing: A windscreen and minimal fairing extending around the headlight fixed to the triple clamp; also referred to as a "bikini fairing".

• Belly pan: Quarter and half fairings are often paired with a belly pan below the engine for diverting air flow away from under the engine to reduce aerodynamic lift, as well as cosmetic reasons. Some track day or racing rules require belly pans to catch leaked fluids.