Motorcycle fairing refers to the shell that is put on a sports bike or any other motorcycle to reduce air resistance on the vehicle. The main benefits of the fairing include the reduction of air resistance, protection of the driver and engine components in case of accidents. You can have front and rear fairings on motorcycles. When air resistance on a racing motorcycle is reduced, it can reduce fuel consumption and also increase engine life.
If you go back a few years, almost all bikes were ‘naked’ with no fairings. Sport fairings have only been around for twenty or thirty years, but they’ve become so popular now that you’ll hardly see a ‘naked’ sportbike these days. The main purpose of fairings is rider protection and aerodynamics. For sports bikes, reaching top speed quickly is of paramount importance, while for touring bikes, rider protection and comfort are the top priority. In both cases, fairings can be very beneficial.
However, a naked bike has its own advantages, such as lighter weight and comfort. A bike normally used for short trips at moderate speeds is better off without fairings. Naked bikes have another big advantage as they offer a more comfortable sitting position than the crouched sport bike. Another great advantage of the naked bike is that there is no expensive fiber to replace when your bike is in an accident! Therefore, for traveling short distances at slow to moderate speeds (50 miles per hour or less), a nude bike is perfect.
On the other hand, if you are riding long distances in all kinds of weather conditions at highway speeds, then you definitely need to add some fairing to your bike. When riding a naked bike at highway speeds, you can hit pebbles, dirt, etc. The gust of wind will also tire you out quickly. When you add fairing it protects it by diverting a lot of things away from the windshield. It is said that riding a bicycle naked for long distances can cause pain in the arms due to the pressure of the wind on the chest.
There are different types of fairings like streamliner, dustbin fairing, dolphin, full or half fairing, quarter fairing, engine guard etc. Streamliner is a type of full fairing in which the entire body of the motorcycle is covered to reduce drag to a minimum. In the dustbin fairing, the front half of the motorcycle is covered with a one-piece shell that resembles the nose of an airplane. This is useful for reducing frontal drag.
