Karl Abbe at Zzip Designs worked with me to perfect a front fairing for the TerraTrike. He combined his Tri-Adjust Mount with an experimenter bubble to produce an under-2-pound Lexan fairing/mount that works just great. I have to give Karl a lot of credit for his patience as this process took quite a few telephone exchanges and mailings while I tried several types of mounts and fairings.The lack-o-turbulence up front gives one the feeling of having an imaginary cyclist ahead to draft.

Speed improvements? An eight per cent improvement in the fastest time I ever commuted home from work and added several mph to my top speed--now up to 30 mph unassisted on a level straightaway! Not to mention that I now practically lope along at 20 mph . . . and 25+ mph when I "put the pedal down." And headwinds, which are already a lot easier to tackle with a low profile recumbent, are now an almost negligible factor with the aid of the Zzipper fairing. It's a great psychological feeling having a front enclosure over the formerly "exposed" front of the trike--it "completes" the already cool shape of the trike.

Even the at-rest portion of having a fairing is working out: the fair'd trike still fits through the doors of my studio and office and resides in a corner of my office during the workday .

Here are photos of the 30 mph TerraTrike with rear fairing featuring additional storage space in a compartment located behind my shoulders and above the rear fender. The material for the fairing is a thick plastic sheet found in hardware stores and sold under the trade name "Easy Bagger." The rear fairing weighs no more than the front fairing, which means that the 35 pound trike, plus fairings comes in at around 40 pounds.

My dear spouse sewed the jazzy red velveteen fairing cover. The cool-looking cover reminds me of the hood of an exotic sports car.

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