MotoGP has displayed an appreciation of aerodynamics in recent years for add downforce and now, road bike manufacturers are paying increasing attention to aerodynamics to make bikes more slippery.

Aerodynamics Coming Soon to a Street Bike Near You

Take a look at any MotoGP bike from the mid-2000s and the bodywork is beautifully smooth and uncluttered, designed to penetrate the air as cleanly as possible.

Then, in the late 2010s, Ducati started applying downforce-inducing winglets at the front of the fairing, designed to keep the front wheel on the ground on initial acceleration and exiting corners: the less the front wheel lifts, the less the electronics chime in, cutting power to keep the front wheel down and harming acceleration.

From that point, aerodynamics were the new buzz-word and everyone jumped on the band wagon, to the point where the modern MotoGP bike's bodywork has lost all its smooth simplicity in the pursuit of downforce.

Some road bikes have also started sprouting small winglets at the front of the bodywork, although it is debatable whether any owner will ever notice the difference in normal everyday road riding.

Now manufacturers are looking anew at aerodynamics but with a different emphasis in mind. Yamaha in particular, is concentrating on airflow around the front forks and how to improve it.

The problem is that a fork leg is a cylinder: not only does it offer a large surface area to oncoming air, but also creates turbulence as the air moves around the back of the leg, which in turn has knock on effects to airflow over the rest of the bike and, most importantly, through the radiators.

So, it's not just about pushing the fork through the air more efficiently, it's about managing the airflow behind the fork. Get that right and maximise airflow to the radiators - coolant and oil - and you can make the radiators smaller and lighter.

Less aerodynamic resistance will also assume a new importance with the rise of electric bikes. Less resistance means less power needed to achieve a given speed and therefore greater range which, along with recharging time, is one of the stumbling blocks to acceptance of electric bikes.

Looking at the patent drawings from Yamaha, it will be seen that the fork shroud is not a full teardrop shape. While that is the ideal shape for aerodynamic penetration, a tall shroud could act like a rudder, affecting steering as the forks turn with air flowing past them.

Instead, the trailing edge has been cut off to form a Kamm tail, which has been used in car styling for many years. Think of the tail styling of the Alfa Romeo Spyder and the Aston Martin DB6 for examples. In the 1930s, it was found that removing the tail of a teardrop shape had no effect on airflow, which behaved as if the tail of the teardrop was still in place. So, car bodywork that would normally have a long, swooping tail, could be shortened with no adverse aerodynamic effect or drag.

Placing shrouds on the forks would have benefits to airflow through radiators whether the bike was naked or fully faired. Like all seemingly obvious ideas, it is remarkable how manufacturers have not looked at this before now.

However, as with everything, once Pandora's Box has been opened, who knows where it will lead us?