Yes, the page title shows that I do have a sense of humor and that I prefer to keep my discourse on the lighter side. I'm a firm believer in doing things by educated guess and instinct. I'm not just "farting around" here either. I hope to share with you some of my discoveries and observations that might help you come along for the ride on our great adventure. Yes, I have a bit of formal schooling but I was always the one who would challenge the theoretical results and exasperate my colleagues. I do however have a decent track history in getting it right the first time using MY methods. Ok, so let's begin by reminding ourselves of a few facts:  The air that we are attempting to pass through with great speed, has weight. Not to be taken lightly (pun intended), at 0.0807 lbs. per cubic foot and with water vapor clinging to it in the form of humidity, it can be really quite heavy. This makes it resist being shoved aside and then flowing back into place quite severely and is called "drag force". Drag force on a body increases with the square of airspeed so we will need a small frontal area and some respectable power to overcome it. Air is made up of various gasses that are also compressible,  so as we barge our way through it, high (leading edge) and low (trailing edge) pressures are created, and of course the high pressure air has energy in it that is trying to decompress. Like the energy in a spring, it will bounce back into static shape once it's released. If you have some knowledge of how a wing shape works, then you can understand how this energy is put to work in accomplishing the goal, lift. For us land speedsters, lift is a drag...And downforce is also a drag...Come to think of it, DRAG is even a drag...Oh wow man, my head hurts...What a drag... Now in our land based arena, we only have need for slipping through the air with as little fuss as we can manage. The word "manage" is key here because that is ultimately what we must do in order to slip through the air, direct it to where we wish it to go, and then deliver it back to it's static (unpressurized) state. It sounds simple but in application it is diabolical to pull off. I like to use the example of living life as an air molecule or group of molecules that are drifting about, minding their own business when along comes an accelerated object that shoves me or us out of the way. I would be a sphere in shape and would have a tendency to roll along the surface of the object and bunch up tighter with others around me (building pressure).  The rolling along is known as "laminar flow" (air molecules that are attached along a moving body). As I am rolling back off the object, depending how abruptly, me and my buddies would roll and turn in on ourselves and stay accelerated for a bit until we bleed off energy and go back to minding our own business (breath a sigh of relief). I think that I would resist being dumped off abruptly and would try to cling to the surface that had set me in motion. You know it would be a "real drag" to be dumped off after having been spun into a frenzy...Ahem... Any way you look at it, I would be producing some friction and then suction as the object passed. I would really dig being gradually spun up and rolled off gently and allowed to spool down without being squeezed between a couple of strangers man...Yah, yah, yah I know I'm getting a little too personal but welcome to my world, Bud. My mind is streaking along mostly unchecked and that's why I have trouble sleeping at night...Please stay tuned for my future articles and I will close in on what we are creating (as in bodywork) on our Bullet to help "manage" the air as it passes over, across and thorugh the bike. Five axis high speed router carving out our Seat/Tail combo. Always Racing! Phil   (pamyers@bnin.net  or pmyers@gsplastics.com )