Comments on: A student-designed velomobile

By: Ari

Ari — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 20:30:44 +0000

Beautiful but probably not so aerodynamic!

By: Amoeba

Amoeba — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 18:12:54 +0000

A very beautiful design, and apparently a leaning trike as well! I don’t know how aerodynamic it would have been, those exposed wheels look very drag-prone. The radial spokes on the drive wheel look like an error.
I can’t help thing that it could have been the next big thing in velomobiles, what a shame it seems to be dead.

By: Christopher Stube

Christopher Stube — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 01:24:06 +0000

It is a really beautiful design reminiscent of the carriages of the horse era. I had been reading papers lately on Series hybrids where the chain and bike drive train is replaced by a pedal generator and electrical system with lithium batteries and a final drive motor. You could also use a plug in assist and not have to worry so much about the meeting the ergonomics of such a wonderful design. I really like the large wheels and torsion bars.

By: Phil

Phil — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:59:14 +0000

All these comments are great. The deal with the 3 basic questions:
1. The design of the vehicle. To this discussion I’d like to suggest John Tetz’s foam core velomobile as a lightweight and very quiet alternative to heavy velos. http://www.recumbents.com/Mars/pages/proj/tetz/TFVM/TFVMp1.html Also consider electric assist to get more people attracted to getting out of cars.
2. Infrastructure this is a huge discussion and no matter how we change the infrastructure, it won’t necessarily get more people on human powered vehicles. We need not only design new roads, we need to attract people to the viability of getting around on their own steam. This is a marketing issue: showing cars in their real environment rather than the TV ads. Maybe taking a page from the drug & anti smoking campaigns.
3. 3. Creating new environments through altering existing systems: There is a natural evolution of infrastructure to the vehocles. Take, for example, the development of the parkway, and then the development of the interstate highway. Again, it comes back to the realization that the car is not a sustainable mode of transportation given its environmental impact. However, selling that t to the average 9-5 commuter will take a bit of selling. In conclusion, the more experimental HPV we get on the road, the wider the discussion and innovations become.

Phil Hammerslough

By: Anders Løberg

Anders Løberg — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 09:45:27 +0000

Interresting vehicle. I wonder about weight, point of gravity and aerodynamics. The wheels gives a lot of drag, and the with makes it more difficult to manouver amongst other bicyclists and in crowded areas. Why make a cycle look like a car?

I use a WAW velomobile, and it is efficient, and no problem with visibility. Strong colours, lights and flags gives the necessary attention in traffic.

By: sveti jebem

sveti jebem — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:12:05 +0000

I am also vorking on simmilar project, but took a bit differnt aproach, since I am European. Small and weak

Generally we have two types of roads, in cities there are more or less narrow streets (50km/h) with sidewalks (if lucky even bike lanes (25km/h if vehicle is assisted by motor), more and more areas of cities are only accessible for pedestrians and bikes…
The other type are roads outside cities: no sidewalks, no bike lanes the speed limit is 90 km/h, pedestrian or cyclist just share the road with cars. (Highways and some other roads are reserved only for motorised vehicles.)
Most commuters live (up to 30 km) outside the city with bad or no public transport. The road is problematic, since it gets jammed in the rush ours. To gain any advantage result should be as thin as possible to pass the standing cars on the right side (as pedestrian and bike) or use a bike lane. Using bike lanes is an delicate question, but in case of wider popularity of such vehicle governments will be somehow forced to introduce a new solutions.
My focus are families with more than one car. I tend to replace the second car. My prediction is: such vehicle will be more interesting for men, since many women at the moment want urban SUVs for (egoistically safe) school-runs and over-emancipation.

I have test ridden a Leitra, and similar home made velomobile on 3 wheels. I found both of them top heavy, visibility was poor and compared to bike they were extremely slow (especially in acceleration) and clumsy… also sounds inside were scary. I was realy disappointed and encouraged to improve it at the same time.
I assume something cheap, practical, fun to ride and fast (for HPV) will do.

I'd like to know more about other countries traffic situation… mentality and laws.

By: Stevbike

Stevbike — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:46:36 +0000

I rode a velomobile built buy a person that lives in the Niagria on the Lake area. The vehicle weighed in at about 100 lbs, is 8 feet long and in a very nice design. The persons name is Reg Rodaro. Here is a link to a site that showcases his work. http://vaxxine.com/regrodaro/. I have one of his fairings on a bike I built. The link to see this is at http://www.pedalroom.com/bike/2000-fairing-covered-low-racer-613.

I had a chance to ride one of Reg's velomobiles around my home town and a distance ok 22km to close-by small town. The body of the vehicle did its job well on level ground. However,on small up-hill grades, the weight of the vehicle off-set any advantage the bike of the bike's body provided. I have done this ride on a road bike and these trips proved faster times for the trip. In saying this, the road bike did not provide any type carrying space. The velomobile did. The velomobile provided me protection from the environment and Reg did a nice job of working out venting to provide air into this machine.

Any velomobile design needs to be worked out to provide a good balance of compact sizing and a low weigh that still provides sound and safe structure for the rider.

By: Bicycle and Bikes

Bicycle and Bikes — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:02:19 +0000

Pictures look fantastic. Would certainly be an eye opener on the road.

Curious to know how much one of these would weigh, and whether there was any 3D animation as part of the design project to get a better feel for how it might work.

By: http://tough-eye.com/

http://tough-eye.com/ — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:31:11 +0000

You have very talented, and creative students. This is a great idea. I too believe that bicycles do not fit in. I went to Amsterdam this past year and was azazed at how advanced their streets were. A sidewalk for the walkers, a larger sidewalk for bikers, the road for cars, trolleys, and riverways for boats. Maybe America should take some notes.

By: totobobo

totobobo — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:42:06 +0000

Thinking about the systemic perspective is a great trigger. If it doesn't fit into the grid it would be harder to push.
On the other hand, it may be more effective if we simply cut the current lanes in half (narrower). When there is safe route >> there will be more cyclist >> less drivers >> less car >> more space for cyclist…