Category: HPV / Recumbent
-
A Leitra velomobile redesign by Kuba Szankowski
For his final project in Mechanical Engineering at the Danish Technical University, Israeli born Danish citizen Kuba Szankowski designed a velomobile based on the classic Leitra design. He worked closely on the project with Carl Georg Rasmussen of Leitra, who “at eighty years young still builds and maintains all the velomobiles, as well as most any…
-
Evolution of the Windcheetah- a guest post by Karl Sparenberg
I am a big fan of Mike Burrows, and have mentioned his work quite a few times over the years at Bicycle Design. In 2012, lifelong “cycling fanatic” and engineer Karl Sparenberg of Advanced Velo Design took over production of Burrows’ Windcheetah recumbent trike, and has been working on improving the materials and manufacturability of the…
-
Predator HPV by Eugen Ackermann
Last summer, for his Bachelor thesis of Industrial Design at Pforzheim University in Germany, Eugen Ackermann chose to design an “Alternative Mobility” solution. His Predator design is a recumbent bike, a category that he believes offers users many advantages but still is not socially accepted even though the basic design goes back to the…
-
Velomobiles (or whatever you choose to call them)- part 2
If you missed last week’s post at Bicycle Design about velomobiles, be sure to check it out. In addition to the links that I mentioned in the body of the post, a few of you shared additional interesting velomobile designs in the comments section. I ended that post saying “whether you call them velomobiles, HPVs,…
-
A Collection of Velomobile Links- Part 1
I don’t own one (yet), but I do have a fascination with velomobiles and mention them here at BicycleDesign from time to time. They are certainly not as common in the United States as they are in parts of Europe, but I think that is changing…slowly. If internet activity is any indication, they seem to…
-
Concept bike and HPV by Dennis Redmonds
This time trial bike concept rendering by German designer Dennis Redmonds caught my eye on the Velo Design blog Facebook page recently. Before you ask about the drivetrain details, or point out that the seat height is not adjustable, keep in mind that this is very likely purely a styling exercise. Definitely a nice form though… that could…
-
UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships
The UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships took place in Greenville, SC over Labor Day weekend. As I have mentioned before, these athletes are incredibly inspiring …and the bikes, trikes, and handcycles that they use are quite interesting as well. I won’t go into detail about the equipment in this short post, but I encourage you…
-
2013- The year in review at BicycleDesign.net
In keeping with the tradition started in 2009, it is time for a year end recap of activity here at Bicycle Design. For the first time since I started the blog eight years ago, readership was down a bit from the previous year (the blog had just 953,053 pageviews in 2013, compared to 1,236,847 in…
-
Two interesting bike documentaries in the works- The Outsider and Bicycle
If you are interested in bicycle design and innovation (and if you are reading this blog, most likely you are), there are two documentaries coming soon that you will definitely want to see. First is ‘The Outsider : Graeme Obree’s story, in his own words’ by David Street of Journey Pictures, a project that was…
-
The 2013 World Human Powered Speed Challenge
This week, I have been occasionally checking the results of the 2013 World Human Powered Speed Challenge taking place for the 14th consecutive year on SR305 outside of Battle Mountain, Nevada. This is always a very interesting event to follow, and I am glad that Graeme Obree’s participation is bringing it a bit of extra…
-
Graeme Obree’s new improved Beastie
Last year, I posted about Graeme Obree’s plans to attempt the human-powered land speed record in a prone position HPV of his own design. After his test run at Machrihanish airport in Scotland last year, the record attempt was delayed due to issues with the fairing on “the Beastie.” Now, Obree is back and ready…
-
E-Trike by George Cooper
George Cooper is a recent Industrial Design graduate from the UK. For his final school project, he set out to design a human powered vehicle geared toward the majority of people who don’t currently cycle (that blue ocean that is mentioned here from time to time). His solution is an electric assist recumbent tricycle with…
-
Congrats AeroVelo team!
I completely missed this news two weeks ago while I was traveling, but I saw today in a Bike Hugger post that the AeroVelo team finally was able to capture the $250,000 AHS Sikorsky Prize for human powered helicopter flight. Just over a year ago, I wrote a post about the team from Toronto and…
-
New designs, old designs, velomobiles, and bike art
I was traveling in Asia the past couple weeks, and didn’t get a chance to post here at Bicycle Design. I do have a lot to pass along though, so today I will quickly share just a few of the links that readers have shared with me recently. I have shared Ilya Vostrikov’s bicycle renderings…
-
Wooden bikes, folding helmets, velomobiles and more
I have posted about quite a few wooden bikes before, but this plywood Ash design by French designers Thierry Boltz and Claude Saos is a bit different than most. The WOOD.B design for BSG Bikes has a wooden main triangle which screws to the steel headtube and rear triangle elements. You can see a video…
-
Handcycles of the 2013 Para-cycling Open
Just over a month ago (yeah, I know…I am slow to post sometimes), I had the opportunity to watch the 2013 Greenville Para-cycling Open time trial. Next year, the UCI Para-cycling World Championships (time trial and road) will take place on the same courses here in Greenville, SC, so this was a great opportunity for…
-
Velomobiles from Piximatic and GeoSpace
It has been several years since I mentioned Christophe Sarrazin’s velomobile designs. Since that 2009 post though, his website has evolved quite a bit. The site is more than just a source for news about velomobile design. To encourage others to get involved with velomobile construction projects, Christophe offers free downloads of many of his…
-
ZIPcycle 2.0 by Eric Birkhauser
Eric Birkhauser’s “open air” ZIPcycle velomobile concept was featured in a Bicycle Design post last year. He points out that the feedback received from readers in the comments (and from an earlier post) directly led to his redesign… the ZIPcycle 2.0. In order to prove the concept, Eric’s next step is to build a working…