Tag: velomobile
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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…
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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…
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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,…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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A GrabCAD contest and a bit of HPV history
I briefly mentioned the engineering website and community GrabCAD last year, when they ran a crank weight reduction challenge for Tern and a bar tape fixing challenge for Flying Machine Bicycle Design Studio. They have a new design/engineering challenge underway, in partnership with Velodroom, to “create an accessory that solves a problem cyclists face in…
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Organic Transit ELF
Not all that far from where I live, a small group of people are building innovative solar/pedal powered velomobile trikes in a former furniture warehouse in downtown Durham, North Carolina. I have been meaning to discuss the Organic Transit ELF for a while now, but it is one of the many posts that I just…
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VeloTilt: Design of a low drag practical velomobile
Recently, Arnold Ligtvoet from RaptoBike sent me a link to an interesting project that he is involved with. The goal is to develop a velomobile that is both practical and fast, and the team that is working on the VeloTilt certainly has the credentials to make it happen. The development team consists of Will Schermer-…
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Eric Birkhauser’s ZIPcycle share concept
My post about Eric Birkhauser’s Petal Velomobile concept generated some good discussion earlier this year. The architect’s latest project, ZIPcycle, is a work in progress that will be part of a larger project that he is working on… a book on active transit systems. This time around, in addition to a sleek recumbent HPV, he…
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A practical velomobile…and really fast ones too
It seems like I have been hearing more and more from companies making velomobiles lately, and that is a trend that I hope to see continue. I am definitely not an expert on the subject of HPVs or velomobiles, but the Challenger from UK based Ocean Cycles is a pedal powered machine that immediately caught…
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Velomobile technology, design, and engineering seminar
Though I have yet to actually ride in a velomobile, I mention them on the blog fairly often. It is definitely a transportation category that interests me, and one that I would very much like to learn more about. For that reason, I really wish I could make it to the 7th International Velomobile Seminar,…
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Petal Velomobile by Eric Birkhauser
Architect Eric Birkhauser recently sent me a link to his entry in the B’Twin/ Local Motors design competition (see the other entries here). His velomobile, with LED lights integrated into the shell/frame, sounds pretty interesting, so I want to share a few of the image boards here along with Eric’s description of the concept: “The…
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Wooden bikes from Audi (no foolin’)
I am off to China for work again tomorrow, so new posts will be infrequent for a few weeks. I’ll try to write a few quick ones when I can find some free time though, so keep checking in. Before I leave, I want to quickly just pass along a few links of interest. At…
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Urban concept bikes, a watch, and an e-velomobile
I am busy working in China this week, so I haven’t had the chance to post anything on the blog. I do want to quickly pass a long a couple of interesting things before I get started today though. Jukka Kalliomäki is an industrial design graduate student at Lund University in Sweden. His thesis project…