A brief selection of photos from SPEZI. More comment to follow.
Carbon Recumbent’s velomobile.
A velombile prototype from Dutch trike manufacturer Jouta
Go-one Evo and Velayo velomobiles.
Alleweder A8 prototype
An as yet unidentified velomobile.
Safely arrived back in Holland. SPEZI was very educational with a lot to see including a good selection of velomobiles. Tomorrow is a rest. Monday I begin to digest what has been learnt.
Today we visited Dronten in Flevoland, the location of three of the Netherland’s velomobile producers. Alligt, Flevobike and Velomobiel are all located on the same side of the town and Alligt and Velomobiel are in adjacent buildings.
Entering Flevoland one was impressed with the number of wind turbines dotted allover the fields, testimony to the natural force that opposes cyclists in this country, the wind or, the “Dutch hill.”
The plan was to visit all three manufacturers. As it happened only Velomobil was open as the proprietors of Alligt and Flevobike were away in Germany in preparation for SPEZI, which starts tomorrow. Velomobiel occupy a typical metal clad industrial unit which contains: a small exhibition of velomobiles, including a couple of aluminium Alleweders; their office; and their workshop where they currently assemble the Quest and Strada.
On entering we found several staff busy in the workshop working on a number of velomobiles in various stages of construction including one in for a 30,000 km service It was clear from subsequent conversation that Velomobiel give a high priority to serving their existing customers.
We were greeted by Jos who willingly stopped what he was doing to set up a Quest and Strada for a test drive and answer questions. While it is possible to adjust both the Quest and Strada to fit a range of sizes the machine you buy is built to your size. It took Jos about 15 to 20 minutes to perform a simple adjustment to each machine to fit for our test ride. The temporary nature of the adjustment resulted in a limited range of 9 gears, rear gear selector only, and a slight risk of chain grease on the leg. Jos emphasized that these limitations are only present on machines that are frequently adjusted like these. In my experience this was not a problem, but it might be a good idea to wear suitable clothing when taking a test ride. The nine gears available were also quite adequate and allowed speeds above 30 km/h (20 mph) without much effort. I will give more details on the test ride in a future post on the Quest.
Velomobiel are currently producing about 150 machines per year but are in the process of moving production to Romania to a new custom built site where they will also build the QuestXS. Service, design and development will continue at the present site.
The Quest, Strada and QuestXS form a related family. The Strada and Quest share 95% of the same parts, the main difference being, the wider track and tighter turning circle of the Strada, and the improved aerodynamics of the Quest’s enclosed wheels. The standardisation achieved between the Quest and Strada is a large part of the reason Velomobiel sold the production of the Mango to Sinner as the Mango uses a different drive-train which does not fit with the current Velomobiel philosophy.
To conclude, the experience was very enjoyable and left a very positive impression. If I had upward of £5,000 to put down I would be ready to add my name to the current 6 month waiting list.
The good folks at Bicycle Forest in Canada produced an excelent little video showing a North American built Quest velombile by Bluevelo. Bicycle Forest themselves produce quite a number of ïnteresting” vehicles as they push the boundaries of what might be called human powered.
Flew to Amsterdam on the way to Germany. Staying with friends in Holland and hope to visit some velomoble manufacture/retailers while I am here.
This has to be one of the most professional videos explaining the velomobile concept. It features the Sinner Mango velomobile but it should be obvious that the same principals apply to any other comparable design. Production is by Stephen at undercover cycling. The view is from an American perspective but if it can be done in the land of the Automobile it can be done anywhere.
Enjoy!
A note about the price mentioned in the video, the number he quotes is for shipping and importing a quality European built velomobile into the US! For those living in Europe the cost is much less. For those living in the US there are US manufactured velomobiles which remove the costs associated with importing.
Firstly welcome to velomobiles.co.uk. This is a new site dedicated to the promotion of the velomobile as a practical mode of transport. The reporting is from a UK perspective but is intended to take in a broad range of subjects relating to the velomobile from around the world. Subjects are expected to range from: the world human powered speed challenge at Battle Mountain USA, to cycle advocacy issues within the UK; and from current velomobile developments, to items of more historic interest. Obviously we will be looking closely at Europe as a centre of velomobile production and development, and we hope to be able to report from SPEZI this year. At the same time we also hope to report from Holland, which produces a significant number of velomobile models and offers a shining example of how cycling can be made a practical and enjoyable mode of transport.
You might ask, “There are other sites covering the subject so why start a new site about velomobiles?”
There are some excellent sites in English, two in particular that have served as inspiration for this site, Mary Arneson’s and Dale Hammerschmidt’s velomobiling.com and The Recumbent Blog lately run by Rob Mackensie. However the information these site provide is not being updated. It also appears that at the time of writing velomobiling.com’s domain has expired and the site is no longer accessable.
Wikipedia has several related articles and the UK based, and roughly quarterly publication, Velovision occasionally provide articles both on their website and in print. Further information is scattered here there and in some cases given the location of most manufactures is not in English, for example there is an interesting site in Russian which Google Translate opens up to those who don’t understand Russian.
Having said that, there is evidently an increasing English language interest in the subject, especially since the publicity in the US, arising from the ROAM event of last year (2011) organised by Josef Janning. Such was the success of ROAM that plans are now developing for a similar event to cross Europe next year (2013) with the tag line – having fun, promoting logical vehicles. Mary Arneson continues to maintain a blog with occasional references to velomobiles. Additionally several new sites have sprung up, Jason Lattimer has also started a new site covering velomobiles from a US perspective including a web based TV show now at episode 4. Brothers, Randy and Ray Mickevicius, also have a blog and site promoting velomobile use in Canada. In the UK Hephaestus has an interesting albeit academic blog looking at the idea of a practical human powered commuter vehicle, and there is the British work-in-progress development of the Atomic Duck low cost velomobile. There are other sites and blogs which we expect to report and link to in due course.
The intention of this site is: to try and combine an updated and improved database, following on from velomobiling; with ongoing reporting, as in The Recumbent Blog. To that end we will welcome any reader tips on news or events that would be of interest to other readers.
One pattern that can be observed on a number of sites is, an enthusiastic start followed by a series of posts, and after about a year the site becomes dormant. It is hoped that this site will avoid falling into the same trap. The database is expected to come online slowly over the next few months, as it is populated with data, and is expected to contain current and historical information on models and manufacturers. It is likely that significant “home-built” and one-off machines will also be included, so if you think the machine you built is worthy of notice, please get in touch.