I am back in the UK and have been busy with work on the website back-end, including dealing with a security breach in which the site was hacked and “malicious” code and links were injected into most pages. It is believed the “damage” has been cleaned up but if you notice any suspicious behaviour on the site please let us know.
I have several articles to post and I will shortly be writing up both my test rides and manufacturer visits in more detail. Meanwhile here is a report of my last day in Flevoland.
The last day was marred by an accident in the Sunrider. As I returned from Putten I performed an inadvertent Elk Test on a cycle-path-roundabout in Harderwijk, and overturned.
This was the third time I had passed through this particular cycle junction. The first day in the Alleweder, I had passed very slowly, giving more attention to reading the fietspad direction signs and following the map on my iPhone, to be able to properly observe the path. The evening before I had passed through at some speed, and felt comfortable with how the velomobile handled, albeit in the opposite direction. This was the second time in the Sunrider, and I had assumed that the flow of the junction would be the same in the opposite direction. As I entered the junction I experienced a sharp turn to the right followed by a sharp turn to the left, at just enough speed to loose control and then roll over. I became aware things were going wrong in the middle of the maneuver and had that feeling of helplessness as I tried to slow and correct the steering. Instead I felt myself slowly falling over and found myself on my side with a grazed hand and elbow and significant damage to the Sunrider upper body.
Being an engineer I have a strong urge to analyise the accident and learn the why. However I currently have no opportunity to investigate the site as I would like. The accident may have been compounded by a number of factors: a tendency of the particular model I was riding at the time to pull to the left when braking, thus adding to the over turning force; the contribution of adverse camber; or I may have touched the centre curb, etc, etc. However, despite the accident, I beat my time of the previous day by about 30 minutes!
Laying aside the accident, my impression of the Sunrider was positive. The drenching which was avoided on the previous day was definitely part of that impression. Despite being very heavy (c. 43 Kg) it was not difficult to ride, and I was pleasantly surprised by the performance increase over the previous day. However to be fair, the performance comparison should really only be made after at least a couple of journeys in each machine over the same route, to average out any differences due to muscle training and route knowledge.
The design does need some refinement and I am pleased to report that Leo Vischer is doing excellent work developing the Mk 2 Sunrider which should go a long way to answering those criticisms. The Mk 2 is expected to be on the market by the summer of 2013.
After returning the Sunrider to Alligt, and sorting out how to pay for the damage*, I again visited Flevobike, where I had an arrangement to test ride an Orca. The machine I tested was one with the electric assist option, the “stealth black” model in the photo. Andre Vrielink went over the controls with me as well as making a minor adjustment to fit the Orca to my size.
I was not able to take the Orca back to Putten, however I was able to give it a good run round Dronten over some varied terrain, enough to revise my initially negative impression to a much more positive one, but more of that later.
After the ride I was able to spend some time with Andre discussing the Orca, Flevobike and velomobiles in general. I was particularly interested to learn the differences between the original Versatile and the Orca, as visually it is hard to distinguish one from the other. These may well be summarised as, a number of refinements to the details and build method, that significantly improve the build quality, and give an incremental improvement on the performance.
I first became aware of the design several months ago but I was reminded by a comment from a reader in Argentina. Both Velomobile production and use is concentrated in Europe with rapid growth starting to appear in the US but what about other parts of the world? Australia & New Zealand have an established industry but what about other countries and particularly South America? Brazil is no longer an emerging economy – it has emerged – so it is perhaps little surprise to see the beginnings of a velomobile industry there, but what of other neighbouring countries? If you know of any others please let us know in the comments below.
The Valentina is produced by David Bevilacqua in Florianópolis Brazil. There is a website in Portuguese (not Spanish) but there appears to be little technical information at present. The Valentina appears to be mounted on a regular recumbent trike and features a sophisticated lighting system and electric assist.