Tag Archives: ROAM

Roll Over America – The Book!

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ROAM logoThe Roll Over America (ROAM) velomobile tour which took place in 2011 is now documented in book form.  Available either as an iBook for iOS 5 or 210 Mb PDF from Google Docs, Josef Janning chronicles the story of the first ever velomobile tour across the United States from Oregon to Washington D.C.  The 210 pages cover the 28 day, 5300 km journey in detail, together with additional material and comments from riders and observers.

Cover of ROAM the storyAs one would expect the opening chapter deals with the background and planning for the tour.  The book also closes with a number of after thoughts and hints at possible future tours of a similar kind in both the US and other parts of the world.

It is good to see ROAM documented in this, more permanent, fashion as the original site at http://www.rolloveramerica.eu, while reserved, no longer has any content accessible, demonstrating the frustratingly short life cycle of too much of the information available on the internet.

The Velomobile as a Commuter Vehicle

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While looking for something else I ran across this interesting post over at the Commute by Bike blog.  It is an extensive report by Josef Janning on his use of a Quest velomobile to commute to work all year round, and includes a potted history of how he moved from commuting on a road bike, through several stages, till he reached his Quest.  If it looks or sounds a little familiar this is the same Josef Janning who organised the Roll Over AMerica (ROAM) of last year.

Quest Velomobile

View from the Quest | Photo: Josef Janning

He summarises his view nicely.

The velomobile exceeded these bikes and trikes in all dimensions. It allowed me to ride faster than on any of my other bikes, in more comfort, with better weather protection through all seasons, better luggage capacity, and on top of all this, with the most sensational feeling I have ever experienced on wheels.

The article is quite lengthy and informative and features a couple of excellent YouTube videos as well as several illustrative pictures.  It is well worth a read.