Saturday, July 25, 2015

July almost gone


July almost gone

The whole velomobile community appears to be on vacation, travelling, touring and some racing but there are still interesting information to report this week.

Sliding Cassette Derailleurs

A few weeks ago Wim Schermer produced a video he shared on You Tube demonstrating the sliding cassette derailleur system he is planning to use in the VeloTilt velomobile.  This week Harry Lieben from Sinnerbikes showed a similar system they had developed in the early 2000s where they received a patent in 2002.  Upon more research he also found a similar patent issued in 1987 to a German company.  

 
VeloTilt Sliding Derailleur 1


VeloTilt Sliding Derailleur2


Sinner Sliding Cassette Hub

A few years ago I also saw a similar system demonstrated in a You Tube video.  None of these systems have been commercialized but Harry thinks that they could be ideal in a Velomobile. 

The system had some interesting advantages but almost forces velomobile to have a mid drive.  On the other hand this system could replace an idler and provide a transmission where the chain remains straight at all times reducing some loss from idlers and long chain tubes.  Could this become the standard system in velomobiles? The system is interesting as it could provide a large gearing range that is not available currently in most velomobiles but will this be offset by cost, complexity and impose a weight penalty?  Current velomobiles would have to be retrofitted and it may not be straightforward to perform the modification.  In my opinion, just like the VeloTilt and the QuattroVelo  there are people who will support these technologies but I will wait to see it being demonstrated before I fully buy-in.

We should see some prototypes on the road soon; Piet Kunis is planning on modifying his ‘Super Mango” to see how the system works, Harry is looking at installing the Sinner system performs and the VeloTilt prototype will also see the installation of their sliding cassette system.  Hopefully their tests will be successful and this will provide a good transmission system for velomobiles or even regular bikes… if patent issues do not interfere.

Austalian HPV Super Series

The 3rd AHPVSS aka Pedal Prix race will be shown live on You Tube here Sunday July 26th at 9:45 AM local time.  The 6hr race is taking place at Victoria Park in Adelaide.

Dekra revisited

It was reported on ligfiets.net that Team Cygnus rider (probably Jan-Marcel van Dijken) may have broken the 100mi record.  The rider was participating in the 6-hr event but after a solid initial performance, he had to quit after 3hrs.  After the event, the team realized that they had broken the 100mi record.  The exact time has not been reported but his average speed was approximately 76km/h, this would translate into a approximate time of 2hrs 7min.  The record is provisional and has yet to be recognized.  

Distance logging

Velomobiel and IntercityBike keep track of the distance that the velomobiles they built have traveled.  Many riders are not aware of this because they purchased their velomobile through a distributor, a dealer or have purchased their velomobile second hand.  As a result the velomobile is not registered in their name on the manufacturer’s site.  You can contact the manufacturer and using your serial number, you will be issued a user ID then you will be able to enter the number of KM you have ridden.  Logging distance is an interesting way to compare yourself with other riders using the tools on the site by clicking on the label at the top of columns you can sort the data.

Sunday, July 19, 2015

Short brevet


Short brevet

Yesterday I rode a short 200km brevet.  I’ve been busy and have not had as much time to ride brevets so I took the opportunity to ride a local 200km brevet.  Due to PBP, the brevets were run earlier than in other years so there is less choice to ride brevets in July and August this year. 

As I received my DF in late spring and had to make several adjustments, I was not as ready as I wanted for this season so I’m only planning to ride my 600km brevet in August.  The 200km is to keep me in shape for longer distances.

The brevet started in the west end of Ottawa.  As many club members are preparing for PBP we were only four at the 6AM start.  The route took us north west of Ottawa toward Pembroke then we crossed the Ottawa River in Portage du Fort and came back on the province of Quebec side.  There are not too many hills but road was not the best in places... will have to have a dental checkup to see if any fillings came loose! The weather was iffy; luckily we only had a bit of rain

By 6:30AM I had encountered a deer that was looking at me in the middle of the road and only moved when I used my horn to scare him, he was less than 15m in front!  By 6:45 I spooked 3 horses in an enclosure by the side of the road… the rest of the day did not offer close encounters with animals.  On route I had very nice views of farms and the Ottawa River and I did not have a chance to ride in this area previously so it made me discover. I rode by myself all day.  The route returns back to Ontario using the ferry in Quyon, Quebec.  I was lucky because I was the last vehicle on the ferry and we left about 2 minutes later. Since there is only one ferry I would have had to wait 20 minutes.

Shortly before I arrived at the last control, my Edge 1000 GPS started giving me a low battery warning, unfortunately the 1000 is a bit more power hungry than the 800.  I plugged the GPS on the built-in USB port of the DF.  The GPS kept beeping every few seconds telling me that it was charging as if I was plugging and unplugging the GPS.  I suspect the 5V current coming out of the USB port of the DF does not provide consistent power but the GPS was getting current.  I have a small auxiliary power battery that I use to power my USB electronics but I did not bring it with me so I endured the beeping until I reached destination.  Note to self: bring battery even on short brevets! The sun came out around lunchtime and the temperature increased. I finished at 12:30. Sorry no pictures!

Dekra report

IntercityBike is offering a pair of Schwalbe One tires for the front to all competitors Last week I reported on the Dekra event that took place last Saturday and Sunday at the testing facility.  Women outdid themselves with 6, 12 and 24hr records (provisional).  There were 7 provisional records set at Dekra.

The first as I reported earlier was set by Ellen van Vugh riding the custom made Velox-S2 streamliner, not a velomobile.  She not only improved her six-hour world record of 365km for the women category. In total, she completed 404.04 kilometers in six hours, or a 67.3 km/h average, which is also more than all currently homologated men records.

The 12-hour record was set by the diminutive rider Nici Walde, she rode the hand-made DF-S.  She covered 586km in 12hrs, a significant improvement over the old record.  The previous record was 472.80 km, it was set in 2012 by Kirsten Niederlein in a Milan SL. This is the first world record for an IntercityBike designed velomobile. Apparently Nici is also new to the world of long distance records but she impressed observers with very consistent laps of the track throughout her record run.

Finally Petra von Fintel riding her Milan SL broke the mark of 819.4km she had set last year at the same facility.  She rode 1 011km in 24hrs, breaking the 1 000km mark and the 1 000km record for women.  Her 12h record set at 02:47 was broken at 03:05 by Nici Walde.
·      Petra von Fintel (Milan SL):
12 h --> ~ 575 km (at ~02:47)
1000 km --> in 14:22 Saturday night (after ~ 23:42 )
24 h --> ~ 1011 km
·      Nici Walde (DF-S):
12 h --> ~ 585 km (at ~03:05)
·      Ellen van Vugt (Velox –S):
6 h --> ~ 403 km
·      Hartwig Müller (Milan SL):
12 h  --> ~ 680 km
·      Melchior Poppe (Velomo Highfly):
6 h --> ~ 228 km

All these records are provisional will have to be homologated by the respective associations.

There are a lot of discussions on the speed difference between Streamliners and velomobiles.  Ellen van Vugt rode 403km in 6 hours while the record established for 12 hours is 585km, which is not significantly more distance. If a streamliner rider were to take a rest then restart, the difference could easily be covered in the second 6 hours.  On the other hand, the DF-S was not fully completed among other things missing the long wheel pants or the tail extension and it was Nici Walde first attempt for the record.  Of course these are speculations because a streamliner rider has to be very vigilant to keep the bike upright so the rider has to be not overly tired and this would require an easier pace in the first 6 hours to save enough energy.

WHPVA World Championships

The WHPVA will be held on 21-23 August 2015 in Maasmechelen, Belgium.  The event website for the World Championships is finally operational.  For the past few months the official site provided no information on the event but I see that the link to the event from the WHPVA main page is wrong and maybe this is the issue.  I know this is run bu volunteers but as member of the HPV community we should be better aware of the importance of good communication. 

On the plus side, the course is well adapted for velomobiles so we should see good results at this event. 

You can check out the website here .

Trisled

Ben Goodall, is considering the development of a Coroplast velomobile kit for road use.  For about 20 years, Trisled has been producing coroplast HPV kits for the Australian racing.  The features of these designs have been focused on racing rather than practicality. The kit would be produced by Trisled, it would include a chassis and parts kit + flat pack of pre cut coroplast parts and some instructions on how to assemble it. Likely cost would be $3-4.5k.  Trisled is looking for 10-20 orders in first batch to make it viable to develop. If people are interested in ordering, please contact Ben Goodall at Trisled.

Distance logging

Velomobiel and IntercityBike keep track of the distance that the velomobiles they built have traveled.  Many riders are not aware of this because they purchased their velomobile through a distributor, a dealer or have purchased their velomobile second hand.  As a result the velomobile is not registered in their name on the manufacturer’s site.  You can contact the manufacturer and using your serial number, you will be issued a user ID then you will be able to enter the number of km (not miles) you have ridden.  Logging distance is an interesting way to compare yourself with other riders using the tools on the site by clicking on the label at the top of columns you can sort the data.

IntercityBike

IntercityBike is offering a pair of Schwalbe One tires for the front to all competitors riding a DF or DF-XL at the World Championships. 

IntercityBike will be closed for holidays from  july 20th until august 3rd.  Ligfietsshop Tempelman that shares the building with Intercitybike will be open during this period. DF's will be available for test rides at Ligfietsshop Tempelman during this period.

Bluevelo

Bluevelo is now offering factory built hoods for the DF velomobile at a cost of C$995.  They can be purchased in the color to match your velomobile.  Delivery date is not yet specified.

Sunday, July 12, 2015

July is for riding


July is for riding
In the velomobile world people are focused on riding at this time of the year.  There are several racing series taking place, it is time to reap the benefits of the long hours developing and refining velomobiles.  In Europe people are getting ready for their annual vacations so things appear quieter than usual.

Over the summer I may not be able to post as often as I too will be enjoying the summer and I hope you will too!

BeND

In Europe, the BeND series taking place in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany the first four races have been held and racing is now taking a break until September.  The last two races will take place in Cologne on September 5th and the last race will take place in Assen on September 27th.  Currently Matthias König riding a Milan SL is in first place and Ymte Sijbrandij riding a DF-XL is in second place.  There are 3 DF riders from the IntercityBike team in the top 5. You can check out the standings here.

Dekra

This weekend is the annual record-breaking event at Dekra.  Ellen van Vugh riding the custom made Velox-S2 streamliner.  She not only improved her six-hour world record of 365km for the women category. In total, she completed 404.04 kilometers in six hours, or a 67.3 km/h average which is also more than all currently homologated men records.


Ellen also set a Dutch record for the one-hour record travelling 80.5km, which is a bit short of the world record set by Barbara Buatois (84.02km).  Ellen set this record while attempting to beat her 6-hour world record.

Australian Pedal Prix

Last week I mistakenly reported that the Victoria Park race was taking place last weekend., the race is in fact scheduled for the weekend of July 25 and 26th  In the mean time, you can check the standings here.

Feitser.be

Feitser.be just announced that they are moving their office, design and workshop at the beginning of August.  They will be on vacations for the last two weeks of July prior to the move and will only be available for urgent warranty repairs. Until mid August.

Trump Trikes

Trump Trikes teamed-up with Platt Racing and are currently working on a Coroplast (Coroflute) velomobile body kit for the Trump trike that will soon be available for Pedal Prix racing teams who do not have the budget to purchase a carbon fiber body.  The new product’s shape will be based on the top finishing TX2 composite body and similar to the one used very successfully by the Darleen Team.  It is important to note that this is a track vehicle and it is not made as road going velomobile but it shows homebuilders that Coroplast bodies can be very well designed and competitive.

Sunday, July 5, 2015

July riding


July riding
July around here is really the start of the summer; not that the weather has not been nice to ride previously but kids are out of school, people are starting to take their summer vacation.  Everywhere we go, there are tons of people outside.  So far we have not had oppressive heat waves and I like it.

Last week I went to get the 11-40 cassette I ordered a few weeks ago.  This cassette will hopefully provide me a bit more range for climbing steeper hills I may encounter during brevets and bike tours. 

I ordered the cassette from a bike store that is on the other side of town and the roads in in the city are a mess especially this summer as the city is going to light rail transit.  Many roads are closed, some have closed lanes, etc.  I decided to ride the DF to get there but had to plan the trip carefully. 

My route took me over the Eastern Parkway to downtown then across downtown, passing in front of the parliament buildings, several museums then on a bike path across a bridge over the Ottawa River then a short ride in front of more large government buildings to get to destination.  This is probably one of the best bike store in the area but they do not sell recumbent bicycles and had never seen a velomobile in real life.  Most of the staff came out to see the unusual bike and were receptive to this new type of bike. 

After purchasing my cassette, I made my way back home but traffic downtown in the afternoon was getting fairly heavy, tour busses, hoards of tourists visiting, workers trying to get home early on a nice day.  I make it back on the Parkway where traffic is lighter and pass the Aviation Museum, which is the starting and end point of the weekly Ottawa Bike Club 15km time trial.

I finally make it home and load my GPS data on Garmin and I find that I scored 3 first places on Garmin segments set on the TT course.  I guess I should go see if the club will let me participate in the TT.

Yesterday I was driving my vehicle with my velomobile on the back.  On the road I encountered a number of cyclists.  At the bottom of a hill I saw 3 riders by the side of the road.  As I was passing by, I noticed that they appeared to be injured. I decided to turn around to see if I could be of any help.  As I suspected two of them had fallen down at high speed, one bike had a broken wheel, on rider had serious road rash and the other just minor stuff.  I offered first aid and helped one the chain had come off the front ring and was stuck.  In the course of this, I pointed to the velomobile and said that maybe they would not have sustained injury if they were riding a velomobile.  At least one of them already knew of velomobiles and said they don’t climb very fast but I said you will be much faster overall not to mention safer.

We need to do a better job of introducing cyclists to velomobiles and debunk some of the preconceived ideas they may have with hard facts.  The fact that there are so few on the roads is already a reason for this lack of knowledge but we must take every opportunity to inform them.

In the world of velomobiles, Veklomobiel and IntercityBike were busy delivering velomobiles and the guys are probably enjoying the nice weather to go riding. 

Velomobiel

In June Velomobiel delivered 10 velomobiles: 2 Carbon Quest, 2 Carbon Quest XS,  3 Quest XS, 1 Carbon Strada and 2 Strada. And there are 38 velomobiles on order at the end of June.

IntercityBike

June was a good month for deliveries with 7 DF and 7 DF-XL for a total of 14 deliveries. There are 66 velomobiles on order at the end of June.  At the current rate, the waiting time is less than 6 months.

Intercitybike delivered the DF-S the last week, the smaller version of the DF was built as custom order will be apparently used to race and set records.  It is probably one of the lightest velomobile on the road currently and provided an opportunity for Daniel Fenn to see how to produce a lighter velomobile without compromising durability and strength.  The DF-S may not go into production; the cost to produce the molds may not be recuperated in a reasonable time because the demand from very small riders is… small!

The first production hoods for the DF should be delivered from Romania at the end of July. They had to address quality issues and IntercityBike and waiting delivery of the hardened windshield.

Australian Pedal Prix

The Victoria Park race is taking place this weekend.  Let’s see if the same team will be able to repeat their excellent performances.