Eric's Velo

[VenRiderGuy]

Eric, I've been considering a Velo as another toy. What model do you ride/drive? Any thoughts you'd be willing to share regarding Velos and/or bikes? Are they complimentary or so different that riding one for a while requires "retraining" on the other? Thanks.....

 

[Eric Winn]

I have 2010 Bluevelo (www.bluevelo.com) Strada #10 that I bought used in Aug 2014. Comfy Vendetta riding season up here is somewhat short and I had been interested in velomobiles for a long time so when this one came up for sale down in Whitehouse, OH I bought it and rode it home 85 miles. That was fun.

I've been riding it a lot because of carpal tunnel surgery and I did discover that I had to remember to lean/bank on my Vendetta when I went out for a ride after not riding it for quite some time because in a velo you shift your weight in the opposite direction in corners to try and avoid tipping over. Once I realized what I was doing I recovered quickly and went back to banking hard around corners - which I love doing on my Vendetta.

Otherwise alternating back and forth hasn't been an issue. I raced both last year at the Michigan HPVA races at the Waterford, MI racetrack.

They are expensive but immensely fun. With stops and starts and uphills I can hold a higher average speed on my Vendetta (so far) but if there is a lot of relatively flat travel holding 21mph+ For long periods is really easy, especially with the race cap. Starting and going up hill is quite slow. The velo really shines for weather protection and accident protection.

I'm following Jim's TTrike efforts with great interest because I think that would be a lot of fun too although without the weather protection and aero benefit a velo provides. The velo equivalent would be Wim Schermer's Velo Tilt which I will buy if he releases it to production.

-Eric

 

[VenRiderGuy]

Thanks, Eric.

 

[Eric Winn]

Note: I asked Bob to move this thread to the community section in lieu of hijacking Aggieray74's thread.

Here is the Velo Tilt (still in development) I mentioned above. There are 2 prototypes in this video. One is a bare mule used for proof of concept. The other is the Velo Tilt proper (mostly sans top in this video).

You can see the tilting geometry clearly on the mule. Different from the current TTRIKE design direction but more similar to the original TTRIKE prototype.

More info on Wim's blog:
http://wimschermer.blogspot.nl/search/label/Velotilt

 

[VenRiderGuy]

Interesting, and I like the size as compared to some Velomobiles. Certainly worth a purchasing thought...... Thanks for sharing.

 

[Eric Winn]

I have also given the ELF a test ride. Rob Cotter is a lot of fun to talk to and their Durham facility is a blast to tour.
The ELF is the most practical car replacement velo I've seen and is a lot of fun to ride but I also like the DF, Sinner Mango, Marvelo, Pterovelo, new Quattrovelo, and Mosquito. Some aspects of the Mosquito's development evoke some aspects of Cruzbike development. I've chatted via email several times with Olivier and Nicolas asking questions about the Mosquito. I've also chatted with Frans van der Merwe a few times about his Pterovelo.

Lot of choices out there depending on your interests.

The Mosquito has changed since this video a bit, but I've always thought this was a really cool presentation:

This video makes me think of Jim Gerwing and his Vendetta experiments: http://www.cruzbike.com/forum/threads/amateur-aerodynamics.6239/

I can just see Jim with a TTRIKE attachment building a body similar to the Mosquito.