Project: Home made velomobile design with crank or mid motor

[tahustvedt]

Glued to the rear wheel:

 

[tahustvedt]

Painting detailed surfaces is boring.

 

[--freeride--]

Very nice work!

 

[1JohnFoster]

I filled a large rough section of plywood with plastic body filler. Got really smooth, but it showed up as a big ugly blotch under the wood stain. Then I spent waaaay more time sanding it back off than I had in putting it on. Biggest mistake of my build.

People always praise the "workmanship" of my build - but its really just the big impression made by the wood stain and glossy varnish. My workmanship is actually pretty rough. What worked out really well was to hide all the botchy filled parts (the corners) with opaque paint, and "feature" the smooth flat sections in stain. If I'd painted it all opaque paint it would look like an old cupboard on wheels. People compare wheeled vehicles to cars; they expect perfectly smooth hard glossy surfaces with very complex curves. Varnish makes the comparison vanish.

 

[r3volved]

Well...I praise your workmanship because if I built that, it'd be a 30mph splinter factory.

Wood isn't even very hard to work with...I just could not conceivably create something as gorgeous as that (at this point in my life)

 

[tahustvedt]

I have rounded off the edges with a plunge router, and primed the outside.

 

[Wheazel]

Exciting stuff! How many labor hours do you estimate this project requires?

 

[tahustvedt]

I have no idea. Most of the time has probably been spent designing it.

 

[dequinox]

Do you have a rough weight of the structure w/o the bike components so far?

 

[tahustvedt]

The body weighed 20 kg before I started painting. Probably a kg heavier now. The completed weight will probably be 60 kg+ with the motor and batteries.

 

[dequinox]

That's not terribly heavy for a velo, I think that's quite reasonable.

 

[tahustvedt]

I think it'll be ok. I have ridden my surly Ebike with a total weight of 50 kg once with a flat battery. Very hard to climb the long hill home, but the 46/25 drivetrain idn't exactly help either.

What I'm really curious about is the aerodynamic aspect. I hope for a big positive surprise. I'll use my power meter rear wheel to see how it compares to my road bike.

 

[dequinox]

Aero is tricky. Your side profile is excellent, but I think the simple flat-sided design is going to lag behind a fully complex-contour design in performance. I do think you'll see some significant gains in efficiency over a bare trike or bicycle, especially over 10 or 15 mph.

Here are some simple references that give you a rough idea of how 2D shapes affect the amount of drag... the shape coefficients plug into the drag equation below for simple 2D calculations. "A" is the frontal area of your velo.

I think it'll be ok. I have ridden my surly Ebike with a total weight of 50 kg once with a flat battery. Very hard to climb the long hill home, but the 46/25 drivetrain idn't exactly help either.

What I'm really curious about is the aerodynamic aspect. I hope for a big positive surprise. I'll use my power meter rear wheel to see how it compares to my road bike.

 

[tahustvedt]

Some progress. I'm taking it easy at the moment. I'm focusing on the bottom so that I don't have to flip it around any more. The paint has to dry between sessions anyway so I can't rush it, though I could make some other parts in my router if I wasn't so lazy.

I sanded it today and primed the exposed wood from sanding.

 

[tahustvedt]

 

[tahustvedt]

Wet sanding to eliminate orange peel. The right side has been sanded.


Here it is after sanding and spraying on a new coat.

 

[Wheazel]

Looking good! All going as planned?

 

[giantNRS1]

Have you seen this:

http://organictransit.com

 

[tahustvedt]

Looking good! All going as planned?

Pretty much, except I made a big mistake when I made the sheet for the nose. I only had plywood with longitudinal surface plies and figured I had to use it to save money. I should have bought a new sheet because it's not smooth around the bend. I knew it was a bad move when I did it, so it was sheer stupidity. I will try to fix it by installing internal supports. I also redesigned the internal frame to reduce weight and incorporated it into the front supports, so it seems to work out in the end. It also is turning out a lot heavier than I had hoped, but I have to remind myself that it's not a problem because I will have nearly 800 W extra power to help me in hills.

Have you seen this:

http://organictransit.com

Yeah, the Elf was one of the velos that made me realize that I can actually replace my car. I think it's too big, and I couldn't find any velos I liked that fit my bill, so I had to make my own. I recently learned about this one, which could have been an alternative for me: http://arcusvelomobile.com/

 

[tahustvedt]

Plasti Dip in the wheel well

 

[etard]

*subscribed

Awesome build, hats off to you man!

I hope we never see any crash testing on this design, but it looks very strong!

I've been thinking about using an unfinished airplane fuselage as a velomobile, your body reminds me of wood airplane construction. Loving the solid milled aluminum too. Who needs a welder? Not THIS guy!

8)

 

[tahustvedt]

Here are the support frames for the front. I should have made those folding slits all the way down, which would probably have worked.


The rear hatch fits well. Slightly tight fit halfway down the length, but it's almost perfect.

 

[Wheazel]

thats a big battery compartment

 

[tahustvedt]

That's just for groceries. The batteries will be in the nose and/or under the floor to keep the CG in the right place.

 

[ErnestoA]

I LOVE this build!