Project: Home made velomobile design with crank or mid motor

1JohnFoster said:
Good to have, looks like you need it :(
Looks like you got condensation on the roof from the cold of the sky.
If the cover alone doesn't stop that you could add a blankets on top of the velomobile. A fan - even a tiny one, will also make a big difference.
Click to expand...

That's rain drops. It was raining when I put it up. I actually have a small 200 W frost guard which I will mount inside the velomobile. It will keep the velomobile dry between rides. The 220 V socket/charge port is under the rear lights, inside the right hand hold. I will probably take the battery inside for charging in the winter though. It will drop to -35°C some days here. Mostly it stays around -20°C.

The garage thing is very rugged. It should handle wind and snow just fine. We get a lot of snow here (69°N) but it will be cleared off every day as I fold it open.
 
It works. :)

The battery I'm using is starting to show its age, and I don't want to find out what the real range is. It's an RC lipo from 2008 which used to power a 1:8 scale F-16 EDF at 100 A. I will probably receive a new 12 Ah battery on friday. I also need to finish with the ventilation before I ride farther than a few km, because it fogs up when I go slow and uphill. I'll make one from carbon fiber soon.

I have gradually tried faster and faster speeds on the downhill home. 60 km/h was stable and smooth, and I think I'll try 70 tonight, which is the fastest I can go without breaking the speed limit within a reasonable distance from home.
 
Sounds great! Do you have any idea about power requirement vs speed yet? I am thinking flat ground (if that exists at all :D)
I find it very intresting to get an idea of the resistance charactheristics for that bodyshape. Did you encounter any stronger winds yet?

I have found that my rather bulky cargobike isnt as windsensitive as I thought it would be.
There is this bridge over the Sundsvall bay where I live, it was finished last year. It has a separate walk+bike path. Sometimes there can be some serious crosswinds when riding the bridge.
But I havent encountered any situation yet when I felt it was unsafe or dangerous.
141002_sundsvallsbron_2_550x300.jpg
 
Strong winds are very rare here. I did experience some relatively strong gusts last week though, and it felt like it was moving slightly side to side at above 45 km/h, but I guess that's to be expected with a single rear wheel. I spend most of my time on the multi use paths, except when I'm going fast downhill, so I haven't been passed by any trucks yet either.

It's really difficult to determine how much power I'm pedaling compared to my road bike, for example, because I'm not used to the recumbent riding position. I have a Powertap MTB wheel that I can use to measure the actual power needed to go 40 km/h for example, but I have to change the cassette and tire to do it.

The BBS02 (250 W 36 V 25 A version) is strong though. It pulled me up the 7% hill at 20-25 km/h last night, with the bad battery (just two bars on the display under load), which is about the same as my regular ebike (BBS01 250 W) does.
 
The new 6S battery arrived today, so I made up the pack with the 4S I already had and went for a ride. I rode 23 km with a LOT of hills. Towards the end the indicator dropped one bar under high loads in hills. I forgot the Wattmeter so I decided to call it a day as I didn't know what the voltage was or what the cutoff voltage was set to. I also calibrated the speedo using my Garmin GPS. It pulls me up 7% hills at 20 km/h with me barely pedaling along with it.

The carbon fiber air duct I made and installed yesterday worked wonders for the fogging. I could feel a flow passing over me and there was no fogging during the whole ride. Looks like I don't need a fan.
 
The rear feels a bit "loose". The rear wheel flexes sideways a bit, which is unnerving, but I guess normal for a tadpole trike. It's a very strong wheel though so it shouldn't be a problem, it's just unexpected. I can hear the carbon fiber wheel covers wobble as the wheel flexes, so that's how I know it's the wheel and not the frame or swing arm. If I were to make another transport velo I would make it with four wheels, like perbear suggested early in the thread.

Grip is great. It also seems to handle sharp cornering really well and I can pull more "g" than I need without fear of tipping over. High speed handling is also good. It sticks to the road like glue. Snow will reveal more of the handling characteristics, but it's unlikely to lose grip on asphalt at the speeds I'm travelling.

The lights aren't very good. They don't light up the road nearly as well as on my other bike which has just one of the same lights. It's probably because they are mounted so low. I also need something to shine a light to the sides because I'm completely blind that way in the dark. I might add some LED strips under the suspension arms.
 
tahustvedt,

"If I were to make another transport velo I would make it with four wheels, like perbear suggested early in the thread."

You velomobile seems fabulous to me just as it is. But if you are considering four wheels, have you seen this?

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=72794

What I want is to live in a country where we have bicycle safe roads. The end of cars won't come soon enough, I'm afraid.

We are the asteroid.
 
Warren said:
tahustvedt,

"If I were to make another transport velo I would make it with four wheels, like perbear suggested early in the thread."

You velomobile seems fabulous to me just as it is. But if you are considering four wheels, have you seen this?

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=72794

What I want is to live in a country where we have bicycle safe roads. The end of cars won't come soon enough, I'm afraid.

We are the asteroid.
Click to expand...

Yes, I like it and I want to see vehicles like that on the road. I would make something lower and sportier looking myself though. :)
 
I usually cruise between 25-30 km/h, with casual clothes and trying not to get too sweaty. I fantasized about amazingly reduced resistance over my road bike but it's probably about the same as sitting up on a road bike.

I'm riding with the legal speed setting of 25 km/h. The 250 W "nominal" motor is very powerful if I press the throttle while pedaling. It pulls me up all the hills I normally encounter at over 20 km/h. Most at the max 25 km/h. The peak power in was 1030 W on the ride with the WattsUp, if I remember correctly.

I'm adding 3D printing to my workshop arsenal now. :) I'll receive a small desktop printer tomorrow, and will make my own extruder and hot end for the CNC router later on. It'll come in handy for making electronics enclosures and phone holders and other things that don't need the strength that CNC machined parts give, or that would be wasteful to machine from plastic. I ordered a Wanhao Duplicator i3. I could have made my own mechanics, but good printers are so cheap now that I probably wouldn't save much money since I have to buy lots of parts anyway.
 
I really love your built. You did put a lot of work in it! It is getting better and better. Can you Show a pic of that Fatbike parkt next to the Velomobil?
 
The craftsmanship of this project is very impressive.

I look forward to seeing what you build next, considering you mentioned that you wanted to make a build more oriented towards speed and efficiency...

My build is in its early stages, and I'm not seeking to pay nearly as much attention to detail as you did.

The picture of your vehicle in the tunnel parked next to the anarchy sign graffiti is awesome.
 
That is the best looking velo period. The craftsmanship is high end and there is nothing higher then high end! :)
I really like the use of gas strut for steering column, the sliding door, there is so much stuff that most avoid. Have you thought about putting some solar cells to give you some charging plus privacy in case you want to scratch your balls while riding? :) I hear those maxeon cells ar very efficient at over 21% with no need for long tabs to be soldered across the cell.
Could you explain what is the rear light? Looks like LED matrix display, but how do you control it for different lights?
 
dequinox said:
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.

aero1.gif
Drag+Coefficients.png
drag-eqn-1.png




tahustvedt said:
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.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
every time i see those aerodynamic sketches , i wonder why bullets dont follow those rules ?
also artillery shells , space rockets ,bullet trains , fighter jets - all have conical nose .
 
sss said:
every time i see those aerodynamic sketches , i wonder why bullets dont follow those rules ? also artillery shells , space rockets ,bullet trains , fighter jets - all have conical nose .
Click to expand...
It depends on the regime of motion through the air. With one exception, all of the examples you list are transonic. The exception is the bullet train example, but they do not, in fact, have pointy noises. They're smooth curves.

For example, compare the nose of an A-10 to an F-15.
 
tahustvedt said:
Warren said:
tahustvedt,

"If I were to make another transport velo I would make it with four wheels, like perbear suggested early in the thread."

You velomobile seems fabulous to me just as it is. But if you are considering four wheels, have you seen this?

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=72794

What I want is to live in a country where we have bicycle safe roads. The end of cars won't come soon enough, I'm afraid.

We are the asteroid.
Click to expand...

Yes, I like it and I want to see vehicles like that on the road. I would make something lower and sportier looking myself though. :)
Click to expand...

Maybe something like this one?

http://www.podbike.com
 
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