Murrarie track training, Brisbane.

[trickle]

and just for the record, I now see it's possible to go and remove posts when the heat of the moment has passed. Useful for those of us with human tendencies. Thanks Trickle. Sure it's not jealousy?

My posts were deleted by mods so as not to affend competent spellers worldwide.

Jealous? of people with open minds? I think not.

[Rando]

So where do I start? First: thanks for biting; I think this forum may have a lot in common with the ancient art of fishing.
Thanks again for throwing in the weighted offense: as if any spelling 'error' were not deliberate: sorry, that was "affense", was it not? And can you resist replying?

[trickle]

and just for the record, I now see it's possible to go and remove posts when the heat of the moment has passed. Useful for those of us with human tendencies. Thanks Trickle. Sure it's not jealousy?

My posts were deleted by mods so as not to affend competent spellers worldwide.

Jealous? of people with open minds? I think not.

Wow, you kids even change post content suit yourselves!? You could have at least amended my spelling error. Why wasn't Rando's fixed?
What a bunch of hypocrites.

Sorry Rando, you are using the wrong bait sweetheart.

[nitramluap]

Hi Rando,

I did a few laps at Murrarie this morning and there was a guy on a recumbent trike doing some laps too. I stopped and he kept going so I presumed it wasn't you! I had been out visiting friends out Wynnum way and thought I'd have a go as it was on my route home.

It is a lovely surface and the gradients are nice. I had thought it was flat (never been there before) so it was a nice surprise - it would be a bit boring otherwise. I was averaging 45km/h per lap which wasn't too bad for the Mango considering all the stuff I was carrying in it. It would be nice to see how fast I could go in an event and for how long I could sustain it.

Anyway, lovely track.

Took the road bike out after all the Mango riding and boy has it helped my hill climbing ability! I hardly feel them.

Cheers,

Paul

[william]

Nice to see you're enjoying the ride. Does your Mango have suspension on the body and do you get any noise inside the body?
Not hard to see how velomobiles get the world time and distance records with a 45 Kph average.

william.

[Mulger bill]

All right you kiddies, let's keep it on topic. No room for the schoolyard inside a velomobile.

This thread is too valuable to be locked so I will be watching this thread closely and will warn and suspend offenders without notice. Try me!

Shaun

[nitramluap]

Nice to see you're enjoying the ride. Does your Mango have suspension on the body and do you get any noise inside the body?
Not hard to see how velomobiles get the world time and distance records with a 45 Kph average.

william.

Yes, indeed. I wonder what it must feel like to be in one of those landspeed record faired recumbent bicycles!

The Mango does have suspension on all three wheels - single oleo on each one (I'm pretty sure they're oil shocks but I can't really tell). It certainly smooths out the bumps (I have a clip on YouTube showing the suspension in action): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjclegbvOxE

It is very quiet on the inside - mostly just chain noise which isn't that loud and on rough surfaces the headlight vibrates against the shell. Otherwise it is very quiet. It is certainly quiet on the outside and when I pass people (I've done some tests with friends ) all you hear is a whoosh of air as it goes by.

[william]

Suspension... Makes a world of difference, especially when you have a camera mounted on the body.
I recently viewed a german velo group ride where a Contour HD was mounted to the body and looked so smoooth that I thought of buying that camera until I saw video mounted on another unsuspended velo and that looked awful.
I can imagine if most of the road vibration frequency is nulled then that in itself would make a huge difference.
Great video by the way and I suspect its early in the morning before it gets too warm and too much traffic.
What was the wait time from order to delivery?

william

[nitramluap]

Suspension... Makes a world of difference, especially when you have a camera mounted on the body.
I recently viewed a german velo group ride where a Contour HD was mounted to the body and looked so smoooth that I thought of buying that camera until I saw video mounted on another unsuspended velo and that looked awful.
I can imagine if most of the road vibration frequency is nulled then that in itself would make a huge difference.
Great video by the way and I suspect its early in the morning before it gets too warm and too much traffic.
What was the wait time from order to delivery?

william

It does make a world of difference but I have to be careful where I mount the camera on the Mango's bodywork. I use a suction cup mount with the camera mounted on a small arm (GoPro Hero HD). I have to make sure it is stuck to a fairly rigid section of the body otherwise it bounces about, just from the weight of the camera.

The best video mount is on your head. I have a helmet mount and a headband mount and the footage is super smooth.

The footage was shot in the early morning - about 6am from memory. It is a common cycle route through the University and there is little traffic at that time of day. Once lectures start though it is a different world - the place fills up with P-platers; one per car...

From order to delivery was roughly 3 months. It only took about 5 days for it to arrive by air. For some odd reason the freight by sea was no cheaper. Less time in transit means less chance of damage so I was happy about that.

[Rando]

Hi Paul, 45 km/h round Murrarie: that makes me wish for a velomobile. I average 30 km/h over 25 km.
I now understand that a recumbent bicycle is considerably more difficult to use than a diamond frame, and not that much faster without fairing. I had asked about velomobiles and got a succinct answer: hot, heavy and noisy. This effectively chose the Bacchetta, but now I am still in want of cycle path for commute, and streamlining for satisfaction.

[nitramluap]

Hi Paul, 45 km/h round Murrarie: that makes me wish for a velomobile. I average 30 km/h over 25 km.
I now understand that a recumbent bicycle is considerably more difficult to use than a diamond frame, and not that much faster without fairing. I had asked about velomobiles and got a succinct answer: hot, heavy and noisy. This effectively chose the Bacchetta, but now I am still in want of cycle path for commute, and streamlining for satisfaction.

Hi Rando,

The Mango isn't that hot (only when you stop on a hot day) - airflow while moving is fine. I can also shade myself from the sun if need be which helps enormously.

Weight... well, it might be heavier but that's only an issue with acceleration and hills and, frankly, it's good exercise. I can never quite understand why people want to train on superlight bikes! Surely you'd want to train on something heavier and then compete on a light bike? When I ride my Colnago after riding the Mango, it's like a homesick angel up hills!

Noise isn't an issue - it's very quiet - and at cruising speeds, wind noise in your ears is the loudest noise. The drivetrain is very quiet and the body doesn't make much noise thanks to the suspension.

I'm not sure how I'd go for an hour though but here is a little clip of me doing some laps at the Nudgee Crit Track. Lovely track:

[bradwoodbr]

Another great video. If I rode alongside you my bike would turn green with envy.
Keep those videos coming. - I love the annotations.

PS Why don't you hang a small sports towel inside the Velo to stop the stinging eyes?

[nitramluap]

Another great video. If I rode alongside you my bike would turn green with envy.
Keep those videos coming. - I love the annotations.

PS Why don't you hang a small sports towel inside the Velo to stop the stinging eyes?

Thanks Brad. I actually do have a small sports towel in one of the pannier bags but I didn't think to pull it out! Next time

[Rando]

It does make you wonder about the light bike thing when the engine is still well over the optimum, but there you go again... we are not actually a rational being, in spite of wanting to be, trying to be, or even thinking that we are...
To that end, changing from a heavy bike to a light one, and going uphill like a homesick angel, is one of the best metaphors I ever heard.

[nitramluap]

A few more clips:

Murrarie Crit Track:


Brissie to Bay:


Both are probably best viewed on the YouTube page full-screen in 720p High Definition.

[Zynster]

Hey nice to meet you Paul, and to see the Mango in action. Awesome. I want one now. Might take awhile though. I found the web site and saw how much they are.

[nitramluap]

Hey nice to meet you Paul, and to see the Mango in action. Awesome. I want one now. Might take awhile though. I found the web site and saw how much they are.

Nice to meet you too, Zynster.

Don't forget you can take off their 19% VAT... but yes, they're still expensive. However it is much cheaper than a car (which collects dust in the garage and will soon go...) so I'm not too bothered. With the drivetrain out of the elements maintenance is practically non-existant. I've done 3000km since I've had it (5 months) and the chains are as good as new.

The RotoVelo in Australia is a bit cheaper (but it is much less sophisticated) and local.

[Comedian]

Hey nice to meet you Paul, and to see the Mango in action. Awesome. I want one now. Might take awhile though. I found the web site and saw how much they are.

Nice to meet you too, Zynster.

Don't forget you can take off their 19% VAT... but yes, they're still expensive. However it is much cheaper than a car (which collects dust in the garage and will soon go...) so I'm not too bothered. With the drivetrain out of the elements maintenance is practically non-existant. I've done 3000km since I've had it (5 months) and the chains are as good as new.

The RotoVelo in Australia is a bit cheaper (but it is much less sophisticated) and local.

I don't think they are expensive! You look around any bike shop and you'll see lots of high end bikes that could be double or more the price of the Mango.

[nitramluap]

Hey nice to meet you Paul, and to see the Mango in action. Awesome. I want one now. Might take awhile though. I found the web site and saw how much they are.

Zynster (& RosscoG): here is that bike I was telling you about. Comedian bought it for his daughter - a proper dutch Gazelle girls bike. It's the bees knees: