Living with a velomobile

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Riggsbie
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Re: Living with a velomobile

Postby Riggsbie » Mon Mar 04, 2013 12:14 am

Hi John......

No offense taken......I am usually pretty solid.....certainly am on my Vortex.

This also happened on this mornings ride (8 minutes into the ride):

http://youtu.be/7ho6feCtawA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Wait a few minutes for it to upload, allegedly we have broadband ADSL but I think it's quite narrowband to be honest :lol:

Mercedes Driver's obviously are not required to give way at roundabouts :twisted:

The Cratoni is nice and comfortable but obviously totally illegal here in Oz and no doubt it will smash into a million pieces if I have an accident as it does not have a little red and silver sticker on it.....it works really well under the Flevoroof, you can turn your head easily with the curved back edge etc.. Still hopeless under the Race Hood.....my Bell MTB helmet with visor removed kind of works under the Race Hood but I do like to ride helmetless.....
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John Lewis
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Re: Living with a velomobile

Postby John Lewis » Mon Mar 04, 2013 2:22 pm

Yes, I think it will be hard to find something for under the hood. I'm short and so my ordinary helmet works fine under the Flevo roof as I'm low and forward where it is highest.

I see at least some of the Cratoni helmets are available in Aus stores so may have the sticker that makes them safe.

No video but I had an experience a week or so back that could have been nasty. Truckies are usually great but not this one.
I was on dual carriageway with a shoulder and kerb. 60 kmh limit. It was slight down and I was spun out about about 50 kmh.

I was taking the kerbside lane. A 3 wagon road train came up behind me. He indicated and moved to the inside lane to pass. I am watching in my mirror.

Pretty much as soon as the prime mover was alongside me he moved aggressively back to the kerbside lane. He moved right over the shoulder and ran his wheels almost along the kerb.

I could see what was coming. Fortunately because I was near the middle of the lane I had some wiggle room. I moved over as far as I could go while slowing. You can't jump kerbs in a Mango. I realised that would not be enough and hit the brakes hard.
The rear wheel just missed me and the back of the tray passed over the front of the mango just in front of my face. I did get the number but forgot it by the time I got home.

At first I gave him the benefit of the doubt that he had misjudged my speed. Then he hit his horn. That is after he'd passed me. given the fact he ran over the shoulder and to the kerb I'm now, in hind sight, of the opinion it was a deliberate attempt to hit me.

Pretty frightening experience.

Waste of time going to the coppers. They have already told me that unless you are hit and injured you were given enough room by motorists and it would be better if we kept off the road.

I've decided mango gets a wash and polish today. It's looking a bit dusty.

I have some AP 303 aerospace protectant They say "SPF 40 for your stuff". Its good on the Flevo roof, wheel disks and fibreglass etc and stops it being faded and weakened by the sun. I used to use it on the sailcloth wings of my ultralights back in the day and it did work. Mango will get a dose of that too.

John

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Riggsbie
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Re: Living with a velomobile

Postby Riggsbie » Mon Mar 04, 2013 5:41 pm

That sounds truly scary....glad it did not end up in a bad way.....

Again another good reason to ride with a camera, surely the police would have to do something with video evidence ?


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Aushiker
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Re: Living with a velomobile

Postby Aushiker » Mon Mar 04, 2013 6:01 pm

Riggsbie wrote:That sounds truly scary....glad it did not end up in a bad way.....

Again another good reason to ride with a camera, surely the police would have to do something with video evidence ?
+ 1

I appreciate John you live in a "small town" but I wouldn't have accepted their response at all; its your life after all not theirs. I now currently only lodge written reports (with video evidence) directly to the Police Commissioner. This in turns means that when the complaint goes to the area command for review, the response has to go back to where the file came from, i.e., the Office of the Commissioner where in turn an Inspector will respond to the complainant. It creates a "lot more interest" it seems in the complaint than otherwise may be forthcoming.

I also have been known to remind the Commissioner of his own statements on road safety ... nothing like putting it back in his court.

I have also thought of re-naming videos where nothing of note comes from the Police as a "WA Police Road Safety" video and promoting them around the numerous media outlets and the Minister of Police's office. The Minister of Police is another option as any issue raised is passed on to the Commissioner who has to in turn respond back to the Minister; providing another avenue for a "please explain" which in turn causes discomfort. Also in your case being a rather marginal seat, involving your local member wouldn't hurt either.

Regards
Andrew
Andrew

andhar
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Re: Living with a velomobile

Postby andhar » Tue Mar 05, 2013 2:17 am

Hi guys,
Sorry to hear about these incidents. Sometimes here in the UK you have make a fuss before the police do anything.
I have been following this thread for sometime as I am at the stage of almost buying a Mango Red Edition. I have been looking at everything on the net especially youtube for all the videos by Harry in Holland, Paul and the other Australian velonauts. I wondered how many actually rode one before buying? I have experience with recumbents and used to do lots of miles on my Windcheetah, but have not ridden that since 2008(when I rode it fully faired at the HPV worlds). I currently only ride my uprights but have been obsessing about a Mango for a long time. Anyone use shorter cranks in them? A lot riders in the British Human Power club use shorter cranks. On my windcheetah with a low BB it seem to make a lot of difference but on my Aerobike Sprint I seem to use a lot of strength as opposed to aerobic on hills with its higher BB.
Any thoughts?

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Riggsbie
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Re: Living with a velomobile

Postby Riggsbie » Tue Mar 05, 2013 2:30 pm

I had a GT5 recumbent trike first......

Then picked up a Musashi 2 wheeled recumbent....

Then bought an ICE Vortex FS as the lack of suspension on the GT5 was not good for my dicky back.....

Sold the GT5.....

Ordered a Mango RE (without having tried one there were none near me to try out - did think very briefly about a RotoVelo but the lack of suspension put me off after my experiences with the GT5 and Big Apple tyres etc.....).....

The Mango is brilliant, took me a while to get confident at speed with the tiller steering.....

Just do it !
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Re: Living with a velomobile

Postby John Lewis » Tue Mar 05, 2013 3:09 pm

My wife and I bought LogoTrikes. They were the first bent we'd ever seen and ridden.
A few months later we loaded them up and flew to Tasmania where we rode round the state.
I wanted to try a two wheel bent but didn't know anybody with one. I built a recycled Recumbent LWB from online plans. Loved it. Built a Bentech SWB that was pretty good too. Built lots more since for myself and others.
In effect you can say we went into recumbents sight unseen.
When I got the urge for a velo I thought about building one but THat would have taken me a long time with no guarantees so I decided to splash out and buy a mango.

It took me ages to get a reply from Sinner and then almost no contact until the Velo was ready 7 months later. Things are much better now.

The first time I saw a velo in the flesh was when I opened that big carton. It's a pretty big leap of faith really.

I must say I'm very pleased with my Mango and I'm glad I bought it. My only problem is I'm not fast like all the young fellas. That doesn't matter though and I enjoy getting out to ride and it is faster than any of my other bents.

I think if you get a Mango or Quest or similar you won't regret it. I certainly don't.

John

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Re: Living with a velomobile

Postby John Lewis » Tue Mar 05, 2013 3:13 pm

Aushiker wrote:
Riggsbie wrote:That sounds truly scary....glad it did not end up in a bad way.....

Again another good reason to ride with a camera, surely the police would have to do something with video evidence ?
+ 1

I appreciate John you live in a "small town" but I wouldn't have accepted their response at all; its your life after all not theirs. I now currently only lodge written reports (with video evidence) directly to the Police Commissioner. (Snip).................................................................
.......................................................................

Regards
Andrew
I agree Andrew. Had I known more back when they told me that, I would have taken it further.

On this occasion there were no witnesses and no video so pointless.
That will change and my 808 No 11 is being mounted just in case. Might use the Oregon AT3K facing back but its video isn't that good despite what it cost back when.

John

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Bartek
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Re: Living with a velomobile

Postby Bartek » Wed Mar 06, 2013 11:25 pm

John Lewis wrote: The first time I saw a velo in the flesh was when I opened that big carton. It's a pretty big leap of faith really.
+1

I started with a KMX Viper just over 4 years ago after surgery for a back injury I picked up at work, started looking at velomobiles about 2 1/2 years ago and then found the "living with a velomobile" thread on here, which has been a fantastic source of information. Initially mainly from Paul but each new Mango owner added to my knowledge and confidence to buy (still a bloody great big leap of faith!) but I am loving it and increasing in confidence and speed :D
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Rhubarb
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Re: Living with a velomobile

Postby Rhubarb » Thu Mar 07, 2013 9:34 pm

not sure if this fits in this thread or not...


burnt
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Re: Living with a velomobile

Postby burnt » Thu Mar 07, 2013 9:58 pm

Hey Riggsbie, I'm doing the Great Vic Bike Ride later in the year. it finishes in Geelong. Might be a chance to catch up in person! Maybe I'll have the elbow pads by then!
Not sure what to ride yet, Vivente Randonneur or the Greenspeed GT3-can't think of a way to get the Mango to the start line unless I ride it there and back....now there's a thought!!

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Re: Living with a velomobile

Postby Riggsbie » Thu Mar 07, 2013 10:18 pm

Definitely !

I look forward to it !

Be happy to give you a tour of our coarse coarse chip roads......you are most welcome to stay if you want.....I'll invite VeloRossi as well !

When is the Great Vic Bike Ride this year ?


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burnt
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Re: Living with a velomobile

Postby burnt » Thu Mar 07, 2013 10:31 pm

Sat 23 Nov -Sun 1 Dec.
I'm doing it with a mate from Tassie, will definitely be in touch to organise a catch up!

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Aushiker
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Re: Living with a velomobile

Postby Aushiker » Fri Mar 08, 2013 12:50 am

Rhubarb wrote:not sure if this fits in this thread or not...
They are soooo coool :)

Andrew
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Re: Living with a velomobile

Postby AndrewBurns » Fri Mar 08, 2013 6:24 am

Rhubarb wrote:not sure if this fits in this thread or not...

I would dearly love to see more tiny 1 and 2 seat vehicles on the roads. I'd estimate more than 90% of the cars out on the roads in peak hour are carrying 1 person, I know mine is. The problem is that what happens to your little <500 kg one person transport when it gets rammed by a 2 tonne fatmobile? Cars are just getting larger and heavier with modern safety standards and the larger and heavier they are the bigger and stronger they need to be to resist being smooshed by the other large and heavy vehicles. Imagine how efficient a motorised version of a velomobile would be compared to an SUV, you'd need 100 times less energy expenditure to do the same job AND you could fit probably 5 times as many on the same size roads.
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Riggsbie
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Re: Living with a velomobile

Postby Riggsbie » Fri Mar 08, 2013 7:39 am

The Renault Twizzy looks cool as well.....

I work at Ford and asked countless times when will we be benchmarking these cars. I never get an answer......everyone else just wants to drive GTs and Shelby Mustangs.....


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Re: Living with a velomobile

Postby Aushiker » Fri Mar 08, 2013 12:07 pm

Image

For some reason I think whale when I saw this photo :)

Source: http://okocicle.wordpress.com/2013/03/0 ... r-que-uno/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Andrew
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Rhubarb
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Re: Living with a velomobile

Postby Rhubarb » Fri Mar 08, 2013 12:29 pm

Aushiker wrote: For some reason I think whale when I saw this photo :)

Andrew
Rename it Orca-cycle perhaps ????

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Re: Living with a velomobile

Postby Joeblake » Fri Mar 08, 2013 12:31 pm

Be a bit Orcward. :roll:

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Re: Living with a velomobile

Postby Baalzamon » Fri Mar 08, 2013 12:55 pm

Aushiker wrote:Image

For some reason I think whale when I saw this photo :)

Source: http://okocicle.wordpress.com/2013/03/0 ... r-que-uno/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Andrew
And to think someone was thinking about a black topped mango here, well there is one there. Looks like a reseller of Mango
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Riggsbie
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Re: Living with a velomobile

Postby Riggsbie » Fri Mar 08, 2013 1:41 pm

I can't imagine the black colour being too good in sunshine.......

My Red Edition gets hot & toasty, so I can't imagine how hot a Black Edition would get......and Spain has similar temps to Oz......hmmmm......

Looks nice though !


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Aushiker
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Re: Living with a velomobile

Postby Aushiker » Sun Mar 10, 2013 2:10 pm

Trisled Avatar #7 Close-up



Andrew
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Re: Living with a velomobile

Postby Baalzamon » Sun Mar 10, 2013 4:14 pm

At $14,500 with optional turn indicators OUCH
Fully specced mango way cheaper than that
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Riggsbie
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Re: Living with a velomobile

Postby Riggsbie » Sun Mar 10, 2013 6:34 pm

And no suspension......poor turning circle.....


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Rhubarb
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Re: Living with a velomobile

Postby Rhubarb » Sun Mar 10, 2013 7:40 pm

Riggsbie wrote:And no suspension......poor turning circle.....


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Turning circle is actually pretty good - 8.5m - same as mango. They achieve this with 16" front wheels.

I looked at the Avatar before buying mango. Certainly a fast velo in the right circumstances, but for me the lack of ground clearance (only 7cm) and the lack of air flow meant it wasn't very suitable for the paths I need to ride on every day.

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