Well, both my training for the Human Power Challenge and my plans to ride to the Lacey Alternative Energy Fair this Saturday have been derailed. I strained my back recently while helping some friends move and now I’m laying around like an invalid because doing pretty much anything hurts. Since in-valids can’t fly space ships, that means the velomobile is off limits for now. I can’t even lift my leg high enough to get into the velo at this point. It’s got me seriously bummed and annoyed. I really hate it when I can’t ride and I’m itching to get back to pedaling.
Training for the Human Power Challenge
April 9, 2010 By 1 Comment
I’m starting to get pretty stoked for the Left Coast Velomobile Gathering and the Human Power Challenge coming up on Memorial Day weekend down in Portland – see the Events page for more info. I’m excited to see other velomobiles and meet their owners – maybe even something as amazing as this:
But my competitive side is also starting to get fired up for the HPC events. I’ve been riding pretty hard during my commutes to and from work, but it’s only 3 miles each way and I haven’t been getting out on any long rides lately, so I feel like my endurance is probably pretty pathetic right now. One of the HPC races is a one-hour/50k speed challenge. I know that I’ll probably never keep up a speed of over 30 mph for an hour in the Team, but I’m sure going to try. So I’m going to be putting in extra miles and effort over the next two months to hopefully get myself to a somewhat respectable point where I at least won’t die on the track. I’m also hoping that by the time the event rolls around, my hard work will have resulted in a svelte physique like Champion from the Triplets of Belleville.
*Excellent 3D renditions of Champion (and Madame Souza) by Michael Grote, a CG artist in South Wales.
Nothing but Legs
I will compare myself to this image every day in the mirror to gauge my progress - I've got a ways to go
GeoManGear Rocks
April 6, 2010 By 2 Comments
GeoManGear has blown me away with their level of service. It’s rare to find a company that will completely stand behind both their customers and the products that they sell, but GeoManGear clearly does – and fast too! I’m getting ahead of myself though.
I got my new Magicshine headlight charger from GeoManGear over the weekend. But when I tried plugging it in it did the same exact thing as the old charger. After a moment of frustration (thinking I had somehow managed to get another bad charger), I realized that I was being illogical and that the problem was more likely in the battery. I had wanted to avoid messing with the battery pack because it appears to be well-sealed in multiple layers of heat shrink plastic. Even at this point I was hesitant, so I jumped back on the mtbr forums where a bunch of people have Magicshine lights to see if I could find any extra justification or troubleshooting ideas. I ended up finding a couple different threads posted within the last two weeks detailing problems within the battery pack, so I decided that I really needed to see what was going on underneath the protective plastic layers.
I cut the plastic off and peeled back some cardboard covering the contacts and a small circuit board. What lay underneath was a scene of utter horror, okay that might be a slight exaggeration, but see for yourself below. Most of the wires and connections on the circuit board were caked up with corrosion and one of the contacts leading to the battery cells had completely rusted through. Apparently, even with multiple layers of plastic, the moisture here in Olympia is just insidiously pervasive. It looked like maybe it could be cleaned up and fixed, though my soldering skills are pretty shabby. I figured that even if I could get it working again it might be a good idea to get a new battery pack so I could have a back up.
So I wrote back to GeoManGear explaining the problem and asking how I could order a new battery pack because I couldn’t find one on their site. I also apologized for my mistake about the charger, which had prompted them to send me a new one. The very next day I got a message back saying “we’re sending you a new battery” and a delivery confirmation came quickly thereafter.
In both instances – for the charger and the battery – I had inquired about replacements, fully prepared and expecting to pay for them (the Magicshine comes with a negligible warranty, but for under $90 what can you expect?). Both times I got a response in less than one business day saying “we’ll send you a new one” – no fuss, no questions asked – and the parts were shipped out the same afternoon. It’s just plain ridiculous! The only thing they asked was that I send back the defective parts. I wish every business was even this responsive, not to mention gracious.
I don’t give recommendations lightly, but GeoManGear has astounded me and I would recommend checking them out if you’re in the market for bike lights. Their selection is rather small, but the company is run by people who bike and who actually test and use the products they sell. It’s clear that they care about what they’re doing and about their customers.
Here is the Magicshine battery revealed:
Martin Way Bridge Dedication
March 31, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Today was the dedication ceremony for the new Martin Way bridge on the Chehalis-Western Trail. This is the second of three bridges completed in the “Bridging the Gap” project that will connect the Chehalis-Western with the Woodland Trail and the I-5 Trail. The final bridge over Pacific Avenue is expected to be completed in about two years. Many officials, dignitaries, and representatives from various organizations showed up and there was a very good turnout of path users to support the bridge opening. Even the sun came out for a little while!
The Bridging the Gap project is very exciting because it brings multiple large trail systems together and provides a level of safety and connectivity that were previously lacking. I just wish that the final bridge would be done sooner. More information about the project can be found on the Thurston Regional Planning Council’s website, here.
There were a lot of interesting people there who I got to talk to, though mostly answering questions about the velomobile. I met a photographer who got some nice shots of the velo as well as the event. You can see them at Capture Me Studios.
Unfortunately, my website stopped responding after getting the first image uploaded, so I’ll try to get them up later. In any case, here’s a picture of the new bridge.
Martin Way Bridge
Velomobile Music
March 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment
I just decided that my biggest regret in buying a Team velomobile is that it doesn’t have its own song. I don’t know if Todd realizes just how lucky he is to have a LEIBA. Check out this great German song all about the LEIBA that I just discovered:
But just in case you were thinking that velomobiles are kind of dorky, you should know that they are actually veritable chick magnets (at least in Denmark and the Netherlands – I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before they catch on here). As proof, here’s another great velomobile song featuring the Milan. While the song above is family-safe, this one is only for mature audiences. I should note that I don’t really know what’s going on here. From what I can tell a woman eats, sleeps, breathes, (breeds rabbits?) in her velomobile and then is completely distraught when one of the guys from Daft Punk comes and steals it from her. I guess I feel (almost) the same way – I’m not sure I love my velomobile quite as much as she does.
Bad Luck with Lights
March 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment
A little while after I got my Team from bluevelo the stock headlight, a BLT Firewire 4.0, stopped working (I also had some problems with the tail light). Fortunately, bluevelo got new lights sent off to me very quickly, but the situation got me thinking that I should have a secondary light as a backup. Also, although the 4-watt LED Firewire is pretty bright, I wanted something more powerful and with a strobe option for the dark and rainy winters here in Washington when visibility is really bad. So at the same time I picked up a Magicshine 900 from GeoManGear to fit the bill. The Magicshine has worked great since I got it installed back in January, but then this past week the battery charger just stopped working. The LED on the charger lights green when the battery is connected to it or when it’s plugged in, but will no longer change to red, which indicates that it’s charging. Just to be sure, I left the battery plugged in this way for several hours, but the charge did not improve.
I contacted GeoManGear to see if they had any ideas on troubleshooting or how to replace the charger and/or battery (I didn’t see any spares on their website). I also ended up digging around a little on some forums and found other people with the same issue. It turns out that apparently the charger is prone to burning itself out. Most of the forum people recommended buying a better third-party charger as that seemed to be the only part with major faults. A little while later though I heard back from GeoManGear and they offered to send me a replacement charger. That’s great. I just hope that the new one lasts a little longer.
In the meantime, I’m back to riding with just the stock headlight.
Update: I just discovered that later in the same month that I ordered my Magicshine light Mountain Bike Review (mtbr.com) did a nice review of it. You can see the review here.
New Velo in Tacoma!
March 25, 2010 By Leave a Comment
With my mind swirling with dark, cynical, and paranoid thoughts and working on my security upgrades over the past week, I haven’t had the chance to share some happy and exciting news: the greater Olympia area (yes, my world is Oly-centric) is home to a new velomobile!
Todd Ritchie, a guy that I met last fall and talked to about my Team found a sweet red LEIBA Classic for sale down in San Diego. Take a look!
Todd gave me permission to share his contact info, but I’ll skip posting it here to keep it safe from the spam-bots and such. He’s hoping to get his own web site up and running over the next couple weeks and I’ll post a link here as soon as I have it.
We’re hoping to get in some rides together and are both planning to go down to the Left Coast Velomobile Gathering in Portland at the end of May. I can’t wait to get some photos (and even more funny looks from people) when we go flying down the road in tandem.
One Step Closer to Security
March 25, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Over the last few days I’ve worked on getting a lock installed on my Team. I did originally intend to do this a long time ago, but then decided to just trust people. I actually kind of liked the idea that if I wasn’t around and somebody was curious about “what the heck that funny yellow thing is”, and if they were intrepid enough, they could open the hatch and see what it was all about.
Today as I rode home with a wet butt though (see previous post for how this relates to locking my velomobile), I questioned the wisdom of that original thought process.
In any case, now I can lock the hatch while I’m away. In addition to the alarm system on the BionX, this will also add another layer of deterrence should anyone ever be so inhumanly spiteful to try to steal the velomobile itself. Still, the cockpit isn’t entirely secure if someone wanted to go fishing through the head hole, so I’ve also started work on a locking cover that would help with the rain leakage problem as well.
As a side note, Ray from bluevelo actually just contacted me recently after seeing my post about the rain leaks. He said that they may prototype a solid parking cover that would be more water-resistant. If they get something workable, I may be able to test it out for them. With any luck, there’ll be a locking version too.
I’d normally provide more information about the modifications that I’m doing, but in this case it’s going to have to be confidential as a matter of velomobile security. However, here’s a (paranoid-ly distant) photo of my shiny new lock:
Velomobile Burglarized!
March 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Today my faith in humankind was dashed. My velomobile was burglarized.
I knew that I was taking a risk leaving anything in the velomobile, but I also have a (perhaps naive) faith that most of the people of Olympia are generally good and decent.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I have been using my rain jacket as a cover for my seat while the velo is parked at work to keep it dry if it rains. Today turned out to be sunny and warm, but I had the rain jacket on the seat out of habit (you just never know in Western Washington). I’m not sure if someone actually opened the velomobile or just reached through the hole (only the roof was slightly out of place), but of all things, they took my rain jacket. I guess it was about the only thing of value in there (all of $20) – my helmet is caked in sweat, the battery for my headlight wouldn’t do much good for anything else, and stealing the sprayskirt or roof would just plain be weird and mean.
I’m not too upset about the rain jacket being gone since it was a pretty cheap one (except that now my seat will get wet when it rains). I am upset that someone would steal at all from something so joyful as a velomobile. It also leaves me feeling kind of violated. When I first bought the Team I thought about a number of mechanisms I could use to secure the canopy, but eventually abandoned the idea (see naive faith, above). I may have to revisit some of those thoughts and do some more surgery on the Team, but it makes me sad that I should.
Raindrops Keep Falling in My Team
February 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment
I’ve been finding that the Team isn’t quite water tight.
When I park it out in the rain all day while I’m at work I have the roof on and the spray skirt on and zipped closed, but when I come out the velomobile has started to fill up like a bathtub. The bottom of the cockpit area has two nice self-contained troughs beside the seat that don’t let the water go anywhere once it starts coming in. The first time this happened I had a bunch of my stuff down there and it was a little distressing. Crying’s not for me though, so I took my drill and put drain holes in the bottom. It still gets wet, but at least I don’t get inches of standing water anymore.
The problem seems to stem from the design of the spray skirt-shell interface. The spray skirt fastens to the inside edge of the head hole by velcro. This presents a couple issues in itself, mainly that velcro doesn’t do much to repel or exclude water and the the fact that the spray skirt attaches on the inside means that any water landing on or running to the edge will just drain right down into the velomobile. This is unfortunate. A design where the skirt stretched over the outside of a lip (like on a kayak) would be much better as any water would then drain to the outside. Another issue is that the spray skirt itself isn’t a very good fit for the hole. This results in small gaps at the front and back that potentially let even more water in. The amount of water coming in at any given moment is really pretty minor, but when the velomobile is just sitting there in pouring rain for nine hours it starts to add up.
I’m not sure that there’s any real fix that I could do on my end without gaining some serious fiberglassing skills. I’d almost like to see an over-the-lip spray skirt for riding and then have a separate, solid cover for parking that would be easier to make water tight. Such a spray skirt style might also help with those invigorating rivulets of cold water that run down my neck when I brake and the little pools of water come running forward.
For now I’m stuck just covering my seat with my rainjacket during the day so that I at least don’t have to ride home on a wet seat. I’m sure at some point I’ll try fashioning a more water tight cover of my own – maybe a swatch of neoprene with snaps drilled into the body… but I’m kind of hoping that the dry(ish) weather we’ve been having lately will mostly stick around for the rest of spring.
P.S. – Sorry if I got a terrible song stuck in your head
P.P.S – Sorry if you’re a huge B.J. Thomas fan and I just offended you.