First Roll!

October 19, 2009 By Leave a Comment

What’s the first thing I do now that I’ve got the Team back on the road after a long convalescence? I roll it on my way home from work! I’ve been starting to test the limits of the velomobile and myself as the opportunity arises and today I decided to push the envelope of high speed cornering.

I was heading down the road at about 25 mph the last time that I looked at the speedo. I did coast and even brake a little coming into the turn, so I’m guessing I was doing slightly under 20 when I hit the corner. I started to go up on two wheels, so I leaned in and straightened out a little more. I got back down on all three wheels, but was then tracking to overshoot the corner – still going way too fast. It was a bit of a conundrum without much time to react – I could either run straight off the road at high speed or try to hold the corner and risk rolling.

I decided I didn’t really want to go off-roading in the velo just yet, so I tried to at least keep it on the pavement. As I bit back into the turn I went back up onto two wheels and then just kind of kept going. At a certain point I realized that there really wasn’t anything I could do (besides take corners easier in the future). Fortunately, there was a bit of a bank/curb covered in grass, which took some of the blow and kept me from going completely horizontal.

The Team came out of the excitement a bit dirty, but really none the worse for wear. I thought I heard a small crack, but the shell is of a thickness to be flexy but sturdy. Nothing appears to be broken, bent, or out of shape. The wheel cover got displaced and full of dirt, but nothing serious. As for myself, I was impressed by how well I was protected. I bumped my shoulder pretty well, but that was it. Certainly a lot less eventful than going over on my bike (though I could have made the corner on my road bike).

My fiance of course was not very amused. She had actually been reprimanding me as I pedaled off this morning for forgetting my helmet ;) She didn’t appreciate the fact that I didn’t even hit my head.

I kind of wish I had a velo-cam for moments like this, but here are a couple photos at least – showing the Team looking pretty indifferent (after brushing all the dirt off) and the curb looking a little beat up.

Team unscathed after rolling

Team unscathed after rolling

Velomobile-plowed curb

Velomobile-plowed curb

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Really Back

October 13, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Between a busy schedule (work, grad school, wedding planning, etc) and mysterious bolt disappearances, it has taken me a bit longer than I’d hoped to get, and keep, the velomobile back on the road.

The Team languished for about a week without a chainring while I waited for some free time on the weekend to get it installed. Once that was done, I took the velo down to the Olympia farmer’s market to meet a gentleman who had some questions. When I got home I found that four bolts from the Schlumpf had other, more liberated plans for themselves and had worked loose, apparently falling out the foot holes. It was kind of baffling that all four could come unscrewed in one trip. I was almost on the edge of desponding that the velomobile would just stubbornly sit in the garage forever and was frustrated that I didn’t even have a single bolt left to find replacements.

After a couple trips to the hardware store I found the right size replacement bolts, got them in (this time with some thread-locking compound), and closed everything back up – hopefully the last time for a while.

Looks like I was just in time because velomobile weather is arriving: rain almost every day and temperatures dropping into the 50′s over the next week.

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Olympian Front Page

September 21, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Two bits of exciting news today. First I was featured on the front page of our local newspaper, The Olympian – see the article. Then I received my new chainring from Schlumpf – more speed!

It was kind of strange to be on the front page. Odd as it may sound coming from a guy who rides around in a blazing yellow torpedo, I’m not someone who’s very comfortable with a lot of attention. Still, it was kind of amusing and my friends and coworkers got a good laugh out of the ever-colorful Olympian comments. People’s impressions of me ranged from “True American Hero” to “Twinkie Filling”. I’m not sure I’m either one of those. I mostly just like riding my bike, going fast, and treading lightly where I can. One thing that I do hope will come out of the extra publicity though is that more people will become aware of their transportation options – maybe even get some more velomobiles in Olympia.

I was almost more excited about getting the chainring. After having gotten the old one off (involving significant effort, lots of grease, and some blood), I found that the Schlumpf chainring was a custom job and couldn’t be replaced with a standard chainring. I could either order another custom chainring directly from Schlumpf, or order a custom spider that would allow me to attach standard chainrings (though I’m not sure if this will fit in the tight quarters of the velomobile shell). After contacting Schlumpf I found out that they had recently started carrying up to 42 tooth chainrings (up from 38 previously). My current chainring is a 32T and it leaves me spinning out around 22-25 mph. I consulted Sheldon Brown’s Gear Calculator and figured that the 42T would bump up my top speed a respectable amount without totally destroying my hill-climbing ability. So for better or worse, that’s the route I went. Either way it meant getting the part in from Switzerland. I had to (somewhat grudgingly) throw everything back together to do the interview with The Olympian, so now I have to find the time to take it all back apart again and install the new chainring. At least now that I know how everything fits together (and the order that parts need to come off/go on) it should go a bit quicker.

Finally, I just heard about a ride in the Capital Bicycling Club‘s latest newsletter for climate change awareness. Sounds like fun. Check out the Events page for more details.

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On the Road Again!

September 1, 2009 By Leave a Comment

I got the swing arm back from Cory at the Bike Stand/Olympic Outfitters. He did a remarkable job getting the axle dropout bent back into shape and welding on a reinforcement that looks nearly indestructible. With some amount of effort I got everything back together over the weekend. Doing maintenance on a velomobile definitely made me appreciate the simple accessibility of working on a bike. It seemed like half the time I either was contorting myself to reach an almost inaccessible bolt or connector or working by feel alone. Once everything is together and working though, it’s much more enjoyable.

Here are the before and after shots:

Axle dropout bent by BionX

Axle dropout bent by BionX

Axle dropout repaired and reinforced

Axle dropout repaired and reinforced

When I was putting the wheel back on I noticed that in all the banging around that happened when the dropout was bent out of shape the axle must have gotten rotated within the BionX hub motor also. This changed the orientation of the notch (visible in the photo at left) that controls the power sensor. Basically, if the axle isn’t properly aligned the BionX won’t sense your pedaling power and thus cannot provide proportional assist. Although brute force got it out of alignment, I’m going to wait until I receive the proper tool to make the adjustment. I put an order in with Electric Cyclery in California for the special BionX tool for pulling the blocker loose. In the meantime I’ll just have to pedal a little harder.

We had friends visiting from out of state and are just starting to get settled from a rather spontaneous move (into a beautiful 3-bedroom house), so today was the first time I’ve been back out riding. Unfortunately, it didn’t start out so well when I was almost hit by a car that cut in front of me across the bike lane and then stopped in the middle of the road. The brake lever in the TEAM is not particularly suited to panic stops – being a very short “T” in the middle of the handlebar, partially blocked by the BionX control unit. On my way home from work I was squeezed out of the lane by a guy talking on his cell phone who never seemed to notice me. Kind of a frustrating way to get back into the saddle. Normally my commute is on very bike-friendly and low-traffic roads, but construction has that route closed for the next month and a half. The only other ways of getting to my office involve elaborate detours, busy roads, and hairy intersections with only intermittent bike lanes or wide shoulders. I might have to resort to my regular bike (which can be walked past the construction site) until the road reopens.

Our friend Charlie shared this great video with me while he was visiting, which is just about the best thing I’ve ever seen. So here you go.

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Awaiting Repairs

August 18, 2009 By Leave a Comment

I removed the swing arm from the velomobile and brought it in to the Bike Stand at Olympic Outfitters this past weekend. The mechanic there should be able to bend the dropout back into shape and then weld on a reinforcing plate to make sure it doesn’t bend again. I haven’t heard anything back yet on the status and it’s starting to look like I’ll have to skip the Ride Around Puget Sound. Sad.

I’m also still working on getting a larger chainring for the Schlumpf Speed Drive. Once I get the TEAM back on the road it will be harder, better, faster, stronger.

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BionX Brakes Velomobile

August 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Sorry. If you think my puns are bad, just go talk to my father. Today as I was riding home from work the BionX started knocking the rear wheel out of place every time the assist or regenerative braking kicked in. I pulled over to check it out and found that the axle nuts were frighteningly loose. Putting aside paranoid thoughts that some velomobile-hating saboteur was trying to kill me, I got out my Alien multi-tool and tightened them down. I was a little concerned that the nuts had come loose, but didn’t think anything was extremely wrong just yet. A block later it was even worse. When the BionX came on I fish-tailed a bit and it made a racket. Now I’m worried because I’m about to head down the west side hill on 4th (crazy steep) and I am starting to imagine some kind of catastrophic failure that will send me careening into the busy traffic circle below. I stopped and re-tightened the nuts, turned off the BionX, and headed over the crest of the hill hoping for the best.

I managed to limp the rest of the way home without incident. When I got there I was finally able to flip the TEAM over and get a better look at what was going on (one of the drawbacks of a velomobile). It turns out that the BionX has somehow been beating the crap out of the axle dropout. You can see in the photos below how the little metal tab, the “blocker” has widened the dropout from a parallel “U” shape to a wide “V”. It also damaged the threads on the axle a bit. Apparently the 350 watt hub motor generates a little bit of torque – that’s not a thin piece of steel to bend like that. I’ll probably be able to bend the dropout back into shape, but I’m not sure how or why this would have happened in the first place. It might require some kind of reinforcement to keep from bending again.

BionX bends axle dropout

BionX bends axle dropout

Bent axle dropout

Bent axle dropout

I emailed Ray at bluevelo and he’s going to be reporting the problem to BionX. I’m pretty sad though: after only a week and a half my velomobile is already broken. Maybe I should have just gotten the Quest instead of spending the money on a BionX. I think I could probably ride safely without using the BionX, but I want to take a closer look before I take it out very far. So for now the TEAM is off the road.

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TEAM Velomobile First Photos

August 8, 2009 By Leave a Comment

I finally got the issue with my server figured out and was able to post some photos in a new gallery. You can see the velomobile arrive (very appropriately) in a Yellow freight truck, opening the giant crate to find the enshrouded TEAM inside – felt much like opening the sarcophagus of a mummy’s tomb, stepping in for the first time, and heading out for the first test ride. Check out all the images on the new Photo Gallery page.

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First Ride(s)

August 3, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Just got back from my third ride of the day. My first ride was short, just taking some time to get to know the velomobile and its controls on a ride around the quiet streets of my neighborhood.

A little later I decided to take it through town to get a feel for being in traffic. I crossed down along Legion and then headed around the lake on Deschutes Parkway. To cap it off I headed up Lakeridge Drive (a killer steep hill) to see what kind of crawl the velomobile could do. I really appreciated having the BionX electric assist right then to compensate for the extra weight of the velomobile. Even with the assist cranked up to the highest level, I still was working hard. I was impressed though that the assist allowed me to maintain about the same speed going up that hill as I do on my bike.

My last ride was to see how things went after dark. The headlight was reasonably bright, though it wasn’t quite dark enough yet to really get a good idea of how well it will light up the road. I’m somewhat concerned about the lack of a rear light and I may have to wire something to get a steady or blinky LED back there. For now the reflective tape should help.

All that riding got me a little sore. I’ve gotten a bit soft over the last month while I recovered from a minor surgery and couldn’t bike. The recumbent pedaling position also uses your muscles a lot differently than an upright bike. I was somewhat disappointed with the speed. I maintained about 20 mph during the whole ride, which is about what I do on my commuter bike. Hopefully as I continue to heal, get back in shape, and build up my recumbent muscles though I’ll be able to kick it up a bit.

I’m planning on riding the velomobile in to work tomorrow, though I still haven’t exactly figured out parking…. It’s a little unwieldy for the bike rack ;)

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Velomobile Arrrives in Olympia!

August 3, 2009 By Leave a Comment

The yellow velo finally arrived today! After unleashing the beast from the giant crate it came in I added some reflective tape (because I’m a safety nerd). I also put on decals for my website for folks with questions about the velomobile when they see me cruising around. Speaking of, I’m heading out for a ride. Will post more later along with some photos. You may even see me around town.

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Go TEAM!

July 13, 2009 By Leave a Comment

The world is suddenly brighter and the passing hours less dreadfully painful.

The new BionX is in and my velomobile is going to be crated up and shipped next Wednesday.

I just have to convince my inner Veruca Salt to not pull her braids too much in the coming days as I wait for my TEAM to arrive.

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