Hello Saukki, Thanks for answer my question. I ride my longest trips on my, 2 wheeler recumbent 80km, recumbent trike 55km and my green Quattrovelo 185km(And doing an 200km in may.)
Wim Schermer's velotilt project is for sale. It's ready for production now. I still think there is room for improvement. But for now it would be good if we'll see 100 of those on the roads everywhere and than with the feedback of the riders work on better models. It's the best tilting project by my knowledge.
I bought velotilt company. Its in usa now, arrived july 17th. my channel,, recumbents dot com forum. l am carolina there. Fb velomobiel walls. Follow taking it out of prototype.
Thanks! Are there any good resources if you want to build your own velomobile? I have this idea of building a boat (~5 meter) that is also a pedal electric velomobile and also wide enough to use as a micro camper to sleep in for camping. So you could go from your boat at anchor, drive from water onto land seamlessly, go shopping and go back. Or explore the nature of some island. Where do I start? Or should I stop haha. Is there a community that could help me once I have sketched and designed this idea a bit further?
Saukki, please do more Q&A because I would love to ask you several questions and regret not doing so this time. Also you could talk for an hour about velomobiles and I wouldn't mind, I can't possibly have one because I don't have a garage here in the city so I must enjoy it through your channel and stick to my upright bikes :). Do you ever think you would go out and just ride all day and see how far you can go in a loop? I have done just over 250k in a day once before on my road bike at 26kph average, Strava estimates 165w average effort but I have no power meter, about ten hours moving time and 14 hours real time. I think you could do something like that but get 300-400km based on some of the data on your videos, and it would be really interesting to see. Loved this video by the way.
one piece of advice regarding color. Yellow is cool but make sure the top(which youre facing during the ride) isnt painted in yellow because thats not pleasant and not necessary . Rest of the body may be painted in yellow because thats what others drivers notice
What is the typical weight limit for riders? Can a Pedal Assist also feature Full Throttle? What would be the safest speed for use with PAS and Full Throttle on a Velomobile? I noticed there are two elongated openings in the front floor of your Quest. Is there a reason those are there? Can they be sealed to keep out the elements and poor weather?
Very interesting. My DFXL is yellow top and lime green bottom. I've been told it is a very eyecatching color combo. I live in Texas and my friend here, who got me interested in velomobiles, has the red and white colors - all his velos are that color combo. I agree, though - orange does show very well!
I do have pictures but I don't have any idea how to share it - I tried. The convential ways I've used elsewhere (copy and paste) don't work here. You could send a Facebook friend request to see it and then once you have, you could unfriend.@@kevinbutt373
Allow late question please Saauki? Now that you have both QTV and Quest, which do you find you use most and why? Congratulations on the 29,500km. Excellent, exemplary HPV effort.
For your next Q&A: how to set the foot lenght in a velomobile (compared to an upright bicycle). I'm not really sure about my Leitra setting (I have a huge length possibily for people from 1m70 to 1m90)
Funny you should ask that, because I just made a video about how to set the correct seating position in a velomobile. But there’s few other videos coming before that one, so you have to wait. Turn on the notifications so you don’t miss it.
What do you think about a f1/motogp style race for velomobiles. do you think it will catch on? and get existing bike manufacturers interested in velomobiles.
The velomobile with the best turning radius and braking that I have ever seen was the Pterovelo. I don't think it is in production anymore. Although Franz might build them to order.
@@TheFlamingEyeball I tried out one of the Quests on the ROAM tour in 2011 and thought it an excellent velo. The turning radius and braking, are not ideal, even with 90mm drum brakes you need drag chutes to control descents in the Western US, or at least you did then. For some reason the one Airwolf was riding delamed about halfway across and had to be trailered to DC. I was very surprised at just how small the turning radius is on the Pterovelo and how good its braking is. Franz could get that thing up to 54 mph on flat ground, I don't think he is human though. I sure as hell couldn't make it go that fast. I'm thinking of selling my two Catrike Expeditions and getting a Katanga these days.
Hi! I saw that you had a Challange recumbent. How does it compare to the Azub. I think the engineering department was a little bit lazy at Challange (they are out of business now). My Challange Mistral has a couple of flaws. The rear suspension is very basic, it is prone to flex a lot when you pedal, so it consumes a lot of energy. The rear rack is not a good design, I can not fit my Ortlieb paniers to it :(. And it has only two tubes to guide the chain, no rollers, I am not sure about the exact numbers, but I think it has a lot of drag. Other topic. Unfortunately I live 40km away from my workplace. When I lived 18km away, I rode every day to work, it was good. Now I only ride 1km to the train, I took the train, and I ride my folding bike 4km to my workplace. And I hate the the train ride :D. So I am thinking about en E-bike setup, like a Velomobil with electric assist. But I am not sure about the possibility. My ride is 40km in one way with 280m uphill and 230m downhill. It can take 2:30-3:00 hours in regular bike. But maybe with a speed pedelec it can be possible to do it in one hour. What is your average speed on a terrain like this on your Azub vs. the Velo?
I was very happy with the Hurricane. The rear suspension was pretty basic, but I upgraded to air shock, which was big improvement. But I'm not sure if the rear fork linkage was solid enough. Other than that the build quality felt very good. Hurricane has two idlers for the chain. One on power side, another on return side. My Azub has only one idler on power side and the return side has only a tube. I really miss the return side idler :D I can not give you an answer about my average speed on that kind of terrain, because here where I live, it's almost completelly flat. Few small hills here and there. On this kind of terrain my average commuting speed with the Quest is something between 33 km/h - 39 km/h depending the day. Azub is much slower. For you, I think e-assist makes perfect sense. You have much more elevation difference than I do.
@Pieter Jan Zijlstra On a flat terrain of course, but here flats are non existence :D Unfortunately the first 8km is horrible quality, and the last ten has lot of stopping and starting. And we are just planning a baby, so with a family I do not want to commute more then 1:15 in one way, that is the problem. It seams possible with an electric assist, but impossible without it. On a very good flat surface with no wind I can go 30km/h with my recumbent, and that is not a very aerodinamic one, so of course a velomobile can do much better speed. But when the hills are comming, the weight is not your friend, I have a cargo bike, so I know how the weight is effecting the climbing performance, sometimes I ride it with my wife and 30kg of groceries in the box, that sums up to 130kg, plus me with 90kg, so the total sum is 220kg :D And that is painfully slow. Even when the bike is empty, it is 45kg, and slow, very slow :D. And a cheap velo is not light 30+kg at least.
@@TheVelomobileChannel Thank you for your quick response. Maybe I will change the rear shock absorber for a good one (this is really just and adjustable spring). And I do not have a front shock absorber, but they produced Challange bikes with it, so it is possible to retrofit one in it. Do you think it is important to have one in the front too? Some people said to me that it is not important, a rear one is enough on a recumbent, but they do not have a front one, and I do not believe them :D. Probably a couple of idlers can help with the drag issue. I found a guy with an e assist velo, I will ask him about this commuting topic. I think he was in one of your videos.
Dániel Ványi in my opinion you don’t need front suspension on a recumbent bike if you only ride on good quality roads. Rear suspension is more important.
@saukki Congratulations on the 29,500km. Excellent, exemplary HPV effort. Now that you have both QTV and Quest, which do you find you use most and why?
@@alansparx3127 bit late for asking eh ;) Having somebody elses picture as a profile pic seems quite weird even he doesn't dissaprove just taking it is rude (Except if it is a comic figure like Homer Simpson or Donald Trump etc.)
Hi Saukki I was thinking about the question "Do you think a velomobile without suspension is a bad idea?" When you made your "Upgrading my Quest velomobile"-series, the conclusion seemed to be that the tire-choice made more difference then the suspension upgrade. Also it seems like many velomobile-riders change to stiffer suspension in the front to make the velomobile more stable, but at the same time the suspension-travel gets reduced. There are many recumbent trikes that works fine without suspension even in quite high speed. Would not a velomobile without suspension actually work quite fine if fitted with good tires? Is the suspension most important for comfort or for safety reasons(traction and agility)? Love your videos! Greetings from Sweden :)
Good point! Tyres makes a big difference. But you want to have some kind of suspension (tyres or shocks) to reduce the noise inside of the velo. And you want to make sure at least the rear tyre of a trike stays on ground all times when traveling with high speed.
Thanks for the answer :) So then a rear suspension is quite good to have for safety reason while front suspension is more of a comfort thing maybe :) One other question, when you pedal your Quest hard, is the rear suspension moving on it cuz of the chain-pull? And if so, is the rear end rising or going downward in a pedal-stroke?
If you have time some day, could you perform a small test for me? Place the Quest on a flat surface, sit in it and push the pedals when something is blocking the forward movement. Best is probably to put the nose of the Quest against a wall with some foam between, you could also hold the front break, but then the break force is at ground-level when the best would be at centre of gravity-level. If the chain is running thru the swingarm pivot-point I would expect a little rise of the rear end when performing this test. Maybe you can make a video about it and test it in different gears :)
My reason for not using the helmet anymore is that my head needs to go forward too much. It causes neck and upper back problems for me. Looking to find a thinner helmet (possible custom) to fix this, because I'm a bit afraid of falling over sideways.
Kevin Johannes alternatively you can add material everywhere else then (like add 3/4 inch light foam padding to your back below the helmet line). That might be a safer bet (I really wouldn’t want to lessen any protection on the back of my head, that’s the softest part of your head and easy to crack open if you land on your back/rear ended or flipped and land there). That’s the easy and cheap ways, but I wouldn’t cut down on safety (personally I’d modify the frame or my seat any way I could for safety, but then again redesigning would be pretty straightforward for me, as I’ve got plenty of spare carbon fiber and I’m a mechanical and aerospace engineer). Good luck, sometimes it takes a little out of the box thinking like when my cars clutch pedal broke but I was able to fix and significantly improve it with nothing more than a few screws, sheet metal from an old computer monitor and a couple Pennies, haha, Abe Lincoln on a Penny was literally added to reinforce my pedal in a high stress concentration area, lol! I just wouldn’t recommend cutting out the carbon and epoxying in a dimple since you really need to know what you’re doing (and molding and setup), but you know if you can’t remove material there, maybe add some below it to make it flush and adjust your pedal length half an inch to account for it. Might be a good $5 solution and simple fix. In any case, good luck and stay safe!
@@jakegarrett8109 Thanks for the tips! my main reason for not wanting to mod there is the seating position in the bike is otherwise perfect, and the helmet is very thick at the back. also, tbh i'm less concerned about hitting the back or front of my head. Sides are the biggest issue. Which is why I'm working on a custom helmet (with someone who is normally into helmets for epilepsy patients etc.) For now I (wrongfully) feel safe enough in a hat. Keep in mind though, I live and cycle in NL, almost nobody wears helmets here and the cycling infrastructure is perfect for anyone who is from elsewhere (we still nag about it).
Hehe... Maybe I can answer some of those questions too: 1. Why don't velomobil riders wear helmets - I tried a bike helmet, but with it I could not rest my head on the foam pad at the front of the hatch. 2. For what road conditions are velomobiles: Clean streets with lower traffic and clean bikeways with no narrow turns. Flat areas. Uphill is the hell. Unfortunatly I found out, that the city where I live is not suited for velomobiles, that's why I most likely will sell my Quattrovelo XL again. If your living area does not provide the conditions of the area where I live, then you can buy one. :D Now I will describe what my experiences with my velomobil were: 1. ride - after 500m I had a flat tyre. Not far away from my place there is a soccer arena - lots of smashed glass bottles on the bikeways. It was not my first flat tyre because of glass. Bought some Schwalbe tyres with more puncture protection. In my town they equipped the bikeways with special bike traffic lights. You need to hit a switch to get the traffic light to turn green - but at most lights you can not reach the switch from the low seat position of the velomobil because the switches are too high. Next to many switch poles they put large stones with sharp edges - you can not drive next to the pole without hitting these stones as the velomobil is wider. Most bike ways here have a poor quality - a lot of pot holes and bumpes. When the bikeways cross streets there a deep street gutters. If there is construction work on the streets or on the sidewalks, they often close the bikeways to put construction material on them or transform them into sideway substitutes where you have to push your bike. There is a special bikeway and to prevent cars to enter it, they always put a pole right in the middle of them where there is a street - but you can not enter the special bikeway from the streets parallel bikeways because the turning radius of velomobiles, trikes and long carrier bikes can not turn right into this way because they would hit the pole. We have to push the bike or velomobil around the corner. The worse the bikeways, the more traffic is on the streets. Those streets have 2 lane in every direction and are full of trucks. For many drivers a red traffic light is only a recommandation. Even with my upright bike I was nearly hit by cars which wanted to turn right into a driveway. Not to mention my broken hand from a bike accident when a car driver violated my priority of traffic. Then I tought: hey, just take the QV for long distant rides on the countryside like Saukki does it - it partially worked. On small country roads with only a few cars, it works. But bigger country roads? Much to dangerous! An insane fast amount of cars and trucks. Luckily there are bikeways next to them - but only in ONE direction! My experience was that there were a lot of branchlets on the bikeway. With 3 or 4 wheels difficult not to hit them and when I managed not to overroll them with my wheels and maybe get a flat tyre, then they hit the bottom of my QV because it is too low above the ground. Then I made a longer tour and when I had to go home it was dark. I already mentioned that there often is only 1 bikeway next to these country roads - and I had to ride into the "wrong" direction in the dark - guess what happened!? The car drivers where annoyed of my QVs front light and turned on their car's full beam! Then I could not see a thing. To prevent this I had to set the QVs front light to low position, but then I could not see a thing. I was forced to ride the whole route with 10km per hour.Took me 2 hours longer. I tried the speed of 15km/h but then I nearly crashed into a tree when the bikeway took a turn and once I left the bikeway and nearly turned over. My head and my eyes are exactly on the height of the car front lights. Especially the bright white lights were a pain. On that road there was one car after the next one - and endless line of cars. Then the bikeway had to cross the exit of the expressway in a right angle and no sign, no reflectors. I had to get out and search for the other side of the bikeway with a torch. The bikeway then ended at one side of the road and went on on the other side - hard to find where in the dark - but much to dangerous to ride on this type of road. I was really happy when I finnally was home... In my area I can only use the velomobil in daylight on not very many streets and the bikeways are so bad, that I can only ride 15km/h on most ways. With my upright I can ride 25 km/h on those ways. The plan was to go at least that fast on the countryside, but I could only reach 25 to 35km/h on one or two occasions - good weather, daylight, sunday with only a handfull of cars on the streets and no trucks. For this few occasions was the Quattovelo much too expensive. The street and traffic conditions at the place where I live are totally different than the test ride conditions on a bike show in a far away part of the country. So if you want to buy a velomobile, analyze the traffic conditions of your living area first, before you spend a lot of money - even though it is pretty convenient to sit in a velomobil - you don't get the usual "bike" pain in hand or back. I prolly will switch to something with a higher seat position to get my eyes higher than the car lights; to something with a smaller turning radius; to something with higher ground clearance and tyres with maximum puncture protection because of all the glass and branch crap on the bikeways. And maybe electric assist - as I forgot to mention the hills here which are much more evil with a heavy velomobil than with a light HP trike. Let's look forward for this year's SPEZI.
Portnoy - yeah, my man! 🥰 You know Carter Beauford @Dave Matthews Band? Should take a look... Thanks for answering my questions. Really appreciated that!
Potholes are best to avoid by going around. But it does handle bumps quite well. We have here a piece of road with very bad asphalt. I’ve been cruising that road 50 km/h with the Quest. It’s not super comfortable but it’s doable.
Carbon fiber is lighter but fiberglass is stronger and you can get aero grade fiberglass that is much more lighter than regular. and then there is carbon and glass combo fiber fabrics
The 2 Velomobile Constructors I talked to are very well aware of that, the believe that carbon is always better or lighter is only on the costumer side. Due to Many available models beeing lighter in the carbon versions it is often right though.
Yeah from by research on boats it's pretty negligible. Carbon is stiffer but not really tougher. A curved shape is stiff enough. And because you want puncture or impact resistance you need some thickness anyway. Also fiberglass is also easier to work with.
HA!! The worst thing...... yes, it's amazing how long that smell can continue; it sure does in my WAW and Milan! :) I would think it would disappear quickly, but NO!!!!........
Streamliners will get in problems I think when it's slippery. But in the summer it would be a great bike also on the normal road. Here is the most beautiful project of that:ua-cam.com/video/642mqiarXw0/v-deo.html
ha! they all sent cheater youtubes with young people. Maybe they can find youtubes with seniors exiting. when i was 40 or even 50 l could exit like these vids. When u get 67 it will be different.
These young sorts will learn what you're saying. 😉But, you likely need to look for velo models with easier access too! There all always tradeoffs when you pick a velo model. 🤷♂️
Thanks! Are there any good resources if you want to build your own velomobile? I have this idea of building a boat (~5 meter) that is also a pedal electric velomobile and also wide enough to use as a micro camper to sleep in for camping. So you could go from your boat at anchor, drive from water onto land seamlessly, go shopping and go back. Or explore the nature of some island. Where do I start? Or should I stop haha. Is there a community that could help me once I have sketched and designed this idea a bit further?
Haha, maybe a hand activated rear vent is needed for when you offgas. Could help with intermittently cooling the velomobile too.
Thank you for answering my question!
You make exceptional videos!
Hello Saukki, Thanks for answer my question.
I ride my longest trips on my, 2 wheeler recumbent 80km, recumbent trike 55km and my green Quattrovelo 185km(And doing an 200km in may.)
😂 vastasit! Vitsiksi oli nämä tarkoitettu. Mutta kiitos maininnasta. 😂😂😂
Kaikkiin piti vastata 😂
Wim Schermer's velotilt project is for sale. It's ready for production now. I still think there is room for improvement. But for now it would be good if we'll see 100 of those on the roads everywhere and than with the feedback of the riders work on better models. It's the best tilting project by my knowledge.
Oh, I didn’t know that. Velotilt is very inteesting project. Would be very interesting to test ride.
I bought velotilt company. Its in usa now, arrived july 17th. my channel,, recumbents dot com forum. l am carolina there. Fb velomobiel walls. Follow taking it out of prototype.
Täähän oli hyvä setti - kannattaa tehdä toistekin! Kääntösäde oli kyllä tuossa vehkeessä suurin järkytys kun silloin kokeilin!
The Velotilt was a nice ride and pretty fast too. I don't think they are still being made. Love your videos.
Thanks! Are there any good resources if you want to build your own velomobile?
I have this idea of building a boat (~5 meter) that is also a pedal electric velomobile and also wide enough to use as a micro camper to sleep in for camping.
So you could go from your boat at anchor, drive from water onto land seamlessly, go shopping and go back. Or explore the nature of some island.
Where do I start? Or should I stop haha.
Is there a community that could help me once I have sketched and designed this idea a bit further?
Saukki, please do more Q&A because I would love to ask you several questions and regret not doing so this time. Also you could talk for an hour about velomobiles and I wouldn't mind, I can't possibly have one because I don't have a garage here in the city so I must enjoy it through your channel and stick to my upright bikes :). Do you ever think you would go out and just ride all day and see how far you can go in a loop? I have done just over 250k in a day once before on my road bike at 26kph average, Strava estimates 165w average effort but I have no power meter, about ten hours moving time and 14 hours real time. I think you could do something like that but get 300-400km based on some of the data on your videos, and it would be really interesting to see. Loved this video by the way.
Thanks! yes maybe I have to do another Q&A some time later.
i like the scene about farting :-) saukki at it's best (when laughing )
one piece of advice regarding color. Yellow is cool but make sure the top(which youre facing during the ride) isnt painted in yellow because thats not pleasant and not necessary . Rest of the body may be painted in yellow because thats what others drivers notice
What is the typical weight limit for riders? Can a Pedal Assist also feature Full Throttle? What would be the safest speed for use with PAS and Full Throttle on a Velomobile? I noticed there are two elongated openings in the front floor of your Quest. Is there a reason those are there? Can they be sealed to keep out the elements and poor weather?
Very interesting. My DFXL is yellow top and lime green bottom. I've been told it is a very eyecatching color combo. I live in Texas and my friend here, who got me interested in velomobiles, has the red and white colors - all his velos are that color combo. I agree, though - orange does show very well!
Do you have a picture of that to share? It sounds very eyecatching.
I do have pictures but I don't have any idea how to share it - I tried. The convential ways I've used elsewhere (copy and paste) don't work here. You could send a Facebook friend request to see it and then once you have, you could unfriend.@@kevinbutt373
@@danielschaaf7523 That is eyecatching! Looks pretty.
Kiitos juttutuokiosta. Se oli justiin sopivan mittanen, kun vielä ehdin lasten kanssa hiekkalaatikolle.
Hyvä 😄👍
Allow late question please Saauki? Now that you have both QTV and Quest, which do you find you use most and why? Congratulations on the 29,500km. Excellent, exemplary HPV effort.
Very informative vid, thanx Saukki. Still, I have another question:
What new feature would you like to have in the next velomobile design?
For your next Q&A: how to set the foot lenght in a velomobile (compared to an upright bicycle). I'm not really sure about my Leitra setting (I have a huge length possibily for people from 1m70 to 1m90)
Funny you should ask that, because I just made a video about how to set the correct seating position in a velomobile. But there’s few other videos coming before that one, so you have to wait. Turn on the notifications so you don’t miss it.
What do you think about a f1/motogp style race for velomobiles. do you think it will catch on? and get existing bike manufacturers interested in velomobiles.
In Australia they have Pedal Prix. Would be nice to see something similar here as well.
Kiitos vastauksesta :)
The velomobile with the best turning radius and braking that I have ever seen was the Pterovelo. I don't think it is in production anymore. Although Franz might build them to order.
I actually saw his Pterovelo at the Hotter-n-Hell Hundred in 2012. Was the first velo I ever saw in person. Now I'm on my second Quest!
@@TheFlamingEyeball I tried out one of the Quests on the ROAM tour in 2011 and thought it an excellent velo. The turning radius and braking, are not ideal, even with 90mm drum brakes you need drag chutes to control descents in the Western US, or at least you did then. For some reason the one Airwolf was riding delamed about halfway across and had to be trailered to DC. I was very surprised at just how small the turning radius is on the Pterovelo and how good its braking is. Franz could get that thing up to 54 mph on flat ground, I don't think he is human though. I sure as hell couldn't make it go that fast. I'm thinking of selling my two Catrike Expeditions and getting a Katanga these days.
another ? What hardware/gearing did u order in your new quattrovelo? U said 1x10 with mountain drive?
I'll probably take 11-36 rear casette and MD. But I'm not 100% sure yet. Need to think more, but I still have time :)
Hi! I saw that you had a Challange recumbent. How does it compare to the Azub. I think the engineering department was a little bit lazy at Challange (they are out of business now). My Challange Mistral has a couple of flaws. The rear suspension is very basic, it is prone to flex a lot when you pedal, so it consumes a lot of energy. The rear rack is not a good design, I can not fit my Ortlieb paniers to it :(. And it has only two tubes to guide the chain, no rollers, I am not sure about the exact numbers, but I think it has a lot of drag. Other topic. Unfortunately I live 40km away from my workplace. When I lived 18km away, I rode every day to work, it was good. Now I only ride 1km to the train, I took the train, and I ride my folding bike 4km to my workplace. And I hate the the train ride :D. So I am thinking about en E-bike setup, like a Velomobil with electric assist. But I am not sure about the possibility. My ride is 40km in one way with 280m uphill and 230m downhill. It can take 2:30-3:00 hours in regular bike. But maybe with a speed pedelec it can be possible to do it in one hour. What is your average speed on a terrain like this on your Azub vs. the Velo?
I was very happy with the Hurricane. The rear suspension was pretty basic, but I upgraded to air shock, which was big improvement. But I'm not sure if the rear fork linkage was solid enough. Other than that the build quality felt very good. Hurricane has two idlers for the chain. One on power side, another on return side. My Azub has only one idler on power side and the return side has only a tube. I really miss the return side idler :D
I can not give you an answer about my average speed on that kind of terrain, because here where I live, it's almost completelly flat. Few small hills here and there. On this kind of terrain my average commuting speed with the Quest is something between 33 km/h - 39 km/h depending the day. Azub is much slower.
For you, I think e-assist makes perfect sense. You have much more elevation difference than I do.
@Pieter Jan Zijlstra On a flat terrain of course, but here flats are non existence :D Unfortunately the first 8km is horrible quality, and the last ten has lot of stopping and starting. And we are just planning a baby, so with a family I do not want to commute more then 1:15 in one way, that is the problem. It seams possible with an electric assist, but impossible without it. On a very good flat surface with no wind I can go 30km/h with my recumbent, and that is not a very aerodinamic one, so of course a velomobile can do much better speed. But when the hills are comming, the weight is not your friend, I have a cargo bike, so I know how the weight is effecting the climbing performance, sometimes I ride it with my wife and 30kg of groceries in the box, that sums up to 130kg, plus me with 90kg, so the total sum is 220kg :D And that is painfully slow. Even when the bike is empty, it is 45kg, and slow, very slow :D. And a cheap velo is not light 30+kg at least.
@@TheVelomobileChannel Thank you for your quick response. Maybe I will change the rear shock absorber for a good one (this is really just and adjustable spring). And I do not have a front shock absorber, but they produced Challange bikes with it, so it is possible to retrofit one in it. Do you think it is important to have one in the front too? Some people said to me that it is not important, a rear one is enough on a recumbent, but they do not have a front one, and I do not believe them :D. Probably a couple of idlers can help with the drag issue. I found a guy with an e assist velo, I will ask him about this commuting topic. I think he was in one of your videos.
Dániel Ványi in my opinion you don’t need front suspension on a recumbent bike if you only ride on good quality roads. Rear suspension is more important.
@@TheVelomobileChannel The roads are pretty bad here :-(
@saukki Congratulations on the 29,500km. Excellent, exemplary HPV effort. Now that you have both QTV and Quest, which do you find you use most and why?
I don’t have Quattrovelo yet. But why you have my picture as a profile picture?
@@TheVelomobileChannel It was the best velomobile picture that I liked. I will happily change it if you do not approve :)
@@alansparx3127 bit late for asking eh ;)
Having somebody elses picture as a profile pic seems quite weird even he doesn't dissaprove just taking it is rude (Except if it is a comic figure like Homer Simpson or Donald Trump etc.)
Hi Saukki
I was thinking about the question "Do you think a velomobile without suspension is a bad idea?" When you made your "Upgrading my Quest velomobile"-series, the conclusion seemed to be that the tire-choice made more difference then the suspension upgrade. Also it seems like many velomobile-riders change to stiffer suspension in the front to make the velomobile more stable, but at the same time the suspension-travel gets reduced.
There are many recumbent trikes that works fine without suspension even in quite high speed.
Would not a velomobile without suspension actually work quite fine if fitted with good tires? Is the suspension most important for comfort or for safety reasons(traction and agility)?
Love your videos! Greetings from Sweden :)
Good point! Tyres makes a big difference. But you want to have some kind of suspension (tyres or shocks) to reduce the noise inside of the velo. And you want to make sure at least the rear tyre of a trike stays on ground all times when traveling with high speed.
Thanks for the answer :)
So then a rear suspension is quite good to have for safety reason while front suspension is more of a comfort thing maybe :)
One other question, when you pedal your Quest hard, is the rear suspension moving on it cuz of the chain-pull? And if so, is the rear end rising or going downward in a pedal-stroke?
It’s not moving much because of the chain pull. The chain line goes through the rear swingarm pivot point, so there’s basically no leverage.
Thanks for the answer :)
If you have time some day, could you perform a small test for me? Place the Quest on a flat surface, sit in it and push the pedals when something is blocking the forward movement. Best is probably to put the nose of the Quest against a wall with some foam between, you could also hold the front break, but then the break force is at ground-level when the best would be at centre of gravity-level. If the chain is running thru the swingarm pivot-point I would expect a little rise of the rear end when performing this test. Maybe you can make a video about it and test it in different gears :)
My reason for not using the helmet anymore is that my head needs to go forward too much. It causes neck and upper back problems for me. Looking to find a thinner helmet (possible custom) to fix this, because I'm a bit afraid of falling over sideways.
Can you not change the seat/headrest? If it’s foam you could carve out the extra inch of material so your head is back to where it should be.
@@jakegarrett8109 If it was foam, I could. But it's carbon fibre, and an important part too. The solution really is in a different helmet.
Kevin Johannes alternatively you can add material everywhere else then (like add 3/4 inch light foam padding to your back below the helmet line). That might be a safer bet (I really wouldn’t want to lessen any protection on the back of my head, that’s the softest part of your head and easy to crack open if you land on your back/rear ended or flipped and land there).
That’s the easy and cheap ways, but I wouldn’t cut down on safety (personally I’d modify the frame or my seat any way I could for safety, but then again redesigning would be pretty straightforward for me, as I’ve got plenty of spare carbon fiber and I’m a mechanical and aerospace engineer).
Good luck, sometimes it takes a little out of the box thinking like when my cars clutch pedal broke but I was able to fix and significantly improve it with nothing more than a few screws, sheet metal from an old computer monitor and a couple Pennies, haha, Abe Lincoln on a Penny was literally added to reinforce my pedal in a high stress concentration area, lol! I just wouldn’t recommend cutting out the carbon and epoxying in a dimple since you really need to know what you’re doing (and molding and setup), but you know if you can’t remove material there, maybe add some below it to make it flush and adjust your pedal length half an inch to account for it. Might be a good $5 solution and simple fix. In any case, good luck and stay safe!
@@jakegarrett8109 Thanks for the tips! my main reason for not wanting to mod there is the seating position in the bike is otherwise perfect, and the helmet is very thick at the back. also, tbh i'm less concerned about hitting the back or front of my head. Sides are the biggest issue. Which is why I'm working on a custom helmet (with someone who is normally into helmets for epilepsy patients etc.)
For now I (wrongfully) feel safe enough in a hat. Keep in mind though, I live and cycle in NL, almost nobody wears helmets here and the cycling infrastructure is perfect for anyone who is from elsewhere (we still nag about it).
Late response, but how about something like a tank helmet or aviator leather cap?
Hehe...
Maybe I can answer some of those questions too:
1. Why don't velomobil riders wear helmets - I tried a bike helmet, but with it I could not rest my head on the foam pad at the front of the hatch.
2. For what road conditions are velomobiles: Clean streets with lower traffic and clean bikeways with no narrow turns. Flat areas. Uphill is the hell.
Unfortunatly I found out, that the city where I live is not suited for velomobiles, that's why I most likely will sell my Quattrovelo XL again. If your living area does not provide the conditions of the area where I live, then you can buy one. :D
Now I will describe what my experiences with my velomobil were:
1. ride - after 500m I had a flat tyre. Not far away from my place there is a soccer arena - lots of smashed glass bottles on the bikeways. It was not my first flat tyre because of glass. Bought some Schwalbe tyres with more puncture protection.
In my town they equipped the bikeways with special bike traffic lights. You need to hit a switch to get the traffic light to turn green - but at most lights you can not reach the switch from the low seat position of the velomobil because the switches are too high. Next to many switch poles they put large stones with sharp edges - you can not drive next to the pole without hitting these stones as the velomobil is wider. Most bike ways here have a poor quality - a lot of pot holes and bumpes. When the bikeways cross streets there a deep street gutters. If there is construction work on the streets or on the sidewalks, they often close the bikeways to put construction material on them or transform them into sideway substitutes where you have to push your bike.
There is a special bikeway and to prevent cars to enter it, they always put a pole right in the middle of them where there is a street - but you can not enter the special bikeway from the streets parallel bikeways because the turning radius of velomobiles, trikes and long carrier bikes can not turn right into this way because they would hit the pole. We have to push the bike or velomobil around the corner.
The worse the bikeways, the more traffic is on the streets. Those streets have 2 lane in every direction and are full of trucks. For many drivers a red traffic light is only a recommandation. Even with my upright bike I was nearly hit by cars which wanted to turn right into a driveway. Not to mention my broken hand from a bike accident when a car driver violated my priority of traffic.
Then I tought: hey, just take the QV for long distant rides on the countryside like Saukki does it - it partially worked. On small country roads with only a few cars, it works. But bigger country roads? Much to dangerous! An insane fast amount of cars and trucks. Luckily there are bikeways next to them - but only in ONE direction! My experience was that there were a lot of branchlets on the bikeway. With 3 or 4 wheels difficult not to hit them and when I managed not to overroll them with my wheels and maybe get a flat tyre, then they hit the bottom of my QV because it is too low above the ground.
Then I made a longer tour and when I had to go home it was dark. I already mentioned that there often is only 1 bikeway next to these country roads - and I had to ride into the "wrong" direction in the dark - guess what happened!? The car drivers where annoyed of my QVs front light and turned on their car's full beam! Then I could not see a thing. To prevent this I had to set the QVs front light to low position, but then I could not see a thing. I was forced to ride the whole route with 10km per hour.Took me 2 hours longer. I tried the speed of 15km/h but then I nearly crashed into a tree when the bikeway took a turn and once I left the bikeway and nearly turned over. My head and my eyes are exactly on the height of the car front lights. Especially the bright white lights were a pain. On that road there was one car after the next one - and endless line of cars. Then the bikeway had to cross the exit of the expressway in a right angle and no sign, no reflectors. I had to get out and search for the other side of the bikeway with a torch. The bikeway then ended at one side of the road and went on on the other side - hard to find where in the dark - but much to dangerous to ride on this type of road. I was really happy when I finnally was home...
In my area I can only use the velomobil in daylight on not very many streets and the bikeways are so bad, that I can only ride 15km/h on most ways. With my upright I can ride 25 km/h on those ways. The plan was to go at least that fast on the countryside, but I could only reach 25 to 35km/h on one or two occasions - good weather, daylight, sunday with only a handfull of cars on the streets and no trucks. For this few occasions was the Quattovelo much too expensive. The street and traffic conditions at the place where I live are totally different than the test ride conditions on a bike show in a far away part of the country. So if you want to buy a velomobile, analyze the traffic conditions of your living area first, before you spend a lot of money - even though it is pretty convenient to sit in a velomobil - you don't get the usual "bike" pain in hand or back. I prolly will switch to something with a higher seat position to get my eyes higher than the car lights; to something with a smaller turning radius; to something with higher ground clearance and tyres with maximum puncture protection because of all the glass and branch crap on the bikeways. And maybe electric assist - as I forgot to mention the hills here which are much more evil with a heavy velomobil than with a light HP trike.
Let's look forward for this year's SPEZI.
Sounds like you've reached the end of your tether, on this subject!
Portnoy - yeah, my man! 🥰 You know Carter Beauford @Dave Matthews Band? Should take a look... Thanks for answering my questions. Really appreciated that!
I don't have any questions about it, just like you video Saukki..love from Malaysia
Interesting, right? But in SEA that would be a suicide vehicle.
When will Malaysia have a Velomobile?
@@krollpeter Too expensive to use them for suicides
@@othmanskn mampu ke nak beli hehe, harga sebijik je dah boleh ambik kereta 2nd hand ye, kalau quatrovelo harga myvi 1.5 baru ye.
@@mohdsabreeyacob348 Beli second hand Velomobile. Atau buat sendiri. Saya sedang design Velomobile ku.
How does it work on pot holes and bumps/humps on the road.
Potholes are best to avoid by going around. But it does handle bumps quite well. We have here a piece of road with very bad asphalt. I’ve been cruising that road 50 km/h with the Quest. It’s not super comfortable but it’s doable.
Carbon fiber is lighter but fiberglass is stronger and you can get aero grade fiberglass that is much more lighter than regular. and then there is carbon and glass combo fiber fabrics
The 2 Velomobile Constructors I talked to are very well aware of that, the believe that carbon is always better or lighter is only on the costumer side. Due to Many available models beeing lighter in the carbon versions it is often right though.
Yeah from by research on boats it's pretty negligible. Carbon is stiffer but not really tougher. A curved shape is stiff enough. And because you want puncture or impact resistance you need some thickness anyway.
Also fiberglass is also easier to work with.
Nice vid, cheers
Hi Saukki, may I ask how much does a velomobile like yours cost
Mine was about 8000€ back in 2016.
Thank you sir!!!!!!
Dude your awesome
HA!! The worst thing...... yes, it's amazing how long that smell can continue; it sure does in my WAW and Milan! :) I would think it would disappear quickly, but NO!!!!........
Please add subtitles!
Thanks for all the replies!!! And be careful with farthing! LOL good one 👍🏻
4:27 didn't expect this 🤣
00:52 - hilarious!
Saludos desde chile
the worst thing about is saving money and than waiting to its ready.
For off road you would just go with a trials bicycle.
I have an update on your Quattrovelo: I'm five spots below you on the list 😉
Mike Portnoy! My choice as well.
The fart part 😂😂😂
Streamliners will get in problems I think when it's slippery. But in the summer it would be a great bike also on the normal road. Here is the most beautiful project of that:ua-cam.com/video/642mqiarXw0/v-deo.html
I forgot to ask last week, But where can i buy a second hand Velomobiles In england?
I would start asking from Facebook group Velomobile club of Great Britain
Saukki - The Velomobile Channel Thanks
Saukki - The Velomobile Channel Great idea!
I'm gonna learn Finnish and visit.
and as we all know, orange Velomobiles are way faster. ;-)
ha! they all sent cheater youtubes with young people. Maybe they can find youtubes with seniors exiting. when i was 40 or even 50 l could exit like these vids. When u get 67 it will be different.
These young sorts will learn what you're saying. 😉But, you likely need to look for velo models with easier access too! There all always tradeoffs when you pick a velo model. 🤷♂️
Saukki: they all cheated, showing youtubes of young people:)
My favorite youtuber from Finland is @supermoniveto besides yourself!
Thanks! Are there any good resources if you want to build your own velomobile?
I have this idea of building a boat (~5 meter) that is also a pedal electric velomobile and also wide enough to use as a micro camper to sleep in for camping.
So you could go from your boat at anchor, drive from water onto land seamlessly, go shopping and go back. Or explore the nature of some island.
Where do I start? Or should I stop haha.
Is there a community that could help me once I have sketched and designed this idea a bit further?