March 2009

Have just finished an Aurora that is just the shell over a Kettwiesel trike. This velomobile also has a Heinzmann electric assist as the customer has a very steep hill to climb to get home. It's not a hill I would want to do more than once a day. The assist in this velomobile will be more useful for the customer. Here is a picture of it and my somewhat experimental Borealis velomobile.

Here a pic of the Aurora with the Kettweisel inside with flash taken in the shop so you can see how well the reflective vinyly shows up when light hits it.

Here is another shot of my Borealis just a few minutes after I arrived at work.

One thing I noticed riding in snow was that your track in a trike is very straight compared to a two wheeled bike. I was following the track of a two wheeler and could see the difference between the tracks in the rear view mirror. Next time it happens I'll take a picture. The Borealis above was built much like our normal kevlar laminate but with a very minimal amount of gelcoat and a fair amount of reinforcing material removed in spots where I thought we could get away with it. I was orginally going to have the shell painted but decided to cover some of it with reflective vinyl to dress it up. The vinyl also covers some construction issues where the kevlar laminate ends and glass takes over so the parts would be easy to trim. Some of the reinforcing foam core also shows through so that was covered too. The weight when finished was 30.1 kg with lights and battery. So far in using it I found that just a bit more material in a couple of spots would be useful. This should be a good long term tester as I can see what is happening with the laminate in everyday use.

Here is a pic of the Borealis locked up in front of the local bike shop. I found it more convient to pass the chain through the cutout in the wheel well than taking the wheel cover off. To do this I just unsnap the fabric cover and slide the cable over the fender and out the door.

Here is a small improvement in the storage in the head bump.

Borrowed some bits we use on our kayaks to create this. It is holding an extra tire and some bubble wrap just in case you need to lay the velomobile over and some nice soft grass is not available.