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December 26, 2006
Should be ready to start production of the Aurora some time in January. The list of things to do and improve is slowly getting shorter. We will sell the next four Aurora velomoibiles for $6,000 Cdn. This will allow us to gain some more experience making them and hopefull get a better feel for how much they need to cost to be a viable product for us. The ones build so far have been rather expensive to build but this was expected with so much development work taking place.
I now have over 4200 km on the orange one having learned a lot from the experience. The most suprising thing from this usage is that it works as well as it does. I feel more secure riding the Aurora than my bike and find that I am much more likely to use it especially when the weather isn't so nice. In some ways its almost like a car but there is that extra satisfaction from getting there under your own power. The best feature might be that you can just load the back up and go. In the morning I will load the stuff I need in the back, much like putting it in the trunk or on the backk seat, and be off. Half way to work at a traffic lightat which I have to wait about 70% of the time, I will take off my pile jacket, if getting too hot and just throw it behind me in the velomobile and be ready to continue. At work I just park, climb out grab the stuff close the velomobile door and I'm done with the commute having gotten a bit of exercise and ready for the rest of the day.
Here a picture of the first three built. I have just changed the
roof on mine to the second generation roof which fits on the Aurora better.
We are presently working on finishing up the roof and improving some of the moulds needed to make the Aurora. The biggest change is that the top of the velomobile will be made in three parts. The reason for this is twofold, first to make the top in easier to fabricate sections and secondly to allow the removal of the door and a section of the top shell opposite the door for warm weather riding. The effect should be much like riding a bike with just a front fairing but with the added benefit of extra ventilation from the front vent thrown in. It will be interesting to see if riders who use their velomobiles year round will take advantage of this feature or just ride another bike when its hot.Will also modify the rear wheels slightly as when mounting Big Appe tires there should be a bit more clearance. Also discovered that when moving the bottom bracket for shorter riders there is the need for a bit more chain clearance inside the beam. Luckily only one side of the beam mould needs to be changed slightly.
December 10,2006
Just finished the red one. Delivered it into Cambie Cycles this
afternoon. It will have a BionX front hub motor added. I will report when I
get a chance to try it out. Anyway here are some pictures of the Aurora. This
one will have a roof added once I have that all figured out and done. The LED
lights on the next one will have the same number of LEDs per light but be grouped
muxh closed together. 
December 7, 2006
Just completed making the new mould for the slightly modified roof. We are now sanding the inside surface of the mould as you can see in the picture. The mould is considerably wider than the part made in it as we will need a wide flange to for the bleeders and sealant.
Have finalized the configurationof the LEDs in the lights we are making. Here is a picture of the board with the LEDs before they are cast to make the light. You can also see to mould they are placed in before casting resin is poured around them.
Slightly unrelated to the velomobile , here are a three pictures of Brock's bike with a tailbox we made for it. For more info on this contact Cambie Cycles at sales@cambiecycles.com
