The Velayo comes back!

Today, Marcus van der Wehl announced in the German velomobile forum, that he found a company that will take over production and sales of the Velayo velomobile.

No definite dates and price yet. Updates will be announced on the Velayo homepage and the Velayo thread in the German velomobile forum.

The Velayo is singular in the velomobile landscape, not only for its sheer size (it got 26″ front wheels!), but especially for its front wheel drive and rear wheel steering. It’s basically a huge space-frame trike inside a rather spacious GFK fairing. Never intended to win races, the Velayo is designed as a very capable commuter and tourer.

IIRC Marcus was developing updates and refinements for the ‘Velayo 2.0’, when he had to stop production and sales at the end of 2016 for personal reasons. He is still doing customer service, though.

Velayo vs Evo Ks

We have at least two Velayo’s around Hamburg and I’ve seen them sometimes. I actually sat in one of them, once. The owners admit it takes a bit to get used to the rear wheel steering, but (contrary to other rear wheel steering designs) the Velayo is stable at speed.

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25th Anniversary at Räderwerk

Yesterday, I went with Morten and Michael to Räderwerk in Hannover. They celebrated their 25th anniversary and quite a few people in ‘the scene’ took the opportunity to meet there. In case you didn’t knew, Räderwerk is the manufacturer of the Milan velomobile.

The Räderwerk shop packed with bikes and guests

Milan velomobiles gathering attention

While we took the train from Hamburg, Ymte from InterCityBike made the 350km ride from Dronten in his green DF velomobile and Harry from Drymer did the 280km ride from Groningen with his Hilgo velomobile.

Ymte (right) having one of many conversations that day. The lady on the left, who looks a bit critical into my camera, is Inge Heitland, who gave a presentation about her travels and still does 100km day tours on her recumbent at age 88. Unfortunately, I missed her presentation in the Milan workshop downstairs.

Luckily, I didn’t miss most of the presentation from Petra von Fintel, who talked about her 12h and 24h world record attempts in 2014 and 2015. In her 2015 attempt, Petra set the World records for 12h (575km), 1,000km (23h:42min) and 24h (1,011km) for women. What an awesome lady! Very funny too! We talked a bit afterwards, but I was so impressed by her, that I totally forgot to take any pictures. *sigh*

The new Drymer Hilgo. Harry in conversation with somebody.

The Milan SL Mk4 on display in the Milan workshop. It wasn’t suppose to be there anymore, but due to some ‘security concerns’ (they couldn’t x-ray it or something), Airport Hannover refused to let his new owner take it with him to the US. A nice ride, indeed!

Milan 4.2 two-seater’s in the Milan workshop

Also for the first time, I met Lutz and Jörg from Ginkgo-Veloteile. They drove more than 500km to attend and are even nicer in person than on the phone. Guess what, I didn’t take a photo of them either. What a useless photographer I become.

Despite the lack of usable images, it was a very nice day at Räderwerk.

Big Ben vs. Big Ben Plus

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Next installment of my little tire comparisons for electric trikes. The Big Ben My electrified trikes are usually shod with the Schwalbe Big Ben. The Big Ben got a decent thread, a pretty effective ‘Race Guard’ flat protection layer, very … Continue reading →

Lights for the Milan

Since bicycle lights don’t really cut it above a certain speed, the Milan will get some LED motorcycle lights. Headlight A Highsider LED Dual Stream 3in1 headlight. Headlight, high beam and parking light in a relatively small package. Its 739 … Continue reading →

New Rear Shocks for the Milan

The old rear shocks of the Milan are worn and actually not working that great anyway, since they offer no proper damping. Riding the Milan across cobblestone was ‘interesting’, to say the least.

Hence, I’ve ripped them out and build new rear shocks with elastomere’s.

On top, one of the old, original, rear shocks. The carbon fiber tubes are much prettier.

To keep it simple, the new shock is just a 22mm CFK-tube with an aluminum plug on one end, a PTFE (Teflon) bushing at the other and a 10mm stainless steel precision tube with M8 threads for the rod-end bearings and the ‘piston’ (a M8 countersunk screw).

The elastomere are used, ‘soft’, ICE Trikes elastomere (for their front suspension), cut to length. I’ve put a small lens head screw in the flat side of the elastomere, that will lock into the hexagonal hole of the M8 countersunk screw (the ‘piston’), to provide some guidance against scraping at the CFK-tube. If that doesn’t work, I’ll have to put a Nylon washer between M8 screw and piston rod.

Quest and DF

The plan was to make a little velomobile tour with Morten and Dieter, but my knee suggested a day off and the shifting in the Milan needs some love to make fun.
So, I walked to our meeting point, wished them a nice ride and snapped some pictures of their Quest and DF.

In front is ‘Beulchen’. An orange Quest customized to fit its 2.05m Rider. Dieters yellow DF in the back has the most bad-ass looking ‘face’ of any velomobile, I think.

A Milan sailed my way

Picked-up a used Milan GT MkII today. One of the few with tank steering.

My outstanding navigational skills made the trip home ‘slightly’ longer than planned and my old Becker GPS had some fun with me, as well (it tried to send me on a 50km detour once). After some harsh words it came to its senses and guided me safely home through the night. Most electronic devices have some SM tendency’s I guess.

DIY Trailer

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For a long time I was looking for a decent trailer. The Carry Freedom Y-Frame and Hinterher trailer where on my shortlist, but neither convinced me completely, when I had a good look at them. The wheels of both trailers … Continue reading →

New updates to the Blue ICE

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Apart from the water-cooled drum brakes, I’ve added some new things to the blue Sprint. New Torque arm The new torque arm that braces to the disk caliper mount. Its water-cut from 5/16″ (9.5mm) A36 steel plate and weights 144g. … Continue reading →

Water-Cooled Sturmey Archer Drum Brakes

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I’m in the middle of running a test to water-cool my 90mm Sturmey Archer drum brakes. A few people in the German recumbent forum use water-cooled drum brakes in their velomobiles, so it wasn’t my idea. Velomobilize in Austria already … Continue reading →