Today, Theo from Velomobiel.nl congratulated me for ordering the very last Shredda Evolution in 40-406 size from his stock.
Since Velomobiel.nl bought all remaining stock of the Shredda Evo in 40-406 size when Schwalbe discontinued the tire about three years ago, it seems the Shredda Evo just achieved unobtanium status.
Went to the Fridays for Future demonstration with the Milan yesterday. I’m rather proud of these kids.
While I’m well aware that a velomobile isn’t a viable option for the vast majority of people, some very few might find them interesting, if they know velomobiles even exist.
Official numbers by the police indicated, about 17,000 people demonstrated in Hamburg. The organizers even counted about 25,000 people.
Curious kid…
…the boy with the mobile phone was pretty fascinated about the velomobile and came back several times to ask questions. You could tell, he gave it a lot of though.
Looks like I got at least one of the 20,000 people hooked on getting a velomobile. 🙂
Last Saturday we met at Benno and Gaby’s place for the annual Spargeltour.
The yard was already filled with ten velomobiles and three recumbents when I arrived.
Martina had a seat in the Milan GT and later in Jens Milan SL.
We started together, but parted since the recumbents went for a little gravel tour…
…while the velomobiles headed for the small country roads
Velomobile stand-off
Open road
Our destination, Schloh’s Spargelhof. None of us actually ordered asparagus.
Quattrovelo and Milan SL in matching colours
Aside from the three Milan SL, two Milan GT, two Quest, two Mango, a Quattrovelo and a DF, there where two Wolf & Wolf ATL1 tourer and a Razzfazz carbon low racer
Andreas invited us ‘funny bike’ riders to visit the Fahrradfest in Kiel, organized by Velostyle. I was quite eager to attend, since Andreas sold me the Milan and I was very curious what he had to say about my little changes to the velomobile.
Literally the second I fired-up Google Maps to plan the route while I had my morning coffee, Morten texted and asked if I care for some company on the ride to Kiel. Since I always enjoy riding with Morton and as a tour guide for the ADFC, he usually chooses very nice routes, I happily agreed.
We met in front of the bakery again. Morton rode a 400km brevet the day before, btw.
Following the B75 out of town, we quickly headed for the small, quiet, country roads
The navigator planning the road ahead (we each got a GPS with us, if really needed)
convenience break
Velomobiles at the Kieler Fahrradfest. Variuos people approaced us, but the Milan with its hood seems particularly fascinating to kids.
At least six or eight of them had a seat. One nine or ten year old boy came back several times, stand there deep in thought in front of the velomobiles and asked pretty sensible questions. His parents also seemed quite supportive about his new fascination.
The Coffee shop beside the cycling shop.
Outside played a live band to a very nice crowd.
Naturally, the main focus of the exhibited bikes was on more conventional models, like this fine specimen.
Entry drugs…
Bamboo bikes!
And naturally, cargo bikes
There even was a cargo bike shuttle service
At 4pm we said goodby and headed back to Hamburg
The Altonaer Bicycle Club from 1869/80 (the oldest bicycle club in the world!) organized their annual ‘Altonaer Bicycle Days’ this past weekend at Haus Drei, an alternative cultural center in Altona. Founded in 1535 as a village and 224 years under Danish rule, this is the original Altona by the way. Since 1937 Altona is a borough of the City State of Hamburg.
While the exhibition in the yard didn’t look like much at first, they had some rather fine, classic and antique specimens on display inside.
Some families arrived in a fitting fashion…
…and at least one girls bike went straight into the exhibition after her arrival.
Some curiosity’s where on display, like this rare 26″, stainless steel folder…
…’half cocked’ to better show the unique folding mechanism and fully folded.
Or this awesome looking track race bike from the former DDR.
Since I arrived a bit early and the crew started a bit late (they supposedly ended the first day with a party and most where still hugging their coffee pods), there was quite some interest in the Milan.
Since my Milan GT Mk2 has tank steering, the huge brake steer of the original Milan steering geometry was bothering me. A lot!
Explaining the steering geometry of the MacPherson front suspension in a velomobile is slightly complicated. It involves a ‘virtual steering pivot’ located in thin air, for a start.
Short version: The trailing arm of the MacPherson is mounted to the front of the wheel well, witch results in a positive scrub radius and pronounced brake steer.
Moving the mounting position of the trailing arm to the side of the wheel well, will result in a slightly negative scrub radius (in this particular case, negative is better) that lowers, or even eliminates the brake steer.
The new trailing arm mounting. The hex screw at the right marks the original mounting point.
While the front of the wheel well is reinforced to account for the forces of the trailing arm, the sides are relatively thin. Since I wasn’t sure my little experiment would be successful, I’ve mounted a aluminium bracket on the other side of the wheel well, to take the forces of the trailing arm. Laminating a couple of layers of carbon fiber into the wheel wells would be the proper way to do, though.
Anyway, the result of this is was, brake steer is all but gone now.
Jens (who designed the original Milan together with Eggert Bülk and actually builds the Milan velomobiles for Räderwerk) inspected my little experiment and took some images. He gave me quite a surprised look when I told him that the brake steer is gone now.
Update June 2019
When I was in Kiel for the Fahrradfest, Andreas the former owner of my GT did a little test ride and noted that the steering got a bit more sensitive after my modification. Our chat got cut short for some reason, but he didn’t sounded alarmed in any way. I had a slight suspicion along the same line, but since I didn’t had a direct comparison, I couldn’t be sure (several month where gone between riding the Milan in its original state in late October and again after the steering mod was implemented).
I have one or two ideas to tame-down the slight nervousness, but haven’t found the time to build new steering brackets and do some further testing.
Henningt invited us to attend the NoMoorGas demonstration against new gas gathering in the area, to officially participate at the event in Fischerhude with some velomobiles.
We met at Henningt’s place where he and his family welcomed us with an opulent breakfast (no photo, left the camera in the Milan and was busy eating and chatting).
Then we went into the yard to put some decals on our velomobiles in support of the cause of the NoMoorGas citizen’s initiative against gas gathering in the area. The red X mark is their logo.
We counted six Milan, two Quest, a WAW, a HPV Scorpion S-Pedelec and a mid racer.
The only time I’ve ever seen that many Milan velomobiles in one place, was at Räderwerk.
The luggage for the little tour
Since Fischerhude is a bit over 100km south of Hamburg, I cycled 220km that day.
Well to be honest, the little hub motor prevented me from killing myself cycling up the long inclines of the Harburg Hills and due to the very light traffic, I could let the Milan fly downhill on the B75. Hence, my average speed over the entire distance was an astonishing 43km/h. Top speed on the downhill stretches was an exhilarating 87,4km/h.
The most exiting part was on the way back, coming down from Rosengarten through Harburg on the highway. On the steady 4 or 5km downhill stretch I could easily maintain the speed limit of 50-70km/h till the exit at the Harburg train station. In fact it was so easy that I started to freeze and had to stop and grab my shirt. The Milan is awesome!
The Highsider Dual Stream headlight offers a pretty decent light. No issues even at 70+km/h on dark, curvy, country roads.
Had my first police stop today. Big deal with siren and blue lights. Very correct and polite officers, who where mainly interested what that strange vehicle actually is.
The ‘updated’ Milan GT without hood.
The installed lights are described here.
The mounting of the DF SPAI in the nose is described here.
(just realized, this little blog passed 200,000 views today)
Finally, I’ve finished the Milan on Monday. We did 584km in the first week and tried some ferry lines across the Elbe river. That cycle is a frigging rocket.
on the Elbe ferry from Wedel to Lühe
