VM-Tour Agathenburg

Morten invited us for a velomobile tour to Agathenburg castle, to have some cake.

The start of the tour was at the old St. Pauli Elbtunnel. Me and three other velomobile riders joined along the way.

First stop on the dike, to let a column of cars pass on the narrow winding road

A typical overtaking situation. Car drivers are usually very patient with velomobiles and give a wide berth when overtaking.

Convenience break. We where two Quest, three DF, a new Hilgo and my Milan GT.

A quiet cycle path along the train line.

Parking at Agathenburg castle.

The cake situation at Agathenburg definitely has some room for improvement, though.

The track.

Velomobile Nord

Holger recently switched fom his brand new Milan SL Mk5 to an Alpha 7 velomobile.
As he went today to Velomobile Nord, to get his new “wheel pants” mounted, I though it a good excuse to have a chat with some fellow velomobile riders and visit the newest velomobile vendor in my area.

Sven, mounting new wheels on Holger’s Alpha 7

taping-on the new wheel pants

test ride with “wheel pants”

fine tuning

taping-on reflective decals

Had a bit of a nervous breakdown when I spotted the new Milan “Battle Mountain” hood in the shop. Damn, that thing looks gorgeous! Fortunately (kind of) it was already sold

Recumbent Tour to Teufelsbrück

Yesterday we met at the main train station to make a small round tour to the Elb ferry at Teufelsbrück and back. Morten led the tour on his Flux, Henry even came from out of town by train to join us with his Flux S-900.

Our cycles at the ferry terminal in Teufelsbrück.

Two very different ICE Trikes

Little roadside repair session to fix a flat.

The track of our little 35km tour

After the tour Morten and me went to mount a tiny B+M Myu rear light to his Quest

ICE VTX with 3×700 wheels

Finally, the VTX got its 3×700 wheel set.

The polished rims are a nice match to the Ortlieb bags.

The front wheels are shod with fast Conti GP5000 in 23-622 size, but the rear wheel got a Conti Cyclocross Speed in 42-622 size for better traction.

My Milan on Twitter

Somebody took a video of my Milan velomobile and posted it on Twitter

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1283336503637278720

Vortex-Leader with Trailer

Had to go get some groceries today. Hence, the new trike had to tow the trailer.

When I’ve tried the new trike with 20″ front wheels, the handling was very twitchy. Thats a very unusual behavior for an ICE Trike. Using a set of 24″ front wheels yesterday, felt much better. Corner handling was just severely limited by the non-ICE Trikes hard-shell seat. The Novosport trike seat isn’t as comfortable and just doesn’t keep your butt planted in corners as the ICE Trikes seat.

I compared the 26″ Trice leader rear frame to a 26″ ICE Sprint rear end. The rear wheel axle mount of the Trice Leader rear frame is placed quite a bit lower that in current ICE trike frames. That alters the steering geometry considerably (for the worst). Thats what you get, if you mate a 16 year old custom Trice rear frame, to a ICE Vortex cruciform.

On the other hand, that trike frame geometry seems very well suited to use 3×24″ or 3×26″ wheels. Despite its big front wheels, the trike is very agile and turns on a dime.

Hence, I’ve build a 24″ rear wheel in the morning and used it on the shopping run with the trailer in the evening. Luckily, I still got a few 24″ Schwalbe Shredda tires left. The 50-507 Shredda Evo was most likely the quickest and best handling 24″ tire, but unfortunately Schwalbe discontinued the Shredda a few years ago.

While it was only a short 9km shopping run, the handling of the trike felt pretty good.

The Fayton – a carriage themed EV

Not a velomobile by a long shot, the Fayton is an electric vehicle design inspired by horse carriages. I’m particularly fond of the four big wheels by the way.

The sun roof is a nice touch, as well.

All images: Yanko Design

The Vortex-Leader

While the trike had 24″ front wheels mounted for the pictures yesterday, this is how the trike suppose to look like.

It now has a chain and is ready for a first test ride. After the bottom bracket is adjusted correctly, the chain will get shortened to the appropriate length.

Since I don’t like straightening new chain tubes very much, they are kept at a minimum length for now. It only got enough chain tubes to keep my legs and trousers clean.

If I find a source for anodized 18×0,5mm aluminium tubes, it gets full-length sleeved chain tubes.

the rear Conti Grandprix 28-559 is actually 37mm wide on the 39mm wide rim.

front view

The new Custom Trike

Build from a nickel-plated ICE Vortex cruciform and a pretty rare Trice Leader rear frame.
It doesn’t have a chain yet, no rear mud guard, or lights and mirrors.

While the nickel plating looks gorgeous, I’m not entirely sure about the green rear frame, though. Green isn’t really my color and it should get a nickel-plating too.

It might get a different set of wheels after its roadworthy. I know the 24″/26″ wheel combo rides quite comfortable, but I might try 20″ front wheels and a 24″ rear wheel.

Avid BB7 rear disk brake

I’ve macgyvered a rear disk brake to the braze-on lugs. They might be a bit too weak for real braking, but having a parking brake at the rear wheel is so much more comfortable.

Since the parking brake lever (actually a Microshift bar end shifter) is hidden under the seat in the front seat mount, the handlebars are less cluttered. It also prevents me from using the rear disk brake for actual braking.

the hidden parking brake lever

The 90mm Sturmey Archer drum brake hubs and the Patterson Metropolis 2-speed bottom bracket are glass-pearl blasted and fit the nickel-plating quite nicely.

Woddys ICE kingpins found its way into the new trike, as well. They where in better shape than my old kingpins and the included head sets came in real handy.

Damn, thats quite the green!

The Trice rear frame

Four years ago Zach from Zach Kaplan Cycles offered an old, but never used 26″ Trice rear frame in the BentRider forum. Its tube diameter was 3mm smaller and the tube was too short to fit the current ICE Sprint frames, but the price was to good to resist.

Since then, I didn’t really know what to do with it. Tried to sell it, but nobody cared.

Since the ICE Vortex cruciform is 8cm longer than the Sprint/Advernture cruciforms, the Trice frame would fit and I decided to build a custom trike from it. I also wanted to know which old custom Trice it supposed to fit.

Two days ago, I’ve contacted Patrick Selwood from ICE Trikes. He answered, that the rear frame belonged to a Trice ‘Leader’ ICE shipped to Zach Kaplan Cycles in 2004. He also mentioned, that ICE only build four (4!) of the Trice ‘Leader’ over the years.

Back in the day, ICE offered a range of build-to-order custom trikes with pretty steep price tags. Some models are known to be quite rare, but I never heard from a custom Trice that where build only four times.

the Trice Leader

Image: ICE Trikes

Yesterday I’ve contacted Zach, if he recalled how that Trice Leader lost its rear frame. He did. Somehow the rear frame was missing some braze-ons the customer requested, possibly lugs for a rear V-brake. Hence ICE shipped a new rear frame for the Leader.

Looks like only five of these rear frames where build and I got the only one without a trike.