Velomobile design
David M. Eggleston <dmeengr <at> suddenlink.net>
2012-01-03 19:02:28 GMT
Following John Tetz’s plea for us to get together and work on the future of velomobiles, I’ve enjoyed
reading your contributions. Here is my two cents worth.
From an engineering point of view, velomobile design has to start out conceptually with a list of
specifications that the final vehicle must satisfy. Nobody seems to do this on paper, but one can
back-figure what the specifications are that the final vehicle satisfies or fails to satisfy when it is
tested. Velomobile design has to deal with almost all of the problems that must be solved in the design of a
small car. It is a long list, but speed, low noise, cushy ride, weather and crash protection, stability and
handling qualities, the ability to stop quickly and safely, power efficiency, ease of ingress and
egress, cost, convenience, ease of maintenance, cost of parts, etc. are some of the requirements. Velos
are used for commuting, shopping, long tours, recreational day rides, running errands, racing, etc.
Some machines are designed specifically for racing, with little or no thought given to other uses. Some
velos are quite capable of a whole range of tasks, while others are best for only one or two types of use. An
all-around velo has a better chance of commercial success than one that is only good for a few things.
Owning many velos is too expensive. Carrying bulky objects is best done with a specialized vehicle or a
velo with a cargo trailer.
You can fairly easily put an aero body on an existing unsuspended trike, but you are likely to end up with many
difficulties, including body attachments to the trike, noise of thin shells vibrating, and many others.
Chief among these may be that when the aerodynamics are great and you can go really fast, not having a
suspension can be mighty uncomfortable. It is likely to result in the rider getting lots of reasons to
upgrade to a well-designed (and expensive) velomobile. So you can “cheat” on any of the design
requirements up to a point, but the ones that riders want will come back to haunt you if your velo doesn’t
have them.
I harken back to the day that the Tempelman shop opened in Dronten in the Netherlands. Johan Vrielink, chief
of Flevobike, came up, put his hand on my shoulder, and said “Building velomobiles is the hardest thing I
have ever done in my life.” Over the years, I have come to realize the truth of this statement. There have
been tremendous numbers of dream velos that never come to fruition because of this fact. Getting a design
“frozen” and getting it into production is quite difficult. The market is ephemeral so raising money
for a big production run is really hard. All VM manufacturers hope that Ford or General Motors or Toyota
will never understand the wonderful future for the world full of velomobiles, and so far, the companies
never have.
(Continue reading)
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