Rare Earth Magnet Velo(Kayak) Cover Mod

On Saturday night I decided to try a mod to my Velocover. Often when I tried to use the velcro straps inside I could not reach past my shoulders and had to get someone to lock it down. I saw a post from Europe about using magnets so I thought I would try. Here's what I did.

Step 1: Buy Rare Earth magnets; I used 3/4" by 1/8" round magnets from Lee Valley Hardware at a decent rate. next time I will use 1" with 1" cups to magnify the strength.

Step 2: Carefully slice your cover at the seam where the velcro straps are and insert the magnet.

then you can hot glue it shut. repeat at all strap locations.

Step 3: Place the cover on and click in a opposite magnet inside the velo where you want it to be at the velcro strap area. Once you know the area and you have it lined up properly take some hot glue and apply it to the magnet and quickly place it inside at the area, it will snap in. Wait a couple seconds and you can remove the cover and it will stay. Repeat for each location. If it is not strong enough you can add a second magnet or a non feris cup to magnify the strength of the magnets.

Step 4: Test it and watch it POP into place. Here's the video of what I did. Enjoy.

TTFN

Larry

GRR Bag To Velo BAG Design?

I mentioned in my last post in the Vizor thread on BROL that I had drawn up an design for a GRR seat bag last winter, but never had it made. Materials to do 2-3 would have been around $100. Plus a seamsters time. Here is the design. I have been wondering if I should make it for my velo. What do you think. Lets sorta do a group velo bag design and see if we can get close to a consensus. Who knows maybe a bag company will do it up for us.

...VeloRydr

While I have had time off from my shop to heal for surgery I have spent the time well. No lazing in bed until noon or watching TV all day and night. I have made good progress on developing this blog, getting my Mango ready for spring (8 more day until I can ride the doctor says) and I have learned a lot more of CorelDraw. Last night while working on my friends Cornell picture of his Strada I had a brain fart. I put his Avatar The Blue Wile E. Coyote (Bluecoyote his BROL name, too) together and created my best graphics so far. I hope you enjoy them as much as he does:
(Black T shirt render)

(White T shirt render)

Post card

Rear of T shirt

TTFN

Velo Fellowship & Fairing

This past weekend I had the opportunity to go to Calgary to visit my Step Mom & Dad plus go to a funeral of a My best friends Father. While there I also paid a visit to Cornell W's home (BROL: Bluecoyote) near Cochrane, and beautiful blue Strada.

We had a wonderful lunch with homemade Mango Bread that Cornell whipped up. I always have a wonderful time with both Muriel and Cornell. We spent several hours laughing and talking about Velos. TOT, and listening to Cornell's vast recollection of stories from the 30+ years with Parks Canada.

We also took the time to install a wind vizor that I am producing over here in North America based on and by Permission from Wim Schermer of the Netherlands.

Wim and his volunteer crews' have tested these windscreens and have had remarkable result's in power and speed. Consistently with a Vizor and average rider can save from 35-45 watts of output or gain 3-4 kph for the same effort. Read about it on Wims’ blog.

We'll Offer a slightly modified windscreen for $25.00 plus shipping.

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We'll  also offer a Flevo Roof replacement windscreen for $35.00 plus shipping. Both are made from optically clear Lexan of 1mm thickness.

We are just setting up PayPal but we can take Visa/ MasterCard over the phone. If you would like one please email us with the subject Vizor, at velorydr at TELUS dot net. Please provide address, phone number and email. I will get in touch with you regarding shipping and payment.

Up Top of the page we now have a page set up for these and other items in the near future. We are also sourcing out Colour Hook and Loop “Velcro”( should be available in3 weeks), Windstrips , matching Paint pens and other Velo related stuff.
Overall I had a great Velo centered weekend. I even had my 74 yr. father quite interested in velomobiles. He thinks they are okay for others but not for him and the neighbourhood he lives in (small lanes, congested with parked cars and fast crazy drivers) I had a fun time with him.
TTFN
Larry

I have an online Cafepress shop where I sell an occasional t-shirt every year. I do it mainly to promote Velos and Recumbents and earn enought to get a couple of free shirts every now and then, I started to learn Corel Draw 15 better while healing from surgery and these are some new proofs of what will be offering on my Cafepress site next week. What do you think?

Stay tuned

Larry

Upgrade Repair Advice /Instructions From SinnerBikes

I finally heard back from Harry Lieben (twilwel) of SinnerBikes regarding an email I sent a month ago. The delay was not having and email address that “worked right”. Got the right one and less than a day later Harry wrote back. I placed his reply in the Repair mod page for reference.
I a had also mentioned that having a Video  “Manual” of the Basic and more extreme
types would be of Great service to those of us who are not near a repair center could do or have a good mechanic watch. Harry had been thinking the same thing, so maybe soon we start seeing Video Repair “Chapter”s on SinnerBikes YouTube channel.
You can see what is available now from Sinnerbike and Harry
and Twilwel/Huneliggers Channel for great videos of all sorts;
 SinnersBikes You Tube Page. (a Twilwels search Page)

 These are the types of Videos I’d like to see:
Manuals/videos on:
- mid drive cassette; maintenance/ upgrade
- rear rim/wheel (new and old style)
- 70 to 90 brakes; maintenance/ upgrade
- Replace seat old style with new
- adjust seat
- remove up grade Dashboard
- adjust/ replace spring tensioner
- change /lube bearings – (already a video here from Nitramulap)
- remove top
- toe in
- change universal joint
- change chain
- suspension; maintenance/ upgrade
Thanks Harry for the Reply and Information. We’ll be looking forward to more the the future!
Looks like I have to work at the airport a bit longer to save for some of these up grades!
TTFN

Correct Seating Position

As posted on BROL:
Okay, here’s the thing, is there a proper seating position in a velo? I didn’t pick one up at a dealers and have it fitted. I see some videos with riders sitting more upright and taller, others lower and more prone. As you can see In my video I tend to sit more prone because it was fitted this way for someone else.

I tend to sit more upright on my GRR. My rides in the Velo are not uncomfortable,  but not upright. I do not even know if I change the seating by replacing the whole thing? At present my Mango has blue foam to manage the position. To sit more upright I would have change the blue foam, slide the seat back and the bottom brackets too. Is there graphic showing the “best” position for general Velo riding for me to compare. I am sure other 2nd hand velo owners have similar thoughts. Any builder want to chime in? Or do I have too much time on my hands right now and I am over thinking the whole thing? Cornell sits something close to me,I believe. Maybe its because I’m on the bigger side of the equation.
Please post a picture etc., of yourself so that we separated brethren can have an idea how others sit. Larry

Response from Brol Reader: Rhein 228 (Josef) Co-ordinator of ROAM 2011:
Feb 10/12

ckaudio's rule of thumb is just right, that is how you should sit unless that proves to be uncomfortable -- if so, I would adjust for comfort even if it means to sit a bit higher up.

You seem to be sitting ok from what the pictures indicate. I would still try to get a good position without any foam padding (assuming that you use one of the standard seat mats).
For most riders, the adjustments allow to sit deep enough, still see over the hood, and keep shoulders below the rim (advisable on bumpy roads, it hurts to hit the bottom of the lip on bigger bumps) without any extra padding.
Low seat helps with the Flevobike roof (enough clearance for your head, for some even with a skater or climber helmet).

Attached is how I sit in the Quest

Josef

Attached Images

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Coast to Coast by Velomobile in 2011: Roll Over America

More Mouldable Plastic Fun

First I want to thank all my well wishers for my healing after surgery. Its amazing how a little slice in life can really take your energy away and how fast you can become "cranky". Doing well, healing slowly. :) I can see why they say 4-6 weeks for full recovery! Getting in and out a bed is hard work! Never mind a Velo!
So I have had a lot time to surf the net and to do a couple of Velo related projects.
 
Mouldable Plastic
I had to find a new source for the mouldable plastic pellets, (MPP) that I was using and found a great source from Inventables. A great source for all sorts for DIY materials and stuff. Check them out: https://www.inventables.com/technologies/hand-moldable-plastic They had great prices for product, quantity and shipping. So I ordered a pound of it and started making things.

Flevo Roof Clips
The clips on the end of the Flevo roof are hard to come by up here and of course I lost one so...
I heated up some MPP (Mouldable Plastic Pellets) used some Krylon FUSION Black Spray paint and colored the melted plastic. Sprayed paint in the bag until there was a pool of paint then put the warmed up plastic in a plastic bag and manipulated the two for a bit then took it out of the bag and let it cool.  (there is some epoxy coloring stuff you can get with al sorts of colors but I wanted to do it NOW) The next day I took the black MPP and started to play with shaping the plastic to resemble the original lock pin. Easiest way to get the right shape after trying various methods was; to take a 3" x 1/7” rolled bit and push it through the hole in the end piece, the wrap it around and along the bottom, trim the excess off, smooth it up and Walla:

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There is an original in the middle of the one picture. Not bad eh.

Dinotte Switch Modification
(Warning this mod will nullify your warranty)
Finally I was able to afford to get a on/off switch from Dinotte plus a few other cables I need for my lighting /power set up for my Velo. But when I got it I saw that the in and out lines were on the same side leading back the way the way they had come in. Good for a bike handle - not what I needed for the velo. I wanted a straight line switch. After a couple days I was looking at the switch trying to think how I could bend the out line back and make it permanent with some MPP. As I tinkered I finally cut it open.  It's a simple button on/off switch inside. But wait, yes it has a formed block of MPP inside to hold its shape and make the thing somewhat weather resistant. I bent the out line back to the linear position I wanted; heated some MPP and the interior MPP of the switch and fused the two together, added some loop Velcro on the outside and here is the result:

iPhone Holder and Caravan Mount
I use an iPhone a lot for riding, internet, reading,  and well it‘s just handy. Anyways, I had made a Caravan holder years ago to place where there is a hole/shelf in my car with MPP.  I recently remade it to use… Velcro and also I made a new sleeve with Velcro on the back to mount the iPhone in the Van, Velo on a wall, well, anywhere. Here are the pictures here:

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If you have some good mods and addition to your Velo, email them to me and I will post it or the link here.

TTFN

Riding in Traffic

While I am convalesing and doing some research on the web I ran Across a paper on Riding Velos in Traffic from the:
 6th European Seminar on Velomobile Design, Copenhagen 2009.
It was a good read, take a look espaecially if you are new velonaut like myself.
You can read more extracts when you folow the threads on the bottom of the  PDF.

By the way the next Seminar is happening in September 2012 anyone from N.A. want to go? Hmmmm

Presenter: Paulus den Boer, Netherlands — Velomobiles in traffic

Abstract

Cyclist experience problems enough around their safety in traffic. So one can expect that exceptional cyclists using velomobiles have even more problems.

Experienced velomobilist Paulus den Boer brings you through a number of practical aspects of traffic safety when riding velomobiles. With clear examples it becomes clear that there is more to know about your own safety than meets the eye!

At the end of the presentation you may have some fresh ideas how you too can take care of your own safety even more than before.

Paper

Download PDF: vmsem6-den-boer--velomobiles-in-traffic.pdf (English, 3076 KB)
Newer Version, with comments: vmsem6-den-boer--velomobiles-in-traffic-2.pdf (English, 9728 KB)
The video refered to in the PDFs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubNF9QNEQLA
Video in English of the presenataion itself is posted here:
http://www.archive.org/details/6_velomobile_paulus_den_boer_velomobiles_in_traffic