ECOVIA – a city velomobile
EcoVia is a project of velomobile which should be used for commuting and everyday transport. It is in a prototype stadium now but the progress can be seen and also the passion of its maker.
EcoVia is a not only a velomobile as you know it. It is based on a tilting delta trike. Tilting allows it to be higher than common delta trikes and so the vehicle can be much faster in curves when riding out of the city. Of course, the lean brake is incorportaed too for safe slow riding.
Craig Cornelius mention 10 criterias of the vehicle he is designing and all of them makes sense to me.
The only problem I see now is that the complete construction is very complicated and it will be pretty difficult to finalize the project to the production stadium with interesting price for the customer.
SnowZombie – when we are talking about ultimative machines
This trike was made by a famous Czech recumbent homebuilder Jirka Hebeda who has built several recumbent bikes already and is working on some others. You can read more about the process of building it and how it rides here under.
SnowZombie is a 20/26 delta trike with a 2-wheel drive. It was created to satisfy the desire to leave the car at home and enjoy going to work on human power regardless of slippery winter conditions.
The design is based on following order of priorities:
1. Recumbent for comfort =>trike to get over ice without crashing.
2. Enough traction to get through up to 15cm of snow if necessary and over any slippery surface, even uphill => 2-wheel drive and low gearing.
3. Low resistance if possible and get over 15cm high obstacle without problems => large and/or suspended wheels
4. Minimize delta configuration stability disadvantage => lowest possible seating and room to move upper body sideways when cornering
5. Free pedaling in all steering positions => zero overlap of front wheel with feet
6. Fit through narrow spaces easier than most tadpole trikes.
7. Easy and fast build in a home workshop with some machining but no welding => bolted aluminum frame
The resulting design is fairly narrow tracked (66cm) and very long (260cm) delta trike with two driven 26” wheels in the back, rider almost in front of them in a seat just 22cm above ground and a suspended 20” wheel in front of the rider. The minimum ground clearance is about 15-16cm depending on tires. The spot most likely to hit the ground – frame under the seat – is reinforced enough to withstand hitting a large boulder. Main backbone tube goes horizontal from there to the rear end protecting the derailleur from hitting the ground.
Bricycles velomobile
bricycles
We start to have the feeling that we can prepare a new blog just about velomobiles, because there have been some many new ones in last few monthes. Last news which we have found is the Bricycle delta velomobile with outstanding design and with electric assist. It is just a prototype right now, but it looks quite nice. On the website www.bricycles.com you can find lot of texts about the ideas, developing, technical details etc. Hereunder you can also see the video about Bricycle.
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