North American Velonaut Map

 Here is a link to the North American Velonaut map that I started a few years ago.  The purpose of the map remains to foster awareness and use of velomobiles in North America by helping those curious about velomobiles, or looking for other folks with whom to ride locate velonauts in their area. For the purpose of this map - to foster the spread and usage of velomobiles- the definition of a velomobile is fairly broad: a vehicle that is primarily human powered, and substantially enclosed.

If you are a North American velomobile rider, please feel free to add yourself:

Add yourself by clicking "Map Access" at the upper right and then type "velonaut" in the field where it asks for admin, member or viewer key. Click "Unlock" and then you should be able to go to Additions (upper left) and add a marker.

UPDATE: It seems that Zeemaps has instituted a new policy that freezes the map after 100 views, and requires payment to make it accessible thereafter.  It is cost prohibitive so for the time being it is down.  I'm not yet sure what I will do to replace it, and am open to suggestions!

Questoid velomobile for sale

The Questoid has been sold.

Thanks for looking.

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Price reduced to $3250! This is a chance to get a velomobile with Quest-like speed capability, but more maneuverability for much less than a Quest.

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Prototype unsuspended velomobile (that I’ve been calling the Questoid) put together by Bluevelo, consisting of a Quest velomobile shell around a Steintrikes Roadshark with 20” front wheels and 26” rear. I’m selling it because I have a replacement velomobile I am working on and need to free up some money.

I’ve ridden this velomobile in the company of Quests and WAW’s and it has done well, speed-wise - this is an inexpensive chance to get a fast velomobile.  With the addition of wheel wells, it would have most of the capability of a Quest - and a much better turning circle!

Asking $3500 (plus shipping, if applicable). Due to the limited adjustability of the machine I would strongly recommend a test ride before purchase - the Questoid fits me with adequate knee and toe clearance and visibility over the front deck and I am 5’8” with a 41” ex-seam and size 10 feet.

The Steintrikes Roadshark (used as the chassis) by itself goes for $2700 new.

I have put a few hundred miles on it, and Ray at Bluevelo indicated he had a few hundred kilometers on it as well, so I would estimate it has less than about 1500 miles.

In comparison with the Quest and Strada that I’ve owned previously, a couple of obvious differences include the open wheels (no wheelwells) and the underseat trike style steering (vs joystick style on the Quest). The unsuspended Roadshark provides a remarkably smooth ride. Due to the wheel openings, turning radius is substantially tighter than a Quest.

Components:

• Shifters: SRAM TT 10 x 3 bar end shifters.
• Brakes: Avid BB7 discs
• Tires: .Schwalbe kojacks front and Schwalbe Marathon rear

Other info:
Foam "fenders" bonded to the fairing at the front but not fully enclosed wheel wells.
Footholes as per Quest.
Rear fender installed and included
Chain line runs through chain tunnel on Quest. Carbon support braces to mount the fairing to the trike. A TerraCycle front fairing system is installed at the front as a back up although Ray said he didn’t think it was necessary as the other braces are pretty solid. The Steintrike composite seat was modified to give enough clearance to be comfortable.
One mirror
Homebrew front light mount and rechargable Cygolight Metro 400 headlight and Cygolight Hotshot rear with bracket included.

Siigma BC12.12 STS wireless computer included
Homebrew Tourcap with tilt-up visor included.
Total weight about 28kg (62 lbs).

FMI call Ethan at (207) 423-7360 or PM me at recumbo at roadrunner.com 

Note that foam shown in photo below has been removed from around the cockpit.

Lee Wakefields Tailbox

Prior to building the Red Zeppelin, Lee built a load capable tailbox for his ICE S that appears very aero. I'm not clear if the red one is a modified version of the white one or if it was a separate one completely, however, here are a bunch of pictures to help show how he did it:

Lee Wakefield's Red Zeppelin

Back in the early 2000's Lee Wakefield in the UK build a coroplast shell around a Trice S that was one of the nicest designs around up to that point. He started developing a kit that was intended to go around a less expensive trike, but abandoned the effort.  There was an extensive set of pictures around that effort, but it seems to have disappeared.
 Here is the original thread from BROL and most of the pictures that went with the post 

Orin Peters - This weeks inspirational coroplast fairing creator

Taking the approach of using a manufactured trike as a chassis and building a fairing around it, Orin Peters has created several velomobiles using coroplast - a readily available and inexpensive material.
He's calling his most recent creation Hidalgo, built around a narrow track  (approx 30" wide) ICE QNT trike, he has done quite well with it, even in races against commercially available machines.  A previous machine consisted of a coroplast fairing around an ICE Sprint.
Here is Orin's website.
Here is a series of pictures of Hidalgo. 
Here is a long thread on Bentrideronline in which he reveals build details.
And here is a Bentrider online thread having to do with some of his racing experiences.

Steintrtikes Interceptor here!

Last week the first Steintrikes Interceptor Velomobile in North America arrived here. Looks good - last evening I finally had some time to take the Meerkat chassis out of the shell. This weekend I plan to put on the components with the idea of putting it back in the shell this coming week. It'll be interesting to see how fast it really is. The claim is that it is very fast - possibly as fast as a Quest.

Cheers,
-Ethan
www.wildfirehpv.com
Your New England Source forRecumbent Bikes, Trikes and Velomobiles

Introductory Post

A bit of background: back in 2000 or so, I first started the North American Velomobilists Website at www.velomobiles.net. The purpose of that site was and is to provide information for people and make it easier to obtain one. I figured that there were three main approaches to obtaining a velomobile and this is how I arranged the website. One could:

1. Buy a commercially available one.
2. Buy a commercially built bike or trike and build a fairing or enclosure around it.
3. Build the whole thing from scratch.

I haven't been updating velomobiles.net much lately, but I remain convinced that the velomobile has a role to play in how we move ourselves from place to place now and in the future and am working on redoing the website for velomobiles.net and Wildfire HPV, the cycle shop that I started since creating North American Velomobilist which specializes in recumbent bikes, trikes, and of course, velomobiles.

We are expecting the new Steintrikes Interceptor velomobile to arrive in Boston on Wednesday of this week - first one in North America! The Interceptor is based around the Meerkat (Mungo) full suspension tadpole trike built by Steintrikes. (FMI on the Interceptor please visit the Bike Revolution website)

pedal on!
-Ethan
www.wildfirehpv.com
Your New England Source for recumbent cycles and velomobiles