2019 New England Human Powered Vehicle Rally - Saturday, July 13, 2019

Now in its 15th year, the New England Human Powered Vehicle Rally, is a celebration of the fun and excitement of moving around by pedal power! Previous Rallies have featured a wide variety of recumbents, velomobiles (enclosed recumbent cycles), electric assisted bicycles, homebuilt and store-bought versions of each of these, and more.

When: On Saturday, July 13, 2019, from 9 AM-4 PM

Where: Rain or shine at Peirce Island, Portsmouth, NH

Cost: Registration is free, but donations to help with insurance are welcome on a sliding scale, from $5.00 to $15.00 and can be taken care of either at the the Odds and Ends page of at wildfirehpv.com, or in person on the day of the event.

RSPV by email , phone or text (207 423-7360).

Schedule: Saturday, July 13, 2019

9:00-12:00: Ride, with stop to purchase lunch

12:00-3:00: Afternoon Expo (show and tell)

Expo portions of the event consists of show and tell presentations and the chance to interact one-on-one with the owners. Test rides may be had at the discretion of the owners.

The Expo sessions will offer newbies and old hands alike the opportunity to experience the diversity of human powered vehicles. This is the perfect chance to interact with owners, ask them questions about their ride and check out the machines first hand. All sorts of pedal powered machines are expected; everything from fully enclosed velomobiles to load carrying machines to electric assisted cycles.

Wildfire HPV will be there with a recumbent trike and a velomobile.

The ride will be approximately 20 miles at a moderate pace through the beautifully scenic Portsmouth area.

There are no restrictions on the types of human powered vehicles that may participate in the rally – except that they must have at least partially human powered drive mechanisms and must be roadworthy to participate in the on-road ride.

FMI call Ethan at (207) 423-7360 or PM via the contact page on this website

Below are some images from previous rallies:

Merrill Gay's photos from the '05 Rally in N. Hatfield, MA

Merrill Gay's photos from the '06 Rally at the Pioneer Valley Cohousing in Amherst, MA.

My Steintrikes Nomad Coroplast Fairing

I don't claim to be a Coro-Guru myself, but  here are a few pictures of my most extensive coro project to-date - a full fairing that was designed to go around a Steintrikes Nomad trike.  Merrill Gay took these photos at ElectroVelo in Scarborough, ME back in the mid-2000's.

The nose fairing shape follows an ellipse -  that way you can set the nose length to anything you want, and set the side to side width to the track width of the trike and get a much more aero shape. There are lots of instructions on how to draw an ellipse on line. I made a front fairing that followed an ellipse by cutting one out of rigid foam insulation to help me form the coro and then also bending a piece of 1/8" x 1" aluminum bar stock to the same shape. You can then drill holes in the bar and pop rivet the coro to it to force the coro to hold that shape. Lee Wakefield was able to get his Red Zeppelin (https://thevelonaut.blogspot.com/.../lee-wakefields-red...) fairing to hold an ellipse shape by using a horizontal coro profile (a belly band?).

On some of the inside shots, you can see the aluminum dashboard that I made, which also helps hold upper deck's shape just inside the cockpit opening. 

Dave Shank memorial

On the BROL velomobile forum, someone posted a link to Dave Shanks Alleweder build blog, still up all these years after his death.

Here is a post that I made in early February of 2008, shortly after I got the news that he had succumbed:

I received the sad news today that Dave Shank passed away over the
weekend. For those who may not know, Dave had been fighting cancer for
at least two years.

Dave was one of the early adopters in the velomobile world (at least on
this side of the Atlantic), having bought a Versatile back in 2005, and
then built an FAW+ from one of David Eggleston’s kits. I met him for
the first time at the 2005 New England Human Powered Vehicle Rally when
he pulled up in a white rental cargo van and dragged out the Versatile
just at the beginning of 24 hours of  the torrential rains of Tropical Storm Florence that made that
event particularly memorable. He treated me to dinner out that night, and
among other things, talked about his adventure traveling around the
Netherlands in his new Versatile prior to having it shipped it back to
his home in Buffalo, NY. The HPV community in the Netherlands is pretty
active (and a tight knit group) and made him feel welcome, even offering
their homes as he toured around. This was something I experienced
myself when I had been there earlier that same year, and talking with
him about our experiences in the land of the velomobile was a shared
evening that I won’t soon forget.

We met up again at the 2006 rally, when he arrived in the white rental
cargo van- this time with both velomobiles inside .
I will miss seeing him at future gatherings.

Rest In Peace, Dave.

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