Towards Commercial Velomobiles
The Fifth Velomobile Seminar was held in April 2004 in Germersheim, Germany.
The Fifth Velomobile Seminar (Friday, 24. April, 2004 in Germersheim, Germany) provided a place for velomobile enthusiasts to meet manufacturers, and for the whole velomobile community to share ideas for making human-powered vehicles commercially viable. Titled "Towards Commercial Velomobiles," it explored a century of velomobile history, presented advances in velomobile technology, analyzed recent and current velomobile enterprises, and touched on the sociological/psychological barriers to velomobile acceptance.
At least a dozen nationalities were represented, and attendees came from as far as Australia and British Columbia. Dutch, Danish, German, Belgian, and US manufacturers mingled with the audience. Potential velomobile manufacturers could talk to experienced velomobile producers -- and to some who didn't succeed. Strategies for promoting velomobiles, the very definition of the velomobile, vehicle safety, and new technologies were presented and extensively discussed.
Even the definition of the velomobile was tacitly challenged: Stefan Gloger (Desira), Joachim Fuchs (Aeolos) and Gunter Kramp (Projekt Läufer) all presented information on two-wheeled, faired vehicles. Their contributions had direct relevance to three-wheeled velomobiles, however, as they talked about public perceptions of velomobiles (Gloger), noise control (Fuchs), and the challenges of using vehicle development as a student engineering project (Kramp).
Stefan Gloger's Desira was built in both two- and four-wheeled versions, which look almost identical from above. Public perceptions of these two designs were drastically different. Both have weather protection, luggage-carrying capacity, and passive safety features, which Gloger considers essential. He himself prefers to use the two-wheeled version, but the general public is puzzled by it, views it as unsafe, and sees the four-wheeled vehicle as safer and easier to use.
Joachim Fuchs drives a two-wheeled, faired human-powered vehicle and has investigated noise control inside fairings. He presented ways to minimize unwanted sounds and talked about the acceptable levels of interior noise for velomobiles.
Gunter Kramp, whose student engineering project was the Projekt Läufer, a faired "concept" bicycle, described the difficulty of designing a practical vehicle from the ground up. The beautiful prototype uses so many custom components that it will be impossible to produce commercially. Elements of its design can be applied to other vehicles, and the experience was valuable for the students, but this experience didn't translate into practical advances for human powered vehicles. German Eslava from Cab-Bike commented that German universities can't use their student projects to address day-to-day development needs of businesses, and he praised the Dutch system, which he said allows mutual benefits for academia and small business.
Andreas Fuchs (long-time Leitra driver) discussed anthropometrics. Velomobile manufacturers need to know the range of sizes and measurements for potential drivers. In his printed material, he included static and dynamic measurements for human bodies, including how much space is needed for foot movement on pedals and how much seating adjustment capability is required to fit the majority of the population.
Safety is hard to measure, but there are some indicators. Jürgen Eich talked about Leitra's 32 known accidents. In 24 years of experience, tipping and rolling caused most of the accidents (18 cases). Eight cars hit Leitras and one Leitra hit a car. Other accidents involved velomobiles running into fixed objects or bicycles. Nobody was seriously injured. The Leitra was designed to enclose the driver and to absorb impact forces. Photos showed how well this design worked in one collision with a car. Attention to safety is very important, but it is hard to do collision tests. Manufacturers need to computer-simulate collisions where possible and to collect information from accident reports, then apply the most effective safety features.
Ian Sims showed a new tyre that could eliminate tyre-changes. The difficulty of changing a flat tyre on the rear wheel worries commuters who absolutely must arrive on time. Previous airless tyres had unfavorable rolling characteristics or short tyre life. Ian has been working with a tyre manufacturer who has produced a solid tyre that seems to eliminate the major drawbacks. It has a flat tread, like an automotive tyre. Although it is heavier than a standard tyre, Ian reports that it functions very well in early tests.
Michael Grützner discussed the Mochet Velocar and its amazing connection to the modern human-powered vehicle story. Charles Mochet built his first "Velocar" for his eleven-year-old son George in 1924. Soon he was producing both human-powered and motorized cars. In 1932, the Mochets used the innovative drivetrain from the human-powered Velocar to drive a recumbent bicycle, the "Velo Velocar." This race-winning recumbent set a new one-hour cycling speed record and was banned by the UCI in 1935. The Mochets probably built 1000-2000 velomobiles and 600-1000 recumbent bikes. The recumbent racing ban and a later requirement for licenses for micro cars ended the production of both of these promising lines.
In the early 1950s, Carl-Georg Rasmussen built a plywood velomobile, using a Swedish design. As many as 100 of these vehicles were built during and after the Second World War, but public interest turned to motorized cars as the economy improved, and the Swedish velomobile disappeared.
The oil embargo of the 1970's stimulated a demand for smaller cars and human-powered transportation. In 1978, Carl-Georg sold his car and built himself a lightweight, faired vehicle for individual transport, the Leitra. When other people asked him to build more, he produced a trial series of 12 and rented them for one to three months to a hundred test riders. The riders were asked to report on their experiences. Many of them immediately ordered Leitras for themselves. Carl-Georg has been surprised that others come back many years later saying the time has finally come to order their Leitra.
Leitra has focused on producing a high-quality product that meets customer needs and has been managed in a way that avoids risk of large losses and produces a consistent small profit. It started with ten shareholders and has never grown very large.
Ingo Kollibay described a company that operated very differently and failed. At the same time that Carl-Georg started producing the Leitra in Denmark, Alan Carpenter developed and patented the Cyclodyne in the United States. Only fourteen were built, and three are still in existance. Carpenter's patent application shows many innovative design features, and the advertisements that Ingo found are impressive. However, a close look at the detailed drawings shows oversights that may have doomed this lovely front-wheel-drive HPV. It was large, with its wheel motion severely restricted by the fairing, so that the turning radius must have been huge, but there is no provision for a reverse gear. The single disc brake was centrally located and separated from the axle and wheels by a timing chain; this would cause peculiar braking behavior while turning, and if the chain broke, there would be no way to stop! One advertisement showed the Cyclodyne on a snowy road, but the space allowed for the tyres would have allowed ice to accumulate. It looks as if more pre-market testing would have been a good idea.
German Eslava described the development of the Cab-Bike. Cab-Bike's early prototypes don't look a lot different from the current models, but their structure and components were different. When Johan Vrielink of Flevobike offered to provide Cab-Bike with Flevobike's C-Alleweder platform design, the prototypes were scrapped. This allowed standardization of many parts. German pointed out the advantages of having a standard platform for many different velomobiles. Owners of Mangos, Quests, WAWs, Go-one3s, Alleweders, and Leibas benefit from the wider availability of replacement parts and from the economies of scale. German proposes extending the platform, which now includes the MacPherson struts, steering linkages, brakes, and wheels. He proposes joint development of lighting systems and supplemental power sources. Others are worried that too much standardization might stifle innovation.
Supplemental power will help make velomobiles commercially-viable in areas with hills or for drivers who need to accelerate quickly in traffic. Cab-Bike and others have installed motors in velomobiles, but Cab-Bike is now presenting another option, the Power Box trailer. This trailer contains a battery and a motor with a flexible driveshaft that supplies power-assist to the rear wheel of the bicycle. A Power Box owner can fit more than one bicycle or velomobile with an adapter, and the Power Box can be used with any of them. When the power assist is not needed, the trailer can be left at home (rather than being carried around as useless weight). The trailer is also small enough to bring inside for re-charging at home, at work, or on tours. It has space for some luggage. Members of the audience also noted that the stylish little Power Box provides another surface for paid advertising.
North America is a huge potential market for velomobiles. David Eggleston of Midland, Texas has just started to produce Alligt and Flevobike Alleweders under license and plans to market both finished velomobiles and kits in the United States. He described U.S. cycling conditions, laws, and surveys of the potential velomobile market.
Steve Schleicher and Jan Bain of Vancouver, on the west coast of Canada were in the audience, considering whether to try manufacturing velomobiles. They had built a prototype and were talking to velomobile manufacturers about the practical aspects of velomobile production. Other North Americans in attendance included Richard Sadler, Jill Dillon, and myself (Mary Arneson). Richard has built a two-wheeled Streamliner faired bicycle (and a folding recumbent bike that he entered in the SPEZI contest), while Jill and I were just representing the enthusiastic part of the U.S. velomobile market.
Peter Cox and Frederik Van de Walle talked about social barriers to velomobile acceptance. The public imagines a progression (implying "progress") from bicycling, to motorcycling, and finally to driving. Positioning velomobiles as bicycles may make sense to people who are willing to ride unusual, non-conformist bicycles and don't hesitate to move to even more unusual bicycles. However, most people will think of velomobiles as a very odd version of what they see as the lowest-status mode of individual transportation. The ordinary person will be unwilling to value a velomobile highly enough to pay its production costs. Conformists and status-seekers won't consider using a velomobile unless their perceptions can be modified. If we recognize the "evolinear" model of transportation as artificial, we can construct and promote a different model. Frederik proposes a matrix in which motorcycles, automobiles, velomobiles, and bicycles are arranged in two dimensions, rather than in a linear progression. Along one dimension, there is a continuum from open to closed (motorcycle to auto, and bicycle to velomobile), while the other dimension moves from human-powered to motorized (bicycle to motorcycle and velomobile to auto).