Friday, January 28, 2011

Borealis V1.... Borealis V2 ....Borealis V3

A brief explanation of the differences between the various versions.

Borealis V1 is the original version.  I have been using this now for four years.  It fits onto the older QNT or now the Sprint NT(narrow track) from Inspired Cycle Engineering from Britain.  The Sprint NT is still available from ICE.  It is not on their website but if you ask they still have frames available.

Borealis V2 a recent upgrade of the orginal.  The biggest change is that the top is now about 5 cm lower than the original.  The reason for this change was to improve the sight lines for shorter riders.  Unless your really tall this is  version for you.  I think it has also improve the speed a bit with the reduction of the frontal area.

Borealis V3 is a completely new shell that fits on the Sprint trike.   The tooling for building it is almost completely done.  Apart from being wider to fit on the Sprint it is also much quicker to assemble.  The base comes completely assembled so yo only have to drop the trike in place, add the rear fender and wheelwell covers before bolting the top on. 

All the versions can now have suspension of all three wheels.  You can upgrade the trike with a front suspension upgrade kit form ICE.  When I started this project the QNT was the only non custom built trike that came with rear suspension.  This plus the fact I like how it handled makes it an excellent base for a velomobile. With the front suspension added the Borealis is very comparable to most custom designed velomobiles.  It is very practical vehicle for everyday use.

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