Surprise, not riding velo much

There is a reason for not riding one of my velomobiles much.  I have a high racer that I am trying to get down to under one dollar per kilometer.  It has taken quite a while to get to this point where I am close to the goal as I have had the high racer for three or four years.  Obviously I have not ridden it much opting to use a velomobile instead.   It is a Bacchetta Strada that I bought from Cambie Cycles for a good price.   I do have some criteria for doing this, it has to warm enough to ride with short sleeves, it has to be dry, there have to be some hills and the ride can't be too far.   Riding to the post office or store on the island fits these conditions but at only 10 km for the round trip you don't knock off very many kilometers.

Last week end I went for a longer ride catching the ferry over to Vancouver Island.  It was a nice warm sunny day and I rode too far without eating and drinking enough so the last bit of the ride wasn't as pleasant as it should have been.  The last steep hill after getting off the ferry to Quadra Island was tough.  Had I been in my velomobile I would most likely have stopped and rested very briefly on the hill or gone at a very slow pace in low gear.  On the high racer I don't have the option of stopping without getting off(walking is uncool but can be necessary) and it is geared a bit high to go slow enough.  If I rode much slower balance becomes my main issue.  I did the same ride just a couple of days ago and felt much better.  A bit more liquids and some food did the trick.  I did have a good tail wind for the first part of the ride and was holding 38-40 kph which was great except I would have to ride back against it. 

I finally rode the velo to the post office the other day.  The big surprise was that I was faster than with the high racer.  The trip ended up being 25:38 minutes compared to around 28-30 on the high racer.  I had assumed that I would be faster on the high racer as it is a bit hilly.  The reason the velo was faster is that I could carry a bit more speed from the downhills to the uphill.  The hills are fairly short but terrain is not would I would call velomobile friendly.  Not enough rolling hills just some short steep bits.  Curious to see if the Milan GT will be even quicker as I should have a bit more speed coming into the uphill bits.  Even just a few more kph cresting the hills would make a big difference.

Last Mould

I am presently working on the last mould--not really the last mould but the last needed to make the first Milan GT.  



Here you can see a trial fit of the door plug into the mould before making the return flange.  I am a bit worried that I may have to redo this mould if it does not fit well enough.  Having to press the plug into the mould I made it off of is not a good sign.  It may well work just fine but there is no way of telling until I make an actual part and fit it to the shell.  Progress has now sped up a bit as I finished the kayaks I had on order.  Here is a picture of them and the Milan GT plug.  If the Milans come out as nice as these kayaks I would be very pleased.

I have been walking by the Milan plug a few times every day for a while now.  The shape is growing on me.  When I first saw it on the internet I was doubtful about liking the shape.  This was until I saw it in person during ROAM.  It really does look much better in person than on a flat screen.  While some may like a simpler shape, the nice flowing curves remind me a bit of shapes found in classic old sports cars.  Depending on how the light hits it, it always looks a bit different.  My biggest decision will be what colour to build mine.  I am leaning towards the blue that is in the kayaks.  My second choice is white as it very visible and dresses up really well with a contrasting coloured stripe.  A distant third is a dark green much like British Racing Green.  The reason I won't go with the green is that it shows every little scratch.  Yellow is out as we build about 40% of our kayaks in it and while I like the colour I see too much of it.   





Three More Moulds to Go!!!

I now have three more moulds to make before I am ready to start on building the first Milan GT.

The one of the left is the storage tray that mounts in front of the left side wheel housing.  There isn't one available for the right side but if I find it really useful I will make one for that side too.  The down side of this is that you end up with more stuff as once its in there you do tend to forget about it.  Both of these storage areas together are about the volume of a mid size pannier.  The middle one is the hood.  It should be fairly straight forward to make once we have the mould with a flange on it.  The right one is the door.  It will need to be a two part mould as it has some undercuts.  There are three different sizes of door but I am starting with the one with the biggest bumps.  The others can follow later.   Same applies to the small mouldings used to mount the side stick steering and electrics.

It seems to have taken forever to get to this point.  There is still a lot to do before the moulds are ready to use but that is just sanding and polishing.  I will be quite happy to see the end of the sanding as its boring to do but you do need to be careful to do it properly.  More skill required than you would think at first glance.  I can only sand for a while each session as my hands an elbows can only take so much.  It's not so bad if you are outside on a sunny day.

Best seat at the Movie

I arrived early and had to wait a while until the movie started.  The velomobile was a big hit with the kids.  

Testing the system and waiting for it to get dark.  I took a picture in the dark but it didn't turn out very well.  The carbon top just disappears in the dark.

We had the chance to go see a movie at the Blenkin Park next to the community centre on Quadra Island.  I ended up with the best seat in the park.  Being inside the velomobile was quite an advantage as it cooled off after dark.  Folks sitting in chairs were wrapped up in blankets and wore toques ontheir heads.  I was OK with just a sweater on and my jacket draped over me.  I actually nodded off for a few minutes so I couldn't have been too cold.    I would not recommend sleeping in the velomobile but it is possible in a pinch. 

The screen is an inflated structure about three stories tall.  It only takes a few hours to setup.  The Coastal Cummunity Credit Union is the main sponsor for the event.  Luckily the weather co-operated --the week before it had been raining and a few degrees colder. 

The ride home was interesting as my lights failed to function properly.  I had forgotten to plug a battery into the E-werk and it doesn't work properly without it.  I have a Son dynamo which normally charges a battery and then runs the lights.  I had tested to be sure I had lights before I left as I had charged a battery and turned them on.  The lights would come on and then turn themselves off after about five seconds.  Luckily it was clear night and the moon was just rising.  I did have the flashing rear taillight working so cars could see me from behind.   In the last half on the ride no cars passed me and I could smell the honeysuckle that is in bloom all over the island.  One does go rather slowly downhill when you can't see too well.  Some spots where the forest was tight on both sides of the road were pretty dark.  A mini adventure not to be repeated.   

Rear Fender Etc

The three moulds for the shell lined up on the grass.  The top mould is to the left and the two bottom moulds on the right.  I have started sanding the right most mould as I used PVA as a release agent and it leaves some pattern in the mould.  Using  PVA insures that you do get a release.  I was not willing to rely just on wax for a release after touching up a few spots on the plug.  One more sanding in the mould gives me another chance at making it perfect.   I have built quite a few moulds but have yet to get one that is absolutely perfect. This mould so far is looking very nice. 

The rear fender moulds are now laminated and waiting to be trimmed.  I modified the recess for the chain a bit so it is possible to use just one idler if one chooses to do so.  I also added a couple of ribs to the fender so I can hoepfully build it a bit lighter as they will add considerable stiffness to the flat panel.  If necessary I can turn these recesses into tubes by filling them with foam and then laminating some material over them on the inside side of the fender.  The other option would be to just bond a flat sheet over the recess omitting the foam.  I'll try it without either of these steps to see if it will be stiff enough.  

  



Progress Report

So far I have managed to build the second mould for the Milan GT shell.

This part has been popped off the plug to clean up the parting line.  If all goes well the third and final mould for the shell will be hand laid up this week.  Just from looking at this mould it looks like I can avoid using peel ply in most of the two bottom parts of the shell so we will have a nice smooth finish on the inside of the parts like we do in the hulls of our kayaks.  It makes them easy to keep clean as the inside surface is as smooth as the nylon film used to bag the part.

It has been a while since I did this much hand laminating.  I can't see how folks do this on a regular basis.  I just detest it, having to wear a respirator, gloves, coveralls and deal with sticky gooey smelly resin.  I would much rather spend a bit more time and have it all enclosed under a bag.  Unfortunately for making moulds hand laminating is the most reasonable way to do it. 

After this there are still some more moulds to make before we can build the first Milan GT. I may take just as long to make these smaller moulds as they almost all need to be made in two or three parts so I can vacuum bag or infuse them.  Some of them took serious contemplation to figure out the best way to make the moulds.  The good part about these parts is most of the moulds are small and much easier to deal with as hand laminates. 

Progress on the Milan GT

I am almost ready to build the mould for the top of the Milan GT.  It has taken a while to get to this point.

Here you can see the flange being made.  You can also see the cockpit opening has been closed in so I can vacuum bag or infuse the parts.  The wide flange is also necessary for this.   I have also starting on some of the smaller moulds.  The folks at Raderwerk send me a vey nice light carbon seat to use in the first Milan.  I have been very carefull moulding the seat making sure I don't damage it.  

Once the mould was made I clamped a flange on so I could make the mould wider.  This is a multistep process that will take some time.  I also made a mould of the back of the seat as it has two stiffening tubes built into it.  My plan is to bag the front and back of the seat and then glue the part with the stiffening tubes onto the back of the seat.  This with avoid having to fill the tube shapes with foam.  I would be quite pleased if the weight ended up a bit less but will be happy if it ends up the same as the seat I was sent.  The seat I received was less than 700 grams without any holes drilled in it.