Milan SL & Moving

Just found an interesting picture comparing the Milan SL and the Evo K.

Now the only real question for me is will I fit.  I am just a bit tall to fit at 6'2" but I am keeping my fingers crossed that my long torso and shortish legs will do the trick.  I won't be completely disappointed if I don't fit as I will still have the Milan GT to ride. 

Luckily is taking a little longer than expected to get the patterns(plugs) for the Milan as moving our shop and house has ended up taking longer than what I planned for.  Setting up the shop properly will take lots more effort as squeezing into a space a fifth the size of before is a real challenge.  When I am finally done we will have a very efficient shop that will be a pleasure to work in.  Lots of nice views to the outside and all on one level.  Before we had two levels and I was up and down quite a few times each day.  Not that I minded the built in exercise program but it eat up some valuable time each day. Our new location is on Quadra Island just a short ferry ride away from Campbell River.  As of April 20th our new phone number will be (250) 285-2154. 

Milan Velomobile coming to North America

When I first saw the Milan velomobile on the internet I thought it was rather interesting looking and liked the idea that it was a somewhat different approach to velomobile design.   I wasn't sure if I could get used to the idea of the bumps and how they looked.  I finally got to see one in person during ROAM and it looks much better in person than in pictures.  I then had short test ride and decided that I should built it or something very similar.  It has taken since then to make the right arrangements so we can  build the Milan GT(formerly Milan MK2) and the Milan SL for the North American market.


The plugs for the Milan GT will arrive here in about a month.  Hopefully the moulds for the Milan GT will be built before the plugs for the Milan SL arrive.  The plugs for the Milan SL will leave Germany about the time I get the Milan GT plugs.  We should have our first demo models done by mid summer.

New Signal/Running Lights



This LED light is three 2W LED's  mounted on a heat sink and bonded inside the shell.  It is a bit painful to look at directly from less than 20 feet.  They look lots larger than the standard LED light used and are quite visible even in fun sun. 







Here you can see the clear casting sticking through the shell.  After bonding them to the inside of the shell I carefully sand it flush with the exterior.  After sanding to 600 grit I then polish it with cutting compound.  The result can be seen below.

If you look closely you can see the LEDs mounted on the white disk along with the red and black wires.  Even with the somewhat involved installation procedure these lights end up being the same or less work than our  previous ones.  On the previous ones I had to solder 16 resistors and 16 LEDs on a board and than cast clear resin around them to create the light.  After this was done you still had to cut a hole in the shell and bond them in place.  The new ones  are way brighter with the same energy consumption.  An added bonus is you can make them fit the shape of your velo perfectly.  Some hand eye co-ordination and patience required.  





Second Thoughts on New Velo

I haven't done any more on the new velo just yet.  Some more thinking about how to proceed though.  Rather than build a one off velomobile from the plug I may just use the plug to create stations for a cedar strip velomobile.    The big advantage of using strips is that they tend to fair thenselves quite nicely.  This means you can get away with relatively few stations.   You would at a minimum need staions at the front and back of the front wheels, shoulders and the front and back ends.  One thing that would disappear is the two bumps for the knees and feet becoming just one ong bump.  It is tempting to just smooth out the front in one easy round shape but this makes the velo more suspectable to side winds.  The bumps actually help in cross winds by breaking up the airflow so you do not get pushed around as much.  It still happens but at higher speeds.

The primary reason to try this is out of curiosity to see what can be done. Cedar strip construction can be lighter than a fiberglass construction.  In some circumstances you can rival the performance of carbon fiber construction.  After all wood is a composite material that has been under development for millions of years.  Adding just a little glass and epoxy to both sides of the wood core adds some amazing properties with vey little weight gain.   I suspect that you could eliminate most of the wheel well structure commonly found in velomobiles and mount the front suspension struts to the shell.  You would still have to stiffen the shell in some areas to do this.   If it works out as well as I think it can I would consider offering plans or at least station patterns. 

This may well be a case to too many projects and not enough time.  What is most likely to happen is that I will work on the plug a bit more, stablize it with a layer of glass on the outside and then set it aside until I have time to come back to it. 

More on new velo

Here are a couple of pictures of the frame patterns I made of the first side to use as guides to make the other side the same.

When you take them off and transfer them to the other side you discovery that the sides are quite different.  It is quite easy to make the first side but matching the second side is always a lot more work.

Here is a bit more progress on the other side.  The front is starting to take shape.  It's hard to tell from the picture but there is a slight peak down the center of the nose that defines the shape quite nicely.  The bumps for the feet and the knees will cause lots of grief.  Getting them similar on both sides will be more work that the whole back end.  Anyway the usual thing has happened, I like the second side a bit better than the first.  This is particularly true in the shoulder area.  The area where it is the least defined is the door opening where I still have to figure how it will be done.  I am leaning towards having a fixed size opening without a door, just a foam lid like the Quest etc.  For access to the front chain ring I am considering a removeable hatch that is bolted in place.  You do need good access when assembling the velo but after that's done you rarely need to service this area. This will be particularly important if there are no footholes.   I don't like the head bump yet.  It ended up being a bit out of line as I just shaped it by eye without doing any measuring.  I will most likey cut it off and stick it back on measuring carefully this time. 

Just in case you are wondering why the second side is a different colour its because I ran out of the blue gelcoat which was custom colour match for a repair we did.  So I switched to a green we have and rarely use. 



Rear suspension and rear wheel size

There has been lots of discussion of rear suspension in velomobiles of late.  This has got me thinking about how I should setup the new velo with rear suspension.  For what I observed while riding the first few days of ROAM some improvement here is warranted.  This is especially true when crossing rumble strips here in North America.  I guess they don't have these cycling unfriendly things in Europe.  If they do they are probably a better design and  much less of the hazard. 

The first time I crossed a rumble strip was on the 200 km brevet.  I was approaching a bridge on the highway riding on the shoulder which was reasonable wide and clear of debris.  As the road neared a bridge it narrowed forcing me to cross the rumble strip.  As it was downhill I was moving at a good clip and just as I was going to cross traffic was approaching quickly.  I slowed a bit to ease in behind a car and  crossed without incident.  The rumble strip make a horrible noise as the front wheels crossed and the rear suspension worked well when it crossed.  I was more worried about merging with traffic than the rumble strip.   After this I didn't worry about crossing rumble strips until I read about trouble other folks were having with them.  On the second or third day of ROAM I saw Bram momentary loose control when he ran onto the rumble strip avoiding debris on the shoulder.  This was a particularly bad stretch for bits of wire and tire chunks on the shoulder which had me keeping my figures crossed that I didn't get a flat.  Anyway Bram regained control but he just touched the guard rail putting a mark on the side of his Mango.  There were a couple of other problems like this.  The heavier and more experienced riders didn't have any issues.  The velomobiles with two sided swing arms didn't seem to have trouble.  Now there are a couple of folks working on a better rear suspension strut.  From early reports the new suspension works well in improving handling.

I am thinking on doing it quite differently.  At present velomobiles have a strut goes from the swing arm up to a brace that goes from one side of the velo to the other.  This  stiffens the shell by linking the sides together and  attaches to the head bump.  I don't have this setup in the Borealis where the trike has the rear suspension built into the frame.  The suspension strut  (elastomer) is only about 10-15 cm above the floor of the velomobile.  I do have  "L" shaped bulkhead that extends up the sides to stiffen the shell.   Rather than use exactly this I am thinking of something that is more like the rear suspension on the Scorpion trike.  It uses a  common bike shock that is very adjustable for the rider's weight.  One advantage of doing it this way is you can build a very stiff floor to attach all this to. Combining this with the seat mount bonded to the floor on which you could stand anywhere and the potential for some weight saving  make this approach worth trying.

There may end up being two versions one with a 20" rear wheel and another with a 26".  I like the concept of only carrying one size of tube and tire especially for touring.  Beside with the smaller wheel there is more storage space.  All things being equal the  smaller size may weigh less.   I suspect that a majority of riders would prefer the larger wheel for its perceived advantages.

A bit more on the new Velo



Did a bit more on the new velo while waiting for some electrical work to be done in the new shop.  At first I though it was looking quite big until I lifted it off the sawhorses I had it sitting on and put it on the ground.  Once at ground level it was looking smaller than most velomobiles.   The amount of ground clearance at the front is actually larger than it looks as the shop floor slopes up to meet the doorway.   At the present size of the front with the bottom bracket at its present height there in no need for footholes or bumps to have heel clearance.  My shoe size is 44.   This way you can leave the bottom flat and very clean aerodynamically.   The bump behind the head is still too large and the shoulder width may be a bit excessive.  I will build the other side to match and then take a shape off the outside.  Once I have this layup done I can cut it into some parts so it will come off the pattern.  Then reassemble it and sit inside it to check out all the clearances.