A real-life pod racer, but with pedals: Ars checks out a velomobile

Taking to the road in a modern, high-speed version of a 40-year-old dream.

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[objectiveryan]

This was a great read, thanks for writing.

If the area where Rosen lives is hilly to the degree that he recommended only a very short ride, yet it was worth the investment to him, that implies that his velomobile really must adapt reasonably well. That’s good to know.

And it’s interesting to note that these things are so fast that you have a problem finding a long-enough route that’s safe to ride for several hours

 

[CluelessOne]

With possible speed over 40 km/hour, what is the regulations on crash-worthyness of the shell? None, equal to motorcycles, or equal to a small car?

Edit: Regardless of the motive power, Internal combustion engine, electric motor, or pedal power, I prefer there is the same safety requirement whenever a vehicle exceeds a certain speed.

 

[solomonrex]

Phenomenal! They look amazing, esp the older one, looks like an Olympic bobsled. I too remember the human powered speed records and I believe someone even pedaling a flying machine made of Saran Wrap and aluminum. Terrific stuff, fascinating about the Velcro, too.

 

[Any Name I wish]

Despite all the lights on the velomobile, I feel less confident that drivers would be fully aware of me compared to how I feel when I'm on my regular bicycle and positioned at eye level with them.

But people really notice recumbents & velomobiles because they's so different. More common bikes may as well be invisible by comparison, nothing about them grabs attention.

 

[Bongle]

Great article! You sound exactly like me: interested in human powered vehicles, but new to the high end ones. It'd be neat to get power numbers out of your ride and compare what a steady state 200w achieves on an upright bike vs a velomobile.

 

[Bongle]

But people really notice recumbents & velomobiles because they's so different. More common bikes may as well be invisible by comparison, nothing about them grabs attention.

There's a guy in my area that has a velomobile and rides it in traffic, and it's so unbelievably low I bet he goes unseen a lot.

However, in city traffic a velomobile should be able to mostly keep up which helps. No speed delta reduces the chance of collision.

 

[ColdWetDog]

I think the 'tank steering' (differential braking) would be the hardest to deal with. I've not driven a tank, but I have operated bulldozers which use the same effect. That's fine for some multiton thing at 5 km/hr. Whizzing on a lightweight device inches off the ground? That would take me a while.

And where do you put it? It's kayak sized and you probably want to keep it inside.

The EMS guy inside me also wonders how you would get someone out of this thing in the event of a crash. But that's just my problem.

 

[Dan Homerick]

It seems fair to ask, "why do you want the speed, anyways?" But in an earnest, serious-question way. Most answers will lead to other solutions, ones with less-intrusive trade-offs, of course. That's why it's niche.

It's an interesting niche though. Seems like the apex of aerodynamic optimization, and I wonder where it will go from here.

Is there still room for tech advancement by actively controlling the airflow? I'm more of less thinking, "what if you could keep the air flowing smoothly around the rider without the shell being there to guide it along the full path?" Some shell in the nose to split the airstream, and some way to create a slightly higher pressure bubble that the split air then flows around.

Without actively controlling the airflow, there might be some "perfect" speed where it works, but I'm thinking active control could widen the range of speeds. I can't imagine it working with much of any crosswind, no matter how clever it got, though.

This is all from someone who hasn't a drop of experience with aerodynamics, in case it wasn't obvious.

 

[jstote]

I have road a Quest XS for over 12 years. The experience is fantastic. It is the best investment I have ever made in my fitness. The speed is so exhilarating that that I often go all out and get a great workout. There are used velomoblies on bentrider.com

 

[thrlcekr]

You could also endeavor to make your own. Materials would cost far less and what a fun project this would be. Making foundation foam body cores and molding fiberglass would be a good starting point before moving to carbon. Much cheaper to get the basics down.

 

[ip_what]

But people really notice recumbents & velomobiles because they's so different. More common bikes may as well be invisible by comparison, nothing about them grabs attention.

Where I am, recumbent stand out some on a bike trail because they’re a bit unusual, but I do see them there fairly regularly.

I almost never see them on a surface street though. And I suspect there’s a reason for that. I wouldn’t trust that little orange flag to catch a drivers attention, particular in slightly moderately hilly places, where a small hill crest can hide a recumbent.

 

[Dan Homerick]

It seems fair to ask, "why do you want the speed, anyways?" But in an earnest, serious-question way. Most answers will lead to other solutions, ones with less-intrusive trade-offs, of course. That's why it's niche.

It's an interesting niche though. Seems like the apex of aerodynamic optimization, and I wonder where it will go from here.

Is there still room for tech advancement by actively controlling the airflow? I'm more of less thinking, "what if you could keep the air flowing smoothly around the rider without the shell being there to guide it along the full path?" Some shell in the nose to split the airstream, and some way to create a slightly higher pressure bubble that the split air then flows around.

Without actively controlling the airflow, there might be some "perfect" speed where it works, but I'm thinking active control could widen the range of speeds. I can't imagine it working with much of any crosswind, no matter how clever it got, though.

This is all from someone who hasn't a drop of experience with aerodynamics, in case it wasn't obvious.

Self quoting here. I'm just musing about stuff without knowing anything about the history of what's been tried. Kinda fun (for me, at least).

What if the body was a sort of inflated plastic bag for most of the shell? That is, use rigid carbon fiber up in the nose to split the airstream, but along the sides only have the bag-like material to guide airflow. The interior is pressurized a bit, possibly with a fan that's tapping its power from the pedals*.

I guess what I'm going for is an even lighter body, as well as having the skin be transparent. Hopefully that would improve the rider's sensation of being out in the environment, rather than being instead of a tank. Plus less weight to lug up hills, of course.

[*] Generating a bit of electricity to run a fan seems easier than a physical linkage.

 

[phik]

With possible speed over 40 km/hour, what is the regulations on crash-worthyness of the shell? None, equal to motorcycles, or equal to a small car?

Edit: Regardless of the motive power, Internal combustion engine, electric motor, or pedal power, I prefer there is the same safety requirement whenever a vehicle exceeds a certain speed.

A regular (dutch style city bike) bicycle can easily do 40 km/hr for short bursts, and no one is crash testing those.

 

[etr]

I too remember the human powered speed records and I believe someone even pedaling a flying machine made of Saran Wrap and aluminum.

You might be remembering the Gossamer Albatross, a human-powered aircraft that actually managed to cross the English channel. If was designed by McCreedy, the firm that also went on to design the EV1 electric car, which you might have been able to see around in the 90's.

 

[ColdWetDog]

You could also endeavor to make your own. Materials would cost far less and what a fun project this would be. Making foundation foam body cores and molding fiberglass would be a good starting point before moving to carbon. Much cheaper to get the basics down.

'Honey, what is that awful smell in the garage?'

Significant fiberglass work is potentially very dangerous without proper setup, has some major olfactory downsides and isn't cheap. Not for the faint of heart nor those challenged for workspace. Having built fiberglass surfboards in my misspent youth, I'd pass.

 

[Grayrest]

As a recumbent cyclist, I object to the "terrible on hills" allegation. I won't argue that recumbents are good on hills just that there's quite a bit of room between good and terrible. Spinning up hills is a completely normal approach on traditional bikes but is the required approach on recumbents. It works fine.

What complicates it is reduced access to peak power so if you're spinning at a relatively high amount of power and waver in intensity what would be a couple out of saddle cranks on a normal bike to regain momentup becomes a significant effort. For me this translates into hill climbing being a much more focused activity where I'm trying to maintain even power.

Hip angle also significantly impacts power and as near as I can tell (there's very little research on recumbents) the relationship between hip angle and power is personal. The ability to go out of saddle on a traditional bike lets the rider intuitively use the angle that works best but hip angles on a recumbent are basically locked. I have two recumbents and one has a bad hip angle for me so I lose a lot of power and hills are terrible while the other isn't a problem other than the aforementioned point.

Finally, generalizing recumbent performance is hard because there are many types of recumbents. Nobody would be surprised that a road bike climbs better than a beach cruiser and the lack of an obviously correct crank to drive wheel configuration means there's an even wider variety of recumbent bikes. I say this because my bad climbing recumbent also has a mesh back seat while my good climbing recumbent has a carbon seat that I can push into for power. I keep the casual recumbent for cruising around the local parks in the evening. It's a lawn chair on wheels.

If the area where Rosen lives is hilly to the degree that he recommended only a very short ride, yet it was worth the investment to him, that implies that his velomobile really must adapt reasonably well.

Velomobiles do very well in rolling hills. On a traditional bike you lose a lot of the potential energy of a hill to drag but a velomobile will convert the majority into kinetic energy which goes back into potential energy going up the next hill. The velonauts get really excited about being able to roll hills.

 

[CADirk]

There's a guy in my area that has a velomobile and rides it in traffic, and it's so unbelievably low I bet he goes unseen a lot.

However, in city traffic a velomobile should be able to mostly keep up which helps. No speed delta reduces the chance of collision.

In the netherlands the visibility issue is solved by using bicycle safety flags normally mounted on children's bikes, attached to the rear of the shell.
And reflective striping for areas that need more attention is always a good idea.

 

[Grayrest]

I think the 'tank steering' (differential braking) would be the hardest to deal with.

It's not actually differential braking but rather the two halves of a flat handlebar are split and at the rotation axis changed via a rod linkage. When you pull back one the other goes forward by the same amount.

 

[ScifiGeek]

The outward visibility with the top on, looks terrifying to me. I would never be brave enough to drive on roads with other traffic in one of these.

 

[ColdWetDog]

It's not actually differential braking but rather the two halves of a flat handlebar are split and at the rotation axis changed via a rod linkage. When you pull back one the other goes forward by the same amount.

Ah, thank you. Wasn't clear and this makes more sense. Tanks and bulldozers use differential braking and that is what I thought TFA was implicating.

 

[Myself]

Okay, so velo-e-bikes...

 

[iq00]

When I was young I built and owned a few recumbent bikes. I also jobbed at a company that built them professionally. At that time the HPV (human powered vehicles) association was quite active in my area of Germany. We set up a competition in the early nineties where faired recumbent bicycles and tricycles reached and exceeded 55mph (90kph) along a 200m timed distance with 1000m of acceleration run up.

Through the members of this I tried a few fully faired recumbent bikes and tricycles.

The advantage is the unbelievable speed that one can achieve on these. The other advantage is weather protection.
The biggest disadvantage is, that there is no natural airflow across your body, cooling and setting up proper ventilation becomes a huge problem. Especially going slowly uphill without proper airflow, where the good aero doesn't help and the weight of the fairing slows you down additionally. And once you stop somewhere in summer the inside heats up immediately. Also getting in and out is often tedious.
Recumbents are very comfortable and work well if there is proper cycling infrastructure. The moment you have to get up and down on unlowered curbs, between road and cycle path, it becomes a problem. One can ride up small curbs, but not being able to unload or lift the front wheel while cycling makes it sometimes really hard for the bike.

I think they are cool. I see some around here in Germany sometimes.

Unfortunately many people see them as annoying freaky stuff. They are diFfeRenT. The extreme of showing how environmentally good the owner of one of these is compared to the guy in a car. And even worse, they need to share space with this shitty eco warrior on the road. And he is so low it is dangerous because I will not see him. And he doesn't pay road tax! And why can't he park his shitty thing in a bike stand like everyone else?
What a nonsense.

 

[Veritas super omens]

So you go to the aerobar to forget the a stint in a velobike?

https://www.aerophile.com/en/aerobar/

 

[RocketFeathers]

Cool! A John Timmer article I can kind of understand.

 

[NinjaNerd56]

I own a Terra Trike Rover recumbent. It is fast.

And no, I never ride it on the road. I installed twin fiberglass flagpoles with RED banners, mirrors, and lights. But people will pull up behind me and gawk on the street.

So, our neighborhood has wide sidewalks, and that’s my road.

I learned that a rapid steering move with the quick action of the two front wheels WILL flip the bike. And it has no shell. Walked away with a dinged shoulder.

I love the bike. Going 10-12 miles an hour a foot off the ground seems like 60; it’s a blast.

 

[Grayrest]

And the question should be why not? Society ask a car to be crash tested. Should not other forms of personal transportation be held to the same standard?

Other forms of personal transportation have orders of magnitude less energy involved in the crash and corresponding orders of magnitude fewer deaths. Regulation tends to only get involved when people die.

As for your original question, there are low 10k total velomobiles in the world and so not that many crashes and it's kind of hobbyist interest level. Aside from crashes the two major safety issues with these are rollover due to the narrow wheelbase and loss of control if the rear wheel loses contact with the ground.

My understanding from reading forums is that the shell does absorb a good amount of energy from the crash so safer than bicycles but not as safe as a car. Most if not all current models have a kevlar/innegra layer in the layup to avoid completely shattering and cutting up the rider that way.

Rollovers are the main type of crash I saw in the postings and when it happens the shell is getting abraded by the road rather than the rider's skin so I'd say that's an improvement over bicycles/motorcycles. There isn't a lot of interest in a wider wheelbase because cycling infrastructure doesn't allow it and frontal area matters. I've seen a number of tilting designs from hobbyists attempting to address this but no obviously right answer.

I've only seen the loss of contact case once but it was scary. A velonaut was doing a ride event and the route ran up the shoulder of the road and, in particular, over a set of rumble strips. When the rear wheel hit the rumble strips the rider lost control, flipped into the main roadway, and barely missed getting hit by an oncoming semi. Pretty sure nothing can be done about this without power steering or electric motors in the front wheels so it's just something for riders to be aware of.

Edit: If anybody is interested in fairly high end performance, this video is a sub 3h century ride by a strong rider. I like it because the roads are terrible and there's plenty of good and bad things to see about the vehicle.

 

[ptman]

What we need is mass market to bring the price down. Please fly to Norway (or anywhere you can get access to one) and test out Podbike Frikar https://podbike.com/ . It's a four-wheeled electric velomobile. Classified as a pedelec (e-bike) in EU, but apparently not in the US. The pedals aren't mechanically connected to the wheels. There's a generator and motors. It can do regenerative braking and run in reverse, which improves handling. Also supposedly has good ventilation so doesn't become a greenhouse (big transparent canopy)

 

[ej24]

And the question should be why not? Society ask a car to be crash tested. Should not other forms of personal transportation be held to the same standard?

At the risk of sounding pedantic, I commute to work by walking, should I also be crash tested? Cars have to be crash tested not because of the speed alone but because of the forces involved due to the weight of the car. F=MA. Force is proportional to mass and cars have a lot of mass. If you start requiring safety shells and armor be attached to every bike, it'll need 4 wheels to be stable, then it'll be so heavy you should add a motor, next thing you know you've reinvented the car. I think it makes more sense to say, why don't we provide more separate space for pedestrians and cyclists rather than trying to mix them with 4000lb metal machines. The forces involved with bikes, even these, are many orders of magnitude lower than with cars.

 

[Hydrargyrum]

Okay, so velo-e-bikes...

Seems like it would handily solve the hill-climbing problem, yeah.

 

[Kebba]

When I was young I built and owned a few recumbent bikes. I also jobbed at a company that built them professionally. At that time the HPV (human powered vehicles) association was quite active in my area of Germany. We set up a competition in the early nineties where faired recumbent bicycles and tricycles reached and exceeded 55mph (90kph) along a 200m timed distance with 1000m of acceleration run up.

Through the members of this I tried a few fully faired recumbent bikes and tricycles.

The advantage is the unbelievable speed that one can achieve on these. The other advantage is weather protection.
The biggest disadvantage is, that there is no natural airflow across your body, cooling and setting up proper ventilation becomes a huge problem. Especially going slowly uphill without proper airflow, where the good aero doesn't help and the weight of the fairing slows you down additionally. And once you stop somewhere in summer the inside heats up immediately. Also getting in and out is often tedious.
Recumbents are very comfortable and work well if there is proper cycling infrastructure. The moment you have to get up and down on unlowered curbs, between road and cycle path, it becomes a problem. One can ride up small curbs, but not being able to unload or lift the front wheel while cycling makes it sometimes really hard for the bike.

I think they are cool. I see some around here in Germany sometimes.

Unfortunately many people see them as annoying freaky stuff. They are diFfeRenT. The extreme of showing how environmentally good the owner of one of these is compared to the guy in a car. And even worse, they need to share space with this shitty eco warrior on the road. And he is so low it is dangerous because I will not see him. And he doesn't pay road tax! And why can't he park his shitty thing in a bike stand like everyone else?
What a nonsense.

I am very interested in the practical "going-to-work -without-needing-a-shower-speed". What is the comfortable speed in one of these things? I do 15-20 comfortable on my Dutch style bike, what is the equivalent?

There is somebody working in my office who uses one of these daily for his commute, rain or snow. It looks really nice and relaxing to me. One of these as a e-bike would be a fantastic commuter vehicle if the infrastructure allow for safe usage

 

[Spiders from Mars]

Among my fleet of bicycles is a Rotator Tiger recumbent which has three advantages: extremely aero- efficient, extremely comfortable to ride, 20 inch wheels really enhance acceleration. It also has a seating position that lets you enjoy the scenery around you-to the max!
The disadvantage is hill climbing. A steep hill means you're going to climb very slowly. No "stand up and burst of energy" mode possible when sitting in a chair.
It also attracts gawkers, so many gawkers. 'The circus has come to town' level of gawkers.
But for flat or gently rolling rides, nothing matches it.
I used this bike after my shoulders got wrecked for a while bc hard rock climbing and acrobatic gymnastics are not things my body-type should be doing. Recumbent bikes generally very gentle for the body including the neck, a part of the body the standard road bike position does no favours.
Just for reference, the seat height of this bike is equal to being in a Mazda Miata.

 

[kliu0x52]

I'm slightly disappointed that the article had no pictures of what it looks like with a person sitting inside; I had to click through the links in the article to find some.

 

[dwrd]

...

The EMS guy inside me also wonders how you would get someone out of this thing in the event of a crash. But that's just my problem.

I received the impression from the article that the non-load-bearing aero surfaces are quite fragile. They could probably cut you out of what was left of it with a pair of trauma shears.

 

[Spiders from Mars]

I wonder if a solar-powered ventilation fan would be an aid for the ventilation issues of a fully enclosed velomobile/solar oven.

 

[BitPoet]

I biked across the US on a trike, my thoughts on hills were that I'd be at the top eventually, just not quickly. The tradeoff? The plains. Being that low and more aerodynamic, even without the shell meant that I was blasting along at 30+ mph with little effort. I didn't feel like I was in danger because I had a flag on the back, but also because I was something unique on the road. I stood out as something different, this something to pay attention to.

I also got to bike 3000 miles while sitting in the equivalent of a lawn chair.

Mine didn't have tank steering, the wheels turned, but the disc brakes were on the front wheels, so you could do both, plus leaning your body (not your bike) into curves.