ITT I will post velomobile webms

How good are these? Are they faster than road bikes?

They're too big to lane split traffic so don't they lose the entire point of a bike?

File: velomobile.jpg (698KB, 1438x872px) Image search: [Google]

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>>1104334
recumbent with fairing to increase aero. I would say it's more akin to driving, than riding but. Recumbents already have a straight line advantage over a road bike since the rider's back is held in position, one could push their body against the peddles increasing power at the crank. A faired recumbent is faster due to aero but once you add twisties or offroad usage, the benefits of a recumbent position is severely hindered.

>>1104334
The creators of velomobiles made them for one big reason, to reduce the amount of car commuters, not to compete with cyclists.

A velomobile can easily outrun a group of roadies, except in cities and alphine terrain.
Untrained individuals can easily reach 40-45 kph average in a velomobile. In a sprint you will reach 70 kph.

the velomobile in the webm is wide because the creators are Dutch and intended it for the Dutch market, and the Dutch laws state that bicycle has to be wider than 75mm to be able to ride on car-roads if there is also a cycle path. (otherwise you always have to choose the cycle path)

The DF velomobile (google it) is a lot less wide, lighter and faster and the most popular velo of the last 2 years. It's not hard to maintain 50.

It can never beat the maneuvrability and cheapness of a normal bike, and it's not intended to replace a normal bicycle. It's intended to provide an intermediate between a car and a bicycle. You are fully protected from the elements and you can go alot faster than a regular bike, but slower then a car (unless you drive on 50 kph roads, a velo can easily be part of traffic) And you don't have fuel costs or anything like that, and insurance is optional and cheap.

Velomobiles are very popular in the Netherlands because the cycling infastructure is great. Instead of wasting money on car and sitting dead in traffic, you can choose the much healthier and cleaner cycle paths and cycle highway systems. Yes, we have cycling highways, this is what they look like

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bquchW2ZJg4

So where are those webms

>>1104389
I have 20, but 19 of them exceed 3 mb :/

>>1104470
Post any under 4mb in the webms for other boards thread in /wsg/ and link

How good are these at climbing? Because recumbents are poor.

>>1104514
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCMh52asDng

4 mph climbs without electric assist. 6 mph with DS (which is 8 kg lighter)

>>1104520
12% incline

>>1104333
Velonauts are gravity racers, part of our efficiency is to make use of the terrain in the best possible way
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDLmWb-iJI0

I want one but a second hand one is £3,000 and that's good car money.

A bike with plastic glue onto it should not cost as much as a car.

>>1104522
I drive like this too, I have no idea why most drivers don't utilise momentum.

>>1104520
fucking dropped, my grandmother climbs faster on her 40 year old folding bike

>>1104523
you spend 3000 quid on that car and you will have to spend

a) 500 quid a year for maintenance
b) 1000 quid a year for fuel
c) 500 quid a year for insurance
d) 150 quid a year for tax

optional
d) 150 quid a year for parking
e) any potential speeding tickets


Over their lifetime the average British motorists will clock up a staggering 556,764 miles and spend £168,880.

If you decide not to get a car you could buy a home and rent it out.

A velomobile body is not made of plastic glue, but of fiberglass or carbon fibre. Lots of man hours go into building one. Velomobiles are priced the same as new 125 cc bikes or high end roadbikes..

>>1104528
you overestimate the importance. How often do you have to face hills like these? Not very often, and most of the time you can use the momentum to your benefit to still reach the top quicker.

>>1104530
and if you do need to face big hills, there's always electric assist.

>>1104333
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdGjChocigQ

>>1104529
>>A velomobile body is not made of plastic glue, but of fiberglass or carbon fibre
I think anon meant plastic glue as in carbon fibre, which is kind of what it is

The other problem I'd see with using a velomobile in any kind of practical situation is parking, it's kind of rude to park something that big on a bike rack.

You can get a lot of aerodynamic benefits from just having a tail fairing.

Upright or recumbent.

File: Thurs_Qual20Mike36mph.jpg (96KB, 800x544px) Image search: [Google]

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>>1104565
Or do pic related.

If UCI ever allows bents, they should allow simply fairings too.

How important is aero in a peloton?

File: 1475939_10202642856174971_246030619_n.jpg (82KB, 960x720px) Image search: [Google]

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>>1104523
I'm building one (tadpole trike first) out of old/free/new/budget bike parts and mild steel tubing. It's very common actually, fleet trikes is archived somewhere and has good guides, atomic zombie has some too but they charge for their plans, you can get most of the info from their forums though.

I'm going to build the fairing to velomobilize it out of coroplast, this is actually very common practice and the number is growing.

I wish China made tadpoles as cheap as bigbox bikes (looks like the low side is still ~$900). Even with the trike, there are no commercially available cheap fairings to my knowledge, probably since most of them are specific to trike.

>>1104576
The peloton is basically one big draft, the front riders are taking the brunt of the wind resistance and they can rotate out. With velomobile drag coefficients ~.1 (vs .8 - 1 of upright bikes), drafting is mostly no longer necessary, and the peloton wouldn't even be a strategy anymore.

>>1104590
I figured.

But I wondered how faired upright bikes would change cycling.

Even a partial front fairing and a tail fairing can be pretty significant without peloton.

>>1104591
Probably still enough to eliminate it or at least change tactics significantly, wiki says peloton reduces drag up to 40% for the inner riders, that's still a Cd of ~.5. A sock or tailbox would probably still have less.

Why not a faired 2 wheeler recumbent with an open bottom for your feet?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFb9oBw8fuc

Doesn't seem hard to make yourself.

also upright fairings:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akTv5ZwTBSM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nZWK4hF5Ns

>>1104604
>Why not a faired 2 wheeler recumbent with an open bottom for your feet?

Because a bent will have more balance issues with the fairing.
In case of wind.

Different for uprights where it's easier to keep balance, though it can still be scary

>>1104374
I often cross parts of the f35 on my road bike. Smooth and fast asphalt. Thanks VVD!