Velomobiles: aerodynamic bicycles, fully enclosed for protection from the weather and safety. This blog is about riding, maintaining, and customizing velomobiles. .
One of my first composites projects was trying to make wheel pants for the WAW. The WAW has exposed front wheels for smaller turning radius and easier wheel/suspension maintenance. Wheel pants covering the wheels and wheel well will improve the aerodynamics, but also creates a larger turning radius. On my first attempt I was designing … Continue reading Molds for WAW wheel pants, again.
Once the resin was all set on the lower right side tail mold, it was time to remove the polyethylene walls and the foam blocks, and start preparing to make the lower left mold next. I now realize I used too much hot glue between the foam and the plug... I figured the glue wouldn't … Continue reading Finishing the Tail molds
Progress has been slow but steady, even more so because of my living in a state with a "stay at home" request. Truthfully I'm very much a homebody anyways, but the request meant my career workload was cut down quite a bit, so I have had plenty of time to work on the Zephyr 🙂 … Continue reading The plug is complete!
The first group of molds that I will make is for the tail cone. There are 5 separate molds involved. The tail cone mold will consist of three separate pieces: left lower section, right lower section, and the third part is the curved upper surface of the tail cone. I also added two access panels … Continue reading Building molds for the tail cone
As I was shaping and finishing the rear section of the velomobile plug, I ended up with 2 different and distinct designs left and right, mostly caused by my being over-zealous with the hot wire foam cutter on the left side. After thinking and musing about it I decided the right side was a more … Continue reading The plug is completed!
I ordered a rear suspension kit from Katanga, to install on the Zephyr. The suspension was designed as an upgrade/retrofit for the WAW. It moves the rear axle rearward by about 2 inches, using a virtual pivot design. The kit arrived mostly assembled, and the small bolts were taped in the hole for shipping. The … Continue reading Designing for the rear suspension
I cut up a couple vinyl sign riders, to create some quick measurement guides for checking the symmetry on my plug: https://flic.kr/p/2hY6AUK The upper guide is 48 centimeters between the left and right points, and at top middle there is a small point. The small point lines up on the centerline so I can check … Continue reading Symmetry and other fun stuff!
I'm creating my own velomobile for varied reasons, whether for customizing the fit or trying to wring out any aerodynamic improvements I can. Most decisions have a trade-off though; I may gain some aerodynamic advantage by making a change, but that may mean I give up something else. Some of the aerodynamic tweaks that I'm … Continue reading Trade-offs
Our Thanksgiving travel plans were canceled at the last minute, due to some family health concerns. So we were home for the long weekend, which gave me lots of time to continue working on the plug! The hot wire cutter is still working well, I've only had to replace the stainless steel wire one time … Continue reading The curves are showing up!
I know that I could do my velomobile design work on a 3D program, and cut out templates for each 2" slice of my design, but I want to do it "old school" - glue a bunch of pieces of foam together, and then sculpt the design from a huge foam block! So I cut … Continue reading Working on the foam Plug
