VELOMOBILE UPDATE Frans van der Merwe stopped by over the weekend with his now-completed velomobile. Many of you have seen him--or, rather, you have seen his velomobile--rolling along the street at a good clip. This is his second buildup and it has some significant improvements over his original model. I wrote about the velomobile here last April while it was still under construction so Ill try to keep redundancy to a minimum. This new machine has suspension which is a big improvement over the previous model. The yellow color is more visible as well. And though I am not too enamored of the whole electric bike concept, I find the electric assist on this rig to be a very practical feature--velomobiles can be difficult for hill climbing or accelerating. The weatherproof aspect of a velomobile is a very strong plus. On a day like today when the temperature barely topped the freezing point the interior of a velomobile is actually pretty comfortable. They make great commuting vehicles for this reason. Even in the summer heat the air flow keeps them reasonably cool. So if you see a futuristic yellow and blue torpedo-like thing rolling along an OKC street, dont worry--its not a hallucination. Its just Frans inside his latest invention. And for a price he can build you one of your own!
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 02:20:31 +0000