End of March Update

There are several newsworthy items to report this week. I try to accumulate the items before I post them on my Blog so some items have been more widely reported in other forums.

Velomobiel

The guys in Romania are still working on the Quattro plug

The top part will be laminated on the bottom part in the production process of the body.
In order to have access to the components there will be a hatch where the foot holes are, big enough to cut the footholes in the hatch. It can easily be replaced if the footholes need to be relocated to fit a new owner or replaced by a hatch with closed holes in winter.
The middle section of the body is accessible through the manhole and the tail through the luggage hatch, every part of the body can be repaired from the inside in case of damage.

Intercitybike

The second plug for the DF XL has been completed. This will increase the production rate for this model.

Five wheels better than four?

Wednesday this week there will be a presentation in Dronten at IntercityBike/ Ligfietsshop of the new DF Cargo. The presentation will start at 14.00 pm, everyone is welcome, while sipping a cup of coffee or tea, the presentation of the DF Cargo Daniel Fenn will also be there. Daniel will discuss the design philosophy and design choices made in the development of this third creation in the DF family.

Ymte Sijbrandij says "This is the first fast bike that you can take part in competitions as both camping." The DF Cargo gets five wheels. Ymte: "More wheels is a trend we started with two wheels then move to three wheels and more recently the introduction of the Quattro that we see as an intermediate step in the market to five wheels.. Furthermore, the weight is better distributed and the single wheel at the back enables a narrower tail design to improve aerodynamics. Ymte says that they expect a lot from the new design.

Byess

I reported that the Kx will be the only velomobile available from Byess but Michael Byess indicated that they would still take orders for the Evo-K and Evo-Ks until the Kx is officially made available for production.

Velotilt

Wim posted some pictures of the Velotilt with the Tourtop prototype. The Tourtop is currently being trialed on the road but the hood is not available yet.

Tire Tests

Wim Schermer has also tested Schwalbe One (size 406) at the request of the University of Liverpool who are preparing their participation at Battle Mountain with their Streamliner Arion 1. The tire did not do especially well in the test, it ranked behind the Shredda and the Ultremo ZX.

Chicagoland Unconventional Bicycle Expo (CUBE

The first annual Chicagoland Unconventional Bicycle Expo (CUBE) was announced this week. The expo will be October 2^nd to the 4^th, at The Tinley Park Convention Center in Tinley Park, Illinois. The expo appears to be similar to SPEZI but I expect on a much smaller scale. The organizers will set-up an area for outside for test riding.

In the short term, I expect this expo will mostly attract people from the Midwest but if the first edition is successful, the expo may increase in size and stature to become a national event. Now the question is if you will see velomobiles at this expo? The exhibition may be beyond the resources of the velomobile manufacturers and importers not to mention that the show is relatively far from their home base.

Trisled

After Raderwerk, now Trisled announces that a new improved website is in the works.

HPRacing

HPRacing Team, a small 15-person team has unveiled the plug for their 2015 PedalPrix racer velomobile. It is very slick! http://www.hpracing.org/blog/plug-safe-and-sound The team plans on racing the new velomobile at the Loxton event.