400km brevet
This brevet has been on my calendar for
a few months, I rode the same course last year and I though it was a good
course, in particular for a velomobile with only 2000m of climbing.
At 4:30AM, the air is cold, 9C but
relatively comfortable and the sky is clear.
I needed to put on a jacket, I wish I had my sleeves but at least I have
my warm-up legs.
My friend Alain from the Montreal
Randonneurs, who was at the Sunshine 1200, came with his Quest to ride this
brevet. We quickly made our way to the front while riding through
suburbia and once on the open road, we started putting serios distance between
us and the rest of the group.
After a few minutes, I found myself way
ahead of Alain too, and while he is a stronger and more seasoned rider, he
could not keep up with the speed of the DF and I waited for him. The
difference in speed is so noticeable, it is in the order of 5 to 7km/h on the
flat. Since he came from Montreal to
ride with me, I wanted to remain with him so I would stop and let him
catch-up.
Around lunchtime, Alain started having
drivetrain issues, he had problem especially going up the hills, there were
weird noises, thonk, thonk. At that point we are at the furthest from our point
of departure. After a long time trying
to figure out where the noise is coming from, He decided to continue at a
slower pace to see if he can ride gently back to the arrival but he give me his
key and tells me to go ahead and if he can’t make it, I would be able to rescue
him.
 |
| Trying to resolve drivetrain issues on the Quest |
In the afternoon the road is busy with a
large bike tour with several thousands cyclists and a motorcycle tour with some
500+ motorcycles travelling on the same roads.
I make it to destination at around 8:20PM.
Alain and I stay in touch throughout the
day and he’s stuck almost two hours by car from the point of
departure/arrival. His idler broke and
he had no way of repairing it on the road.
I went to pick him up and we made it back after 12AM. Velomobiles are very fast but sometimes more
difficult to repair than standard bicycles.
It was fun to ride with another velomobile
and to see the difference in performance first hand. The DF is faster, climbs better (well it also
depends on gearing and legs) and size difference is fairly big. I had a chance to try the Quest and it feels
so large, I had forgotten how much.
Oh, by the way, my new custom foot beds have
improved but not cured the hotfoot issues I had on the 300km brevet, my toes
got numb and the foot started to be sensitive on the last 75km but it was not
overly painful. I will go back to see if
they can be improved.
Australian Pedal Prix
Teams are getting ready for the second
event of the season and organizers have made changes to the start of the
race. A fifteen-meter gap between each
of the different categories will be mandated on the warm-up lap before the
start of the race. This will address a
problem where some teams took position ahead of others in their category at the
start thus giving them an unfair advantage for the race.
Intercitybike
Production has resumed at Intercitybike, in
May there were 10 velomobiles delivered by Intercitybike, 5 DF and 5DF-XL The orderbook is relatively stable with 84
velomobiles on order.
Daniel’s Skunkworks is still very busy, Daniel
is in the process of designing a new stiffer boom for the DF. Strong rider notice some flex in the current
boom and this will address this issue.
The bottom bracket and crank will be inside the boom, that will be
raised a bit to center the pedal stroke.
The boom will have pre-drilled location for the crank as a result, the
location will be moved significantly if the crank is moved from one hole to the
next. He’s also continuing work on the
DFs, the extra small velomobile, pictures show that he has built a narrower
bridge.
Velomobiel
The order book is
filling up at Velomobiel there are now 44 velomobiles on order, almost half of
them are QuatroVelos. In May, there were
just 6 velomobile delivered in May. The
brakedown is 4 Strades, 1 Strada Carbon and 1 Quest XS Carbon.
Hello, it is a pleasure to read about your adventures with the DF. You write about that the quest feels big in comparison and is more agile. Have you a idea about the turning circle of the DF?
ReplyDeleteHello Melker, First, the turning radius is dependent on the tire size you use. This being said, to give you an approximate comparison, I think the turning radius must be in the 8m compared to 11m on the Quest but I did not measure it and did not see published specifications from ICB. The other major difference is the wider track width on the DF that gives you the ability to take a corner faster than you can in the Quest. Finally, the weight difference and stiffness makes it more nimble during a climb or when you accelerate. I hope this answers your question.
ReplyDeleteHi, yes that was a good answer, I'm living in a quit hilly area outside Stockholm in Sweden so I want a velo that is good on climbing and nimble enough to handle city traffic. I love to ride fast so the DF is interesting and looks promising. My only remaining struggle is to decide if I should goo for DF or DF-XL and find somewhere to test-drive the machine.
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