Velomobile riding tips
This week I thought I would share some tips
for newer riders and some who may want to address some issues they have when
riding.
What
to expect.
When riding a velomobile, for the first few weeks, you find yourself with
no reference. It is not behaving like a bike,
a car or a trike; this leads to conflicting feelings when riding a velomobile. A velomobile is less nimble than a bike, it
requires a larger turning radius, does not accelerate quite as fast, requires
that you pay attention to where all three wheels are located to try to skirt potholes
and bumps. A trike is similar but the
speed will surprise you. Because you are
enclosed and low to the ground, you will feel a velomobile is slow compare to a
car and the ride is a bit rougher.
Speed: At first when you are riding a
velomobile, you may not feel like you are going fast compared to a bike or
trike, I think this is because you may feel you are riding in a car, you do not
feel the breeze except on your face but look at the speed indicator, you will
probably find you are riding from a few to many km/mph faster than you would be on
a bike or trike on the same route.
One of the biggest surprises I had was
approaching an intersection with a stoplight.
On my road bike, I would stop pedaling and the speed would gradually decrease
as I approach the intersection and maybe I would have to slightly press on the
brakes to come to a complete stop. In a
velomobile, you would be wise to reconsider this strategy. When you stop pedaling, it will take a few
seconds for the speed to start going down and it will not go down quickly, you
will have to put the brakes like you would in a car to stop in time.
Unlike bikes and trikes, at times a
velomobile can travel at the posted speed or even at motorized vehicle speed,
even of mostly flat ground. This changes
your relationship with traffic. You need
to ensure you take the lane so you do not get squeezed off the road by other
vehicles on the road. This completely
changes your relationship with other users of the road, something you will need
to get used to.
Steering: The steering of most
velomobile can be very sensitive, you need to turn only slightly to make the
velomobile move sideways. The steering requires
about 30 degrees to go from neutral to full turn. This is something you need to get used to
because at high speed over steering my, at worse, cause you to lose
control. The sensitive steering can also
produce movement Guppying – well I invented the term to describe the movement
of the velomobile going slightly left and right as you pedal like a fish (guppy). Some
of that movement comes from mashing the pedals so smooth and round pedaling is
important but not the only cause. One of
the best recommendations for those who have tiller steering is to rest your
tiller on your body when you ride and hold the tiller very gently. Gripping the steering will accentuate
movement. As a result, someone may
instinctively want to counter-steer and this will create more of an issue that
can even lead to the loss of control. A
tight grip on the steering is particularly dangerous going at high speed. You may not feel safe but holding the tiller
with white knuckles while descending at high speed is even worse. If your velomobile tracks well on a flat
surface, let it go down the hill, look far ahead and react slowly to turns ,
try to avoid quick movements of the tiller.
Turning: when you get to a street corner, ensure that you are not going too
fast for the turn, reduce speed if you need to.
If you can don’t stay close to the curb, if traffic permits, take the
lane; it will make the turn safer and you will be able to ride faster into the
turn. In sharp corners, it is easy to
lift the front wheel on the inside of the turn and can be dangerous. In addition to reducing the speed, you want
to shift your weight to the inside of the turn to shift the weight to the
inside wheel. Just push you shoulder
against the velomobile shell; it will help.
If this does not work and you lift the
front wheel, in order not to overturn, you will need to ease the tiller and
turn it in the opposite direction and quickly apply the brakes. This maneuver can be tricky and I suggest you
try this in an empty parking lot. You
may also end-up in the incoming lane so be very careful you have to decide buy
without this maneuver, you may find yourself in the opposing lane on you side.
Making a 180-degree turn in a velomobile
can be tricky because most velomobiles have a large turning radius. Pick a spot where the road is widest and
flat, move completely to the side of the road, ensure that there is no vehicle
coming in any direction, when the coast is clear, turn the steering to the
maximum and quickly make your turn. Keep
in mind that your turning radius may be bigger than the road so you may have to
unclip to push the velomobile backwards or use the wheelchair method if you do
not have foot holes and you front wheels are open. If you cannot perform the turn within the
roadbed, you will have to stop and quickly back up. Keep an eye on traffic at all times. If you know you cannot quickly make the turn,
try to make it to an entrance across the street then when there is no traffic
you can back-up into the street or get out of the velomobile and manually move
your velomobile in position. Making a
180 turn can be dangerous so think of your strategy before you start the maneuver.
Road
hazards: you will encounter many hazards on the
road and you need to know what could be dangerous to you and your velomobile. In a velomobile your position is close to the
ground and in some models, visibility near the front of the velomobile may be
restricted in addition, the speed and low position mean that some hazards may
be more difficult to spot. Since all
three wheels have their own separate track, you have to be careful that all
wheels miss hazards. To do this you
always need to scan the road ahead for potholes, bumps, rock and debris. You should soon be able to estimate the track
of the wheels and aim to miss the small ones or go around larger ones.
One of the sneakiest issues you may
encounter on the road is the slanted road.
Roads often have a slant to evacuate water, most of the times the crown
is in the middle of the road but sometimes, only the shoulder is slated. You have to be careful when riding when the
road is slated more than about 15 degrees because this can make the velomobile
unstable; you need to move to a flatter part of the road even if it means that
you take the lane.
Water and sand can also be an issue on the
road, in a corner they can make the road slippery but an accumulation even in a
straight line can also be dangerous because getting one wheel in deep sand or
water at high speed may make you slide and lose control. If you encounter an accumulation of sand or
water, slow right down or steer clear of the hazard.
Performance: You want to take advantage of the performance
of your velomobile, you need to understand that you need to adapt. To help you improve your performance there
are a few tools you should consider getting.
The first is a cycling computer with cadence, it will help you better
manage your
Cadence: in a velomobile, to get a good performance, you need to learn to
spin the cranks. You should have a cycling
computer that measures and displays your cadence. My cadence is significantly higher in the
velomobile than it was on a traditional road bike; I average over 100rpm during
my rides. This high cadence will help
with several aspects of your riding.
In order to be able to spin the cranks
safely at high speed you should have clipless pedals where you insert a cleat
attached to your shoe into the pedal.
This prevents your foot from slipping on the pedal and hitting the shell
and/or injuring yourself. In addition,
you can maintain proper position and enable you to pull on the pedal on the
return stroke. This makes it easier to
climb steep hills and generally apply more power on the crank throughout the
whole pedal revolution.
Climbing: when you approach a hill you have to determine if you will require
to switch to a lower ring to get to the top.
Switch to the lower ring early, changing ring when you are climbing my lead
you to drop the chain, You need to maintain a good tempo, at slow speed lets
say when starting from a stoplight, you need to determine the right gear to
climb. The gear should be high enough to
maximize you speed up the hill but low enough to also reach your ideal cadence
for climbing. When climbing, you should
pedal constantly and try to maintain the same tempo; when you feel that it gets
too hard to maintain the same cadence, shift down one gear at a time to keep
the tempo. At some point you could reach
the lowest gear and you will need to reduce your tempo but you should try to
maintain tempo until then. When the
slope gets less pronounced, you should try to keep the same tempo and the same
level of effort to start accelerating so you need to shift the gears up one at a time until you get
to the top. If you need to, after you
reach the top, you can coast for a few seconds and let your leg rest then
continue accelerating until you reach your cruising speed.
On rolling hills, after you reach the top,
continue to shift the gears up all the way to you highest gear, accelerating to
maximum speed, until you spin out. You
may be able to climb the next hill without losing much speed. Do not stop pedaling, just shift down one
gear at a time when needed trying to keep the tempo up. Unless you feel uncomfortable at the speed
you are traveling down the hill, you should not brake to reduce your momentum or
use the minimum required to get down safely.
Accelerating: a velomobile is heavier than a bike or a trike but it does not mean
that you cannot overtake them. First,
just like a on bike, you should be in a gear you will have no trouble pushing;
make sure you have selected that gear before you stop. When you start from an
intersection, start pedaling and keep up the tempo. When you approach your maximum cadence, shift
up one gear at a time, continue accelerating to maximum cadence then shift up again until you
reach your cruising speed. Bikes and
trikes will reach their cruising speed while you will continue
accelerating. During acceleration, you
can accelerate in stages. If your legs get tired or otherwise need a little
rest, stop pedaling for a few seconds give yourself a rest, velomobiles will
coast for a long time then give another push until you reach a higher speed and
you need another rest, repeat the process until you reach your cruising speed.
Equipment: To extract the most performance of your velomobile, some equipment
will help the engine develop and work at peak power. As indicated above, you should have a cycling
computer that measures your cadence. In
addition, I recommend that you also have a heart rate monitor to ensure you can
gauge your effort. If you have a bit
more funds, a power meter would help you better measure your performance. To best use this equipment, you should seek information on how to use them best.
I hope these tips will help you ride safely and
extract the most performance your velomobile has to offer. I may provide more tips at a later date.
This week I have no velomobile industry news
items to report… industry people must be thinking of the holidays.
