Happy Anniversary!
Today is my 50th blog post. A year ago I started this little blog because I
wanted to share industry news and give some insight into the velomobile
world. I am not part of the velomobile or bicycle industry but
I like to observe those who are involved and share my observations.
I derive no income and try to remain independent to ensure I am not
pressured on the info I provide.
When I started, I saw a need for a source
of timely information on velomobiles, including new developments, new offerings, and
to provide some general information on manufacturers, distributors as well as
some analysis of this information. At that time, I
frequently saw questions from velonauts and would be velonauts and they could not easily find answers. I was looking
for a way to share the information I was already gathering from different sources including
websites, message boards in several language and Facebook pages; a blog could do this. It can be daunting at times to gather
information in a timely manner. Extracting this information can be
difficult at times, this in large part due the language barrier. There are posts in English, French, German,
Dutch, Italian and several east European languages. I often need to use translation services like
Google and I need to be fluent in "Googlish", this pseudo language where the
syntax is often out of whack and one needs to make sense of this and sometimes I
have misinterpreted what was posted but hopefully not too often and some of you have set me straight.
I try to post as much as I can but I try to be selective too so you may not find some of the information you may have read somewhere else. Maybe it is because I did not see it or maybe it is because I did not find it relevant for many readers.
I hope that the information I provide is
useful to you; comments I received so far appear to be positive. If you have suggestions for subjects to be
addressed in the future, post a comment and I will see if I can provide
information.
Emergency Exit
Plasticized cards providing information to
emergency crews for extracting velomobile riders in case of emergency are now
available for sale. The is fan folded card cost 2 - € 5 and an accompanying 8 x 2,85 cm (BxH) sticker to place
on the outside of the velomobile to inform emergency staff of the card can also
be purchased for 3 - € 5. At the moment, the instructions are cover velomobiles
like the Quest, Strada and Mango that have foot holes. The cards currently available only in German,
I hope it will soon be available in other languages and for other types of
velomobiles. To order you have to
respond to the thread on the German Forum.
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| Pictogram seen on the emergency sticker |
IntercityBike
The new rear shock uses a metal spring will
be available at the end of February. It
is reminiscent of the Quest rear shock but it is beefier. Ymte reports that it
has been tested for 8,000km (5,000mi) so far. It appears that ICB will build the new shock in house. This shock will
apparently replace the DT Swiss air shock in new DF velomobiles. There
is no mention of the price for the new shock.
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| Parts of the new rear damper for DF |
Fwiw... Joyeuse anniversaire in french is happy birthday in English... Anniversary in English usually refers to weddings... I know that makes far less sense than in french... Ooh well... people will get it anyways though...
ReplyDeleteThank you Peter however, after a bit of research, I think I use the term correctly, Maybe this is not common usage for you but I think this is a valid use of a anniversary. Wedding Anniversary is probably the most common use for Anniversary but not the sole use.
DeleteAccording to Dictionary.com the definition says:
1.the yearly recurrence of the date of a past event:
(Launch of this blog)
2.the celebration or commemoration of such a date.
(This blog post)
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/anniversary?s=t
It is true that in French we use "anniversaire" for birthdays but it is also used for all other annual celebrations including a wedding anniversary.
This is expanding the conversation well beyond velomobiles!
Congratulations on the anniversary.
ReplyDeleteThis blog is my go-to place for Velo news - thank you very much.
I try to contribute where I can - I hope that is helpful and encouraging!
Thank you Rob, looking forward to your contributions.
DeleteHi Luc, congratulations. Please keep posting!
ReplyDeleteYou are often very well informed, so I always look forward to your postings. I also run into difficulties with translations every once in a while, google translate is great but not always good enough.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the DF shock: last deliverd DF's have the rear swing arm mounted a little to high. This gives problems with the chain making noise against the swing arm. This has speeded te development of the new shock as I understand it. I believe we now can choose: this shock or a new mounting which is quite a bit of work.
Best regards,
Henk-Jan
Thank you for the information on the suspension, hopefully this will meet with your requirements
DeleteExcellent blog Luc-- I'm now on my fourth Quest XS and have a QuattroVelo ordered so have a great interest in what is happening in the velomobile world. As I've once been extracted by ambulance staff from a wrecked Quest I look forward to the availability of "emergency exit" cards in English! Fortunately I was conscious enough to stop the well meaning responders cutting the Quest to extract me! Keep up the good work, regards from the UK.
ReplyDeleteLets hope the cards will be available in other languages and for other types of velomobiles soon and you provide good reasons to get it sooner rather than later. Lets hope the author reads this blog!
ReplyDeleteLuc, Congratulation. I did a market survey in 2006. I think it is time to do it again. However, havinga partner would help. Would you like to collaborate.
ReplyDeleteRegards,
Yvan Dutil
Thank you Ivan, I may be interested, I will send you a message to discuss.
ReplyDeleteHappy Blog Birthday Luc! I'd like to thank you for all the efforts you put in this very well informed blog. I love to look everywhere for some bit of informations and feel the same need of sharing information into the VM community. You should maybe share your posts on facebook too (I think you are in the group).
ReplyDeleteAnyway: all the best and please go on! You are doing great ;)
Thank you Romain, regarding Facebook I don't want to have two channels. I think many people who are on the Facebook groups are not very serious about velomobiles and would lead to a lot of long discussions. Maybe I could post a note when I have a new entry in my Blog.
ReplyDeleteLast Tuesday, when I got my DF88, Ymte told me it was the first production bike equipped with the new rear shock. It performes very well, similar to my Quest. Though the df is much nosier on rough surface, being much lighter and stiffer. I'm happy with the simple design. Not tested on huge rumble strips as we do not have them in the Netherlands.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the feedback, maybe you can report back in a few months/thousands of km to provide us with an update.
Delete