First 200 brevet of the season

First 200 brevet of the season

I know that over the past few weeks I’m not writing as much, in part because I have not found many new items to report and because I am otherwise busy these days.  As I’ve been mentioning several times, we’ve had a very late start for our riding season.  All the snow came between X-Mas and the first week in April.  Just last week it was still snowing but over the past week, things have started to improve. 

Yesterday I rode my first brevet; a 200km ride with 1,700m of climb.  This was one of the first warm days; the temperature at the start of the ride was 3C, it climbed slowly to 16C in the afternoon, the sun was shining and the wind was moderate.  Road conditions were fair to poor which is normal for this time of the year when the ground is soaked and thawing creating bumps, holes and cracks on the pavement.  At times, I felt that I was in a slalom event trying to stay out of the worst patches.

This was my first brevet with the hood.  I was able to ride with my helmet fairly comfortably but having a helmet under the hood makes it much warmer.  I also had a few problems during the ride, nothing major but I will have to address.  There are a few hills in the 9 to 10% range on that ride and I had problems shifting to the low-low so as a result, I had to climb on bigger gears than I would have.  On the last section I could feel a thump-thump from the rear end.  I thought it was a broken spoke but it turns out that the rear wheel is out of alignment and may have a flat spot.  I will have to take it to the bike shop and hopefully they can fix it.

Now I will take a few days rest and get back in the velomobile to get ready for more brevets.

Velomobiles.ca

The first Milan MX was recently delivered.  The extra large Milan provides room for the oversized velonaut.

 

Milan MX (on the right) next to the Milan GT

WHPVC 2016

Ligfiets reported that the racing programme for the coming World Human Powered Vehicle Championships / Cycle Vision has been announced. The most popular races as every year will be the 1 hour time trial. This is considered top event but at the request of the racers the legendary Cycle Vision 6 hour race will return after a 6-year absence.
All the events on the race schedule, will take place on July 2^nd and 3^rd  of at "Sportpark Sloten, Sloterweg in Amsterdam.
Check out Cycle Vision’s Facebook page for more information.

Velomobiel

Allert posted pictures of the new turtle deck that will be covering the luggage compartment.  The previous cover had windows to provide a view for a small passenger on the child seat in the luggage compartment.  I think the cover with window will probably be offered as an option.  A hood to cover the cockpit opening will probably follow.

Spezi

The 21^st edition of the annual show will take place very soon and velomobile manufacturers are getting prepared.  They will show their velomobiles including their latest creations, prototypes and other accessories.  Some attendees will probably have a chance to test some of the products on display.  The show takes place April 23th and 24th in Germersheim, Germany.

Suntour

For those who like to try new concepts for velomobiles, Suntour offers a little-known enclosed gearbox, which seems to have faired the test of time in a niche of the MTB market. The transmission uses a two-stage transverse system with four saw-tooth clutches, two on the input shaft and two on the output giving a total of nine ratios in the 610% gear range.

The inner workings of the gearbox are greased, instead of a wet sump. Gear change system uses a twin-cable twist shifter and both the cranks and the 22T drive sprocket are specific to the design. An in-depth video of it being dismantled can be seen via www.velovision.com/v-boxx.