Agilo velomobile

To do:

- missing: swing arm, front light
- service motor (PAS, bearings) and install, electrics to be wired when parts arrive (on their way from China)
- paint

I designed and built a swing arm in wood and carbon fibre. I was a little extreme (exploring limits is my speciality...) so it is not good enough for use. As a prototype it is fine and now I know how to improve the design so that it works. So now I am waiting on Vasilli of Leiba to tell me how I can pay for the swing arm specified by the designer and when he can deliver. If anyone knows him personally please say I am in a hurry ;)

Other issues:

I read with interest the tiller conversion of @Axel-H and his comments on brake cable routing. I am going back to shorter cables and down pull too, and have a couple of new flexible metal cable guides for the 90º corner. I also have rubber boots which will get some lithium grease and there will be about 3 cm of exposed brake cable. I can also see a parking brake on the rear wheel in my near future, the metal rod thing will disappear and be replaced with Velcro tape for now.

I need another 2 x front wheels but will they be for Agilo or the trike??? Road testing will tell me if the Azub wheels are good enough.
 
and now I know how to improve the design so that it works. So now I am waiting on Vasilli of Leiba to tell me how I can pay for the swing arm specified by the designer and when he can deliver. If anyone knows him personally please say I am in a hurry
Maybe it is wise to make a second, hopefully working prototype for the arm while You're waiting for the parts from China?
 
Maybe it is wise to make a second, hopefully working prototype for the arm while You're waiting for the parts from China?

I hope Vasilli isn't reading this! :LOL: Don't discourage him!

I could just add more material and weight and probably have a serviceable swing arm in a few days. But the goal of the design is to make something that works and could eventually be built by other people in the future.

As first builder it is also my duty to stay as close to the plans as possible.
 
@emotor

My wood velomobile is build in birch plywood, also not rated for exterior use. Not a sign of rot yet after a second year in use. The inside was not glassed or epoxied. If i would build a second one, i'd make sure to coat both sides in a layer of epoxy at least. It is stored inside at home and under a roof at work. When its cold and rainy it can take a long time for the inside to dry out. Sometimes over a week. So depending on use and where your velocar stays, that may be a bad thing.

When coated on all sides, with epoxy no water can get in the wood. But as there are bolts and holes and edges and openings, there are lots of possible holes in the waterthight epoxy coat. If water gets in an epoxy coat, it is much more difficult for that water to evaporate out again. If the wood allready has a high water content, coating it in epoxy can make for a much quicker rotting proces. Using a paint that allows water to evaporate thrue the skin, is another solution. In Boat forums, there is a endless debate wich route is best. Both can work, and both can be done by a homebuilder. Also both methodes have can have sub optimal results leading to a short lifespan for the end product.

On the total budget it does not matter that much if u buy cheap or crapy plywood. From a nearby woodyard al excl 21% tax!

3mm poplar 27 euro a sheet 250x122 non waterproof glue. 4 mm Okoume waterproof glue 33 euro a sheet, 4 mm Okoume 20 year garanty Bruynzeel top quality waterproof 51 euro. So the cheap one costs about half of the very best possible. Thats a lot less.

Say u use 4 full sheets, than it is a bit more than 100 euro extra, would that have a significant impact on the total budget?

If u have difficulty getting good materials, try google searches for diy Boat/Canoe plans, Search local boat forums, Boatbuilders, look across the border. I am lucky that i have a very well sorted woodyard nearby, but there are about 2 in the Netherlands that sell so much different wood.
Sometimes unusual results may pop up. I found a small woodshop that sells woods for instrument builders. He also has boards of the very light Paulownia wood, that i'd love to see. https://www.nebelheim-tonewood.de/shop/paulownia-kiri/surfbrett-leisten/

Greetings, Jeroen
 
I have had several interesting exchanges with the salesperson from one of the largest plywood manufacturers in France. Basically he said that if it was not urgent I could order what I needed and when they make a large batch for another client they would make my order at the same time.

That means I could order:

- 3 mm poplar with Type 3 glue, they make that from time to time
- 3 mm okoumé marine grade

The marine okoumé is different from the CTBX* quality with better quality veneers used and the guarantee that there are no voids in the middle layer. If you are going to varnish the interior that quality helps. What I would really like is 3 mm CTBX ply made of okoumé outer and poplar interior layers. Lighter than pure okoumé yet stronger than poplar.

As Jeroen says a light coat of epoxy over dry ply is the way to go. In the boating world epoxy encapsulation is 3 coats. I have coated all places that I know will be exposed to water with epoxy and applied boat varnish everywhere on the inside. That means my interior finish has different colours - darker where the varnish is over epoxy. Wheel wells and under the floor are epoxy coated (2 coats) then varnished and the rest of the body is just protected with paint.

* Centre Technique du Batiment eXterior
 
Thanks tieflieger and anotherkiwi for the good plywood tips. And I will look for boatbuilders when the plywood is needed... maybe next year (y):giggle:
Kind regards / Mfg
 
That is a very good price for marine okoumé!

I paid 199.69€ for exterior grade Joubert. (For the 4 sheets of 2500 x 1220)
 
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Silly question: how do they ship sheets of that size an how much are the shipping costs?
wird per spedition geliefert. Ich habe ein Angebot erhalten für die Lieferung(sind etwa 300 KM) würden 64€ Netto berechnet.

Zusätzlich sind die Sperrholzplatten sehr instabil und würden mit einer 25mm Pappel Sperholzplatte verstärkt. 48€ Netto.

Ich habe mich dann für Pappel von einem Lokalen Holzhändler entschieden, der mir das Holz für 35€ geliefert hat.
 
Wer in der Schweiz wohnt, findet 3mm Pappel nur im Format 1870*2520. Ich habe daher 4mm Albasia 1220x2500 beim nächsten Holzhandel bestellt, Kosten damals 121.50 Transport LKW 29.00 (15km). Die Baupläne sind allerdings für 3mm Sperrholz, das ist nicht so lustig. Albasia ist leichter als Pappel.
 
Delivery of ply sheets is >250€ in France so I have them delivered to the local timber yard and pick them up there. That cost me 25€ in diesel in my girlfriends son-in-law's VW transporter. The ply was protected by a sheet of 5 mm exterior grade that hadn't passed quality control and a sheet of hardboard. They were both put to good use during the build!
 
After reading this thread https://www.velomobilforum.de/forum...n-panzerlenkung-auf-tiller.62332/post-1273598 I have changed my brake routing. As @Axel-H says the difference in braking power and return spring efficiency is night and day (y)

brakes-2-point-zero.jpg

I have continued to use the SA adjuster but now it is just guiding the brake cable and providing a connexion for the flexible cable routing end. The rubber boot can be filled with grease, The junction between the flexible and the cable outer is the lowest point and not watertight so eventual droplets should run out there!

I am going to buy more brake cable outer male and female terminations so that I can graft my hidden wire brake sensor into the brake line inside the cabin. Stay tuned,,,

PS. Yes the tunnel end will get a cover.
 
Today's workbench photo:

work-bench.jpg

The motor had slight bearing end play. I managed to get it open no thanks to the Chinese person who invented an imaginary bearing maintenance tool... My local machine shop plus a little bit of Dremel work got it to fit.

Inside no bad surprises, a little bit of water had found its way in but the bearings are fine, no surface rust. I am also replacing the PAS sensor which I fried when assembling the pedelec :rolleyes: I hope it works but I can always fall back to my external PAS which involves fabricating a PAS disk holder from the bottom of a coffee can. This motor has about 5000 km use on an upright pedelec.

And the controller gets a new XT60 male plug, the original one became welded to the female one thanks to sparks at each unplugging.

Clean
Solder
Grease and assemble
Test
Mount in Agilo
 
Motor repaired! The internal PAS is working for the first time since 18/10/2016 (y) No more end play in the bearings (y)

Motor mounted! I need to buy a 14 mm pipe spanner to tighten the crank bolts. Some more soldering to do to make things just right.

I hope the ladies will forgive me the image but I have my stomach in knots, I feel like I am about to give birth :eek: I haven't been this nervous in a very long time.
 
Yes I tested lock to lock before cutting the brake outer. Also those flexible elements allow a little more movement than the solid tube ones we used to have before. Deciding where to cable tie will have some influence also.
 
And the controller gets a new XT60 male plug, the original one became welded to the female one thanks to sparks at each unplugging.
Get XT90S Anti-Spark plugs for the battery-controller connection. The XT60 plugs will deteriorate from the sparks with time as well.
le-0207-big.jpg

Alternatively, if you don't want to change the XT60 plugs of your batteries/charger/etc, you can make a XT60-XT90S adapter.
 
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