Agilo velomobile

Agilo takes a shower!

First drive in real rain yesterday, I had to close the windows:

- you can see out better when the light comes from behind
- the drops on windshield clear above 30 km/h and in just the right place
- no fogging!
- microfibre towels are your friend :giggle:

Gocycle tyres performed well except on the rear wheel, too much torque on starting from a stop sign made it spin - my torque not the motor. So I think I will put the big fat DTH back on the drive wheel. I was very careful but I did test the brakes on a safe bit of road and managed to block the front wheels. But in the corners despite large puddles and a very dirty road the tyres performed as they should.

I need to finish installing my thread wiper, to drive with good visibility it only needs to clear a very small section of windscreen. I went looking for my favorite brand of furniture polish/windscreen treatment and... it is no longer on the market! :( I guess that is the Ikea effect, all their furniture is satin or matt finish...

In other news the chain got wiped clean and got its first application of dry lubricant, maybe a slight decrease in noise :unsure: Speaking of noise, inside Agilo it is so quiet you can hear the "click" of the brake light switch (y)
 
I found DTH to be good in the rain. Continental Contact Urban is also good - and seems to have slightly better puncture protection.
(for when you wear out your current DTH tyre and need to order a replacement).
 
Contact Speed, as well as being too narrow for the roads around here (28mm doesn't cope with potholes or bumps in the road), is terrible in the rain - particularly with temperatures below 7 Celsius. I won't buy any more of this tyre.

Contact Urban may be (fractionally) slower, but at least it stops when you need to!
 
Today force 5-6 Bft winds for the first time! (the weather lady says 70 km/h...)

In town I was taking gusts between 4-5 story buildings at 90º, so 100% side wind. The gusts, arriving by surprise of course, deviated me 10-20 cm off track and the tiller became quite firm at times but I was always in control. As soon as the wind is at another angle you don't feel a thing (no sailing allowed in town :sneaky: ) other than needing to change up a gear because you are spinning empty. Crossing the motorway bridge which is the most exposed part of the journey the wind was from about 30º in front - I felt nothing... You know the wind is blowing because it comes in through the window more than usual.

I am much more confident about driving in stronger winds now. But like everybody I guess, I think when it is blowing 7 Bft it is much nicer at home with a hot chocolate. :giggle:

So despite being quite tall with flat sides, Agilo is short and has a hard chine along the side of the hood, I think these design features greatly reduce bad behavior in stronger winds.
 
Vielleicht liegts auch an der Geschwindigkeit? Bei 80km/h Wind wird mein Velomobil, welches zu den zickigsten gehört, so ab 40km/h unruhig.
 
Today I had my highest ever average speed - 27 km/h* and was driving 32-37 km/h in the cross wind. I think if it was standing still and I got out it would have been blown over in some places between the buildings... :unsure:

* including the long climb back up to my apartment, top speed was one of the lowest I have seen at 48 km/h
 
Hallo bin neu hier. Habe letztes Jahr das Agilo Projekt abgeschlossen hier ein paar Bilder
 

Anhänge

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Hallo Velayo, sieht sehr gelungen aus!

Wie sind deine Alltagserfahrungen?
Wie gut läuft es?
Welche Komponenten hast du verbaut?
Wie gut lässt sich der Stauraum nutzen?
 
Fährt sich recht gut. Habe die Rohloff verbaut alle anderen Versuche waren nicht zufrieden stellend. Habe sogar mit Pinion Getriebe probiert macht aber im Innenraum dann doch relativ laute Geräusche. An der Tür muss ich noch was machen bei Wind ein und aussteigen ist schwierig hab ich Angst das sie davon fliegt. Geschwindigkeit um die 50 Km/h sind auch drin aber mit Vorsicht zu genießen.
 
Zuletzt bearbeitet:
Velayo schrieb:
... An der Tür muss ich noch was machen bei Wind ein und aussteigen ist schwierig hab ich Angst das sie davon fliegt. ...
Zum Vergrößern anklicken....
Lässt sich da vielleicht etwas mit einem Gummi-Fangband von innen machen? War früher meines Wissens nach bei der Ente so realisiert.
Velayo schrieb:
... Geschwindigkeit um die 50 Km/h sind auch drin aber mit Vorsicht zu genießen. ...
Zum Vergrößern anklicken....
50 km/h im Gefälle, elektrisch unterstützt oder real mit Muskelkraft?

Das Projekt wird zugegebenermaßen für mich immer interessanter...
 
Timmi schrieb:
50 km/h im Gefälle, elektrisch unterstützt oder real mit Muskelkraft?
Zum Vergrößern anklicken....

My motor support is limited to 25 km/h... :rolleyes:

50 km/h with the Rohloff and 56T front 16T rear sprocket is a cadence of 101 rpm with the Gocycle tyre. I need a slight incline to manage pedalling that fast but as soon as the gradient is 3% Agilo will run at 50-55 km/h on its own. I use the brakes a lot more with Agilo than with the trike - I am very quickly at the 50 km/h speed limit in town.

More realistic "flat" road speed is 30 -> 37 km/h (gears 11 and 12) and I have seen 47 km/h with a tail wind of about 30 km/h (gear 14). I know where to find a real flat, straight section of road about 11 km from here but I haven't been there yet. What interests me most now is how long can I maintain 30 km/h at cadence on the open road and how long can I manage staying at cadence climbing 1% inclines, (without speed bumps breaking my rhythm) on the short test section I do drive regularly I am at 27 km/h so beyond motor support. My Agilo is at least 7 kg overweight - wrong 40 x 40 aluminium tube and 100% okoumé construction - and the driver could lose 3 kg... 10 kg weight gain is about 2 km/h on a 1% incline. :unsure:

Warmer weather is here and fitness is increasing, the numbers above will be evolving over the coming weeks (with a bit of luck). My personal goal on flatter drives is to maintain an average speed near 31-32 km/h. :unsure: That is a 12% increase over the unclad trike, but a 10% increase would also be fine by me.
 
anotherkiwi schrieb:
My Agilo is at least 7 kg overweight - wrong 40 x 40 aluminium tube and 100% okoumé construction
Zum Vergrößern anklicken....
Du hast ja jahrelange Erfahrungen im Bootsbau. Jetzt wo Du eine Weile gefahren bist und die Konstruktion beobachten konntest, würdest Du bei einem erneuten Bau ein anderes, leichteres Sperrholz wählen? Um vielleicht tatsächlich Gewicht zu sparen. Ich meine mich zu erinnern, dass es bei Pappel insgesamt um etwas um knapp drei (?) Kilogramm ging.
 
Floor, wheel wells and some structural parts in okoumé and all the rest in poplar would be my plan. We talked about this with Bodo Sitko when he was here as well as cutting some lightening holes in a couple of parts. A goal would be saving between 1 and 2 kg that way. Replacing the 40 x 40 aluminium with CF tube is an expensive option but the weight gain is significant. My door hinges are stainless steel from the boating world... I would sand more carefully and apply a thin coat of epoxy over the whole exterior and then use a very thin coat of sprayed on paint.

Once you have lightened the body you can use lighter rims like the Kinlin TL21 which Ginkgo recommended me not to use with a system weight above 120 kg. Using 70 mm brake drums also saves about 400 grams but 90s are a better idea where I live, the Gocycle tyres are light but I could save even more using more expensive lightweight tubes. And of course you would save some more by going tubeless. A slightly smaller wheel cutout (2-3 mm extra wood all around) and 44-406 Michelin BMX TL racing tyres would be an interesting modification.

I could save several tens of grams by optimising my wiring. Top tip for future builders: plan your wiring and lighting before gluing on the hood and roof! You can save weight by optimising the cable run and using just the amount of wire you need. I am going to order a very short Bafang system cable which will save me 100 grams, I don't use brake cutoff switches and a throttle so those plugs and the extra wire can be removed. A lighter battery can be used when you have a lower system weight.

A lighter hollow pin chain. A single Alligt bolt on Bafang chainring. As little PTFE chain tube as possible. A single gear chain tensioner instead of the derailleur I am using now is 100 grams saved. 100 grams saved here and there over very many things mounts up to a kg saved quite quickly. The BBS01 could be swapped for a Tongshen TSDZ2 -200 grams, the Rohloff stays! :giggle:

This is not a racer, the weight savings in my personal case are because each kilo less is felt for each +1% gradient climbed - and of course less kg to brake on the way down again. If you live in the flat places I see in all of those YouTube driving videos and don't do a lot of stop/start driving you don't really need a motor with a lightly built Agilo. A motor is of course very comfortable in a daily driver, you can carry more stuff and drive in normal clothes just pseudo pedalling at 25 km/h. Like in a Frikkar... :LOL: In a standard build, following the plans, a Rohloff or an Alfine 11 are my 2 gearbox recommendations. The Alfine 8 was not a good way of saving a few € in my case, maybe it would work in the NL?
 
After a lot of calculations we arrived at a possible weight of 29-30* kg with Bafang and Rohloff, without battery because we all have different capacities. That would put me at 115 kg system weight with my battery and basic tools on board. Recently I looked at ultra-light camping equipment in a local store and was able to find tent, mattress and sleeping bag fitting the 5 kg weight budget. The 120 kg limit is a manufacturer safeguard, there will be a safety margin. I am sure that 125 kg carried from the supermarket to my home will not be a huge risk... And 10 kg is a lot of food! Of course I only buy 3 kg of red wine and not 15 kg of 6 packs of beer :sneaky:

I think that a trailer is a very good idea for camping and heavier shopping. When you brake, the >25 kg of the trailer + load will add weight to the front wheels, but (I haven't done the calculations) I am not sure that will be dangerous for the wheels. The advantage of Agilo is that you can add a trailer hitch of any type to the rear axle, I have a quick release skewer version mounted to mine. And why not an overrun brake on even a smaller trailer?

* mine should weigh about 35 kg but I managed to go over 40 kg... :(
 
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