Agilo velomobile

[anotherkiwi]

Is this including or excluding the pedelec?

Unfortunately including a Bafang BBS01B (480 €) because I had a perfectly good spare GSM bottom bracket motor which I broke. In half...

 

[anotherkiwi]

Aber ließen sich da ggf noch Kosten durch eine Hinterradschwinge aus Holz sparen?

I tried and failed. A wood swing arm is maybe possible with a 142 mm through axle so you need to order the correct Rohloff, there are no other internal geared hubs that have that to my knowledge.

The interesting thing is that the Leiba swing arm is lighter than several wood swing arms I have seen. It is also much lighter than the suspension of a WAW for example.

 

[anotherkiwi]

In the https://www.velomobilforum.de/forum/index.php?posts/1442730/ thread I remarked on the rising cost of wood. This requires some clarification:

- the estimate for the price of a body on the Agilo web page is still correct
- the price of poplar is now about 40€ per sheet, I paid 49,75 for okoumé 2 years ago, from memory poplar was closer to 30€ at that time
- my price increase also includes the wood required for building jigs and a more professional building platform. That cost has to be spread over the cost of building several Agilos. You do not need expensive jigs if you are building 1 Agilo for yourself, I used found wood and scrap wood from other projects.

There is a possibility that I may announce a building service before the end of 2022, nothing is sure for now. If I am investigating this possibility it is because I have complete confidence in the strength, handling and performance of Agilo.

 

[Schneck]

@anotherkiwi
You are to late now i have most of the parts and a lot of work done! So i try to finish.
You talked with Bodo Sitko about this ? I find your idea goodm More Agilos ,the world need it.

 

[anotherkiwi]

Of course, we have been talking about it for a long time.

 

[anotherkiwi]

Today a serious test with the brakes after I fixed the cable routing My fault, I wasn't careful when I replaced the axle and the rod ends. About 18 km to the garden, to the boat and back home for lunch. The June sun had me sweating - arms and chest - but the ventilation once again meant I had a dry back, I am still amazed by that sensation of being wet on one side and dry on the other

The adjusted brake linings are better but not very much better as I had hoped. I cannot block the wheels but stopping is strong and regular. If I pull hard enough to touch the tiller with the brake lever as one would expect braking is quite strong but because the brakes are coupled it pulls slightly to the right again Let us say that the stopping power is adequate for a larger system weight and a careful driver.

Because I felt like it and there was no traffic I did a little sprint along the harbour front - perfectly flat - and had to lift my polarised sunglasses to check, >40 km/h over 400 metres. I had benefited from being launched to 40 by the hill and there was a slight tail wind but still I was not over stretched in my effort.

Also with the corrected tracking I am rolling freely to 47 km/h again over the motorway bridge. A gain of about 3-4 km/h.

 

[anotherkiwi]

Agilo meets Green Mamba Tour

After working in the vegetable garden all morning, a shower then lunch I set off to the camping site to present Agilo to the Green Mamba. (I had delivered the spare parts the day before with the car because of logistic problems...)



Nobody home.. But just as I was leaving for an appointment with my brother-in-law and his boat the guys arrived. We chatted for a while then it was decided to go to the other side of town all 3.



A mini Special Bike meeting in the camping ground at Acotz.

So off down the E1 vélodyssée we went, it was designed by sadists or for e-bikes only in this section. I negotiated the first curb without touching I think there was 3 mm clearance and so we arrived at the first obstacle. Agilo squeezed through in 2 movements but...



With some help Jörg made it through, just! But the second rig is slightly bigger so Andreas turned back to the camping ground. On we went along the scenic part and down only to be stopped by local feasting down on the beach. Back up the hill after some Flintstones manoeuvring and down through the center of town where we became the main attraction. Up the hill through Ciboure to Urrugne and after a short bit of boat lifting refreshments.

Back down on the new bike path to Socoa we drove past a wedding feast and Uh oh... Someone had dropped a wine glass... Of course Jörg had to pick a bit up in his left rear tyre



And the tubes are in the other vehicle! But no problem of course I had an AV7 with me We went to the harbour then back along the bay and up to the camping ground with a little bit of improvised routing - I don't go into the rich quarters very often.

A busy afternoon and for once I was the sporty racer vélomobile

 

[anotherkiwi]

I finally took the time to measure the turning circle on the parking lot. Gocycle 50-406 tyres in front.

Method:
- relaxed, normal 180º turning maneuver
- start next to white painted line
- marked opposite spot with pebble

Result:
6.5 metres

Only the Leitra and the Wombat do better if I look in the VM-slider. I never measured before because on the road I never had many problems turning around.

I think that if I tried really hard and got the wheels jammed up against the wheel well I could possibly go below 6 metres but I find that the wheels don't turn so easily when rubbing against wood... And then I could also mount the 40-406 Tryker tyres...

 

[Fripon]

before

9{{

 

[anotherkiwi]

lost me...

One more thing, in the VM-slider the values:

• min. Entfaltung: 150 cm
• max. Entfaltung: 787 cm

depend on the size of the chainring and Rohloff sprocket. These can be 113 to 948 cm with the stock 16T cog on the Rohloff using either the minimum recommended 40T chainring or a 64T chainring. If I was living somewhere like northern Germany I would probably use a single 60T chainring giving 169 to 888 cm. All calculated with a Gocycle rear tire. That would mean 32.5 km/h in the direct drive 11th gear, a perfectly realistic speed for Agilo from personal experience, I need to use the 12th gear with my 56T on the flat to keep that speed.

 

[Felix]

How fast can you safely go downhill? I need to do 70km/h every day, that is no problem even though the Evo is very unstable.

 

[anotherkiwi]

I have been over 70 km/h and did not feel unsafe. The front hood increases down force as the speed increases and the steering feels like you are on rails.

Edit: I forgot to mention one thing, with the forced air extraction if your windows are not tightly fixed then at about 65 km/h they are sucked in...

 

[windwärts]

werden die "scheiben" vom fahrtwind druck eingedrückt, oder von unterdruck der durchdachten lüftung angesogen ?

 

[anotherkiwi]

werden die "scheiben" vom fahrtwind druck eingedrückt, oder von unterdruck der durchdachten lüftung angesogen ?

Sucked in, you can feel the air pressure in your ears... That was with the first generation side windows, that won't happen with the summer windows I mounted yesterday but the aerodynamics won't be as good with those either. 55-60 km/h down longer 3-4% hills is very comfortable, you could almost take your hands off the tiller!

- speed is not a problem, stopping might be. I am not happy with the stopping power of combined brakes, yes hundreds of other vélomobile drivers might be happy but they are not me driving MY vélomobile. After a few thousand km I am used to the stopping power of independent brakes on my trike and 90mm drums work just fine on that. I have the high end turned drums and they do cool down very quickly, those are not an issue. You can tell that the central combined brake lever was invented in the Netherlands when you live here in the Basque Country...

- Jörg of Green Mamba told me my brake light is highly visible and works

- I need to get the lockout working on my air damper. This will increase climbing speed and efficiency, even without changing down to the small ring at the front.

- there is a noise in the rear suspension, I have an idea of what it might be. I also want to raise the damper mounting point 6 mm and go back to the big fat Maxxis DTH on the rear wheel. A 0.4km/h speed gain

- I have a chain slap issue on very bumpy sections. I also have an idea of how to fix that.

- There is a little bit of broken wood that needs some epoxy, mostly to keep the water out of the ply. Even though I am driving MUCH more carefully now I also want to glue a touchdown plate under the nose.

- electrical box still not built...

- fix the front light correctly

- more stuff...

A new generation Sigma computer caught my eye - real speed based on actual tyre circumference, cadence, gradient, time (of day), temperature, ... I think I will have one of those.

 

[JKL]

A new generation Sigma computer caught my eye - real speed based on actual tyre circumference, cadence, gradient, time (of day), temperature, ... I think I will have one of those.

Spielkind ...

 

[anotherkiwi]

Yes but... It gets boring multiplying everything by 1.07 to know real speed and distance. Cadence you need for several weeks and once you have memorised in your body what your ideal cadence is you don't need it so much. Gradient so that I can write about it on the forum I don't wear a watch or have a smart phone so knowing when high tide is means time is important. Is hot in here so time to switch on the fan to cool the motor?

I only listed the useful features of 14

 

[beate]

It gets boring multiplying everything by 1.07 to know real speed and distance.

Well, You could also multiply the circumference by a factor like 1.07 in order to obtain real speed and distance.

 

[Felix]

55-60 km/h down longer 3-4% hills is very comfortable, you could almost take your hands off the tiller!

Thats slower than i thougt, like an upright bike maybe? At that speed you should be able to let go of the steering in any velomobile.

 

[Felix]

I am not happy with the stopping power of combined brakes, yes hundreds of other vélomobile drivers might be happy but they are not me driving MY vélomobile.

You could convert to tank steering, with wood thats gotta be easy.

 

[anotherkiwi]

Thats slower than i thougt, like an upright bike maybe? At that speed you should be able to let go of the steering in any velomobile.

I have only tried on hills with red lights or intersections at the bottom and corners. And remember I am still a vélomobile learner driver!

You could convert to tank steering, with wood thats gotta be easy.

I have read your thread on converting the Quest to tank steering a couple of times. TT bar end brake levers like the ones from SRAM should work just fine on a tiller. I will try that first.