Agilo velomobile

My side window is different from the one on the plan so Bodo asked me to remove it for the video.

I am currently working on the MK2 version and yes of course you can open and close the door with it fitted. The first version was a little bit floppy with the door open.

Of course because it is a plan I can install the designer's version whenever I want to.
 
Finish all the details, sand and second layer of white. So far the white has been great in the sun.

For the moment I am thinking advertising...
 
And we have light!

Unfortunately I am getting old and senile... So we also had sparks but I did not manage to fry the lights! High beam looks like it will be useful.

No brake light, the hidden wire brake sensor is not compatible with the BBS apparently.

Indicators are the next project.
 
My week in the "workshop" has ended.

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Ladies this is what happens when you go away on holiday with your girlfriends and leave you man alone...

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:LOL:

The goal was to finish all the little things that I had been putting off doing. Now that the motor gives me driving pleasure no more excuses!

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So now I have foot holes and a horn. Driving back home the foot holes didn't provide noticeably more air but my heels no longer rub on the floor when I change position on the pedal. It is a lot easier to work on stuff inside. Frankly I will drive some more but I really don't see the need and, of course, the first time I got in my SPD shoe fell through the hole before I could grab it and put it on... 155 mm cranks would have meant that I would never have considered cutting these but at least now my Agilo is "like on the plan" and I can relax my legs.

The horn is an ordinary toot-toot hand horn, I removed the bulb and extended with 10 mm plastic tubing. It works fine, can't wait to scare my first phone zombies on the cycle path :sneaky:

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The new cockpit. The horn is not yet in a definitive position but it works like that. I cut a bracket for the light from some spare alu tube and stuck it onto the boom with double sided tape and cable ties. It is a little too far back so the headlight can not be seen from the sides (there is a plastic insert that lets light out there) because I was chased from the garden by mosquitos when I was cutting away the wood... Future builders a top tip: plan you front light mounting before installing the hood!

The high beam button is next to the LCD, the symbol is kind of bright, we will see how that works at night. When the battery is plugged in, the front and rear lights are on, I rode my pedelec like that and it helps some drivers to notice you are on the road with them... Today I was noticed by the Gendarmerie and the Police National :eek: They were driving the other direction but I am sure they would have loved to check out Agilo if they had been following me...

I am really very pleased with the driving experience. Today I had to climb up from the center of town on the main road and choosing the correct gear and using assist level 5 I can drive at 24 km/h. As soon as the road is flat I am between 27.5 and 32 km/h and that is often the speed of traffic. Downhill I have to be careful not to drive too fast because I am not yet familiar with the minimum braking distance. Because of the wide track cornering is probably just as fast as the trike (I am not yet in animal mode) and the 49 mm tyres have made steering much less "twitchy" so very forgiving for a tiller learner. I think I would still prefer tank steering and independent brakes however.

On the steep (14 metres gained over 100 metres) last hill I managed 16 km/h which pleased me because the upright pedelec with a similar motor managed 17 km/h there and there is a "considerable" weight difference between the two :rolleyes:

My Mk2 windows work, I can still make hand signals. The new mirrors are great, I never liked the small b+m mirror on the trike but they work just fine on Agilo. Photos of all that when I have fixed the final details (Mk2.5...).

I also attached the padding under the Ventisit permanently with a couple of cable ties - I read in another thread that I was suffering from recumbent bum... The same problem as rowing on fixed seat boats. And I attached my upper thoracic cushion to the sea back with velcro, I had noticed that it was moving around now that i am putting in more effort. I will need to do some longer range driving to see if I also need a lumbar cushion. I also began cutting up a thin exercise mat to put in the bottom of the luggage compartments to stop stuff from making too much noise.

Agilo now has a trailer coupling because fishing :giggle:

A productive week.
 
Future builders a top tip: plan you front light mounting before installing the hood!
And also plan to open it easily in case You want to repair or upgrade it - i.E. make Bodo Sitko improve that in his concept. Which will definitely happen.
Did You attach some kind of rocket to lift the VM back into Your appartment?
 
Did You attach some kind of rocket to lift the VM back into Your appartment?

That's my girlfriends house, she went on holiday... No problems, she said I could use her ground floor living room.

Who needs a rocket? A ramp will do, I just became a member of the Bafang speedo bug club: last speed read (I was kind of busy) works out to 72.7 km/h. Apparently Agilo has good aerodynamics because when I started braking I was still accelerating. Handling was perfect, I felt in complete control. So now no reason not to go up the main road, check tyre pressure, reset brakes... Maybe I need a brake light first because there will always be someone following me in their SUV and distracted because on their phone texting...
 
And the one you have all been waiting for: driving in the wind!

1. where I live we have two types of wind, gentle sea breeze 20-30 km/h (like today) and gale force
2. I don't drive in gale force winds (like yesterday)

So I set out on my training circuit with between 15 and 20 km/h of wind gusting to 30 km/h. First of all a tail wind so I went up the 1% gradient at 42-47 km/h which was a lot of fun. Coming home slightly from the front right hand side and so 27-30 km/h.

At one point I drove past a gap in two tall hedges and was lightly pushed to the left but the steering is extremely stable and I hardly even noticed. Large trucks? Nothing, rien, nada!!! As if they didn't even exist except, if you have the space, you can jump in behind them when they pass and profit from the slipstream to accelerate 5-10 km/h.

All of this experimenting was ruined by me losing power on the way home because of recumbent bum... I was experimenting with lumbar support but I should have been testing something to relieve the pain in my backside. I am used to rowing fixed seat wooden boats so I am not particularly tender usually but I have not yet put together my ideal Agilo seat bottom. Shoulder support - perfect. Ventisit on the ventilated seat back - perfect. Now I have to work some more on my lower back and the seat bottom.

The advantage of having a motor is that when you get sore you can just change down a few gears, turn the pedals and let the motor do the work. All motor and very little me providing power = 7.14 Wh/km (the lights = 1.75Wh over the total distance and have been removed from the total) on the 6.15 km route back through town. The trike driven in the same conditions uses 10-12 Wh/km.
 
First drive in (light) rain. It is a lot of fun being inside and protected but not much fun looking through polycarbonate covered in tiny droplets, I have not yet treated my windscreen. :cautious:

And I really think that separate brake levers on the front wheels are a much better idea than combined brakes. On relatively hard braking there is always one wheel which locks up before the other. Of course when you are driving a relatively expensive piece of wooden furniture on wet roads you try to brake gently and well in advance. After many years and 100's of km on wet roads on a trike I know that my brain is capable of dosing braking effort equally to both wheels. Or not, braking harder on one side for cornering has also become second nature. I can understand why @Marc preferred a tank steered Milan GT after all his years of trike riding.

As the Bafang 500C LCD (and other Bafang LCD's) cannot show vélomobile speeds (and is 6% off because of tyre size) I think I will install a wired Sigma bike computer. I no longer need a cadence meter because I have increased the operating RPM of the motor to fit my natural cadence. If I am spinning at over 95 RPM that means I am driving downhill and the motor is off... :rolleyes: But it would be nice to know real speed and real maximum speed, even the time and temperature inside. In reality I am dreaming of a Bafang LCD which does all of these things, many of them very basic. After many years of KT LCD and knowing the temperature and having it show speeds of up to at least 70 km/h I have problems understanding why one of the largest Chines e-bike manufacturers cannot do the same...

Going down to test my new seat cushion.
 
I have been driving every day since the 1st of the month.

- I now manage +17 km/h up the "last hill", in fact the last steep hill, the other one is easy. I am completely winded and the motor pulls me along the flat section at the top... But! I am using the 52T chainring and not the 42T I was using 12 days ago :giggle:
- the bottom seat cushion is better but I haven't been driving very long distances (over 10 km). It needs a cover to stop it from moving around.
- crosswind up to 30 km/h is really not a problem, I have been driving along the street at the top of the cliff so very exposed to wind from the north-west
- I let some air out of the rear shock and... It is working better now :rolleyes: I need to find the sweet spot because handling in corners has become a little bit too soft for my taste (driver of an un-suspended trike, your taste may vary...)
- only 3 fish and they were all too small to bring home :cry: but the 1.47 m segment fishing rod fits (just). I also bought a small collapsible fishing rod so Agilo always has a fishing rod on board :giggle:
- it is very cold (for here) with 9-10ºC as soon as the sun goes away so I am enjoying driving protected and without gloves. When I stop to chat the windows mist up now but... they clear almost instantly as soon as I start moving, loving the ventilation system! (y)
- the b+m IQ-XS low beam in town is OK. I have not yet been out on the open road in the dark so I can't comment on the performance of the high beam yet.
- Average speed in town is 18.6 km/h, I am rarely passed by cars and never on the flatter or downhill sections.
- the motorbike cover works magic, Agilo has an invisibility cloak! As soon as it comes off the questions start :LOL:
 
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