I took a short ride for exercise this morning, covering 31 km in 54 minutes with the velomobile, including traffic lights, negotiating other road users etc.
The Mango is far from the quickest velomobile available nowadays, and mine is fitted with slower puncture proof "winter" tyres because I really don't like fixing punctures in the rain, but for the same expended effort it still consistently goes about 15-20% faster than my road/racing bike or my two wheeled recumbent, a touring model which is a little slower than the road bike.
Add in the low maintenance (leading to low running costs), the weather protection and three wheels making winter cycling much safer and there's so much to like. This is the most efficient transport mode in existence and it's also very practical. It's also fun, of course.
UCI really screwed things up for ergonomics when they outlawed recumbents in the 1930s.
"The press coverage kicked off a long-overdue conversation about women’s saddle issues and aired one of pro cycling’s open secrets: that some women suffer so much damage to their genital areas they resort to surgery—labiaplasty—to keep riding."
And the prototype of a reversible #cargobike conversion kit similar to the #Xtracycle#FreeRadical, just not a rear extension but a front extension including indirect steering using the donor's front fork to pick up the steering movement 🤩: https://altus.bike/
To the greatest extent possible I do my work by human power, but there are limits to how much I can control.
This morning I made a delivery to someone who lives in a village in Drenthe so that delivery was made 100% by human power as I rode there and back in my velomobile.
Parts ordered by people who live thousands of km away are a different story. I can then only control the first few km. So I go as far by bike as I can and then those parcels continue their journeys by commercial shipping companies.
This recumbent bike was abandoned near my house a few days ago, Victoria BC. Anyone able to reconnect it with it's owner?
Please boost! #yyj#victoria#bikes#recumbent
I reached 70000 km with my Mango velomobile today. I have other bikes to ride, and other things to do, so it's taken me just over 12 years to cover that distance at only about 5800 km per year.
Anyway, short 12 year experience review:
It's fast, comfortable, safe, practical for everyday use, lots of fun, keeps you warm and dry in bad weather (e.g. today), let's you pretend headwinds don't exist, has needed hardly any maintenance beyond tyres and very occasional chains (the drive chain is entirely enclosed, as are the brakes), has plenty of storage space inside which is also out of the weather, uses no fuel beyond the food you were going to eat anyway, and it's an absolute bargain: total cost at this point is just a few cents per kilometre.
To paraphrase Mark Twain, "Get a velomobile. You will not regret it!" (The other part of the quote is funny but really makes no sense for such a safe vehicle).
Bit of a long shot, but my friend's ICE Adventure FS recumbent tricycle was stolen in Slough, UK this afternoon. It's blue, well-used with a torn seat cover, and has a Bafang bottom-bracket motor conversion. Keep an eye out.
Tomnaverie Stone Circle near Tarland in Aberdeenshire. One of 99 "recumbent" stone circles in north-east Scotland, it was built over 4,000 years ago on a hilltop that has since been cut into by a quarry that is very close to the circle. More pics and info: https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/tarland/tomnaveriecircle/index.html