Sunny weather photos

Just a short post.

Nothing dramatic happened so far.

Just finally good weather, to take a few photos of the velocar.

More Progress

Here are the recent sub-projects:

At first my wifes drivetrain is in the works.

Stoker bottom bracket mount

New rear lights and fairings

in the same style as the headlights.

Video shooting with local TV channel

Some months ago I wrote an E- mail to a TV show about my hobby.
Now I got an answer.
We decided for beginning February, hoping for good weather.
I completed a new paint scheme just in time.
But when the day came, the sky was grey, temperatures below zero and high probability for snow.
So we changed scenery from park to a nearby small airport.
Not only provides a hanger superb shelter from the elements, the parked airplanes give an excellent background for video shooting.
After some videos were taken inside, we got out to the runway, which was poured over with frozen rain.
Damn, was that cold !!!
I wish, i had built my windshield yet.
Nevertheless it was great fun to ride over the ice, great opportunity to try some sliding.
After two hours at the airport, we recorded some more videos on public street, to show the velocar in normal traffic.
All in all, 3 hours of work will result in a 4 minute report and will be broadcasted  in mid March.

And here finally the clip in TV

Small repairs

Some time ago, I damaged the velocar at the rear.

A small impact has punctured the plywood, which I want to replace now.

I removed the damaged part of the rear panel with handsaw and angle grinder, 

then created a scarf joint to glue old and new part together.

Tomorrow I will add some reinforcements inside.

Cruising Tempelhof airfield

Here are some pics from a few days ago,

showing us and the velocar driving at the Südstern and Tempelhof airfield in Berlin.

This time just for fun and meeting friends.

The weather was dry at least and

 the sun showed up for a few minutes in fact.

And here is Michele from Copenhagen,

who made a long travel to visit me at home.
Originally from Italy and a superb pizza baker, you can learn more about him at
www.bikeandbake.dk

Nice to meet you all,

Kai

Maker Faire Berlin 2016

After a busy week I have enough time to write a few words about

our last weekends exhibition in Berlin.

Preparations in the final week before the faire:

I was too optimistic about my building speed.

It needed several attempts to get the drivetrain working properly.

also I had massive problems with the paint I choosed for the front fenders.

It's the worst paint finish I've ever done, I'm really ashamed. 

I'll never buy bloody cheap paint again, in the end it's much more expensive!!!

Next time, I have to get all the paint off again.

But then I will use epoxy resin as a first coat and a 2-component paint,

which doesn't shrink and has way better gap filling characteristic.

All in all, the velocar was just in one seater mode, when we leaved for Berlin.

The Maker Faire:

It's not the best idea to attend an exhibition as a single exhibitor,

because this is a full time job.

From 10 to 18 o'clock I had very small opportunity to drink or eat.

I was really knackered at saturday evening and my voice was almost gone then.

I had a lot of childs at my stand, just for test seating or occasional drives around the plaza.

I piloted the velocar myself only , due to the missing rear brakes 

and the crowded place allowed just walking speed.

Here are a few impressions so far:

 Observation by the experts

 In improvised business card holder

 Myself at the "helm" (this was at day2, when I removed the doors to prevent damage)

 36inch direct drive bicycle and in fact driveable

 A lucky nerd with two young girls

A short round view and exhibition test ride

Driving kids around

 Carrying equipment of my neighbor exhibitor

 Finally on the transporter again.

A big Thank You to Gloria from the next stand, for helping me out when I needed to take a break.

She transforms music into knitting art

http://gloria-sophie.de/ 

 Also Thanks to all the interesting people I met.

Cheers, Kai

Building update September

Hello,

I was a bit lazy with maintaining this blog.

No posts since two months.

But, because I was not that lazy in building, there's a lot of progress.

I have built the front hood, the steering system, the front brakes, pilots drivetrain

 and spent several hours refining the bodywork.

The front hood

Fenders painted and Banshee as test payload

My front braking system is somewhat odd

The alum tube which goes through the hole is the steering column

and the front brakes are operated by pulling the handlebar/column back

Front part of drivetrain

Looking inside the left side box with the two idlers at left

 and the jackshaft at right side

The jackshaft 

View to the rear wheel

And finally I was able to drive the velocar, although barely
Just minimum eqipment: Pedals, chains, front brakes and a handlebar.
No shifting cable yet,so I shifted the NuVinci hub to slowest gear directly at the hub interface.
The slack side of the chain is still not exactly aligned with the frame holes where it goes through.
You can hear it rattling loudly, the hollow plywood frame behaves like a guitar corpus.
So, no speed trials today...
Just testing the suspension and turning circle, which is - by the way- impressingly small !
Next steps are proper seats and door locks, these clamps are going on my nerves.

And please excuse the bad quality video, it was just recorded with the cell phone