Maker Faire Hannover 2015

Hello,

Last weekend we were in Hannover, to join this years MakerFaire and to show our velocar at the exhibition.

There were lots of interesing projects, much of electronics, computers, RC-drones, creative workshops for kids and not to forget steam punk.

This was our first event as exhibitors and we were surprised, how much attention our little vehicle has generated.

Maybe the reason was, that we offered free rides in the velocar.

Some of the people were waiting for more than half an hour, to get a ride of five minutes.

I had to explain the somewhat odd steering and braking system with the middle stick to each "pilot" what takes a lot of time.

Now I'm convinced a normal handlebar is better because it's self explaining and also better to control.

That will be a "tuning project" for the near future, 

And now here are some pics from the event:

 Saturday morning, shortly before opening

 bicycle art

Impressing cruiser bikes 

photo taken from power-bikes.de

 Lots of people in our velocar

 Time machine from "Abakus"

 I learned, in Hannover exists a growing number of pedalcars.

 The blue pickup to the right is a great example, build by a guy named Kaiser

At least three more similar vehicles are existing in the local area, 

The green tricycle is a "Mambo", build by Hacker Space Bremen

 Mostly our velocar was driven by three or four persons

 Four guys from the next stand testing the velocar, it still holds together.

(I was a tiny bit in fear)

In the bacvkground you can see their exhibit, a motor trike build from a Fiat 126

And the offical record for the most persons in the velocar:

A family with four kids

A torpedo shaped time machine

 

The fire-breathing mech-dog LRRY

An official report from www.golem.de

After two days, an estimated number of 400 people have made a test drive in our little car and it's still in one piece.
I had to repair two minor defects, a weared out braking cable and a snapped chain, which was repaired within 10 minutes.
It was a great event and a lot of fun to meet and talk to so much people, both makers and visitors.
Surely I want to be a part of the next years event.

Kai

Improved plywood frame

Hi

Over the last weeks I completed a new wooden frame.

It's build like my previous frame from 4mm plywood and spruce stringers.

This time I have used gaboon/okoume plywood (marine grade) instead of birch.

It's more rot resistant and much lighter than birch plywood, it has just 2/3 or less the specific density of birch.

I also decreased the height of the frame from 20cm/8in to 18cm/7in to get a slightly lower seat position.

While the birch frame from two years ago weights 25kg, the new okoume frame weights just 16kg.

Wow, 9 kg saved !!!

That's the weight of a complete racing bicycle.

I hope, to save another 10 kg in the new bodywork, also made from okoume.

Frame without top panel shows the spruce stringers

On the scale

Nearly 15kg and a few pieces still missing

A quick mockup in the garden

The lines of the future bodywork 

Kai

Cargobike Race Berlin

Hello folks.

Friday a week ago we made it to Berlin to meet our friends Andreas and Steffi.

We spent three hours on the Autobahn with our old truck and the velocar safely tied onto the truck bed

Saturday we joined the "Velo Berlin" bicycle fair. 

The Cargobike Fans Berlin have organized a race there, in which I wanted to participate.

Despite the rather cold and rainy weather it was great fun to meet all these crazy people.

A great variety of bikes were gathered: 

Rickshaws, Long Johns, cargo trikes (one leaning trike), longtail bikes and another four wheeler.

The drivers had to start in two divisions. two wheelers and three/four wheelers.

All had to complete one lap with the empty bike, then loading their bikes with two water containers, two bundles of newspapers and three short plastic pipes.

Due to two low ramps, which were set as chicanes on the race track, all had the choice to pass them at low speed or to risk the loss of some of the cargo stuff, what happens several times.

This resulted in permantly braking and accelerating, what my velocar is not made for.

Every time I passed the ramps, the hard backrest hits my back and this left a painful bruise there.

But because of my deep cargo trunk, nothing worse happened and despite my rather low speed I was able to overtake some of the competitors, who had to pick up their lost cargo from the track

Finally I became second place (of eight, I guess) in the multi track division, behind the mentioned leaning trike, a Veleon.

I had not the slightest chance against that high tech thing.

As always, here are some photos from that weekend:

A short ride with bicycles and velocar around Lake Grunewald

Still in Berlin-Grunewald we made this 

"Eight-cylinders-vs-four-legs"-photo

 Andreas and my son in the Retroadster

 Lake Grunewald

 Daddy is not to see here, because he's behind the camera

At the race

Two wheeler start

 (photo: Andreas Kuppinger/www.nutzrad.de)

(photo: Andreas Kuppinger/www.nutzrad.de)

 Three/four-wheeler start 

(photo: Andreas Kuppinger/www.nutzrad.de)

overtaking is difficult on this narrow track

(photo: Andreas Kuppinger/www.nutzrad.de)

A short video of one of the multitrack races

The winners:

First place two-wheelers

Second place two-wheelers

First place three/four wheelers

Me at second place

Test drive after the race

Much more pics of the race can be seen at the FB-account of the Cargobike Fans Berlin

Sunday:

 We cycled to a nearby horse ranch for child entertainment.

 This is Steffis own Icelandic horse

Kai

Rare literature from France

Hello folks.

I have found an old French book with plans and building instructions for many projects, from bicycle sidecars, velocars to small motorized sportscars.

Somewhere in the book I found a two seater velocar, wich is quite similar to my project:

The book was printed shortly after WW2, so the motivation for building such things  may have been different than nowadays.

Then it was simply the lack of alternatives:
Almost no cars at the market, no gas to run them and just low tech materials available (mostly wood).

Nowadays it's more a fun thing for persons, who are not pleased with all these usual high volume products, and instead build themselves an unique piece of craftmanship, which cannot be found elsewhere.

Happy New Year,

Kai

Sum up 2014: Autumn rides

This year we made several rides through the surroundings and, 

of course, taking a lot of photos.

In the beginning of October we cycled to Muenchenbernsdorf, a small town nearby.

We overnighted with friends and drove back home the next day.

Here is the route on GPSies 

All in all we covered 53km, not that bad for two lazy cyclists with a heavyweight velocar, a child on the rumble seat and lots of luggage.

Solitary forest roads

 Shortly before we arrived Niederpoellnitz

Are such obstacles able to rise the mood of cyclists?

In this case: Yes

Finally in Muenchenbernsdorf:

Take a break

In the central "city"

On our way back at afternoon

In this years "golden" November we had another nice Sunday afternoon ride in the forest.

As long as I can remember, it was the first time I weared just a T-shirt outside in November.

This little house in the forest should be made of gingerbread

Amelie is now able to ride her own little bike at age 3.

She learned balancing the bike within an hour or so.

Kai