Milan velomobile in Edinburgh

[EdinburghFixed]

I see LaidBack hasn't made it on here yet... he has a very shiny new arrival in the showroom (currently being assembled from kit) - the Milan velomobile.

I've put up a couple of photo blog posts of the build to-date- entry one, entry two.



Will keep this updated as it goes - I believe the drivetrain was going in today but I won't make it round until tomorrow for pics.

Very nice - more carbon than you can shake a stick at, it reminds me a lot of sea kayaks.

[clarion]

Dirty filth.

[Quint]

I have just been sick, Barbara said "is that a tinge of  envy green", k'right I mumbled   

[swscotland bentrider]

I saw it yesterday. My wife said "whats that down the front of your shirt?" I said it was a drool stain!

[Scoosh]

Where is it [going] ?

Is it down in the SW ?

[Tigerrr]

Its a lovely thing.  I understand these are reputed to be a fast ride.
On PBP how do the velomobiles do in general - are they out ahead or do the aero advantages get eroded by uphill weight, heat exhaustion,  etc? I have tended to find that as the ride gets longer and hillier, and overall speed reduces I lose my advantage on the challenege until on very long rides I find myself just as slow as I was on an upright. I wonder if the velomobile tends to the same point.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

The ones I saw were fairly fast overall. Not many of them, so likely a skewed sample, probably skewed towards faster riders.

[Arellcat]

There is perhaps a case of diminishing returns on consistently hilly routes where the average speed is affected enough by the time spent climbing that the plastic-and-soot DF riders might achieve an advantage on aggregate.  But someone strong like Wim Schermer goes out to do PBP, and is back in Paris by the time many of the riders have only got to Brest.  There's probably as much advantage in basically not sleeping for 48 hours as there is in a velomobile's superior aerodynamics.

Dirty filth.

That's a bit harsh, isn't it?  The Milan is the coolest thing in the world, or at least, in Marchmont.

[arvid]

As long as the hills are rolling the extra weight isnt that bad, because momentum helps them up again for quite a bit. This is the case for most of PBP. I think the Kernow and South West would be a very hard ride, even for the sub-60 hour PBP velomobilists. I'll offer 100 pounds for the first velomobile to finish it.

AFAIK Wim Schermer has never done an audax, let alone PBP, so where his name comes from in this example, I do not know.
I think LWaB is right that most velomobiles on PBP are ridden by fast riders, and the slower ones get a lot more sleep than the average upright.

Tigerr: I tend to lose considerably less speed on long not-that-hilly rides than uprights, but that might just be me. After all the hilly bits in Mille Miglia I was able to average 23km/h on the last flat 120km stage. I was asked how I could go that fast after such a long time by a fellow Dutch audaxer (PBP, LEL) with a Raptobike. Well... it was flat...? I can do 25km/h on a flat bit without wind, even when knackered.

[Arellcat]

AFAIK Wim Schermer has never done an audax, let alone PBP, so where his name comes from in this example, I do not know.

I'd been reading about all the aerodynamic tinkering Wim was doing with his Quest, and lost the plot.  I did of course mean Hans Wessels who did PBP 2011 in 55h30.

[arvid]

I did of course mean Hans Wessels who did PBP 2011 in 55h30.

Of course, but Hans slept 12 or 13 hours in a tent in Sizun because he felt ill, so I don't think he's a very good example in this case.
Hans has been trying to be the fastest PBP rider for a couple of times, but in 2011 he was not too sure about taking part.
IIRC the fastest velomobile was a Milan on PBP2011 (Christian Ascheberg, organiser of ARA Niedersachsen, 47h42), and Robert Carlier improved the unfaired recumbent time (53h00).

[arallsopp]

There is perhaps a case of diminishing returns on consistently hilly routes where the average speed is affected enough by the time spent climbing that the plastic-and-soot DF riders might achieve an advantage on aggregate. 

Yep. I'm just back from a London > Lands End non stopper (18hours riding) in the RAW and Cornwall ate into my average speed significantly. On the way into Okehampton, my GPS was still showing 18mph rolling average, but the last 100 miles or so brought me down to 16.5. Damn its hilly down there. Lots of steep climbs with sharp descents and no run offs mean very little speed is carried through. Give me rolling hills any day

Andy.

[EdinburghFixed]

Of course, but Hans slept 12 or 13 hours in a tent in Sizun because he felt ill, so I don't think he's a very good example in this case.
Hans has been trying to be the fastest PBP rider for a couple of times, but in 2011 he was not too sure about taking part.
IIRC the fastest velomobile was a Milan on PBP2011 (Christian Ascheberg, organiser of ARA Niedersachsen, 47h42), and Robert Carlier improved the unfaired recumbent time (53h00).

Jérôme Deloge went around in 51:27 on a plain Zockra lowracer (if anything by Zockra could be described as "plain"), more than an hour ahead of Andreas Koerner, 52:39, with Robert Carlier just behind (both of those on M5CHR).

In fact, Jérôme managed 57th place overall, staggering considering he had no benefit of a peleton like the vedettes do.

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