After putting a whopping 200 miles on the candy blue 700, I’ve decided to let my brother, Jon, adopt it. This will replace Jon’s black 2009(?) 9 speed 700. He rode it today and remarked how much faster it seems. Maybe it’s the 406 front wheels or the Ultremo tires or that it’s significantly lighter than his old 700 or the combination of all of these factors. It’s a fine trike, but I just seemed to chose the Vortex to ride instead.

With the encouragement of my friend and Alleweder pilot, Bill Maguire, I’m getting interested in buying my first velomobile. My interest in velomobiles is not so much for commuting and going to the market. It’s really about riding faster. I realize that a velomobile is not the first choice for rides with a lot of climbs, but could be a lot of fun on rolling hills rides and the ride from Carpinteria to Ventura with the new coastal bike path is finished. With that in mind, on my short list are the Milan, Strada DF, Evo K and Quest. All of these are head-out, go fast velomobiles. I’d probably consider the WAW, but they don’t seem to be available in the U.S. Also, the early WAW that I saw at Bent Up Cycles a few years ago looked to be pretty poorly constructed to my eye.

I took the opportunity to head up to Los Osos for the 2014 LCVMG to see some velomobiles first hand. There were quite a few Quests, an Evo R and a Milan among some Alleweders, a Borealis, a Velocity Velomobile and some home grown coroplast machines. I wasn’t able to ride/drive any of them as there was just a little time available before they would all head out for the ride.

Here Steve Schleicher, builder of the Canadian Milan, is showing me the details of the Milan. I have to say that it looks great in person. He explained how the gel coated shell is constructed with a sandwich of carbon fiber and kevlar. The tops of the front shock towers are reinforced with kevlar where the strut pokes through. This velomobile is a strong contender for my dollars. I really like the shape, the low seating position, the very nice  details like the aero mirror covers and fared rear blinkers. I am a fan of the tank-style steering having had the same setup on my Greenspeed SLR.

There are a couple of negative aspects that I learned, but no show stoppers. One thing is that there is evidently no space for a long cage derailleur – only a medium cage. This limits the size of the largest gear on the rear cluster. Steve said that he was able to get a 34 tooth gear to work on his 9 speed setup with a medium cage derailleur. Fixing flats can be challenging with the fully enclosed wheels and the rear 2-sided swing arm. Steve assures me that with a little practice it only takes 5 minutes. I’ll believe him on that.

Here you can see the nice work on the mirror cover. Also notice the light colored kevlar on the interior of the outer shell. The front fenders and ribs are carbon fiber without the kevlar layer. The tank steering levers are familiar to me, however, they did feel like they were positioned further back than I’m used to. There’s no room to move them forward though.

Here Craig Johnson shows me his beautiful Quest. I love how he keeps it spotless and polished. The glossy carbon fiber interior looks as beautiful as the red outer surface. Craig gave me a lot of information about the Quest. I’d say the fit and finish is better than I expected – really first class. The Quest has been around a long time and there are a lot of them out there. Craig explained that Velomobiel.nl has continued to evolve the design over the years so it keeps improving. This is a very impressive machine.

Inside Craig’s Quest.

One negative aspect of the Quest design came up in conversation with Craig and another Quest rider (with a scratched up Quest). Evidently the rounded shape of the Quest makes it vulnerable to developing lift and flipping over in a cross wind. It seems that designs with the twin hump front end design, like the Milan, AW, Evo K and Strada DF, are less likely to develop lift in cross winds. This really got my attention.

Check out the ride down Old San Marcos Road. After a long climb, the payoff is a 40mph run.

It’s been almost a year since I’ve owned a Catrike 700. I always liked the 700 for its comfort and speed (although I’ve never been a big fan of Catrike direct steering). I haven’t  ridden the new version of the 700 with the 20″ front wheels, longer wheel base and more laid back seat position. I thought that it might be time to do so. Needing a new project, I decided to take advantage of the Catrike winter sale. For some reason, Big Cat is offering a bigger discount ($200 vs $100) if you order the more expensive paint job. To be honest, I’m not too wild about any of the colors offered, but the Candy Blue seems OK so I went with that.

I also like to pick my own components and build my own wheels. You can buy a “roller” from Catrike which includes the frame, seat, steering, wheels but no drive train or brakes. The price is only about $300 lower than a full trike so usually it doesn’t make sense to buy the roller. I spoke with Dana at Bent Up about this and it turns out that he needed a set of stock wheels to complete another trike that he had in stock so we struck a deal that did make sense. I got the frame, steering, seat but no wheels or bolt on bike parts for a reasonable price. With the $200 discount applied to that, it was a very good price. (Thanks, Dana)

I already have some pieces to put on the trike. I have a new FSA SL-K triple carbon fiber crank set, front derailleur and Ultremo tires. I really like the components that I chose for my Vortex so I’m going with the same on the 700. I’ve ordered some Avid X0 hydraulic brakes, SRAM X0 rear derailleur, TT500 shifters, KMC hollow pin chain and Velocity A23 rims with Bitex hubs. It turns out that Velocity has stopped making the A23 rims in the 406 size, but fortunately Mark at PowerOn Cycling agreed to sell me his last 2 – maybe the last 2 on the planet.

So now I have to wait for that call from Dana letting me know that the 700 frame is in the shop. I have a couple of weeks off around Xmas so I’m hoping that all of the pieces converge in Santa Barbara around that time so I can get busy building my new trike.

I made the trip down to the Recumbent Cycle Con in Pomona today. I had a chance to check out the new Greenspeed prototype and have a chance with Ian Sims. Check it out here…

I’ve added a Videos page to the site. I’ll post some recumbent related videos as I upload or find them. You’ll notice that they’re not very polished, but may be mildly interesting to someone.

I’ve completed another 2 sets of wheels for the Vortex (in addition to the set of Velocity A23 wheels that I built first). The goofy looking deep profile wheels use carbon fiber rims from Yeoleo.com in the standard Vortex sizes of 700 rear and 406 fronts with Ultremo tires all around. The normal looking wheels (far right picture) are Velocity Aeroheat rims but in smaller than stock sizes. In order to lower the whole trike, I used a 559 rear and 349 fronts with Stelvio tires all around. With this setup, the Vortex is almost identical to one of my favorite trikes, the Pseudo Monster. The frame and steering geometry are about the same. I’ll enjoy experimenting with the 3 sets of wheels.

Over the last month or so, I’ve been accumulating parts to assemble a new Vortex from a frame kit. I’ve finally got a complete trike rolling now. Check out the new page for the 2013 Vortex.

Elizabeth and her husband Jon came down to Santa Barbara a couple of weeks ago to pick up the Meteor. We spent a few hours making adjustments. I had the seat positioned pretty far back for me so we had to move it forward on the frame and shorten the boom. After we got the Meteor dialed in, we took off for a quick ride up the bike path to Goleta Beach. It was an all ICE trike ride – Elizabeth on the Meteor, Jon on a Vortex and me on the Monster. Elizabeth took off like a rocket. At some points along the way, we were doing 20mph on the flat bike path. I was sad to see it go, but I’m glad the the Meteor went to someone who can really enjoy it.