Monday, March 24, 2014

Bakfiets at VT Walk/Bike Summit March 29

The Vermont Walk/Bike Summit 2014 will be this Saturday (March 29), in Burlington from 8:30 am to 4 pm.  There is a schedule and list of the workshops on their webpage.  Keynote speaker is Caroline Sampanaro, Senior Director of Campaigns and Organizing at Transportation Alternatives, a transportation advocacy organization in New York City.  It's being hosted by the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission, along with 20 state and business partners and cosponsors.  Fellow cargo bike enthusiast Dave Cohen from down river (Brattleboro) will be giving a workshop, and I'll have the bakfiets solar electric cargo bike there.  I'm not so sure about test rides at this event, as the bike will be set up in the foyer outside the ballroom and the forecast is a 50% chance of 40 degree F showers, we'll see how it works out.  If you are interested in biking in Vermont, this will be a good event to attend.

Measuring for a battery box

The battery box for the longtail is all set to be made except for one last measurement.  The hold up isn't the 29" of snow still waiting to melt in my yard, nor the 0 to 20 degree F temperatures, it is waiting for the battery to arrive so I have accurate size measurements.  It was ordered in January, and immediately had a two week delay because of the Chinese New Years period.  I've made predictions about the size, but the width is a tight fit and I don't wish to have to remake the box.  My best guess is that the battery is almost ready to be unloaded from the ship about now.  I wish that someone in the US would start assembling these A123 style pouch cell batteries here.

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Bicycle bodywork (1 of 4), Form factor

Jill wrote asking about body work for bicycles, she wanted something more noticeable in traffic.  In particular she mentioned the fietstaxi shown in Thomas Collardeau's video "The Cyclists":
Notice the electric motor front hub on the right fietstaxi, Photo credit: Thomas Collardeau

These are large molded plastic body pieces mounted on a trike frame, and though I managed to find them in four other cities, I couldn't find the manufacturer.  However this made me organize my thoughts about building bodies for bicycles- what would I prefer?  I've always wanted to build a Porsche 904 replica:
Porsche 904, mid engine 4 cylinder race car, Photo credit: Top Car Rating

I can remember reading a test report of the 904 in Road and Track and falling in love.  I've looked the report up- it was July 1964, I would have been in third grade.  Those were the days, when a kid could dream about cars without any thought of what a disconnect from reality they are.  I still think this is a great design.  Ferrari did too- they tried to copy it, but they didn't do quite as good a job:
Ferrari Dino 246, mid engine 6 cylinder street car, 1969, Photo credit: Supercars

So if I could, I'd make my bike look like the 904.  Maybe when I build the mid drive bike there will be some vestiges of it that show up.  There is a person in Vienna who actually has built a pedal powered Porsche, but it won't work for my daily needs, he really needs to add an electric motor or two:
Ferdinand GT3 RS pedal Porsche, World's slowest Porsche, Video credit: Vishakx3

Human powered vehicles are operating in the 50 to 300 watt power range, and larger bodywork on a bike is going to take more power to move it.  I don't usually think of aerodynamics affecting a car's performance under 25 mph, but a bike is working on a much smaller power scale, and it does affect a bike at much slower speeds.  There is also the extra weight going up a hill.  The delivery bikes in Paris, or fietstaxi in northern Europe, China, or India are feasible because the average speed of a car in a city is so slow that a cargo bike can match it, and sometimes even do better.
Average traveling speed in traffic, in kilometers per hour
Poster credit:  Bike to Work Ukraine

An effective body shape for my longer distance errands bike would be much smaller.  A 3 wheel version would be the Velomobile or Quest trikes, but I'm still thinking about 2 wheels, so theoretically an ideal body would look more like the International Human Powered Vehicle bikes:
Varna Diablo, 2008 IHPV record holder at 82.33 mph, piloted by Sam Whittingham.
Notice the narrow width, fully covered wheels, and low height (24" to hood, 30" to canopy)
This record was broken in 2013 by Delft University students at 83.13 mph.
Note- these bikes do not have a motor.

A more practical road version would be the Velerique from UK, made from 1972 to the 1980's:
Sliding canopy on a recumbent frame.  There are cutouts in the floor
that allow the front wheel to turn, and for putting feet down at a stop.

Cedric Lynch in the UK has also put on many miles as a daily ride in his home built fairing:
The bottom of the doors have flaps for putting feet down at stops when the body is closed.
One report mentions a 60's mph top speed under favorable conditions.

It is mud season as I write this post, and getting a bike through 2 to 4 inches of mud or 6" deep ruts in the road needs to be a design goal.  Bodywork could be reduced down to just a simple fairing on the front to make it easier to push along, and it would still be helpful.  When I started to ride a motorcycle on the street in the 1970's, Saeng was selling a gorgeous parabolic front fairing that covered down almost to the front tire, that they claimed increased gas mileage by several percent.  The fairing was similar to the molded clear plastic bubbles on the front of many trikes and recumbents now:
Bubble front fairing on solar tandem recumbent, Photo credit: Declic-Eco, The SunTrip

A problem with the early fairings was that they were mounted on the handlebars, and any unexpected crosswind would steer the bike, even light crosswinds were a pain at highway speeds.  Later motorcycle fairings like the Vetter were frame mounted, but were also much bulkier to cover the front forks, and thus heavier.  More modern fairings reduce the size even more, tending towards ninja or sport touring half fairings.
Frame mounted cafe racer style fairing, Photo credit: Obrazky.pl

Crosswinds are an important consideration, even for the small area of the bodywork on the human powered speed record bikes.  The minimal area that will get the job done is best.

I love this cab.  He has a handle bar basket with storage that is protected from the 
rain and sun, a windshield with a wiper, a huge rear mirror, a sunroof, and
a radio in the dashboard.  It is probably reasonable in a crosswind, but there
is probably a fair amount of forward air resistance.  With a smoother exterior
and a lower profile, this could be a good model.  Photo credit: unknown

The gains from full bodywork can be air resistance reduction, weather protection, load capacity, and visibility to traffic.  The disadvantages can be air resistance and weight increase, loss of handling and maneuverability, hauling it through bad roads, and storing the bike.   A good design for getting me over to the next town and back would be somewhere in the middle.  In the next post I'll cover aerodynamic basics to help with defining the trade offs, and then do a post looking at some examples, such as the ELF.

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Upcoming Events

There are a few announcements I'd like to make, starting with two that I've organized for the Upper Valley Sierra Club for people in my area:

Steven Strong, of Solar Design Associates, will speak about his experiences in the solar industry and current efforts towards community solar.
April 18, 2014, 6:30 to 8 pm, Montshire Museum, Porter Community Room, Norwich, VT
Steven started working with solar in 1974, and has done projects all over the world, including the solar on the White House, solar roofs for Olympic buildings, colleges, San Francisco Giants Stadium, multi unit to residential buildings and many others:
Giant Solar Cube, Discovery Science Center, Santa Ana, California
photo credit:  Discovery Science Center
His latest solar project was the Bullitt Center in Seattle, Washington, "The World's Greenest Office Building", here is a short video about it done by a local TV station:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/seattles-bullitt-center-opens-today-as-worlds-greenest-office-building/
He is currently involved with the community Solar Gardens efforts in Massachusetts.

Upper Valley Electric Vehicle Forum
May 15, 2014, Montshire Museum, Porter Community Room, Norwich, VT
There will be electric cars and bikes outside for test rides (I'm bringing the Solar Electric Cargo Bike) from 5:30 to 7 pm, and then a presentation by Dave Roberts of Drive Electric Vermont inside from 7 to 8 pm.
Tables inside will include displays about Public Charging Stations, using PV to charge your car, National Sierra Club's EV program, and the Mt Washington EV ALT Summit 2013, with a modified electric motorcycle from that climb.
Cosponsor on this event is Sustainable Energy Resource Group (SERG) of Thetford, VT.

The Safe Streets Act of 2014 has been presented in the US Senate:
http://usa.streetsblog.org/2014/02/07/a-bill-to-make-american-streets-safer-surfaces-in-the-senate/#.UvetAZCP7t9.twitter
This is the Complete Streets program for federally funded highways.  (Vermont has already passed Complete Streets legislation for state highways in 2011.)  I've learned that generally a staffer at the congress person's office takes a tally of comments on various pieces of legislation, and the total really does influence how they vote, so if you've ever felt like writing or emailing your senator this is a good time.

At the moment I am currently entranced with the "No Ridiculous Car Journeys" bicycle promotion campaign:
http://www.copenhagenize.com/2010/09/no-ridiculous-car-journeys-malmo-sweden.html
Vital Communities in White River Junction is looking for 4 local communities to work with on a Smart Commute project, maybe a version of this would be good for Hartland?  Local readers please send me feedback, RFPs are due March 21, 2014:
http://vitalcommunities.org/uvtma/doc/RFP%20Smart%20Commute%20Home%20Edition.pdf

And last but not least, this is a great little video (other band members are family):
King of the World , Anthony Putsch, in Groningen and Utrecht, NL