I’ve never been happy with the various bags and boxes that I’ve used to store tools snd spares on my Trice Monster’s Air-Pro Seat. They always rattled around and looked like an afterthought. A few months ago I had some free time while recuperating from back surgery. So I thought I’d tackle the problem by making a carbon fiber trunk that could be securely mounted to the seat. The goal was to make it just large enough to carry tools and spares and to look like it belonged on the Monster. With the first version, I tried to use the space between the upper seat back and the rear wheel. Below you ca ..read more

I recently installed a new larger, 50mm x 50mm boom in the Milan. I purposely left both ends of the boom open for future use as an air duct. The nose end of the boom was hidden behind the bodywork. The cockpit end of the boom opened onto the rider’s lap. To add the ventilation functionality to the new boom, I needed to create an inlet opening in the nose to allow the airflow to enter the boom to cool the rider. The least aerodynamically expensive place to create an opening is on the tip of the nose where the airflow velocity is zero (stagnated) and the pressure is at its highest. This is call ..read more

Last July, my Milan SL developed a cracked boom. It probably wasn’t a single event, more like a growing splintering of the sides of the boom. It became evident to me one day when I took off from a stop and my chain came off of the chain ring. This never happens. Upon closer inspection, I could see that, under load, the boom would bend enough to the left to dislodge the chain from the chain ring. I had a cracked boom on my DF a while ago apparently from over tightening the bottom bracket sled clamps. I was able to successfully reinforce that boom from the inside by laminating carbon fiber and ..read more

My mix and match Trice, the Trice Special, has been transformed into the Trice Cheater. About 6 months ago, I installed a Bafang motor system on my wife’s Trice Special. It turns out that she just never got around to riding it. Since I needed an e-trike to ease back into riding after back surgery, I decided to take the Special back and configure it for me. Since I feel a bit guilty riding with e-assist, I renamed the trike the “Cheater”. The Bafang system is functional but kind of funky. I replaced the stamped steel chain ring with a nicer and larger CNC aluminum chain ring. The motor and cra ..read more

56.91 mph ( > 91 km/hr ) Good news! Peter Borenstadt hauling ass at the 2023 Battle Mountain Human Powered Speed Challenge in his DF velomobile sporting some of our new custom aero parts – the wrap-under tail extension, reduced frontal area hood and nose cap ..read more

The DF was getting a bit beat up from using it as a workbench to develop body parts. Also the adhesive from the tape used to mount the body parts was attacking the paint job. So, it was time to freshen it up. I played with a bunch of different color combinations in Pixelmator Pro. Here are some examples (no. 1 is the my original paint scheme): I really like the Porsche factory color called Miami Blue. It’s similar to the stock blue that all velomobile manufacturers use (RAL 5015 Sky Blue), but it’s a bit brighter with a little more turquoise tint. Then I saw a photo of a Milan in solid Miami ..read more

Every Sunday morning, car fans from around the Santa Barbara area gather at Manning Park in Montecito for a 2 hour informal car show and BS fest called Cars and Coffee. I’ll admit that I’m still a car guy so I drop into the C&C most weeks. Yesterday, I decided to show one of my exotic cars – my Milan SL. I pulled my ratty Odyssey mini-van into one of the outer parking spots (the inner spaces are informally reserved for the exotics and high dollar cars). A few people took notice when I opened the back door, slid the Milan out and set it on the ground. After answering a few of the usual ques ..read more

I’ve made some parts for Peter Borenstadt’s DF for his Battle Mountain runs in the past. This year we’re going to try a few new tweaks. First, I’ve made a slimmed down version of my DF race hood by reducing the top and sides of the current version. Here are some photos of the effort. Peter also wanted to improve the air flow through the cockpit, hoping that it may reduce overall drag of the DF and perhaps reduce CO2 levels in the cockpit. One way of doing this is to drill several large holes in the trailing edge of the DF. However that’s difficult with the tail extension coming to a point. He ..read more

One of the things velomobile riders fear most is a high speed roll over. Anything that causes the rear tire to lose grip at high speed can lead to a roll over. Riding with the rear tire on a roadside rumble strip can induce a roll over. Here’s an example of that: Another common cause of a velomobile roll over is a rear tire flat. It seems to be even worse if the tire breaks free of the rim. Vittoria has come out with an interesting product, called the Airliner, that could bring a new level of safety to the rear flat situation. The Airliner is a light weight foam ring inserted into a tubeless ..read more

I’m still having fun building parts for the Milan SL. My last piece was the head out lid and shade cap. After building these pieces, I realized that I should be able to stow the cap inside the Milan. The single piece cap assembled with its pillars doesn’t fit in the available space in the Milan. Stealing some ideas from Wim Schermer’s splittable Quest hood, I came up with a quick way to remove the pillars and split the cap into 2 pieces without tools. Here is the unpainted hood – split down the middle. At this stage, it still had the pillars mounted with screws. One of the problems I had to s ..read more