A philosophic vacation tour.

Introduction. 

This is a rather philosophical posting about past, present and future of personal transportation, fitness, health and road rage. These are the thoughts that cross my mind when I'm pedaling away vast distances through time and space. The space that is the anchor of this posting is the L770 road in Germany. It is a very special road....

Dream Ride

Only rarely did I ride a nicer section then on the L770 road, roughly between the German towns Petershagen and Bramsche in Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. Such a road is ideal for long-distance travelers by velomobile. Every main road should have such wide shoulders for long distance/high speed HPV'ers! 

Excellent shoulder for HPV use.

43km/h average for 50km@177Watts. Link to a bigger picture on Dropbox

Yes, it's alongside cars, but the shoulder from the L770 is wide and just as smooth as the rest of the road, without the debris or discontinuity that for instance the ROAM2011 riders experienced in the USA. I wasn't riding for speed on the L770 actually, which can be seen from the "modest" 177Watts average power. It was part of a 650km long weekend round trip Groningen (NL)- Hildesheim (DE) ride, so I was riding my long distance pace. 

The stage-coach era

If navigation and roads for velomobiles were always this good, travelling by velomobile would certainly catch on more widely. I'm dreaming of the times like of the stage coaches (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stagecoach), when you would travel all around Europe and spend the night in hostels where you could have a warm bed, dinner and breakfast. My mode of travelling today is very similar to that: I travel from 150 up to 300km a day with my Mango velomobile, check in at a youth hostel, B&B or Warmshowers and have dinner somewhere in town. Next morning breakfast either at the hostel or at one of the bakeries that have an excellent service. If only my navigation could be easier with all roads complemented with a wide shoulder like I had on the L770 road, my daily travelling distance could easily jump to 400km. 
But to be truthful: my average for the full day was not 42,7km/h. http://ridewithgps.com/trips/2414133 And that is not because I got tired or significantly lowered my pace. It was because the other 160km of this day, my cycle navigation took me on smaller roads with intersections every kilometer, gravel roads, the odd sand road, non-existing roads and dead ends.... In the end my average dropped to 30,9km/h which is of course quick for a bicycle, but still..... not nearly as quick as could be and without any more effort.

Nice, but not so good for travelling long distance.

Stranded in loose sand, had to push for a while.
Alternative: go back and take a long detour with no guarantee for  a better result

How will we transport ourselves safe, comfortable and swift without getting.... you know, fat and angry.

But aren't roads for cars (sic). That is of course only for as long as it makes sense (just like the stage coach era ended when trains took over their role). Later the car made personal transport possible, but at a high cost both in traffic incidents and energy waste. Nowadays it becomes ever more clear that personal transport should not take up as much energy, space, public resources and cause so much pollution like the contemporary car or even it's successor, the hybrids and e-cars. Truly efficient bicycles, like velomobiles, are perfectly suited for personal transportation. After all, isn't it obvious that physical activity is just what we need in an age of stress and obesity? The car hasn't lived up to it's reputation of freedom for a long time. Only in car commercials will you see slowly winding coastal roads without any other cars in sight. The bicycle is much safer as well, despite that some people I talk to when I'm on the road like to point out that "they are clearly not safe". In fact the velomobile has an excellent crash protection with it's body of glass/carbon/kevlar. The main reason it's less safe than a car is... the car. The protection level for the people INSIDE the car is excellent, but as for the other road users? Let's face it, the safety of cyclists is very much dependent on the mood swings of drivers. I believe that it's no coincidence that the nice experience I had on the L770 happened on a bright Sunday. During my daily commutes to work, especially when the weather is bad, the temper of most people can be very bad and road rage lurks just around the corner. Of course cyclists are also prone to mood swings. The difference is that they do not present much danger to other road users.

MUV, Mango Urban Vehicle

I always used to think of a velomobile mainly suitable for long distance touring and commuting. So when I came to live in a big city, I didn't think I would often take the Mango into the town centre. Meanwhile however, my other bikes do nothing but gather dust. All rides are done by the Mango: short and long.  To show how useful a Mango can be in urban area and city centre, I made a new playlist on my YouTube channel to show that especially an agile and light velomobile like the Mango is very much at home there.

My first problem is: how to film myself while cruising through the city. The solution is obvious, one simply asks a friend to come along and be filmed. The result is below and more of such vids are likely to follow in the "MUV" playlist of the HuneliggersChannel

BTW: the footage is made by my new camera: Vio POV.HD Please set the quality to 1080pHD, but when the video looks choppy on your screen it might be better to choose a lower setting.

"Hindsight" addition

I realized that the photos in my previous post were not giving a very good image of what you see in the mirrors on the body and in da Hood. So.....

mirror in da Hood: one can just see
the lantern post but not what is directly behind 

mirror on the normal position, the body:
Watch the lantern post in the mirror. I can see
what is going on straight behind the Mango

At first sight the field of view does not seem to different. In both cases I can conveniently look in the mirror without turning my head. The mirror in da Hood is at a slight disadvantage however, because it's impossible to see what goes on straight behind. More importantly: I have to pinch an eye to see clearly. I have noticed that in low light conditions I CAN see with both eyes open. Could it be that it's something that I can train?

CONCLUSION, after riding with mirrors inside for a week: for me this is only for racing. The disadvantages are too great for everyday use. What disturbs me the most is the fact that my glasses sometimes hit the mirrors. That is distracting and annoying.

"Hindsight"

One of the things that keep coming back in my thoughts is the subject of looking backwards. Even with da Hood on I can still see a lot to the side and back through the side windows, but it is more practical when I can keep my head still and move my eyes to look in a mirror. When I started riding with da Hood, I added a second mirror to the right side of the body. But maybe there are other ways with minimal impact on aerodynamics? As usual such things are most beneficial in racing, so Cycle Vison is a good incentive to do some work in this direction.

In previous posts I already showed the mirrors inside the velomobile hood, thinking that it would only be somewhat practical in racing. It would mean reduced drag, since I could take off the two mirrors on the body of the Mango. Like in the film above is not quite how I rode during the races at Cycle Vision.  I was not quite happy and thought it needed further tweaking. I had to pinch one eye and move my head sideways to see somebody overtaking. What was worse is that I could not move my head freely as I am used to. My glasses could easily get into contact with the mirrors. It was so uncomfortable that it was quickly decided: I took off the right mirror. The track at CV was left corners only so I needed the left mirror the most. In addition (and since I was planning on filming anyway) I placed a bullet camera facing backwards with the screen/recorder unit on the right wheel box. The screen is very small though and the image is not mirrored, so velomobiles seemed to be overtaking on the wrong side. With all the left turns during the three hour race my brain was busy enough already, so it was not very helpful in the end. (though it made very nice shots of the race)

As you can see I also had a camera facing front...
As the mirror can be rotated around on an excentrical ball joint, I could move it outside the side window of da Hood, giving me a better view (and at the same time giving my glasses more clearance). I still had to move my head sideways to have a good look but it was good enough to see when I could cut back to the ideal line in front of a rider I was overtaking. In the "comments" section on YouTube, someone suggested it might be good enough for everyday. Well, not really, but it seemed like a plan worth investigating to me. So after returning from Cycle Vision the glued-on right mount for the mirror was taken off and replaced by a different one. The stem of the mirror was trimmed down even more and with these tweaks I can move the mirror out the window far enough to see behind me without moving my head sideways. I still have to pinch an eye though, but it seems that I might get used to it.

the right mirror gives the best view backwards

mirror partially outside the window

attachment of the mirror to da Hood. Note the
minimalistic  use of material ;-)

With the right mirror being placed to my satisfaction, I will make the same tweaks to the left mirror. It will have to compete though with the rear camera. Really? Yes! While it was very difficult to process all the visual info during the race, riding home in everyday traffic conditions made a much better impression on me. Sure, not having a mirrored image was slightly awkward, but what struck me was that I could see something approaching with ONE glance, instead of looking right AND left into the mirrors. The Vio recording/screen unit does not need much power either. After 7 hours of riding from Lelystad to Groningen, the 4 rechargeable AA batteries were still 40% full. Also here I need to make an adjustment: for the race I had mounted the bullet camera pretty low to give a nice sense of speed to the viewer, but the view towards traffic and the light compensation is much better when the camera is placed higher. I already made a new hole in the top of the Mango body for this, but my first plan to make a stable mount failed. Still some work to be done there.

low mount of the bullet camera, too low...

To my surprise  Cerevellum is also back with it's "Hindsight" rear view cycling computer. I had ordered this device years ago, but the manufacturer could not bring it to the market at the time and I got a full refund. Hopefully they have more more succes this time. It may seem like an expensive mirror, but being able to see what's behind without lumpy mirrors on a velomobile is an attractive prospect to me. For the time I will concentrate on my own system with the Vio unit. Vio has a new HD recorder with greater looking angle than the analog one I have now. If only it would be able to mirror the image it might be perfect for "hindsight" as well as making recordings.

The flip point: extremely narrow tires on velos

Tires have been one of my favorite subjects to investigate from the day I found out that the rolling resistance at moderate velo speeds is almost as high as the aerodynamic drag. Apart from reading a lot about it on the Internet, I have switched tires countless times (I have a closet full with half used tires) and almost every time I ride home I roll down from a small bridge to see how far the tires of choice will roll. This is of course not very scientific, but over the course of the years I have gathered a lot of insight on tires this way.
Rolling resistance is the energy that is lost when the tire deforms in contact with the road and the rubbing of the rubber molecules amongst each other. There are several ways to make these losses smaller. Narrow racing tires typically use the most advanced techniques to lower the rolling resistance (RR) like more and thinner threads to make a thinner and more supple tire possible and better rubber compounds. For wider touring tires, the tire producers tend to give more attention to puncture proofness and durability. I think I can safely say that the HPV scene is slowly changing this, because there are a lot of geeks among them that like to push the tire producers towards Speed.
Especially velos do not really need the low aerodynamic drag of a narrow tire, because they usually are embedded in wheel arches where they are almost completely out of  the airflow anyway. Since a wide tire deforms less than a narrow tire they can have a lower rolling resistance, but only when the rubber compound and the tire casing shows up similar techniques as the narrow racing tire. However, the narrow tire has a last line of defense! It can be pumped up much harder than a wide tire before bursting. A hard tire deforms less in contact with the road, so less RR.

The following question came to my mind: how practical is it to use narrow racing tires on a velo?
To come up with an answer, I have ridden Schwalbe Durano 28-406 on the front wheels all winter long and for a shorter period the most extreme 20" tire on the market: Schwalbe Ultremo 23-406.

Durano: a racy tire but much more durable than it's predecessor the Stelvio (not in produktion anymore). I managed to wreck the sidewall of a Stelvio in one race, but the Duranos' can handle almost anything I throw at them. Almost, for the one thing that took one of the Duranos' out prematurely was heavy braking to the point that I lock up the wheel. The abrasion was too much and the road simply scrubbed right through the canvas, also destroying the tube inside.

destroyed Durano, the canvas scrubbed through

Well, since then I have been braking in  a more sensible manner and didn't have that problem anymore.
As to the riding experience: the Duranos' are fast tires and they give the Mango the smallest possible turning circle, so agility is also better. The feel in corners is very direct, so I know exactly what is going on. Because of the 9,5 bar of pressure I keep in them,  they do not bulge under the heavy load in fast cornering like wide tires do, especially when the pressure is down to a very comfortable level. Especially in roundabouts the velo may become a "Gallopin' Gertie"  with the loaded front tire hopping up and down uncontrollably until you slow down. I like to go fast in corners, so this all is a big plus for me.
Not related to RR, but the light weight does also contribute to the riding experience, since I do relatively much riding in town. A lighter tire accelerates easier, since there is less  rotational weight to bring into movement. Likewise, braking is a bit quicker but as written before, it is wise to not let the wheel lock up completely.
On a sidenote: I have put on lighter wheels with narrower rims to have even less rotational weight. The narrow rim is also better suited to such a narrow tire.
Comfort is of course less than what I was used to, but since the Mango has good shocks it's not much of an issue. I got used to it soon enough, but I do avoid getting next to the road and ride much slower on cobblestones. High pressure in the tires does make the velo noisier as impacts are simply more intense. Despite the high pressure and ensuing small contact patch, there still is a reasonable amount of grip on the road. I was surprised by that, since I had the idea that the high durability (for a narrow racing tire) must have something to do with a hard, slippery compound. Not so: the grip is not much less than that of the wider Kojak.
To make things more interesting, we had snow for a while this winter and one might think that a narrow tire is not good for that. Sometimes it's completely the other way around then you'd expect: the Durano cuts through fresh snow easily and does not have to displace as much snow as wide tires, so riding takes less effort and you stay in contact with the road. The non-driven front tires do not need to give traction, so that is not an issue either.
 Apart from the above mentioned flat because of the abrasion of the tire, I had no flats all winter. The thin Raceguard protection that Schwalbe puts in seems to do a pretty good job.
Maybe you have noticed that I put in 1 bar more pressure than Schwalbe gives as maximum pressure. I do so, because high pressure cuts the RR from narrow tires enormously and I somehow have a lot of confidence that the Durano is strong enough, unlike the old Stelvio.
So overall the Durano is pretty practical, be it that you won't like to do dirt trails with it as it sinks away too easily there.

Ultremo: Given the rather good impression I got from the Duranos' it only seemed logical to take it even further. The even lighter, narrower Ultremo tire. The ultimate in the line-up from Schwalbe.

Ultremo: best kept on the shelve until racing day?

Putting the tire on the rim was a bit more tedious than with the Durano, but not really very hard to do. It got a whole lot trickier when I wanted to pump them up to their max. 11bar! It's not simply a question of a few pump strokes more. Most pumps do not get up to that pressure at all, but we have an excellent track pump at the shop that managed it. Alas the pressure gauge was bust, so I had to check the pressure with a separate digital gauge from Schwalbe. The problem was to not lose too much pressure while putting the gauge on the valve stem. It was almost funny how many times I had to pump and pump again to get close to the desired pressure, because the moment I pulled the gauge off the valve it could easily lose one bar in pressure! When I tried to pump it up a few days later at home again I found that my own big floor pump only just could manage to get enough pressure in the tire. Certainly my little pump that I always take with me in the Mango, cannot get even close to the desired pressure. Since I usually swap tube and tire in case of a flat it is no issue on a daily basis (simply put on a tire that does not need extreme pressure) but on multiday trips it IS a serious problem. I know, I just keep on rattling about high pressure, but it is truly vital for such a tire to have it topped up at all time. I noticed it on my roll-out course that the variation in distance rolled varied a lot, depending on how much pressure I managed to get inside! Furthermore the tire will no doubt be destroyed easily when the pressure gets too low. It's the high pressure that has to maintain the shape of the tire. Too low a pressure and the sidewalls will bulge the very supple sidewalls until the rim cuts it up. The infamous snakebite flat is therefore a very likely thing to happen when you do not keep a close eye on pressure.
In all other respects the Ultremo is a Durano on steroids and so far it also seems to be strong enough. Only the pressure that is needed to keep this tire going good, is enough for me to completely disqualify it as a practical tire. If you seriously want the max in speed however, this is it.

As you may know, I have an enormous collection of YouTube vids. Here is one featuring the Duranos:

Yep, they also come pimped (white tread)

Don't forget to alter the setting on the bicycle computer:
circumference Durano @9,5bar=146cm
circumference Ultremo @11bar=144cm

Met een velomobiel kap in de regen? Ja dat is fijn!

Eigenlijk vind ik dat we van het woord racekap zo langzamerhand maar eens af moeten. Als het ontwerp goed is, kun je met een velomobielkap (veel beter woord toch) namelijk in elk weertype rijden. Ik heb al eerder een video gepost van de 3-uurs wedstrijd van Cycle Vision met de bijbehorende fitnessdata waaruit bleek dat de luchttemperatuur binnenin weliswaar snel oploopt als je stilstaat in de brandende zon, maar zodra je rijwind hebt tijdens het fietsen je met een meer of minder geopend vizier heel goed de binnentemperatuur kunt reguleren. Het kan zelfs koeler zijn dan de buitentemperatuur. Ik behoorde dan ook niet tot degenen die afkoeling zocht in de vijver na de wedstrijd, ik raakte in het geheel niet oververhit. Dat komt niet alleen door de afkoelende luchtstroom, maar ook doordat er alleen indirect licht binnen komt. Het vizier van de SinnerBikes velomobielkap is groot genoeg voor prima zicht naar voren, maar niet zo groot dat veel zonlicht binnen komt en ze zit vrij ver van je af. Dat geeft ook een heerlijk ruimtelijk gevoel. Het is natuurlijk geweldig dat iets waar je al zo lang als team aan werkt (onze kunststofman Roelf komt de meeste eer toe) nog beter blijkt te werken dan je hoopte.

de plug van de SinnerBikes velomobielkap

Maar dan. Bij mooi weer is het wel leuk als je een zonne-allergie hebt of als je erg lang in de brandende zon moet fietsen is het ook zeker niet verkeerd, maar je denkt natuurlijk bij een geheel gesloten fiets allereerst aan bescherming tegen minder goed weer. De natuur kwam de laatste tijd geheel tegemoet aan mijn wens van vochtige testomstandigheden. Telkens als ik naar huis fietste na het werk regende het prompt. Het regent bijna nooit, behalve als ik naar huis moet fietsen, leek het wel. Wel dat is natuurlijk zwaar overdreven, zoals de website http://www.hetregentbijnanooit.nl/site/ aantoont, maar het valt wel op dat het 's morgens zelden regent en dat de kans op regen in de loop van de middag groter wordt.

Ik had nog wat moeite om een goede set-up van de camera voor elkaar te krijgen. De chinese sleutelhanger HD camera van 40 dollar lijkt het heel aardig te doen en deze gaf na herplaatsing naar de onderkant van mijn pet een beeld dat vrij aardig overeenkomt met wat ik zelf zie. Ik noem hem dan ook cap-cam. Een filmpje van het forens tripje van vandaag, met alweer stromende regen, staat online op YouTube. De bescherming tegen regen is vrij goed al is niet te voorkomen dat er wat water naar binnen sputtert die meegenomen wordt door de luchtstroom over de body en kap. Ik vermoed dat ik op een langere tocht in de regen wel een motorcol om de nek en schouders wil. Die gebruik ik nu ook al met de schuimkap.
Het voornaamste probleem bij regen is echter het beslaan van het vizier. Ik heb ooit met de mal van Velomobiel.nl mezelf een racekap gemaakt (deze pure racekap was overigens de basis van de SinnerBikes velomobiel kap) en toen ik die eens tijdens LEL wilde gebruiken was ik waarachtig blij dat ik al snel lek reed en terug kon rijden om mijn kap achter te laten en te herstarten met de schuimkap. Ik zag namelijk geen ene malle moer door het compleet beslagen vizier. Ik kon zwabberen wat ik wilde met mijn microfleece doekje, maar het zicht bleef net zo slecht alsof ik in mist met een zicht van 10cm reed. Tja, het vizier was vastgebout en de deflector achter het vizier was onvoldoende om ook maar een klein stukkie vrij van damp te houden.

de afwerkrand die aanvankelijk rond de rand zat was toch wat al te fors, nu zit er alleen schuim aan de onderkant van de rand, waardoor de kap superstrak aanligt en net iets onder de body

Waarom doet de SinnerBikes kap het beter? Dat zit 'm in een paar dingen. Ten eerste: het vizier wordt een klein beetje op afstand gehouden van de kap door stukjes schuim. De opstaande rand van de kap direct achter het vizier geleid de luchtstroom over de gehele breedte langs de achterkant van het vizier en daardoor wordt de lucht voortdurend ververst. Bovendien staat het vizier vrij ver af van het gezicht en is de vrije ruimte groot zodat ademlucht niet eens in de buurt komt van het vizier. Dit is ook te zien in het filmpje: ik moet bewust richting vizier ademen om deze te laten beslaan en het lost vrijwel meteen weer op. Bij stilstand is er weinig verversing en moet wanneer het regent meestal het vizier geopend worden om beslaan te voorkomen. Ik heb nu een gaatje gemaakt waar mijn wijsvinger net in past, zodat ik het vizier gemakkelijk op of neer kan bewegen. Het draadje waarmee ik voorheen het vizier dicht trok werkte wel goed, maar kietelde nogal eens mijn vingers en belemmerde soms zelfs het remmen. Dat is niet handig.
De zijruiten hoeven niet afgesloten worden. Nee, echt niet. De luchtstroom is namelijk vooral op het vizier gericht en gaat langs de zij-openingen. De regen wordt meegevoerd door de luchtstroom en gaat dus ook langs de kap. Ik voel alleen bij harde wind van opzij zo af en toe een beetje verfrissende spray.
Het mag dan logischer lijken om ruitjes te maken, maar in de praktijk zullen deze veel sneller beslaan dan het vizier waar immers de volle luchtstroom op staat. Je kunt natuurlijk ruitjes maken die je kunt openen en sluiten zoals het vizier, maar volgens mij is het veel beter om te kunnen zien met zo weinig mogelijk extra handelingen. De ruime openingen maken het mogelijk om net als bij het open rijden opzij en schuin naar achteren te kijken. Een tweede spiegel rechts is wel aan te raden, maar zelf een dode hoek spiegel knutselen is niet nodig. Voor een wedstrijd maak je de openingen natuurlijk dicht voor net dat beetje extra aerodynamische efficientie, maar in het dagelijkse verkeer zijn de openingen geniaal. Via de openingen kun je richting aangeven met de handen. Ik weet wel dat de meeste velomobilisten knipperlichten hebben, maar die luxe is nog niet doorgedrongen tot mijn nogal spartaans uitgevoerde Mango. Overigens heb ik inmiddels wel vaste verlichting. Dit om een interessante lamp van Philips met een brede lichtbundel uit te kunnen testen. Maar dat is weer een ander verhaal.

de bediening: een gaatje voor de wijsvinger in het vizier

Cycle Vison Heat

Just in time for the races at Cycle Vision, Roelf completed the last item on the racing hood: the visor of polycarbonate, heated in an oven and pressed in a mold. This visor that can be pushed up or down to regulate the airflow makes an enormous difference to the racing hood I had before, that had a fixed visor right in front of my face. There was no way I could regulate the airflow other than to throw it off.

The opening for the head of the Sinner Hood is much longer, so I can lean forwards and have a look around. This gives a feeling of being less confined. It also means that the visor is further away so it doesn't fog up as quickly from my warm and moist breath. The visor is always a bit open to allow air travel along the back of it. This also helps preventing fogging up. When I get too hot, I simply open the visor a notch. The pivot is at such a place that the top of the visor never sticks out above the hood itself. That way the aerodynamic penalty for opening it is not very big. It's certainly better than overheating, because you have much less power when you're too hot.
Now to the praktice. It was about 29degrC. at the racetrack during the Three Hour Race. Would I survive under the hood or throw it in a ditch after a few laps, because it'd get too hot. I was amazed to find that it was actually pretty cool. The airflow went right to my forehead, cooling my head. That was certainly neccessary because the track is a bit narrow for so many racers and spectacular corners. Some were tight at the end and the chicane was tricky, but I found that none of them would have to be slower than 40km/h. That chicane right after the start was very nice. After a few laps I felt confident enough to fully unload one wheel of the Mango and let it fly over the grass in the first corner and to speed up when coming out of the second corner while the unloaded wheel bumped slightly up and down on the pavement because of my hard pedalling to get up to speed again. My Garmin Edge800 was very helpful to determine the maximum approaching speed towards the corners and when it was time to start pedalling again. The Edge also has a thermometer. I didn't look at those digits during the race but in hindsight it is nice to see how warm it gets under the hood, standing still in the burning sun and how much it cools down when travelling some 44km/h on average. The temperature even got lower than the outside temperature. I think, especially because I had no sun burning on a helmet, that I was even cooler than the lowracer riders.

You can see that at the start the temperature was 34degrC. inside the Mango and under the hood but after 10 minutes into the race it went down to 26, even 25 which was about 3 degr. lower than the air temperature. Mind you, the position of the thermometer is not in the airflow but my face sure is, so the cooling effect is very good. After 1.30hours there is an increase in temperature, because I had stopped, walked back to the start line to get a tube and fix the blown out tire (I had another one at the end of the race, geez).  Temperature and other data of the race can be viewed here on Garmin Connect.
The curves in the track:

Part of the way home after the races, half of it in the dark, I also had the hood on. Now that the heat and fogging up is no longer a problem anymore, it's almost practicle for everyday use, but not quite. Vision to the rear is somewhat impaired so it should be possible to quickly dismount it when riding in city and urban area. It'd like it to be as easy as stuffing the foam cover in the nose of the Mango. This is something to work on.

Suspension

The suspense is kil.... no, wait a minute. NO suspension is killing me.

Een dag op het werk

Wat is mijn werk? Ik maak Mango's.... Mango's groeien gewoonlijk aan bomen in een tropisch land, maar ik heb het natuurlijk over de velomobiel met die naam. Net als de vrucht kan ook de Mango velomobiel verschillende kleuren hebben. Toevallig staat er op het moment een rijtje in de Ligfietsgarage Groningen.

De standaardkleuren van de gelcoat zijn geel, wit en rood. Er zijn veel andere kleuren mogelijk, maar omdat gelcoat niet erg lang te bewaren is, geldt daarvoor een meerprijs.
Dit zijn overigens niet allemaal nieuwe Mango's die op aflevering wachten. De blauwe bijvoorbeeld is van kollega Arjen en er staan nog twee proefrij Mango's voor mensen die 'm graag even uit willen proberen. Vandaag was daar geen animo voor, misschien wel omdat het "gromde". Voorzover ik weet is grommen een Drents woord voor lichte sneeuwval, dus het zijn niet alleen de Inuit die verschillende woorden kennen voor sneeuw. Tegen de avond lag er een mooi laagje sneeuw. Ik ben gek op fietsen met een driftende driewieler in de sneeuw, maar ik had eerst nog een prive klusje gepland. Ik ben namelijk met mijn nieuwe witte Quest behoorlijk aan het grammenjagen geweest en nu was de stoel aan de beurt. Daar kan best wat vanaf, zonder dat de sterkte er
onder lijdt. Arjen heeft nog even meegeholpen met het plakken van een gesloten celschuim matje en het bepalen van de plaatsen van de te zagen gaten. Het resultaat zie je hiernaast. Bovenin zitten de gaten erg dicht bij elkaar en toen we ter plekke op de stoel drukten merkten we dat de stoel te slap zou worden als ik de hele stoel zo zou verzagen. De onderlinge afstand dus maar vergroot. Per gat heb ik slechts ongeveer 3 of 4gram minder gewicht, het vervangen van de Ventisit mat door het veel lichtere gesloten celschuim levert dan ook meer op. Daarmee heb ik tegelijk een betere ventilatie van de rug en ik kan zien wat er onder de stoel ligt zonder hem eerst omhoog te klappen. Ik hou wel van een dergelijke synergie. Het was alweer bijna 20.00 uur voor ik tevreden was en te laat om de stoel nog in te bouwen. Dat ga ik morgen dan maar doen.

M'n Quest was nu nog witter dan wit. Ik heb de sneeuw er toch maar even afgeveegd, want het kan gebeuren dat het door de rijwind in het gezicht geblazen wordt. Op de wegen en fietspaden was uiteraard al druk gestrooid, pretbedervers. Maar geen nood, ik heb eerst een rondje rond het gebouw gemaakt over de inmiddels verlaten parkeerplekken. Haha, de autorijders zullen morgen wel opkijken van de vreemde wielsporen. Een 360graden zat er helaas niet in in de verse sneeuw. De banden sneden er doorheen en de Moiree en Furious Fred banden hebben heel veel grip. Ergens vond ik dat toch wel een beetje jammer....