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.

Mango racing tweaks, practical for everyday?

It' s not exactly the first time I'm fiddling with my Mango to make it a bit more aerodynamic and stable in the corners so I can be faster in a race. It gets much more interesting when such tweaks can be permanent. If not for going faster than it will make for a safer and less exhausting ride. For that to happen the impact to practical features like maneuverability and serviceability should be very little impacted. That's why I don't do much effort to find ways to extend the tail like for instance the Germans Ludwig and Holger have done in the past for races.  While it is good for aerodynamics and not very complicated to make, it makes the Mango less compact and therefore less practical for everyday.

Aerodynamic tail added to a Mango+ (foto: Theo Zweers)

I (stop! Who: "I".  In fact it was the infamous David Hembrow and Roelf W who initiated this) have tried to use a less inconspicuous way to improve the tail's air resistance with little strips. See: http://youtu.be/OIIGPLlFsHM It looked promising in theory. But then I rode with it and made some comparative rides and concluded that in reality it didn't make significant difference. It seems that the amount of vacuum behind the Mango did not change much.

Anyway, a long tail DOES make sense for races and I might try it myself one day, it's just not handy for everyday.

But like I wrote before there is more to speed than aerodynamics because racetracks and roads alike can have nasty corners that can have a major impact on the overall speed. What usually happens in corners is that, depending on vehicle stability and agility of the rider, one either has to stop pedaling or (Sturmey Archer forbid) even brake. Either way one has to get up to speed after the corner and then the weight of the vehicle works against the rider. My Mango is probably one of the lightest around at 26,5kg but it still is hard work, especially in a long race resulting in many a corner to overcome. Now there are some tricks to get fast through a corner but I don't want you to get too crazy ideas and make loopings in the air (like I have), so I'll discuss the vehicle itself for now.

At some point I got the idea that stability and aerodynamics could be improved in one go. In earlier attempts I had put strips near the front wheel arches like for instance in the photo below, where I put a white strip above the wheel. Other strips were taped on the underside of the body to prevent as much as possible that air gets into the wheelarch.

aero strip taped in the wheel arch

This made not nearly as much aero difference as "da Hood", but to me there was no question after several training rides and races that such strips for the front wheels made me a bit faster. It was almost practical too, but it could get into contact with the tire when the suspension strut of the outer wheel got compressed in a corner, the tire could hit the strip and when the tire wears through that can cause a flat or even a blow out. I had two flats that way in last year's Cycle Vision three hour race. That was a bit depressing, since I was doing rather well. Some people race "all or nothing" and I guess that's the attitude one needs to win now and then, but I prefer to make it to the finish line without troubles. That's how I got champion of the NVHPV summer competition of 2007: I won only one race that year, but I was present at most of the races of the competition, always finished and got me some points.

So how to get the tire away from the strip? The answer lay in the suspension strut. Hold on for the longer explanation: As I was thinking of a way to get more stability it made sense to try and make the track greater, so more distance between the contact patches of the front wheels. Simply extending the tie rods was not going to cut it, because the wheels would get outside the wheel arch and into the airstream. You can say goodbye to aerodynamics when you do that, but... when you put the top of the suspension struts inward (closer to eachother) the wheel will go inside the wheel arch again. In effect this means more negative camber. Now somewhere in the back of my head I knew that too much negative camber means more rolling resistance. So I did some roll-out tests at my regular test-bridge and was relieved to see that I was still rolling about the same distance as before.

I had to drill two holes, 9mm next to the old ones. This does make fitting bigger tires inconvenient, since they will scrape the inside of the wheel arch when cornering sharply. Oh well, I was really getting into the fast Durano 28-406 tires anyway....

to the right of the nut, light coming through the old hole

The result of this can be seen below: left is my modded Mango Sport and right is a standard Mango Sport. My wheels are clearly at a greater angle to the vertical and the track is widened by 2,5cm
Hmmm, but wait a minute, looking more closely at the foto, isn't the white Mango lower than the other?

white Mango: more negative camber

The plot thickens now, because I did something else to improve stability: lower the centre of gravity. I lowered the Mango by about 2cm by shortening all the springs in the suspension struts.

white/grey Mango is 2 cm lower

To make things even more complicated and to prove that I am in no way doing a scientific research here, I also gave the wheels a bit more positive caster by shortening the tie rods between the front of the wheel arch and suspension strut. I already found in an earlier temporary modification that this makes the steering a bit heavier and thus less sensitive to undeliberate or unconscious steering input and other influences. In the flat Netherlands I do not feel much diference from more positive caster, but it might be very good in a fast downhill. For an online explanation of camber and caster: http://www.yospeed.com/100304-wheel-alignment-explained-camber-caster-toe.php

So what have I achieved now? Well amongst others the wheel at the top are more inward in the wheel arch and this means that when I put an aerostrip over it, it will not touch the tire easily. I can even make the strip bigger.

This should give me a greater aero advantage than the previous, smaller strips. I can steer sharply (although turning radius has increased a bit) and even under load the tire dos not touch the strip. Ok, so the stiffer shorter suspension also helps there, granted. 

So how practical is my machine now, is it worth it? The future will tell, but one thing is already clear: It won't be fun to get on a sandy trail, since the narrow high pressure tires will sink easily into the sand. The smoother the road the better the comfort is with these tires. Then again, when the changes are a bit less drastic I am sure that 35-406 Kojaks will also fit and that is a pretty standard velomobile tire.
Ohw, I almost forget: stability did indeed get significantly better. All the corners on my commute can be dealt with faster than before and it is easy to control the Mango. I am even thinking of picking up an old habit to try and beat my fastest commuting time. If only the other commuters and schoolkids wouldn't look so angry in my mirror when I swoosh by them..... I meet them everyday, so I'd better stay friends.

Can something be done to get the full range of up to 42-406 tires for the Mango Sport back? Yes there is, but it is not simple, because it means changing the molds of the Mango. These molds are very capital intensive, since it took very long to make them. Changing the wheel arches of the Mango molds to allow for more negative camber will mean a big investment.... For now I will keep on making small adjustments to the wheel alignment to make the most of what we have now.

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

T minus one. ROAM takes off tomorrow!

What a great event. Now already!
At the moment that I joined the list of ROAM riders (I was so eager that I am the second person on the list, right after Josef, our captain, himself) I could not have dreamt that it would become such a fun event. The riders come from Holland, Germany, Denmark, England, North-Amerika, Canada and probably several other countries. They all have their own accents but we all speak one common language, We Love Velomobiles. We love it so much that we put up with a gaziljon questions literally every moment we stop. We often have conversations at traffic lights from people hanging out of their carwindows, pedestrians forgetting to cross the street and cyclists that almost fall of their bike, eventhough they have a foot on the ground, waiting as we are for the light to go green. We are determined to leave no question unanswered though I must admit that when the green light comes quickly, my answers are accordingly shorter.

It probably makes a big difference that we started in Portland, since this really is a very bike-minded city. You can see a lot of people clearly being alternative to such an extent that it becomes normal: this is Portland. Biking is an enormous culture here and that's a great difference with the country I come from. In the Netherlands, cycling is so accepted as a transportation tool that we think nothing of it. It is different in Portland, cyclists are clearly proud of their cycles and this is reflected in their bikeshops and pubs. For me as a Dutchman it is amazing to see that there are special pubs for cyclists. And a LOT of them. We wouldn't dream of calling a pub a bike-pub. Commuters, racers, weekend warriors, bike-messengers and utility cyclist alike come together in the evening in these pubs, put their bikes behind it and enjoy a beer and an extensive meal.

Cycling may be a bit too normal in Holland. But what is too normal? I mean, in Holland elderly people keep cycling and this is exactly what I miss in Portland. People who are a bit timid or not confident that they can join in traffic will soon stop cycling here: you need to be a bit of a warrior. The reason is quite obvious, there are almost no cyclepaths, so cyclists must find their way between the cars. Now I must say that traffic here is VERY friendly. Unfortunately cars are very big and massively overpowered here, so they look very intimidating.

We velomobilists have been finding our way through Portland these days very well. We are kind of used to using the streets, because we can sort of keep up with the flow of traffic. The enormous amount of crossings without clear priority and all the traffic lights were sometimes annoying. We had to do a lot of slowing down and accelerating again on Vancouver street. The Interstate is crowded with cars but was easier to keep going at speed. Of course Myrtle the Turtle (that's an electro-assiste bike BTW) was always there with us to show us around town. Thank you Sylvia, you made our rides a whole lot easier.

Well enough for now, better go to sleep, because tomorrow is the big DAY. Send-off at the Fountain at 12 o' clock Downtown. The start of ROAM. Keep track of us......

Annual Velomobile Meeting in Giessen.

I finally made time to edit the 3 hours of material that I had gathered during the trip to Giessen in september 2010.  I have made my way together with some 20 others to this annual meeting several times and each time again I enjoy the wide roads and the long, regular descents in the mountains of Sauerland. The whole thing took 6 days and about 850km. We were staying for two days in a beautiful castle that nowadays is a youth hostel where we met a lot of other velomobilists.

It seems that this coming fall will be the last time that this meeting takes place, so grab the oppurtunity to take part in this legendary gathering of long riders.

Weight wining, price fighting, part 2: the shifter.

If you want to make a bike lighter then you will need to look at all the components. But the bike has to perform well also, so sometimes it is better not to push to the limit. We have an interesting choice when it comes to the shifters: either I choose very good performance or I can choose the lowest in weight...

This is the 500TT shifter from SRAM. It is compatible with my X0 shifter since it pulls cable length at the 1:1 ratio that the derailer is designed for. Not compatible with Shimano components. Price is 112euro. It's not a very common component, so I didn't bother looking around for a lower price too much.
Thumb shifters in a Quest are unusual, but I have used Shimano Ultegra thumb shifters in my Mango Sport and I'm very pleased with the accurucy and ease of shifting. The steer in Mango and Quest are the same, so I see no reason why it wouldn't work.
It is not particularly light at 194gramm, but still some 20gramm lighter than the standard X9 gripshifters that come with the Quest. I could have bought the 900TT, but it's only 16 gramm lighter and costs some 40 euro more. Most probably both working equally well, so it's not worth the extra bucks.

This is a cheaper shifter at 63 euro incl. shipping (found it even cheaper later on at http://luckynino.blogspot.com, tip from Jeroen Koeleman). At the moment it is the only production 10-speed gripshift and it was only by accident that I saw them on the site of the lightweight cassette manufacturer RECON. The SEC S-light 10-speed shifter comes in a version for SRAM XX derailers and a slightly cheaper version for Shimano derailers. Their weight is minimal and also much lighter than the SRAM gripshifters. We had a Shimano type SEC shifter installed on a bike at work. My first impression was that it shifts precise enough, but very very light and not consistent in all the gears. When I made a testride, I sometimes upshifted unwillingly two gears at a time. Maybe it's something to get used to, we'll see.
The low weight is tempting, so I will try these first. If I find these shifters to be ok, I might sell the 500TT shifters.

More components will follow later.

Weight wining, price fighting.

I'm becoming more and more of a weight weenie, it's becoming a bit of an obsession.... That may be a bit strange for a flatlander, but I find the handling and ease of acceleration of a light velomobile so much superior, that I've decided to spend some time and money to find out how to make a lighter Quest (my Mango Sport already has lightweight components) without sacrificing any of the practical features. It's no use to have a lightweight velomobile when it's components are to weak, right? There are plenty of exceptions to the rule that lighter is weaker however. Take the KMC X10SL chain: it is tougher than most heavier chains and the Ti-N coating makes for less wear and better shifting. There are three typical racing-bike lengths lying on my kitchen scale here, that's about how much I need for a Quest. One length of 114 links is 742:3=247 grams. That includes a 'missing link".  I found a cheap webshop that doesn't sell the chain one length at a time in a nice package, but straight from the roll. It was 105 euro (shipping included) and that saved me 40 euros from the cheapest eBay seller!? Another nice thing: I don't have to link the three chains.
But what about the weight reduction? Well that depends what quality chain you compare with, but even when compared to other light 10-speed chains, this one gives me about 120gramms reduction.

 Chains run over a cassette and RECON makes the lightest of them all. 108 gramm for an 11-27 10-speed cassette is amazing. They usually don't come cheap and they are hard to find. A Taiwanese seller said to have some for less than 100euro but after ordering it appeared to be out of stock. I got a full refund, no problem but no cassette either. I even e-mailed the manufacturer in Taiwan and he replied very correctly that an Italian reseller had all possible cassettes from RECON. But I don't want all, I just want the cheapest 11-27! So I looked around again with google and finally found a shop at the other side of the ocean that had my size for 130 euro (incl. shipping). That's a lot of money for a cassette that wears and will have to be replaced. The enclosed drivetrain ensures a long life I reckon. Light cassettes from SRAM and Shimano are mostly twice the weight of this one and are pretty expensive nonetheless. That's why I chose this one, giving me the greatest bang for the buck.
The reason that these cassettes are so light is that they were CNC fraised out of a solid piece of aluminium. Everything unneccesary is simply "grinded" away, like Apple is doing with the aluminium frame of the MacBook, making it stiffer then when made of seperate small parts bolted together. Aluminium is not very wear-resistant, but the ceramic coating should help. I have had a RECON 12-23 cassette on my Mango Sport for about 2000km now and see no wear so far, so I'm pretty confident it won't wear before the chain does. (edit: I have paid way too much, you can find RECON cassettes on the blogspot of luckynino, tip from Jeroen Koeleman for 50euro excl. shipping)

The derailer I chose is the X0 SRAM with medium cage. They have a very good reputation and I have good experiences with the X5 that has the same construction. I could get a good deal on Marktplaats from a bicycle mechanic. It's brand new and he wanted 20euro below the normal price of about 160 euro, but looking at eBay I found one seller that was significantly cheaper at 117euro. I confronted the man with this fact and after some tough negotiating we agreed on 118,35euro (incl. shipping).

X5 would have costed me about 60euro and it weighs 300gramm. The X0 has significantly less play mounted to a derailer hanger. The X5 is good enough for 9-speed but I think I will need better quality for a 10-speed system. Together with a weight reducion of a third, I think I made a pretty good deal. A derailer can last very long in a velomobile and then you'd better have one that shifts reliably.


More components to follow.....