cycling / modelling crossover

[sprogs]

As a keen cyclist for over 60 years my knees and other joints have become a little clunky to say the least. Also, as my eyesight has deteriorated over the last few years my license has been revoked, so I now have the choice of clunky knee cycling or housebound.
I ride a Trice Ice t recumbent trike.
Have you heard the term "Velomobile"?
I need a plan for a simple , (No compound curves) velomobile adaption for my trike.
My trike has a simple cruciform structure and I think that you designers would find it an interesting challenge to design a fully enclosed bodyshell made from "Correx" or similar (Like corrugated cardboard made from plastic) and I can assure you , you would have the thanks and the wallets of the triking community at your disposal.
Liz

[JohnM]

DIY-Velomobile

Sommat like this do ya Sprogs?

[sparrowhawk]

Hi Sprogs,

I got 2 velomobiles at home, here in Germany. One is an Alleweder as produced by Velomobileusa: Velemobile USA The other one is a "Leiba X-Stream" as produced by Home

I ride them regularly on daily errands to keep in shape. Most interesting thing for you should be the "foam velomobile" as developed by John Tetz: The Recumbent Bicycle and Human Powered Vehicle Information Center
Actually, I first built cardboard models and then I tackled the build of my Alleweder, led by the consideration that this should be a similar process, apart fron the size and the material. The assumption proved right, building and driving has been and is tremendous fun.

Keep us informed!

Cheers, Martin

[sprogs]

Dear john and sparrowhawk, thanks for your replies, ideas are already buzzing around my head.
It feels a bit strange, though, to receive replies from :-
A / John - the name of my brother,
B / . A Sparrow hawk, as Sparrow is my family name, and I have a picture of one tattooed on my arm I've always called a Sparrow hawk since I had it done 49 years ago.
I had no idea my family was SO big !
Liz Sparrow
(Sprogs)

[sparrowhawk]

Hi Liz,

now this sounds interesting. I chose my nick because I like pre-war aircraft. There was the Curtiss F9C Sparrowhawk "parasite fighter" and the Miles Sparrowhawk, a miracle of an elegant british lightplane. Whilst carrying the same name, those aircraft could hardly be more different! My avatar, though is a Sparrowhawk.

I found another idea for a velomobile, i.e. a fairing on a trike: Carl-Georg Rasmussen conceived the 1st really practical velomobile at the time of the 1st fuel crisis, named the "Leitra". From it was developed the french "Wildcat" fairing which can easily be adapted to different trikes. Last one and most radical one to come to my mind is the french "Mosquito" velomobile, which was actually done as a geodetic "stick and tissue" construction like the british Vickers Wellington bomber of world war II.

I would probably go for a foam shell like John Tetz did, because it is cheap and it wont rumble as a fairing of Correx or Coroplast. If you want to use Coroplast, here is a fine one: https://www.instructables.com/id/Facet-V1-Velomobile/

I am actually really deep into recumbent biking and velomobiles, having seen my 1st one, a Leitra in 1987. I got hooked instantly and have never really been away from it. In Europe, especially in Germany and the Netherlands, there is a very lively and close-knit scene, organizing social outings, races and workshops. Feels good to be part of it!



Cheers, Martin

[JohnM]

Hello Liz Sparrow. No relation to the famous Cap'n Jack I assume?
I was a very keen cyclist in my youth, and spent many years proudly mounted on a Wittaker super lightweight. On reaching the age when Girls and Motorbikes became legal it got cashed in for a Triumph T110 though.

Sparrowhawk ... I can thoroughly recommend this one from Fiddlers Green. They call it by it's posh name though ... the Red Tailed Kite. This one is double sized, which can be made up pretty good.



However, I think these may be more suitable for Sprogs ...



Last place I found these in stock was at Ben Fentens. They are an early Johan design, but he doesn't sell them on his site. Again, they make up into a pretty realistic life-size pair.

https://www.kartonmodellbau.de/epage...roducts/303248

[sprogs]

Hi martin
Miles designed some superb aircraft and if not for government interference would be famous now.
The fighters they designed were superb but Frederick Handley-Page persuaded the powers that be to only support major manufacturers.
They would also have broken the sound barrier first if they had not been forced to hand over their research and destroy their prototype.
I'll chase your link as soon as I have finished writing.
john, thanks for the links, I am seriously jealous of your motorcycle, the best I ever had was a Panther m120 with sidecar (Which I adored)
What about Depron ?
Liz

[Wad Cutter]

I have often wanted to build the Red Tail Hawk. It such a very cool model but worry if my limited talents could do it justice. Paper modeling is a like working out a puzzle. I often need a lot of help and your guys and gals are always there for me. It's what I love about this forum, lots of good help. wc

[JohnM]

Oops, my bad.... It seems the red tailed kite is commonly known as a Chicken hawk not a Sparrowhawk.

Waddy ... Some time back I did a build thread on the Red Tailed Kite. I'll see if I can find a reference to it.

No, not a full build, just a few mentions in the "Birds" thread ... THE BIRDS (all things bird model related!)

[Wad Cutter]

Here where I live in Northern Calif. we call the Red Tail hawk a Hawk and refer to the Vulture as a Chicken Hawk. I guess I and all of us have it wrong. I really enjoy seeing the Red Tails flying over riding the warm air as it raises and hearing them cry out during mating time. The Vulture can be very easily picked out because the tips of the wings is black and pointed where as the Red Tail end of it's wings are more shaped like the fingers of a hand and lighter. What ever you call the Red Tails it's always great to take out the time and watch. I have the model of the Red Tail from Fiddlersgreen and maybe one day if I can return to modeling I would very much enjoy building it. They are a beautiful bird and sound great. Thank you JohnM. wc