hood

As I mentioned previously,I replaced the hood while I was installing the PA kit. I don't have many photos, but basically I drilled out the over 150 rivets ,removed the hood, and placed it on a piece of particle board 4 feet square, on top of the sheet of new material. I then cut a piece of plywood to put on top that covered the entire surface, leaving just enough room to drill through all the holes in the old hood. I then applied all the weight I could find to flatten the hood, and taped it down with wide scotch tape. I drilled through all the holes, then marked the outline with a scribe, which simultaneously cut the tape. I also traced around the old hood with a sharpie, which gave me a more visible line for sawing the piece on the bandsaw. After roughing it out on the saw, I filed the entire perimeter down to the scribe line.

I constructed a makeshift table the same heighth as the band saw, so I could manipulate the workpiece while still being close enough to see what I was doing.

I also made up a simple jig to prebend the hood, so it wouldn't be as stressed as the first piece that I had forced into place without pre-bending. It was alot of work, but the sheet of Al. was only $100.00 and I was pleased with the results. Having the hood off made it easier to install the wiring for the motor as well. I did a few other things while I had it back down the basement.

Previously the handlebar had been restrained by a piece of coathanger that swiveled out of the way, which you sometimes hit your knee on, and which frequently allowed the handlebars to get away, slamming the cyclocomputer into the seat. I simply made an Al bracket with a v shape to trap the ends of a loop of bungee cord, and riveted it to the dashboard. It works great, ...the handlebar is always secure.

This is an Al. peg that I tuned down on the lathe to attach the bungee cords on the canvas cover to. The cover came with white plastic screws for this purpose, and I didn't like the way they looked. I drilled and tapped the pegs, and used 5mm bolts with washers from the inside of the vm to attach them. Another task was the design and construction of a trailer hitch.

I drilled and tapped two 6mm holes in the swing arm, and bolted the hitch on. Since the swing arm is steel, I can always weld a couple nuts on if the threads pull out of the square tubing. It seemed like there was enough meat there, and so far it's been fine. You can see all the aluminum dust on top of the swing arm from filing the required clearance for the trailer. I used the pattern from the other side for the click box, and just kept enlarging it till I was sure the trailer couldn't hit the side of the tail.

Last pa trip

The last time I used the power assist was on a trip to Home depot for some 8 foot fascia boards. The trailer shown below has numerous possibilities. Not only does it work for lumber, but it is designed to carry up to eight 18 gallon rubbermaide totes. (Very handy for groceries etc.) It has even been used to transport a small refigerator, and a dishwasher.

It rained heavily while I was in the store, and lightly the whole way home. (about 10 miles each way.) I also got some other smaller items and stowed them insidethe AW.The power assist was helpful pulling the trailer up hills. (Given the realms of possibility this was a relatively light load anyway) When I got home, I unloaded and plugged it into the battery charger.

Later in the day, it smelled like something was burning in the garage. The floor of the AW was very hot under the seat. I unplugged the charger, and went to sleep. The next day, I drilled out the rivets in the floor plate to see what had happened in there. I had eliminated the screw on cover, thinking that the need for battery access would be rare, and though David E. had sent a bulletin about insuring adequate ventilation during charging, I wasn't too concerned, because monitoring of previous charging cycles had revealed no heat biuld up.

The battery pack that blew up was one of the two eqipped with the temp sensor lead, but not the one I had used with the charger. I don't know if the problem was because of the battery box getting wet in the heavy rain, or if it was just my failure to provide adequate ventillation. Having had no previous problems, I am inclined to believe it was the moisture.

I removed the mess, and the other three batteries, which other than being coated with nasty black dust were essentially unscathed, and cleaned it up the best I could. I put the foam blocks back in, in place of the batteries, and riveted the floor back on. The Ride for Roswell (a charity ride for a cancer hospital in Buffalo where I spend (and have spent) alot of time.) was rapidly approaching, and I had been considering removing the motor for the ride. With the fried battery I decided to leave them all out and minimize the weight since use of the PA for the ride just didn't seem right to me. (I could have just left the "key" for the main cut off switch at home, but then Leah would have had the extra weight to drag around.)

I made up a roof rack for the AW with folding loading ramps (14 feet long extended) The ramps attach to the rear of the roof rack with a bolt through the mating halves of a hinge. They are made of thinwall steel u-channel, and enable me to load and unload the AW from the roof without any assistance. ( unless the motor is removed.) The motor prevented the AW from rolling down the back window while repositioning my grasp. With the motor removed I needed to have Leah support it briefly (all but effortless) while I adjusted my hand hold.

I used heavy duty wire ties on each of the wheels to secure the AW to the rack. This worked fine,although I should probably use a safety rope from the front bumper to the front of the AW "just incase." It would suck to have it blow off at 65 mph and get flattened by a semi. (my imagination is far too graphic.)

The ride was fun, and started from Baird Point on the campus of UB. I rode the Versatile, and Leah rode the Alleweder. We did the 20 mile route, which utilized a paved bike path half the way, and went by fast. (so many bikes to pass.)
Since I raised over $1,000.00 ($1975 to be exact) I was treated to a massage after the ride that was over way too fast. Leah and I also had access to the "extra mile club tent", where we received a bunch of tickets for a chinese auction, unlimited nourishment opportunities, and a bag of goodies including a top of the line New Era hat sporting the extra mile club logo. All very nice. It was fun to have the chance to expose many avid cyclists to the existence of velomobiles. They are still so rare in North America that many people don't even know they exist. Practical human powered transportation is out there. With or without the power assist the FAW is a practical means of transportation. With the power assist to speed climbing the primary disadvantage as compared to a regular bike is alleviated. I guess that's it for now. I should write up something for the hood replacement, but I didn't get many photos, so it would likely be pretty dull.

Power Assist

Well, It's been ages since I have tried to undertake some input. I guess a photo is always a good place to start. Let's see if I can still remember how to find one.

Here's a shot of the front of the AW with the motor in place. I replaced the hood at the same time I was installing the PA kit, so it was easy to get at the inside parts. The motor works great. I've used it to go up what would likely be impossible hills . It's kind of addictive. Anything that is steep enough to slow you down just melts away. It makes pulling the trailer a breeze. The range is not quite what I had hoped. A couple more batteries would help. (The kit came with four.) Going to work (23 miles) there is plenty of juice to assist on every incline, and accellerate quickly in traffic. (There isn't too much traffic at 10:30 PM anyway....but like I said, it's addictive.) Coming home I have to be a little more conservative, as there is alot more climbing. I have only used it back and forth to work a couple times, and was able to recharge there both times. More often it is used for running errands. On short trips you can run the motor just about all the time. Without the speed cut-off it gets up to about 28MPH on the flats with my meager physical contribution. You still get a workout, you just go faster.
Here's a picture of the battery compartment before the explosion. ( I'll get to that.) I moved the fuse outside the box, and ran the charger and temp. sensor leads through rubber grommets as well. The batteries are wired together in paralel , and charge simultaneously. The "smart charger" plugs into a sensor to prevent overcharging. Two of the batteries were equipped with the mating plug. One of them still is. the other one.....well, you'll see. But not today. I have to get some sleep.

Maiden Voyage...second trip

After searching for hours out in the garage, I finally located an old Third Eye mirror,that mounted in the end of a mtn bike bar. While thinking about a way to mount it, I found some plastic clamps to attach the mirror to an aluminum plate, and thus velcro it onto the Alleweder. I don't have the canvas cover yet, so I didn't want a permanent set up, but still needed a mirror.

With the temporary mirror in place Leah and I were off for our first velomobile ride together, she in the Alleweder, and I in the Versatile. It was just an 8 mile ride to Hamburg and back, but on the way back, Leah complained of poor shifting, and strange noises. Upon inspection, I found that the upper chain tube (the one mounted in the floor) had come loose, and was caught under the idler sprocket just aft of the chain ring. I removed the idler, the rear wheel, and took the chain apart to remove the chain tube for inspection. After straightening it out, it was serviceable enough to use, but I decided to make an access hole at the rear attachment point, so this problem could be dealt with on the road if necessary. I drilled out the rivets in the back piece of floor and cut out the area I wanted to get at, using sheet metal screws to attach a plate over the hole.

I did rework the mount for the chaintube, and have hopefully corrected the problem, but it's good to know that I can now deal with it on the road if I need to. The other problem that occurred on the maiden voyage was that when Leah clipped out of her pedals she inadvertantly popped the hood by bumping it with one of her shoes. I was able to get it back down, but it has some wrinkles in it now. I am thinking that if it continues to be a problem, I will make up a bracket to tie the middle of the hood to the square tubing, and put in a few rivets sealed with RTV. I also popped the right brake cable on the Versatile while we were out. My previous experience with the shifter problem I had had left me prepared for this repair,which only ended up taking about half an hour. While the brake handle was off, I took the time to chamfer the hole where the cable exits the brake lever to extend the life of the next cable. It was nice to find that the reversing wheel which enables either brake handle to operate both brakes simultaneously also allowed me to stop the Versatile with one cable broken. Nice design.

Since I had had such good luck with velcro, I decided to make up a temporary headlight mount outside the nosecone. I started off by making these angle brackets from an old piece of screen door. I used the lathe to center drill,and tap a plastic dowell to go between the brackets, and mount the light to. I then cut a piece of Al. to rivet the brackets to, and attached the 2" sticky back velcro hook material to the bracket. I used the loop material on the nosecone, and drilled a hole for the wires that was in a location where it would be removed anyway if I decide to mount the lights inside behind the plexiglass. Actually, this "temporary" set up looks kind of neat, works well, and I have to believe that the lights are much brighter mounted on the outside.

Here you can kind of see the finished light mount as we prepare for a trip into Eden, with canine passenger.

Perhaps this is a little better view. The second ride had no chain tube or hood problems, but we did get a flat tire. No biggie, I had several spare tubes, and a pump in the Versatile. Tools aren't even really necessary, because the front wheels don't need to be removed to change a tube or tire.
Well, I guess that catches us up for now. I will post new developments, repairs, improvements, etc. as they occur. I have also begun a blog on my Versatile, starting with my trip to The Netherlands. It can be found at: http://snapmobile.blogspot.com .

almost done.....

Here's one of the stolen turn signals. Velcro is great stuff. I plan on using it to restrain the batteries for the power assist, but since the motor and controller are not yet available, I cut foam blocks to fill in where they will fit in the floor.










I also cut the floor in three pieces. The location of the cut out for battery access in the original design didn't really fit my layout, so I ordered a couple pieces of aluminum sheet from MRC, a supplier for work. I put splice pieces between the cut out center section and front and rear sections, so that structural integrity of the floor would not be comprimised, while full battery access will be available by drilling out some rivets. I won't have to mess with the long ones in the back, or the front section where there are rivets in all different directions. This worked out well, because I found that after attaching the nose section, the front part of the floor was too big to fit between the wheel wells. I was able to flatten out some previous bends, cut deeper notches at the corners, and rebend the piece to fit properly. It was challenging, but worked out well.

I had already drilled and clecoed the hood, and removed for deburr and wiring, but was dissatisfied with the rough sketch manner in which I had marked the section of wheel well cover that needed to be cut out. The dutch manual gave a radius to use for the arc. I used their figure to create a template that fit perfectly, and enabled me to cut the pieces out on the band saw with minimal filing. Sweet. I also marked and cut off a little extra metal from the area at the dashboard, and a little bit from the right front of the nose. I must have been off a little bit on the initial placement of the wheelwells. This made assembly more difficult, and the whole thing is a little crooked, but I was still able to fet it all together.


Rivetting is the easy part. Once everything has been drilled, deburred, and re-clecoed in place it goes very quickly.





The next step was the nose cone. David E. from VelomobileUSA did a beautiful job on it. It comes with preglued rubber edging which takes a little while to install, but stays where you put it, and looks and works great.

Here's Leah checking it out. I had to have her sit in it while I adjusted the steering linkage to make the wheels equidistant front and rear. First you adjust the wheels to tilt in at the top, then center them in the wheelwell, then the steering. I used a large Irwin bar clamp to set the steering. Having seen the guage they used to set up my Versatile in NL. made me think of using it right away.

Everything functioned well on the first test ride. I was shocked at how much more quickly the Alleweder accellerates than my Versatile.( which costs a whole lot more) The test ride did however demonstrate the very immediate need for a mirror. My next post will show what I came up with from what I had laying around out in the garage, the maiden voyage (and subsequent repairs) and the temporary headlight mount.

progress...

The drivetrain, wiring and electrical components are all installed. I even spent a whole day designing, fabricating and installing brackets to mount the pick ups for the cyclo-computer. One for speed at the right wheel, and one for cadence at the crank. I ran the cadence wiring right through the square tubing. Since the square tubing is too thick for the grommets I used to protect the wiring where it passed through the sheet metal, I sealed around the wires with RTV silicone sealant. (clear) I also had to do this for the turn signals, since the design of the LED's would have placed the grommet in a position which would have prevented proper adhesion of the sticky back mounting system.

Above left is the right front shock with steering linkages, and brake shoes.

I used vecro at the attachment point of the brake cable, and also where it passes through the wheel well, for protection. I also used velcro to attach the flasher. I found that the LED turn signals didn't draw enough current to make the flasher work, so I stole the front turn signals from Aunt Anne's old car, and used them to operate the flashers, and act as turn signal indicators. Since they were dual filament, I was also able to add another switch, and use them for interior lighting as well. I used velcro to attach them, making it easy to remove for bulb replacement.

As seems to be the routine, the next batch of photos failed to upload, so I will attempt to publish what I have so far, and come back at a different time.

Tail section

Upon looking into what it would take to install the tail section, I realized that I would need to drill out the rivets I had installed in the one cockpit sideplate. Not too big a deal, but first, I installed the armrest supports, since the armrests are pretty flimsy without them, and I didn't want them getting all bent up.

As you can see, I use alot of clecos to keep things lined up prior to riveting. It's pretty amazing what you can do to a flat sheet of aluminum. I started at the top, and kept drilling holes and clecoing the top tail sheet in place till I had created this porcupine-like structure.If I ever build another kit, I will definitely purchase an air powered cleco gun. Using the standard pliers leaves your hands pretty tired at the end of a day's work.

Here's a shot of the tail side plates without the top plate. The baggage compartment floor is visible at the seam of the top and side plates. Unfortunately I didn't get photos of the installation of the rear swing arm and rear shock, with the doubler that needed to be installed under the top shock mount bracket. Most of the time I have been ahead of the instruction manual, and the biggest hold up I have had has been trying to figure out what to do next, and the best way to make it all fit together. Having a complete assembly manual from the start would have made the process much faster and easier. To date the manual only is as far as the tail, and the version I was working with was missing some text and photos that were stacked on top of each other.

None the less, I continued, installing the bottom bracket and the square tubing that replaces the sheet metal box used on the original version, front bulkhead, and nose sideplates.

The lower nose plate was also installed at this time. Then I installed the cranks, the rear wheel( I had been waiting for the cassette) the chain, and the 2 chain tubes. One of them goes inside the floor, and the other under the body. Things really started moving along at tis point. The steering rod was installed, along with the front shock struts, and steering linkages .At the same time, I was installing various wiring and lighting system components. Turn signals, flasher, tail lights, and horn. Much of the wiring for these components ran through the wheel wells, and as such, needed to be installed before the shocks.

Well, I just uploaded 5 photos but they aren't here, so I think I'll continue at a later date.

Inside the floor

This is the wiring for the Power Assist. At the left, you can see how the wire was routed above the rectangular cutout in the rear bulkhead through which the chain must pass. At top center you can see the battery cutoff switch. The terminal block on the right incorporates a 30 amp fuse, and the four battery connectors, wired in parallel.







Foam is cut to fill the void in the floor, and isolate the battery packs from each other, and from the structure of the bike.

I also used a couple strips of coroplast to keep things tidy and out of harms way. The open section to the right of center is where the chain will pass through. The electrical tape was just to hold things together till ready for final assembly. I plan on attaching the batteries to the floor with velcro, and using spray adhesive on the foam to hold it in place. I don't want to mount the foam permanently till the holes in the U-channels for the floor plate have been drilled, so that I don't have alot of aluminum debris stuck down there.

Getting the cockpit sideplates on was rather challenging. I didn't trust myself to prebend them, so I had to force them around the wheelwell and rear bulkhead, drilling and applying clecos as I went. Taking pictures during the process was very impractical since I got so involved in the struggle to conform the flat sheets of aluminum into graceful curves.

Of course everything had to be disassembled to remove chips and deburr all the holes. Then clecoed back in place again, and finally riveted. I had to drill out some rivets in the rear of the one cockpit side plate to get the tail section on, but that's a tale for another time.