Slashdot Mirror

Also recumbent 4-wheel pedal-powered quadracycles.

Oh, you mean like this one?

I am an avid biker and although I cant counter your points completely I must argue against them.

You can't carry as much luggage

Velobobiles have a surprising amount of cargo space. That is only the Orca, as it seems to have about the most of the production models I know but Quest has sufficient for my daily needs. If I need more I borrow a car (I would rent if borrowing wasn't possible).

and you can't easily have a passenger,

2 person velomobile prototype is under development.

rain and other inclement situations suck a lot more

While still true, I have a hood on my bike. This keeps rain out and makes the bike a bit more aerodynamic.
Cold isn't a problem, as cycling produces a lot of heat. One guy bikes the year round in Canada and even -14C(6.8F) doesn't need much extra isolation. I'd link to his blogspot but I don't know how Blogspot handles sudden heavy traffic. I wouldn't want to bankrupt the guy.

and it can be slightly more scary to ride one on the highway than the scion

That depends strongly on country. Here in the Netherlands most 80 km/h (50 mph) roads have separate bike paths and the car drivers expect bicyclists.
It is a typical bootstrapping issue: There isn't much use for bike paths if nobody rides bikes once they can legally drive a car. Most people don't ride bikes once they can legally drive a car if there is no infrastructure for it.
In the Netherlands biking has been default since horses stopped being common. When the cars became common they already needed to share the road with hundreds of thousands of bikes. When there became too many cars to be safe the bikes got their own paths. Currently intercity fast bike "highways" are under heavy construction across the country.

but bikes have a much better MPG*

And eating much food is a unhealthy hobby if you don't sport much. I like eating, the biking keeps my weight within sane limits.

significantly lower sticker price

Not as much if you lower the other disadvantages. My bike cost me E8500 ($12000) in total (quest + some upgrades like better suspension, hood and turn signals).
There are bikes in the E10K-15K range.

range

I have tried to bike 100 km(62 miles) daily as my commute. I am currently trying to get a place closer to my work as it is just to far. I need 3 hours a day just to get to my work and back and that takes too long.

when I was riding a LOT, was that I wasn't really saving any money because my calories cost way more than a gallon of gas, and my intake went up significantly.

While true there are a few points I'd like to make on that.
1. It levels after a while. In the beginning you eat for fuel + to build muscle. After two years or so the building muscle part is mostly over.
2. Many people like to eat too much. It is difficult for many to eat as little as needed.
3. ...
4. Profit!

According to some calculator I found I needed about 2000 Kcal as fuel to bike 100 km. (number depends on a lot) That is the same amount as my base calorie intake.
However, most of that doesn't need to be in the form of expensive meat (or meat replacement) or even vegetables. It needs to supply calories, not protein, vitamins or minerals. Potatoes or pasta is good enough.
2000 Calories is 4.1 large portions of French fries at Mc Donalds according to Nutritiondata.com. I can't find a price but that is only a couple of euro's here in the Netherlands. If you make the food yourself you save on that.

Dunno, a folding velomobile may be possible (highly unlikely though).

I do, however, use a non standard bike: a quest.

You don't use a bike at all. That's a fucking trike.

Nope, my head doesn't get too warm in it. I have averages of 30 km/h and regular peaks of 48 km/h. I do, however, use a non standard bike: a quest. This helps me keeping speed with ease.

When I am done with my current set of modifications that red cocoon will have orange sidelights almost over the complete length of the body.
But even when I am not Questing I wear a fluorescent yellow jacket and my lights work. I like to be visible because I don't like to be a bloody mess. It's hard to clean blood off a jacket.

Could you imagine a more depressing human tragedy, letting people starve to death simply because we turned over all our arable land to power our cars.

Yes, but then my imagination is not a normal place
By the way: I do think a lot of our fuel needs could be cut if people just quit driving and start biking. For example in bikes like this. Now how to get people who live only 25km or less from their work to take a bike is an important issue. There are ways, but they cost time and money. Luckily many important steps have been made here in the Netherlands.

Actually velomobiles have been gaining popularity year over year and more manufacturers have been arriving on the scene. The Quest, which is one of the oldest tried and true designs, has been upping production every year for a number of years now. They publish how many they build on their website: http://www.velomobiel.nl/orderboek/index.php#productie They also licensed the design to Blue Velo in Toronto who makes them for the North American market.

Velo manufacturers used to have waits of several months to over a year. Only in the past couple years have the waits on average gotten down to around 5 months or so. My particular velo took about 7 months to get to me from when I first started contacting the US dealer.

I agree, figuring out how to lock it is a hassle. But it's also about 90 pounds with gear that isn't easy to walk off with and where exactly would you fence it? A theif would be putting a big "I stole this" sign on himself if he ever took it out for a ride. That's assuming he even knew how to operate it, which while not hard, isn't something you just jump in, and ride away with.

Side winds are not a significant issue. Yes they can affect the velo, however it is a trike and not so prone to tipping over.

Nope, it's lower in a bike. A Quest for distances of 30-200 miles. Beyond that: trains and a fold-up bike (or a rented bike). Planes are terrible mpgpp wise. Maybe cars with 1 driver no passengers are even worse (I haven't done the math, but that is what you seem to claim), but that's doesn't mean they are good.

Time, however, may be an issue that forces the use of planes. That's a different discussion though.

The loss of these edges of technology that is in no way sustainable is something we would have to accept, I guess. At least the advances in human powered vehicles are still going strong. Pushing the limits what a person can attain by wasting less. Approaching 130km/h with only a human as power source is a huge achievement and an exceptional advancement over the speeds traveled 30-40 years ago (concorde/ SR-71 days). Even road going cycles capable like the ones built by velomobiel.nl give common folk the capabilities to travel at super human speeds of more than 30% what is possible with a regular racer.

At this stage of the petroleum game, it's a bit like making an engine that runs on seal oil.

They'd have much more energy independence putting their energy into aerodynamic human powered transport (velomobiles) with electric assist/regeneration to deal with hills/stops. They already get speeds of 37kph with 150Watts power output. If it is true that usually multiple people use cars in India, imagine what tandem velomobiles could do - you'd have the same frontal area, similar drag coefficient and multiples of the power plant.

With more research and popularity, the aerodynamics would only get better, meaning quicker transport.

http://www.velomobiel.nl/uk/velomobiel2_uk.htm

I use a Velomobile to get to work and back (http://www.velomobiel.nl/). It is fast and wether proof. (and there is a lot of nasty wheter over here in the Netherlands.

Nyh

Velomobiles are the future!
http://www.velomobiel.nl/

5/11 -- Rain
5/12 -- Rain
5/13 -- Thunderstorms
5/14 -- Rain

Anyone got any solutions on dealing with the rain in wet weather? Fortunately, our county has some pretty sweet bike paths, so alternative transportation is at least an option.

I drive a Quest fully faired recumbent. No problems with rain or wind. Lots of luggage space and very fast (especially in a flat country like the Netherlands). Rolling hills are real fun. You can get the bike to fairly high speeds.

Nyh

Cycling to work relaxes the mind and frees the body of excess stress. Try it. You will love it.

Well, I am using a recumbent bike on a daily basis, riding to my work. The bike, a Quest from Velomobiel.nl is a good example of (sports) innovation of a bike. It has a lot of huge advantages over a normal bike.

1 It is damn fast on the flat. I do 50 km/h (=30 mp/h) for hours. I am willing to take on anyone on a racing bike (send in Lance Amstrong) for a hours race on a circuit and I will beat him. Aerodynamics is the all important factor in biking.
2 I am good protected from rain and wind.
3 It can take a lot of luggage (complete campingear or purchases for a week.

Disatvantages

1 It is quite expensive.
2 It has a turning circle comparable to a car.
3 It is heavy.
4 It is huge for a bike.

What about mountains? I don't know, I have never raced with it in the mountains. I wont be a good clibing bike because climbing is all about the weight to power ratio. But the bike will be very fast going down. I do know of some recumbent bikers beating the hell out of racingbikers at the Classique Genevoise race in Geneva. Doing the 80 km's in 1:49:47, 10 minutes faster as the fastest racing bike.

Nyh

A stable tricycle with this technology is commercially available in europe from a dutch company, "Velomobiel". Their "Quest" costs Dfl 12,500, approx. $5000,-

Already there:

leitra,
Quest ,
Aleweder, Go-one, Cab-Bike ...

But they don't have enougth sales now to be cheap.