Locomotion - arranged by efficiency and weight - damn those bicycles are good.]

[wen@mastodon.scot]

Locomotion - arranged by efficiency and weight - damn those bicycles are good.]

From an article originally published in 1973

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-human-on-a-bicycle-is-among-the-most-efficient-forms-of-travel-in-the/

#Bicycle #Efficiency #FediBikes #BikeTooter

[s1m0n4@ohai.social]

@Wen what's a velomobile?

[wen@mastodon.scot]

@s1m0n4 Best illustrated with a photo - in this case one of ours. Bicycle/tricycle workings, faired and unpaired.

[s1m0n4@ohai.social]

@Wen It has even windscreen wipers 🤩!
Why didn't this vehicle become popular? We need to start producing them again.

[radicalabacus@hachyderm.io]

@s1m0n4 @Wen if there were no cars on the roads or a good national cycle path network, I'd get a velomobile for medium distance travel. Normal bicycles are fine for the short trips and hopping on and off that I do around my home city but to go to the next town over or further, I'd much prefer a velomobile. The trouble is with all the superheavy quadricycles doing 100km/h+ it would not be survivable around here.

When the cars are gone, I'd love to see the road network filled with velomobiles. They're slower (especially uphill) but there would be much less congestion and almost no noise, pollution or road wear.

[wen@mastodon.scot]

@radicalabacus @s1m0n4 My experience (over 30 years of riding) is that velomobiles do OK in traffic - in part because unlike many bicycles they get noticed by drivers of those clunky behemoths around them. In terms of slowness - well a velomobile does hold the UK end to end record - in fact this is the one. Riding a partially faired trike with friends on uprights is interesting through. (1/2)

[wen@mastodon.scot]

Faster downhill and on rolling roads and much slower climbing - I still remember the trip up Wrynose and Hardknott in the Lakes - the only advantage I had was not having to get off and walk as my companions did - the gradient was too steep for a bicycle,. (2/2)

[radicalabacus@hachyderm.io]

@Wen I have no direct experience riding them myself; I had heard they're faster than bicycles and that makes sense (at high speeds air resistance is a huge factor), I just meant slower than cars (which are cheating by throwing vast amounts of energy at the problem).

Maybe I'm overestimating the difficulty of sharing the roads with cars, but around here (Romania) a worryingly large percentage of drivers will rage at and actively swerve towards bicycles, and road accident deaths are pretty high.

There are certainly places where velomobiles would work very well right now - the Netherlands being the obvious example, but anywhere with a bit more of a safe driving culture than here.

Last time I drove on the motorway here I had a little day dream about all 6 lanes being used by bicycles and velomobiles. That's what I'd like the future to look like :)

[filobus@sociale.network]

@Wen it is a chart useful for those who reincarnate, you should only not fear the bears!