How to Get a Cheap Velomobile?

[@isaweesaw]

I would love one but even these prices are prohibitive. Velomobile manufacturers will need to scale up and reduce cost per unit before these will become common.

[@technobamh]

Hello, I am from Morocco 🇲🇦 (North Africa) I am very impressed with this type of bike. I hope one day to own one.

[@witosawpiotrowicz7509]

Saukki, this is super useful and super helpful. It is years when I considered new one. There is such a power in using only CASH (no "credit" cards). There is added value in buying used stuff. As Dave Ramsey Show would say is (and so many others) you drive new car and it value drops as you go around first bend. Sure the case with velos. (But as I had seen the QV listed by ppl moving from US to UK (on this very video of yours), velos (not only QV?) have the argument - you wait loooong months to get from order to delivery for new one. Anyhow - please be not dicouraged by my unsubscribe (I just did few minutes ago) and while with your 11k subsribtions it may not feel like happening at all, ... I wanted to let you know - I am tiding my YT subsriptions between my google/YT accounts and moving them according to role each account is to play. I am still subsribed to you from elsewhere, very much so!!! Thank you for your amazing (AMAZING!) work, and for staying so so so FOCUSED on velomobiles. Focus is the key on YT - thinking as a future channel owner. Thanks again!

[@veryveryintense]

I've always wondered if you could get a tadpole trike and build a carbon fairing over a long period of time as a project. Would be cool to make a custom one and save a lot of money.

[@jasonpeace91]

im looking to design a trike chassis and body just for this where the chassis can be built fairly easily and then can be riden without the aero body and the aero body can be dropped on at a later date

[@Skisproductions]

The issue with making a carbon fiber body on a metal trike is weight and cost. A full suspension trike like an hpv scorpion costs approx 6k usd and weighs approx 45lbs. My full susp3nsion quest xs caebon weighs 55 lbs approx i have the exact weight somewhere. If i had to guess ure probably looking at another 25-30lbs for a carbon fiber body to go around ur trike plus add boom extensions and know that you will never be able to move ur boom again cuz its supporting the nose. So ure probably looking at a trike weighing 75-80lbs wen ur done. Most affordable material is coroplast/corrugated plastic. Just zip tie and tape em together and boom u got urself a fairing for like 100 bux. The problem is u need to attatch it to the boom so either way u need to weld a boom extension on to support the nose, and then a way to mount to the back and the middle and a way to get in and out usually a door secured with tape is the most common in these home made fairings. Your next best bet is to use fiberglass it lays similar to carbon fiber but costs way less but weighs a lot more. Probably adding 70lbs to ur trike by using fiberglass. And u have to coat it very thick on the inside or u will get rashes from glass going into ur skin wen u rub up against the walls. I know this from experience. Carbon fiber u just need a uv protective clear coat. Which u can shave a lot of weight off a velomobile by simply not painting it and just doing a uv protective clear coat. The cost of carbon fiber and full suspension trike alone cost as much as a velomobile. Might as well have it done the right way.

[@ponypruhest]

Leitra made a fairing called wildcat, and it is a carbon piece that covers the top and front of the velomobile.

[@veryveryintense]

@@Skisproductions wow, thanks for the incredibly detailed reply. I suppose you'd also have to make a lightweight aluminium chassis and utilise some of the quest parts like the carbon swing arm and those elastomers for the front wheels and very quickly you'd end up with a machine that costs 90% as much and is heavier and worse and took you hundreds of hours to build. It might make more sense to build a recumbent out of old frames and put some minimal fairings on it

[@Skisproductions]

@@veryveryintense well thats the thing for a velomobile your body becomes ur frame so you dont need to worry about fitting it together to a frame its just bottom and top. But if you want the lightest trike the bacchetta carbon 2.0 is probably your best bet coming in at approx 27lbs but its a rigid trike. Which u can do a rigid velomobile and lay the carbon fiber to flex like suspension they have done this on pretty much every carbon fiber endurance road bike where they make the frame flexible to absorb the vibrations and impacts. Not to mention many metal recumbent trikes by design flex a little bit.

[@marksadventures3889]

John@ Velo Ads is your guy in the UK, rides 'em, sells 'em, top lad too.

[@Skisproductions]

I like his videos too but i though his shop went out of business?

[@johanneskoedood2235]

Yes john is uk sales velomobiles so ask him or the website and bendrider clubs

[@DrewNorthup]

@@Skisproductions His website looks very alive. Don't know if he has a storefront as I'm on the other side of the pond.

[@Anomalous-Plant]

Man awesome dedication to this channel. Mahtavaa että jaksat :)

[@TheVelomobileChannel]

Thanks!

[@KarlOnSea]

Also in the UK, the British Human Power Club (BHPC) forum. 😘

[@Skisproductions]

I wish buying a used velomobile was possible here in the us. Unfortunately the used velomobiles for sale are usually old/damaged. By old i mean older than 5 years old. By damaged i mean usualy have cracks in the body or a lot of scratches in the paint. In europe lots of people are sellimg theirs cuz they dont have to pay such high shipping costs as we in the us do. Not to mention they can drive tot he netherlands to pick up their velomobiles where in the us thats not possible you would have to ferry or ship it here via cargo container. Ferry would probably be the best way to go if u want to avoid damages and save on shipping and pick it up in person. I bought my velomobile last year its a 2018 model barely used and i jumped on it for the price of 12k usd after shipping fees. I can say ive never regretted buying it.

[@JohnR31415]

5 years isn’t particularly old, and scratches are an excuse to practise gel coat…. Hopefully I’ll be able to do that practise when the weather warms up (take the naked trike out and restore the velo)

[@michaelboyko5024]

12k is pretty hot for a velomobile!

[@Skisproductions]

@@JohnR31415 thats kinda my point velomobiles cost that much here in the us. Brand new a quest xs carbon would run me approx 15-17k usd after all costs depending on the options u selected ive found used ones as low as 5k usd that were old blue velo ones that have scratches in the paint or cracks in the carbon, i know theres been used ones with a bunch scratches going for 7k usd plus approx up to 1k usd shipping, but cycling manufacturers usually follow a 5 year or close to 5 yr trend in design b4 reiteratting their products. Cannondale for example look at the cannondale trigger produced with a lefty fork on their high end models and fox dyad rt2 rear shock from 2012-2016 then in 2017 they changed it to have fox float rear end and fox fork up front. The quest was reiterrated in 2017 to have beefier components like swing arms, beefed up derailer attachments, bottom brackets, etc. Then now in 2021 they made the snoek available for 2022 which is basically made from quest thats been cut up from wat i understand but is really like a df xs at the price of a quest xs. So imo its a reiterration on the quest xs. I call them reiterrations because they dont always get upgrades but get revamped or changed in some way. But ive noticed many bicycle manufacturers usually follow a 5 yr trend. Garmin was similar except they make the computer which computer components typically get upgraded after about 3 years which is the trend garmin has followed with their 1000, 1030, 1030 plus. The 1000 isnt even able to be repaired by garmin anymore.

[@Skisproductions]

@@JohnR31415 also i havent done any gel coat. I have done a ceramic coat to mine. Doesnt seem to do much tbh.

[@ericseidel4940]

Very useful, thanks Saukki

[@ponypruhest]

Heh, I’m thinking of selling one or both of mine, about 10 years old, so both are probably made of glass fiber, one is a Mango, the other is a Quest.

[@velokernow3696]

Where are you?

[@JohnR31415]

@@velokernow3696 thought I’d see you here ;)

[@ponypruhest]

@@velokernow3696 Copenhagen

[@velokernow3696]

@@ponypruhest I will be interested in either, and able to collect......

[@velokernow3696]

@@JohnR31415 haha

[@tonyonthecamino]

You can built your own vélomobile from a plan for less than 3000€

[@4nz-nl]

Your wife looks back at you as if she's saying "what did you say about MY hoodie?!"

[@TheVelomobileChannel]

That’s excactly what she said 😂

[@Taoweiji]

You make Pennywise famous! LOL

[@DemiGod..]

100% human powered with an electric motor ? Doubt it is a goood idea for somebody to get second hand velo as first velo clueless about what they buying.

[@geboelders]

The correct URL for the dutch recumbent (NVHPV) website is ligfiets.net/

[@TheVelomobileChannel]

You are right. I accidentaly said it wrong on the video. Although text & links in the description are correct.