WAW 1000km Review

As the name says; a review of the WAW velomobile after 1000 km of riding it.

[@ronstout4022]

Hi John, I love your videos. I own WAW 324 and have a couple of questions, is the short "windscreen" from the factory or something you made? Also, do you get much reflection on the race cap wind screen from the body? My WAW is white and I was getting reflections on mine. I put a small length of black electrical tape on the body lip and this seems to correct the problem. Thanks, Ron

[@JohnDTrites]

Hi Ron. Thanks very much! The short windscreen was an option from the factory; mini windscreen. It bolts on to the manhole cover with three small wingnuts. I have a spare one. I'll show it in a video soon since I will do one more in-depth about the WAW including how to effectively adjust it for those considering buying one. I think it is a great bike; especially for North Americans where there is not a lot of support maintaining velomobiles. I've never really noticed reflection from the body. Its probably because the blue is dark enough that it doesn't reflect as much, and I only ever use it when it is raining heavily. For light rain or mist, I use the manhole cover without the hood.

[@ronstout4022]

@@JohnDTrites Thanks for the reply. I totally agree with you about the ease of working on the WAW. I bought mine used about 3 years ago. I had done a lot of research and it seemed to be the best option for me. I'm a fairly big guy at 6' 205 and at 73 with a muscle degenerative disease, I am not as agile as I used to be. The WAW has allowed me to do work on the inside so that I can get out and has made my hardware changes much easier. I do all of my own work and it has sure been pretty straight forward. I do love that with you, and a couple of other KZbinrs, have fairly reasonable power outputs. Keep up the good work!!

[@dogwood7]

Thanks for posting this video. I ride a city bike most days, 34km a day. I ride through a city part of the way where I have had 5 accidents over 15 years. If I were in a velo mobile, I would not have a scratch. Instead, there was blood left at each scene. What are your thoughts about safety?

[@JohnDTrites]

@@dogwood7 One of the other velonauts in Minnesota was T-boned at an intersection with a velomobile. He had only minor injuries where he believes he would have been seriously injured or killed if he had been on a conventional bike. His velomobile was written off, but he wasn't; which was the important thing. His video is actually online (kzbin.info/www/bejne/ppzIqmOeZZ2ne6M). What I find is that because the bikes can more easily keep up with traffic, there are less close calls. Also, because the velomobile looks like it has mass, they tend to give it more room. That has certainly been my experience. The shell is strong so I can't imagine that it would not provide significant protection. In addition, you don't fall over, so that in itself is a blessing.

[@dogwood7]

@@JohnDTrites That's a good point. All of my injuries on bicycles have been from falling over. The last one was four months ago when a person opened a car door while waiting for a light. The door hit my bike, causing me to fall onto the curb. It took my body 3 months to recover from multiple injuries.

[@philpeko1796]

Can't hear what you are saying, sadly, please provide an audible review.

[@narkfly]

While the WAW seems to be a little loud inside, I was able to hear him okay. You can try the Closed Caption feature, I checked and it's pretty accurate with what he's saying.