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Originally Posted by arcosine
I don't like the small wheels, too bumpy. I have 700c in back and 451 in front. Notice the sign, that's a 550 mile ride from home. I subscribe to the KISS principal. Glad to see your interest in HPVs. Check out Velomobiles-- Coroplast on face book.
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To be quite honest, we were considering 20 on the front and 700 on the back, but I'm a small guy and I simply won't be able to fit well over that size wheel. If/when I build a fairing, the rear wheel should not be taller than my head!
I'm leaning against coroplast as a fairing material for several reasons. For one, it is hard to bend into a smooth compound curve. Second, possibly most important, I am sick of hearing that people think it is (or looks like) cardboard. They give me crap for "putting cardboard on [my] car."
I don't want to offend anyone, but seeing people's reactions to my cars, I don't think a coroplast velomobile would be considered by some to be 'professional' or, more importantly, a valid form of transportation. I live in a conservative area and work at a major automotive manufacturer. If I'm trying to drastically reduce my car use, I'd better replace it with something deemed acceptable by the more conservative people around here.
One of the reasons I post here and make my vehicles stand out is to start a dialogue with the general public. If the average person dismisses the thing off the bat, it's harder to plant a seed in their mind about efficiency. The Probe's paint and strangeness attracted people, but the build quality did little to inspire them to follow in my footsteps. I'd like my velo to be a real class act, and something that true gear heads will want to inspect out of curiosity.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MetroMPG
It's ironic in a way that this forum sometimes "helps" people engineer their cars right out of their lives. It's happened before, and it'll happen again!
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Yes, it's also a bit sad personally. I enjoy driving my car but realized I really don't need it. We shall see how this winter goes. Maybe I won't want to ride in the cold and snow this year, but with a fairing over a velo there should be no problem.
I should mention that a big motivator here would be saving about $200/month that I spend on insurance, gas an maintenance right now.