Parachute Making

I spent the evening sewing two drag chutes to slow me down as I desend the rockies.  As I ran the sewing machine I couldn't help but think, "Thanks Grandma Gay for not sewing something for me but rather teaching me to use her old treddle sewing machine.  Thankfully, we moved up to an electric machine.  I've got new found respect for people sew tents and stuff made of nylon. I did a passible job but its not pretty.  Certainly won't be quitting the day job to become a tailor.

Location : 80-86 Thorniley St, New Britain, CT 06051,

Location : 144-178 Ella Grasso Rd, Newington, CT 06111,

The Roll Over America Route

Yup that's right, the plan is to ride from one side of the country all the way across to the other. 3 days until I fly out to Portland.

Homebuilt roof for under $60

They say that imitation is the highest form of flattery. This is my homebuilt version of the Flavobike roof. The Alleweder has a large opening so it required 2 x 4' aluminum rods, a short piece of 1/4" derlin rod, a sheet of blue foam camping pad, a 2' x2' piece of polycarbonate, some nylon nuts and bolts and two tubes of liquid nails extreme outdoor glue.

I used a fiberglass flag wand to figure out the shape of the curve so that I could just see out to the sides from under the roof then traced it on to a piece of cardboard. I then used the cardboard as a template as I bent the aluminum tube to create the desired curve of the roof. Then I cut an inch long slot in one end of each tube. I cut a similar slot into a short piece of derlin rod. Once that was done I drilled a hole through the aluminum and darlin perpendicular from the slot. This way its the darlin not the aluminum tube that touches the vertical connection to the velomobile.

I then fired up the BBQ and heated a sheet of blue foam camping pad (Walmart $5.95) and stretched it over an empty propane tank to put a curve in it. Next I cut a piece of 1/16" polycarbonate to the proper size. Then I put it all together by cutting some 4' long strips of fabric about 2.5" wide and glueing them to the blue foam with liquid nails. It was a lot easier when I glued the fabric to one side of the foam and let it dry. The next day I used a short piece of the 3/8" aluminum tube as spacing guide to glue the fabric around to the other side of the foam. This created a sleave on either side of the foam. After the glue dried I slid the aluminum tubes through to give the roof its shape. Then I drilled holes along the edge of the windshield and poked coresponding holes through the foam. Finally I secured the windshield to the foam using nylon nuts and bolts from McMaster-Carr.

All of that was fine but the back end was kind of long and didn't match the roof line of the turtle deck so I cut a V out of back.

Then I applied some Liquid Nails glue to the edges.


And finally I stitched up the incision from the inside so that it can't be seen from outside.


And voila a sub $60 roof (sub $50 if you count the cost of the individual nylon nuts and bolts rather than the cost of the bags of 50).


Here's a view from the front.

Training for the Roll Over America

Every day is a day closer to the July 28th start of the Roll Over America. We're expecting about 50 velomobiles in Portland Oregon for the ride cross country to Washington DC. That's 3,000 miles in 30 days with a couple of rest days. So that means that we'll be averaging 120 miles a day. Every time I say that I think about how much more training I need to do. This morning I did 62 miles up to the Massachusetts line on the Farmington Valley rail trail.

Details of the Roll Over America begin to gel. It looks like it will be the largest gathering of velomobiles the USA has ever seen. The route is beginning to come together and day three looks pretty intense about 150 miles and over 6,000 feet of elevation gain. More motivation to keep training. I did 60 miles yesterday.

The "new" Alleweder Velomobile

Shortly after the last post I experienced one of those rare times when the stars aligned. I posted to BentriderOnline on a Friday that I had signed up to the Roll Over America and now I needed figure out which options I wanted to get with the Alleweder kit. I assumed I would be buying the kit in the fall and building over the winter. The next day I had a message from Larry, a fellow bentrider that he had just take delivery of a new Greenspeed Glyde and his Alleweder was up for sale. His asking price for it was less than the unbuilt kit. He delivered it on Monday. Here a picture of me in it.

The Next Challenge

Ever since I was a kid the idea of riding across the country has appealed to me. However, job, mortgage, kids etc all intervened to push the idea off the priority list. Next year I'll turn 50 and through Bentrideronline I discovered that a group of 24 European velonouts are planning what they are calling the Roll Over America. ROAM won't be your typical relaxed two or three month cross country ride. Since the Europeans will be doing this on their August vacation (yes, most Europeans get the whole month of August off) the ride will be an ambitious 4,000 kilometers (3,300 miles) in 30 days. Its now or never, if all goes as planned, I'll be rider # 36.

Next step, acquiring a real velomobile. The Quest is a beautiful machine now manufactured in Toronto, but with a daughter starting college next September the $8K price tag is out of the question.

The only thing significantly cheaper is the FAW+ from VelomobilesUSA that can be purchased as a kit for a little over $3K.

It's an updated version of the original production velomobile before the industry got into fiberglass, Kevlar and carbon fiber. Fortunately, I have a friend who's built a couple of airplanes so the idea of building a velomobile out of aluminum doesn't sound too daunting.