Russell, you're an inspiration for us all. What an amazing streamliner! Thank you Bri

From my perspective, it is a work of art; hope it serves you well as you charge ahead!

Beautifully done! An idea, if you don't mind, concerning hydration. In my velomobile, I simply lay a Camelbak bladder on the floor of the velo next to the seat with the tube lying across my lap. Easy to use, and when I'm done drinking, I simply spit the tube out. Thank you so much for the video, yours is a fascinating machine. Best of luck in future BHPC races!

Very nice. Looks nice and slippery.

Beautiful job and wonderful video, thank you!

Super! Thank you for showing all the details, I'm building something similar

@russellbridge2721

2 ай бұрын

Interesting! Any pics/videos?

@MarcoRuga

2 ай бұрын

@@russellbridge2721 I have posted some stuff on youtube

impressive! thanks for sharing.

Beautiful bike ! Great work and Innovative design I like it !

1000 thanks for making and sharing this footage! In my opinion this is the best design ever of a fully faired recumbent bike, confirmed by the awesome racing performance of Slash and yourself. Such a pity, that there's no way to buy something like that. So I'm on the way to build my own. The bike itself already works pretty well (made of aluminium). I'm not able to handle with composite materials, but I fortunately found a used shell (bumble bike) from german racing activities in the 90s. For the landing gear I also want to copy your solution, but with bigger wheels and a slightly different activation mechanism. I wonder if it is possible to use this machine for every day commuting on flat good bicycle lanes. Do you have any experience or suggestions for this? Is this doomed to fail? Stay tuned and best regards from southern Germany.

@russellbridge

2 ай бұрын

Well thanks for your kind comments. Personally I wouldn't use this in traffic - visibility is quite limited and the turning lock is limited - both are rectifiable to a certain extent. But the biggest problem is that the landing gear only works on perfectly level ground - it's the same for Beano too. Three wheels solve this - ie a velomobile!

I'm sure it took a lot of time, effort and expertise to fabricate that impressive faring. I wonder whether anyone building their own velomobiles/streamliners has considered using a stiff safety cage wrapped with transparent plastic sheets (stretchy, like cling film, but thicker to cope with the air flow) for all-round visibility, reduced weight and ease of replacement following mishaps?

Wonderful! Thanks for sharing. Good Luck for the World's in August.

Lovely design and build, I hope you get teh results you're expecting just what you need to pop down the shops in a rush before they close.

For the hotter day(s) we get in the UK, perhaps a ventisit pad, tinted lexan, and a variable diverter for the screen to divert more air to rider? Is this bike different from snoopy? Its rather nice! I expect you've thought of covers for the landing gear wheel holes, maybe another lever for those on spring loaded cables.

Really nice work

Hi Russel, I can not answer directly, I don't know why... Anyway on my channel you can find some videos about the building of my streamliner, I hope to hit the track on saturday. I may be at the championships in august to compete in your category.

@russellbridge

2 ай бұрын

Not sure why my previous reply isn't visible, but I've had a look at your channel, thanks :) It'd be great to see you racing in August.

I own highracer recumbent and when i test one lower highracer recumbent i find out its getting harder to control bike with lower gravity center go. This faired lowracer have to be really hard to controll since every move you made in shell will throw bike out of ballance and only fast and right measured reactions can counter imballance before it big and bike drop on any side.

That design is flipping fantastic! I have a copy of Goro Tamai’s book I can send if you want it. And I’ve got a Kingsbury’s elliptical drive too.

@russellbridge

2 ай бұрын

Thanks for your kind comments. I got a copy of 'The Leading Edge: Aerodynamic Design of Ultra-streamlined Land Vehicles' for xmas this year - it's a great book, but thanks for the offer.

How does Woodstock differ from Snoopy ?

Cool ! How much Watt you need for 40kmh 50kmh , 60kmh

love it Russ. Is there no better way to get the Air to the rider? That hole looks draggy. I obv know nothing about this.

@russellbridge

2 ай бұрын

Hi Wes. The tubing is some 51mm ID industrial hoover hose - lightweight and flexible, but I'm open to ideas on other materials/products if you know of any?

@larrylem3582

2 ай бұрын

@@russellbridge If you haven't already, maybe do some "precise" testing to check power vs. speed with the nose hole plugged vs. unplugged. If no significant difference, great! If the nose hole is draggier than you'd like, maybe try a NACA-type port on top of / in front of your head with a small hose pointed at your face would be good. That's what I'm using in my streamliners. Supposedly, everyone at BM who starts with a nose hole ends up plugging it up and getting air from somewhere else. But of course, your air needs are much greater in your circuit races.

@russellbridge2721

2 ай бұрын

@@larrylem3582 Will do. It'd probably be a better way to supply the air to my head that way, but 50% of the air coming through the nose is directed to the inside of the screen to stop it fogging up - even on a dry day yesterday I could see that the screen was trying to fog up and the air was just about keeping it clear.

@russellbridge

2 ай бұрын

@@larrylem3582 I think the air to the rider's head would be best with a naca duct as you suggest, but 50% of the air coming in at the front supplies air to the screen to stop it misting. Even on a dry day yesterday the air being blown over the screen was only just enough to stop it fogging up. It's all a balancing act...

@terrenceobrien5271

6 күн бұрын

Basically, two things are missing to make velomobiles popular, whether one, two, three or four wheeled: mass production to bring the price down & a radiator of some sort to cool the rider in hot weather, especially if fully enclosed for optimum aerodynamics or rainy weather, something to beat defog the windows. Cooling the human power engine is a big problem. After watching videos of Myth Busters about dimpled golf balls & dimpled cars, it seems the depressions create air pockets which act like ball bearings, making better laminar airflow. If a clear, stiff, outermost layer, pivoting on a front & rear center bearing on a basically elliptical main body allows the clear membrane with dimpled depressions to do the same thing … If in addition to that it has a small hole in each dimple’s middle, when turned a few degrees it aligns with similar holes in the main body (hundreds, maybe thousands, perfectly multiple CNC drills, when manufactured, drilling straight through both membranes when aligned … This would allow you to open & close holes, like pores in your skin to let sweat moisture out & fresh, cooler air in. Several alternative versions come to mind. Basically, the main hardbody inside the clear windshield outer shell would be made of hollow tubes, at forward & backward ends, epoxied together. When the outer shell with matching holes is rotated to align with the main body holes, also made of tubes epoxied together, a blast of fresh air is available when needed while racing. When this outer rigid membrane or windshield is rotated a few degrees, these holes align with non holes in the main body, closing up both holes for better aerodynamics. Just imagine an elliptical golf ball with alternating dimples, half with holes & half without. The outer membrane has holes where the other does not. Another option takes a tip from astronauts in a tube suite, like long john underwear, worn while in their space suits. Their bodies would overheat, inside their spacesuits, without cooling fluid running through their tube underwear. The fluid runs through a hose attached to a cooling device each astronaut holds in one of his hands. This is used while walking, fully suited, to the space capsule. A similar device as a back pack was worn by astronauts walking on the moon, with no atmosphere. In the vacuum of space, one side of you in sunlight is broiling, while the shadow side is far below freezing. The tubed long john underwear balance this out. Now, if we remember old stegosaurus, when Earth was hotter, he had a big fanlike plate of long spine-spikes, sinew & skin on his back with veins running through it to cool his blood; much like the big ears on an African elephant. So, with the foot pedals to power a small fan or small electric motor to power a pump, would this make sense to cool a pedal cycler? Is there someone able to crunch the numbers? Alternatively, if it’s just air diversion, if the back fan or sail, whichever you prefer to call it, of the stegosaurus velomobile, is just air tubes, perpendicular to the center front & back centerline of the velomobile, then side winds will just flow through … But if you have a diverter which can block air flow & redirect it to the pedaler & back up & out to the other end of the fan-sail tubes, the pedaler should get a big breeze of fresh air. Of course i haven’t tried any of these ideas, but something along these lines might be the next big thing in velomobile technology. There must be some way to provide a cooling radiator for the human engine. I’ve also read about a Japanese invention, which is basically just a hollow suit with some small air-moving cooling fans to cool the wearer. These fans are basically the same as used in personal computers. These are also permitted to cool computing devices in racing streamliners at Battle Mountain, but not the rider. That may just be another artificial rule to be ignored for practical streamliners when used in cities & suburbs. Also, i’ve heard mentioned, using one or both wheels of the streamliner as a fan to cool the pedaler. When shrouded, for efficiency, if air vent diverters are installed that can be opened or closed to cool the pedaler as needed , maybe that’s the answer. I’ve also seen hand held hairdryers by an assistant, attached by an air hose to the enclosed pedal cycler waiting for his turn to race. The heating element of the hairdryer is turned off, of course, blow cooling air on the pedal cycler. So, some of these ideas aren’t really new, but most are only briefly proposed, as yet uncomputed & untested. And with electric assist becoming popular, a little assistance with cooling the pedalist is more possible. I’m looking forward to the time when these problems are solved. Aa you may know, most of velomobile history is about a century old. Safety bicycles, pedal cars, cycle cars, internal combustion, electric motors & soapbox dirby gravity cars; pedal power only, or some combination, preceded today’s adult, fully faired pedal cars. The modern velomobile of 2024 still has a long way to go before becoming truly popular. Not only the car itself, but proper infrastructure in America; new cities with separate lanes with barricades, or even separate pathways for pedestrians, cyclists & automobiles, like in Dutch & lowland countries of Europe. And as it turns out, with oceans rising, new cities are needed, further inland. Downtown, the automobile may be fully banned, for the protection of pedestrians & cyclists, the last few delivery miles dedicated to cyclists with some pedal assist. Also, we must not forget the Rhat Racer, & other such pedaled vehicles to pedal yourself healthy on long freeway commutes with pedal power AMPLIFICATION. So, there is a whole range of pedal power speeds & applications. After all, velomobile just means “fast mobile.” Just as long as it’s at least twice as fast as walking, affordable, practical, climate-saving, health preserving velomobiles would make sense.

You did a very nice job on it, in both design and execution. That was a ton of work to build. I mean that sincerely, and I want you to understand that before you read what I say next. As top notch as that bike is, at the end of the day, you get killed by Beano every time. Is it vehicle or engine that's making the difference?

@russellbridge2721

2 ай бұрын

I'd like to know that too - it's infuriating!!! Hopefully we can get to a track later in the year and do some roll down tests with Woodstock vs Beano vs Notso

@deezynar

2 ай бұрын

@@russellbridge2721 Testing them together would be helpful if the test speeds are high enough to match racing speeds. The aerodynamic drag, as you certainly know, increases with speed, so the faster you run them in the test, the clearer the differences will show up. Is your bike wider or taller than Beano? And can you make doors to cover your landing gear? I'm just thinking of obvious things that I'm sure you have already considered. By my thinking, just from looking at the two bikes, I'd say that they were pretty equally matched. My thought is that you two should be neck and neck. But on race day, he laps you in longer races. That really bugs me. And if it bugs me, I fully understand how it must be infuriating to you. How does Slash take this? Is he a serious rival who's tight lipped about his rig and unwilling to reveal trade secrets? Or has he been helping you out all this time?

Can you sleep in it?