The velomobile as an alternative to the car (Part 3)
*Author: Jens Buckbesch.
Discover Part 1 (CLICK HERE)
Discover Part 2 (CLICK HERE)
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Dear friends of the velomobile, dear interested parties,
Today it's about expanding the transport capacity with a trailer.
Eggert Bülk and I have built a trailer that I would like to introduce the first prototype here.
The starting point was to build a velomobile trailer that is suitable for speed, has a solar surface that significantly extends the range of pedelec drives and enables a very large payload.
Compactness, modular expandability, self-supporting body and good aerodynamics were also part of the specifications. A large Euronorm crate (¼Euro pallet 60cm*40cm or 2 large water crates) should fit. At the same time, the trailer should be very light.
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Bülk with trailer. The trailer has an extremely low center of gravity and is therefore practically impossible to flip over.
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Why a velomobile trailer?
Velomobiles don't actually need a trailer because they inherently have enormous loading capacities. And their payload doesn't even affect their aerodynamics. Then why even think about building a trailer for velomobiles?
Even though you can transport an enormous amount of luggage and goods with velomobiles, there are also many cases where large objects or simply the amount of goods being transported exceed these capacities.
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Holiday XXL: Unpacked and assembled trailer load (39.6 kg of luggage)
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And: Velomobiles offer excellent year-round weather protection that open bicycles do not offer. That's why velomobiles are very suitable for replacing a car. Most car journeys take place with just one person and little luggage and could easily be replaced by a velomobile journey. Our trailer has a large loading capacity and can therefore further increase the amount of car journeys that can be replaced.
With regard to the design of velomobiles, the trailer allows for flexible upgrading of the options for the velomobile. This means you can stick with a light and fast basic vehicle (which is probably very important to the majority of velomobile drivers) and still carry out the rather rare missions with a lot of transported goods.
The basic idea here is the idea that the mobility of the future can only take place in a sensible and resource-saving manner if the weight ratio of the goods to be transported and the means of transport can be flexibly optimized and an optimal means is available for every purpose. Mobility of the future is made up of a number of building blocks and our trailer should be a building block in this overall structure.
Initial test drives have shown that the trailer is very stable when cornering and at top speed. My initial fear that the trailer would jump unloaded was in no way confirmed. So I converted the 50 mm tires back to Conti-Urban 32 mm and there are no hopping problems with that either.
If you like, you can watch a little film about the first prototype of the trailer in use:
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Rolling and air resistance are surprisingly low.
The weight in carbon version and with light wheels will be around 6 kg with a storage space of around 230 liters.
The Bülk trailer will be exclusively produced and sold by Velomobile World and its dealer network.
We will inform you when the trailer is ready for series production.
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Mold set and first print (Set of molds and first product as a prototype)
Original positive from the printer. Eggert's original model from the printer.
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Stay curious!
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