Hi! My name is Dave Lewis and I am a velomobile ambassador from Osprey, Florida, USA. Let me know how I can help you discover a fantastic alternative to a car that’s much faster and more comfortable than a bicycle! Let’s schedule a chat and maybe even a test drive!
Email: [email protected]
Useful links: YouTube Channel Blog Technical Support Create account
As I said in the intro, I currently live in Osprey, Florida and spend some time in Boulder, Colorado. Enjoying the outdoors and taking care of my body have been two passions that have endured throughout my life. I began enjoying bicycles like most kids at a very young age and always got around by bike. I remember really wanting to have a pedal car when I was 5. I moved to Boulder, Colorado from New England when I was 12. At that time the community focus on fitness there grabbed me and my life has been all about enjoying exercise and movement ever since. I began by using my road bike to commute 20 miles to my first job at a sawmill at the age of 14. I spent many hours bodybuilding between the ages of 15 and 42.
During high school and college I loved the thrill of technical rock climbing and the more relaxed hiking in the high peaks as well as mountain biking when it first became a thing. I also enjoyed longer distance road cycling and riding beach cruisers during high school and college. An older friend of mine was developing the Cyclodyne velomobile in the early ‘80s which I thought was super cool.
I began snowboarding in 1987 and quickly became obsessed. I began competing in 1990 in both alpine and half pipe. Soon I began focusing just on alpine and trained all year spending summers gate training on Palmer glacier at Mt. Hood. I turned pro in 1993 and had so much fun and some success on the pro tour. A couple years later I was named to the 1995-96 US Snowboard team. I retired from snowboard racing in 1996 and began focusing on Enshin karate. I enjoyed this intense sport for the next ten years becoming a second degree black belt and sensei and briefly had my own dojo. I began cycling seriously again when I was 39 in Colorado. I moved to Florida and became obsessed with road biking at the age of 42 and enjoyed masters racing from the age of 44 to 54.
As a result of many miles of hard training I was lucky to win the state road race and time trial championships. After winning the state road race in October of 2016 I was looking for a new challenge. I purchased my DF #58 locally in December of that year and was instantly in love with everything about the velomobiles. We had an informal local 12 hour race called the Hamster Wheel in January 2017 where I was able to go about 330 miles. I was amazed at the efficiency of these wonderful machines! The next month was Sebring where I raced the 12 hour and finished with 319 miles in 11 hours 42 minutes. The next month I did my first tour and pedaled 1,500 miles out to Austin, Texas for another ultra race. This one was really hard with 20,214 feet of climbing in 388 miles. It was a struggle to finish in 21 hours and 47 minutes. In June of 2017 I really enjoyed pedaling the DF 2,200 miles from Osprey, FL to Boulder, CO in 12 days. On December 31, 2017 I did the first sub three century in North America in a velomobile in 2:53:11 (averaging 34.6mph) having to make 20 U turns on an out and back course. I wished I had a track to ride on for record attempts! The next spring I was lucky to set a 24 hour record of 647 miles at Sebring on this far from perfect course. Later that spring I received my Milan SL and rode the Trans Am Bike Race finishing in 17 days 20 hours. With 4202 miles and around 160,000 ft of climbing I learned a lot! On 2/22/2020 I improved my sub three century on another out and back course averaging 35.4 mph for 2:49:46 with three U turns which I believe is currently the cycling century record for North America. The next year in February 2021 I completed the century course at Sebring in 3:05:49. My most recent race was Sebring 2022 where I used the Milan SL to go faster than before in the 12 hour at 344 miles in 11:57:22. The next race was the Florida 500, a week after Sebring which was super fun but with so many stops finishing in 20:40:51 for 535.4 miles. In April I rode from Florida to Colorado again in 12 days with John Schlitter, both of us in Milan SL’s. Most recently, I just finished riding from Boulder, CO to Osprey, Florida in 9 days 16 hours and 14 minutes at a mostly brisk touring pace.
I’m honored to be an ambassador for Velomobile World! I dream of riding locally with a large group of velonauts and would love to try for some records on a really nice track someday.
After Eggert Bülk and Jens Buckbesch started the Milan project in 2005 (which is still running successfully today), they started a new velomobile project in 2021, the Bülk-MK1. It implements a new space utilization and aerodynamic concept. The findings from various wind tunnel tests were also taken into account. Jens documented every step of the Bülk-MK1 project, then he sent us very detailed info to create a PAGE where you can discover the philosophy of the Bülk-MK1.
A velomobile is a human-powered vehicle related to the bicycle, for everyday use, with a body/shell that provides comfort, weather protection and luggage space. Due to the aerodynamically shaped bodywork, you can achieve a decent speed with little effort (30-50 km/h on flat road). Velomobiles are very suitable as commuter vehicles, for shopping or holidays, also are a good way to clear your mind while taking a tour or a road trip with your friends.
● Fun to drive with little effort on long distances
● Environmental friendly transport
● Very suitable for commuting, shopping, holiday travels
● Comfortable to drive
● You are independent, needs only your force to work
● Good for training and sport, good for your health
If you live in USA or Canada, please create an account, so you can order your velomobile. After you create your account on our website, you can access the configurator to create the velomobile after your needs, you will see also the final price and other details, if you follow the steps. Do you need help? Please contact me!
Werner Klomp, one of our clients, took some time to share with us his experience over the years with a few models of velomobiles.
I just want to write something positive as a customer of VelomobileWorld.com; In one year, I drove about 16.000 till 20.000 km with a velomobile made by VelomobileWorld.com in Romania, and that’s already over 10 years with a lot of fun and almost no problems.
The velomobiles are getting better and better, lighter and lighter, faster and faster. Therefore I thank the Romanian producers and off course the designer Daniel Fenn and also the distributor Ymte with whom I have also good connections. If there is a problem, what normally is small, the help from all three of them is very fast. I never had a problem that big in the last 8 years that I couldn’t drive on to the destination I want.
The first Velomobile was a Strada, which I drove in two years about 50.000 km and the only problem was the broken suspension on the back. This part made from aluminum was on the post after two days at my place to repair it. Strada was a little bit big for me, that is when Daniel came to Velomobiel.nl and started to work there. At that time he designed the DF, which is like a smaller Strada, with the complete team from Velomobiel.nl. The DF velomobile came and I drove it with a lot of fun and speed, over 50.000 km in two years. By driving so many kilometers you’ll always find something to make better. All those experiences I offered to the team to make it even better than already was. The time goes on, people want to do their business to work, not always together, so Ymte started Intercitybike and Daniel is working for himself in southern Germany.
Daniel designed a new model called Alpha 7, which is a bit bigger than DF but a bit smaller than DF XL. This velomobile is about 21 kg, which is 3 kg lighter than the normal DF, so as you can see, it is still getting better and better. This Velomobile is made in Romania of course, and at a really good quality. Also if the new velomobiles have some problems, they always fix them very fast and the customers are getting help. The Alpha is now also produced with tank steering, which is made from carbon fiber and very light.
At this moment I have an Alpha with tank steering at home and a DF that was specially made for me with special parts and special carbon fiber to make it lighter for me. This one made me happy and I drove 500 km already, with a lot of hill meters in it the last 5 days. The speed between Alpha and my special DF is almost the same, but for me the DF fits very well to my body, so I am very lucky to have this part built for me in Romania.
So I want to thank the whole team in Romania for their work, the good parts and the deliver … thanks a lot guys.
We have happy clients that are delighted about the velomobile experience, in over 20 countries around the world.
● Always be up to date with the latest news, when we have launches
● Share your opinion when we have questions for our community
● Find out about useful tips
● Never lose the train if we have special offers & deals
● Access to content that is not available on our website
● Know better the Velomobile World
