well i guess it is working as intended cus i think this is so you don't accidentally leave the turn signal on and it's gonna be hard to miss that sound. 🤷♀
To put that into perspective: The bikepaths you got there are just sensational compared to everywhere else, and the roads are empty. So whatever you chose, it looks fantastic.
On my 19km velomobile commute I use a combination of designated “side streets”, segregated bikeways, and main roads, with and without painted bike lanes. Depends on the best combination of safe/smooth/fast. And I have a ball on a stick for buttons. Don’t use it a lot, but it’s there.
Same here. When I know the place I can choose the best route for velomobile combining bike paths and road. It gets difficult if you have to ride in unfamilar place. Then I gues the road is usually the best option.
The turning radius with my Bülk is pretty much the same as my Quest XS. I don’t think I would ride any velomobile except maybe a Mango in a city center on bike paths. In the city where I live I always ride in the road. We at least have some roads with shoulders marked as bike lanes. Those are my preferred place to ride. The only time I will ride a bike/pedestrian path is when it is in the middle of nowhere with few driveways and road crossings and not very many people using the path. Otherwise it is very slow and not always very safe to ride on bike paths. Those types of paths are really meant for very slow people on bicycles or walking or maybe for families with little kids. Definitely they are not meant for speedy Velomobiles.
On my velomobile I found that roads work much better than do bike paths. This is in Oregon. I CAN ride on bike paths but must keep speed very slow. Not effective. It works much better to ride in traffic. 40 kph roads are best as it's easy to match speed.
In Sweden there was a proposal to something like cycle motorways but I believe it was scrapped unfortunately. It took many many rides to adjust my commute with a selection of bike path and road. The first rides using the bike path with Google maps was pretty awful like you ended up in a parking lot, the path ended in nothing etc. But if you know the route it’s mostly pretty okey I think.
I do feel like this video really highlights the issue of the lack of dedicated bike infrastructure in most cities. I agree that bikes/velomobiles shouldn't be riding on sidewalks and other spaces dedicated for pedestrians as it's not safe for either party. Where I live in Canada roads and drivers are very unfriendly towards cyclists, so that's not a safe option either. If there are dedicated cycle lanes, they aren't clearly marked and are just here and there instead of a connected network like roads or sidewalks. In most cities I've lived and cycled in I've just had to take the time to figure out which routes and paths are the best and safest for the rides I need and want to take. Its not user friendly and certainly doesn't make cycling approachable the same way you can just hop into a car and trust that roads will take you to your destination.
Don't be so negative - there are many places, where we have kinda ok infrastructure - if your cycle has full suspension and you got tight sitting bones 🙃 Seriously tough, most MTB beginner trails are smooth tarmak compared to whatever the fuck our city views as "infrastructure" .
Hamburg has a pretty good Bicycle infrastructure, many routes that are designated for bicycles and paths that are actually part of the roads. On many of the main roads there is also a nice path alongside the road. In the city there are of course the bad paths that are unsuitable for a Velomobile.
Although I live in Sweden and ride unfaired bikes I have a similar experience. One of the main issues with using bike paths is you have to contend with pedestrians on bikes. Drivers of motor vehicles understand that they have to follow certain rules and generally have a degree of concentration on what they’re doing.
People either wander all over the pathway, let their dogs run from side to side and are clueless about any other cyclists on the path. Cyclists are bad too, drivers are worse, since they can severely injure, maim or kill you.
In the Northern California, Bay area, it's mix of bike paths. I ride a Catrike 700, non-faired, and try to stick to streets with a bike lane. Bike paths will beat you to death with the rough pavement.
Hey Saukki. Love the video again. Sounds like the tires are hitting the wheel wells when you turn. My Quest went into testing last thursday. So I'm inclined to think it should be ready for delivery next week. I can't wait to get it. I think road or bike path depends on location/situation. In city center I would use the road for the reason you showed: no dedicated/consistent bike paths. However, the city of Leuven, where I used to work, is working on making the whole area inside the city ring road bike/pedestrian friendly, removing as many cars as possible from that area. As for where I work now, the first stretch from my house to my hometown's center, I would use the road, because the bike path here is bad. At every driveway, the whole bikepath is lowered to ease the transition between the driveway and the road. While they could have gotten the same result with just an angled kerbstone. Speed limit here is 50 km/h, so I should be safe to ride on the street. From town center, I get into quiet streets that don't have a bike path or sidewalk for 2-3 km. And the last 4-6 km of my commute, I have a dedicated cycling route, of which the last stretch I have to take conveniently comes out right across from the entry to my work's parking lot.
Bike paths are full of dangers in the daytime. I would choose even a longer road route to avoid paths. But I usually ride in the evenings when there's much less traffic everywhwere. Btw... Has the Bulk started to feel fast and likable already ??
I feel the pain of confused infrastructure. I live in a small city (population ~35,000) with what I'd call highly confused bicycle infrastructure. Parts of the city and municipality is fantastic, with large dedicated bicycle paths that can take you almost everywhere. Combined with infrastructure that makes me want to force everyone involved in the design to watch their grand children navigate it on bicycle during rush hour! And it's so fucking stupid some of the times. Like - at one place, you're directed onto a bike path that weaves in between two tall fences, and two meters past them it just ends! Followed by two meters of grass and then a four lane heavy industrial road. Like - it's not even a pedestrian zone - it's just ... gone.
Bike paths are most of the time build for really slow people or for people who are afraid to go on the road because they will cause masive slow down of the trafic. Normal person on the bike either road, recumbent or velomobil will have much better speed on the road because bike paths are not made for speed of athletic person and will inevitably have to slow down to get over varios obstacles of the path and most of the city paths will not be desighned for the speed. It make sence bike paths in city center will be most of the time have bad designh and they are mostli forced on places where they never was intendet but in new build region bike paths will ussuely nicely bypass some problematick intesections and give bikers nice shortcuts.
How far do you think a person could ride a velomobile in the U.S. on a roadway filled with SUVs ? I live in Texas, and a velomobile would be a rolling coffin here. I wish that were not the case, since these are so efficient.
FWIW: Most signal activation buttons you can't activate from the velomobile would be difficult to impossible to activate from one of my friend's customized wheelchairs. Anyone designing for accessibility around hospital / temporary type wheelchairs is out of their mind.
They should put a bluetooth reciever in all the pedestrian buttons that would recieve a standardised signal from remote clickers you would buy cheaply from the dept. of roads and stick to the inside of your velo/ trike/ wheelchair etc. Would be an easy upgrade for any city councils.
Bike paths round here in semi rural Uk are non existent (not even pathways on most roads) but once I hit the city of London they are pretty good and have been designed with cyclists in mind. My local city of reading they are terrible and designed by city planners and not cyclists so they wind in and out and faster to go by road by a long way.
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You nicely managed to point out the problems average bicycle riding citizen faces in an average Finnish town.
You forgot a 3rd method of using both road and cycle lanes, depending on which is faster at the time.. Could there be an ultimate quick route with those combined?
Do you have a problem when riding on the road, that the traffic lights don't change? I get that on my motorcycle. Sometimes, I have to wait for a car to come up behind before the lights will change😖
I can't watch this video to the end, it's too painfully real. Even the newest highest quality bike paths in Tampere are never as pleasant to ride as the adjacent road would be. So many blind junctions, bumps, long traffic lights, hills, confusing signage/directions, parking access only through a pedestrian area, tight corners and occasionally tight straight bits too, and that's just the best parts. The worst are the parts that clearly haven't been overhauled since when cyclists always drove in the car lane, yet all the sidewalks are now marked as combined cycling/footpaths despite being unsafe even at jogging speed. Intentionally avoiding the cycling infrastructure so I can stay on the road as much as possible feels really dumb but often works way better than actually following the main routes.
Good question. I have no idea. I live in flat land, we have no big hills here. And my gearing is for flat land, so if I would want to go ride somewhere with big hills, I should change my gearing to something more appropriate.
((beep)) Btw it all changes a bit, when you know the route well and know where there are psychopaths -erm cycle paths- and where to switch between the different modes.
I'm not used to ride a velomobile with a helmet. I usually ride with racing hood, there's no room or need for helmet. But when riding open top like this a helmet might be a good idea. Though because of the headrest it would be pretty uncomfortable to wear a regular cycling helmet. You should find a helmet which doesn't have all that stuff back of your neck
@@TheVelomobileChannel lähinnä niinkun mietin semmosesta kulmasta että mikä ois semmonen aerodynaaminen ja silleen kohtuu halpa ratkaisu kun toi Cruzbike V20 on ehkä vielä vähän turhan kallis monelle.🙂 toki ehkä triathlonpyörätkin on vähän turhan kalliita.
They are marked with a sign at the start of the path but the signs are very easy to miss and they don't have them at all intersections, so sometimes you just have to be familiar with the area to know. Some bigger roads have separate bike lines which are painted on, but that's rare for small towns like this.
This video is the best example why moving around in a city is so sh*t! It sucks with a car, with a bike and not to mention public transport if there is any. They try to make it more sh*t to go by car but the bike paths are so ridiculous that there is no smooth riding and ppl will take the car again. So they make the road more narrow so driving with a car sucks even more. But at the same time if you go by bike on the road, because of the narrow roads, you are in danger to be run over all the time. So riding sucks too becaues you feel in danger so you take the car which feels saver. Instead of making the road so big that everyone can use them, no they disect them to try to give each their own space which constantly disturbes and interfere with each other. But what do you expect from politicans that get chauffeured around all the time.
