Curious if there are others out there also modifying there bikes, I know from some other blogs that 2 to 3 others did this - in fact this gave me the inspiration to also start with it.
For me driving it after about one year to my work every day it became clear that some modifications where required.
Each day some 55 km are made and especially during the darker days of winter and autumn I find the velomobiles very unsafe to drive with standard only one headlight and one tiny small red aft light. I find it remarkable that builders not more pa attention to lightings of the velomobiles in general, the red light at the aft is even not enough for a normal bike.
Front light is way to less of power when cruising dark roads with a 40 km/h speed, already almost run into water beside the road not seeing a sharp turn coming up.
So, first plan - to upgrade appearance and the light power of the bike, together with this also to modify the aftpart with a so called tail piece to lengthen the body and make it more aerodynamical. Mango normally has quit a flat chopped aftpart causing drag during high speeds.
Goal is to keep costs low, after many evenings sorting out I ordered two round watertight 12V LED lamps in China for approx. $25,- and 5 red lights for the aftpart of approx. Euro 2.50 each at CONRAD.
Furthermore I made a design of 3M reflecting material of a Cheetah and put this at each side together with reflecting arrows. Also bought the material for reasonably small mony at CONRAD. It works realy great-already with limited light pointed on it it lights very well up.
Second part;
Aft extension tail part with the new rear lights. How to start as I have had no experiance with polyester and making moulds etc. Furthermore again I want to keep itcheap so must be made of materials which can be bought at the do it your selve stores.
Start;
I made a mould with the round aftpart curve from the mango already worked in it, for the rest kept it oversized in width in length - rectangular shaped. Mould made from cardboard - flat side strengthened with some frames also made from cardboard glued on the flat sides.
Bought 2 bottles of PUR foam and filled up the mould - after hardening the result is as down below when cardboard removed;
With base form made continued to place this at the aftside of the bike with a strap - made a cut out for the excisting aftlight so the mould fits over it.
From this point I started carving out the final shape just on sense of shape and step by step (not to fast). The PUR foam works great and very easy as it can be worked with a knife, saw or sandpaper.
From rough more to detailed, in thw end creating the right form.
After finalizing the shape I coated it with one layer of epoxy to more or less fix and strenghten the shape and making it ready for putting polyester on top of it. I decide not to make a contra mould but to directly use this shape as base for polyester. Polyester was added by doing small parts every day for around 1 week-building it up - not doing to much each time. This worked quite good and proved to deliver finally a good shape that fitted very well at the aftside. I have glued this with BISON FIX and later on with epoxy to the body and is now a very strong connection. With polyester filler I have now orked out most bumps and it hase bocome already a quite need body, only needs a final filler working for paintings. Lights are made on an aluminiu strip which I connected with rivets so when the LEDS are failing I can diconnect it easily .
So end result shown below - qute happy with it - big improvement with as it was.
Third part; extra front lights;
I made a bracket and easy provison to mount the lamps on the mirror support to join this to one package. Down below pictures showing how, with a plastic tube the whol is covered and back of the lamp relatively closed for wind and rain.
And the end result, more light especially at the sides as well lighten up the bike to make it much more visible for traffic around me.
next up; closing the aftwheel with a streamlined body as well as closing the fore wheel chests as far as possible
