Cool car with 2 wheels - the C-1 by Lit Motors

Lit Motors has is coming out with an enclosed motorcycle with all the amenities of a car and an electric power train. It stays stable with built-in gyroscopes and control software that Lit Motors has been working on for 8 years. It does have a "kickstand" for parking. For anyone who has read this blog before it looks very much like some of the recumbent streamliners or velomobiles shown here before. In fact it looks very much like a sketch of 2 wheel velomobile that I have been drawing except that the wheels are unfaired.

The stats are impressive:

• Range: approximately 200 Miles
• Battery pack: 8KWh to 10KWh still working it out
• Top Speed: 120 mph
• 0 to 60: roughly 6 seconds
• Cost: roughly $24,000
• Motors: 40 kW Hub motors in each wheel, that's right an AWD motorcycle

The vehicle shown is a concept bike so there are unfinished details such as headlights, windshield wipers, etc. But production is supposed to start in 2013 with its launch price of $24k and a target price of $16k once it is mass produced. It gets roughly three times the range of the Nissan Leaf with roughly one third the batteries. Depending on how Lit Motors engineers the charge port this means that the range per hour of charge can be very high, up to 100 miles of range per hour of charging with a standard Level 2 charger. If they use the cheaper design it would be 50 miles of range per hour of charging. Either one exceeds the Leaf's charge times of 10 miles of range per hour. I don't believe they have any desire to support Level 3 fast charging at this time.

Space wise it fits driver + 1 where the one is relatively cramped. That same spot is for cargo, and could easily fit groceries, dry cleaning, a hiking backpack, my two small dogs (Casey and Lucy), etc. It is designed for commuting and light errands which most people do alone. It is also designed for safety. It will have airbags and the gyroscopic system is designed to detect impact and maintain stability. This means that if it is T-Boned it will skid to the side and remain upright. There are 1300 ft-lbs of torque available in the flywheels. The C-1 also drives like a car, albeit a car that leans into turns. They produced this nice video which has some interesting imagery as well showing the driver's point of view as she goes through San Francisco.

For me this is a great vehicle for a new college graduate living in an apartment. I assume that charging is something that apartment owners are going to have to deal with. Putting in L2 chargers underneath car ports seems a no-brainer to me. But putting that aside, this would have been great for me when I graduated. I could go to and from work, pick up my groceries, pick up a date, go on hikes, take a trip to Portland, drive out to Vancouver, BC. Heck you could pick up a TV or computer easily enough. Anyone single could use this as their main vehicle without much trouble. It is all weather and the range is great. The standard couple in the US has two cars nowadays. Replacing one car with a c-1 seems to make sense. It can do all the light errands, commuting and even be a date night vehicle.

Personally my wife and I had been considering an EV this year, either the Ford Focus EV or the Nissan Leaf looked like a good second car. But for my usage patterns the C-1 is better. The extra range opens up some solo excursions such as hiking in North Bend and trips to the Human Powered Challenge@PIR (Portland, OR). I could visit friends in Wenatchee and bring a folding bicycle as well. It is over $10,000 cheaper than the Leaf and Focus as well as having lower operating costs. I am strongly considering putting down a reservation at Lit Motors.

Here is a slideshow of pictures I collected of the C-1. Edited to correct specs based on emails from Lit Motors.

Project Streamliner

As some of my readers may have divined, I am deeply interested in getting a practical streamliner. I want it to be useful for commuting, long ride such as randoneurring or the stp, and hpv racing in the super-street class.

The idea is that I start with a tilting trike such as the one above. Then I work with Coroplast and make a shell for it. Garrie Hill has already done this for his trike, the model of his shell is below:

From RandomPictures

Then I clean up the surface, paint it, mount it and end up with a nice red streamliner. Something like Lonnie's below but made of coroplast and a different shape. But I do love the red with silver striping.


I am thinking of using PVC piping for internal struts to mount the rear especially since the tilting wheels means I have to allow for them to move. A front strut coming off the BB will provide the mounting location for the fairing as well as a place to mount a front light. I will also have a strut pointing straight up to brace the fairing. I will probably talk to terracycle and replace the stock idlers as well. I will want to raise the seat a bit and I am thinking that I could use side mount drum brakes on the rear wheels and then wire them up to one brake lever. I would move the tilt lock down under the seat and put the rear brake lever on the left side. The front brake would be on the right. I will cut the fairing into pieces so it can be removed and reattached. I am currently thinking a front section, two cockpit sections (top and bottom) and a rear section. With the trike separable, that means I could separate the entire thing into 5 pieces for travel or transport. I would paint the fairing red, and put silver reflective stripes on the sides similar to Lonnie's streamliner. I will also put numbers on the fairing for race events and organized rides such as the STP.

Currently this plan is all potential and no actualized in any way. But if all goes well, I may end up with the trike in 2010.

More on Practical Streamliners.

After posting the other day about the following streamliner that was at the Ford HPV challenge 2009, I was reminded of a streamliner from Portland.

Jester in F40-like clothing


Todd's Streamliner in Portland
I believe that Todd's Streamliner above also has a Jester at its heart. It is based on a Varna shell and he added gull wing doors and a larger canopy. He takes it on the street and always does well at the Human Powered Challenge in Portland since he knows the handling and abilities of his streamliner much better than most riders do.

I have to admit I am very tempted to look into this.

What Features I want in a potential streamliner and why?

Recently I have been considering streamliners as commuting platforms. The so-called "practical streamliner" bike problem. This is an interesting problem to be solved.

Commercially there are a few approaches that have been taken.

1. The Velomobile, a tadpole trike platform with a shell. Examples include the Quest, the Go-One, the Sorcerer, etc. Most are heavy (~70lbs) and the tadpole format adds a certain about of tire scrub and rolling resistance. Even so, this is the format that is the most common for practical applications today. It is also very fast as long as you don't have too many hills.
   
2. Fabric and wireframe Faired bikes, the Lightning F-40, which holds the fasted time ever in RAAM is the classic example. Faired Easy Racer Gold Rushes are another common example and the lowracer above with a customer carbon fiber front fairing and cover is within reach. These tend to be lighter, in the 30-40lbs range and the cost is lower. The speeds are good, especially since the weight is low and low weight means that climbing is not as affected.
3. Hardshell streamliners, tub bikes, these are the real speed bikes, also about ~70lbs with limited steering radius and other practical limitations. These tend to be individually produced with custom design features. There are examples that have been made more practical and can be used in general traffic and riding applications. Joe's streamliner built around a varna clone shell is one example
   

The question is what makes a good platform to build a streamliner around. You want a number of components.

1. Suspension, a streamliner is faster and due to the opaque body generally has reduced forward visibility for road bumps and hazards. You will hit bumps fast and you want to be able to handle it. Suspension also helps stick to turns better at speed. Most streamliners can easily average in the mid 20s MPH or low 30s MPH if the road is reasonably flat or rolling hills. Suspension helps make this comfortable and keeps the tires on the road.
2. Large Gear Range, a streamliner wants high gears to avoid spinning out in the 25-30mph range. It also wants low gears to climb hills with the extra weight. A gear range from 17 GI to 120GI is adequate for most practical applications. This can be accomplished with a jackdrive (intermediate drive), an internal hub, or something like the SRAM dual drive.
3. Indirect Steering, indirect steering or some other method to control how much your steering apparatus goes to the side during turns. Traditional Tiller and U bar steering can take up quite a bit of width during turns, widening your profile and reducing the aero benefits of the streamlining. Indirect steering can eliminate this entirely though it does add complexity. Other solutions are sitting very close the the fork and putting a small T bar steering directly on top of it.
   
4. Entry, Exit and Stoplight solutions, a trike of some sort makes a good practical streamliner since entry, exit and stopping/starting are all pretty simple as long as you can get in and out of the fairing. Bike solutions have to worry about bomb-bay doors for the feet, clearance for derailleurs , etc. The inherent stability of trikes helps a lot for low speed handling like climbing. Most of the practical 2 wheel streamliners have either open bottoms or do something with bomb bay doors (complex) or fabric (simple) to improve the aerodynamics on the underside. Entry and exit is also very tricky with a 2-wheel streamliner. The F-40 and other fabric/nosecone solutions solve this reasonable well. Many 2 wheel hardshell solutions require helpers to launch/catch them. This is not very practical.
5. Storage, some form of storage and luggage capacity. A streamliner is useful for both speed and weather protection. You will want to carry the odd bit of groceries, a change of clothes or maybe a laptop. 20 -to 40L of storage is a nice thing to have. The extended tail section of most streamliners does provide a location that suits many designs. Even a way to add a small basket back there provides useful storage.

Looking at this list, you can see why tadpole trikes do well as velomobiles. I am looking for a bit more speed and less tire scrub so I am considering a tilting trike as a platform. Though a lowracer modification such as the one pictured above is also highly tempting. I suspect I could invest $1000 or so into such a solution and come up with something workable.
-Duncan

Fastest woman alive.

Barbara Buatois broke the woman's world speed record this past week. She was riding the Varna Diablo 3 at Battle Mountain. With a 5 mile runup she was clocked at 72.534 mph average through the 200m speed traps. This is on level ground with no drafting. She is offically the fastest woman and the 6th fasted human in the world. She is also the first woman to break the 70mph mar. It is also the new national French speed record.

Here is a picture of the Varna Diablo III:


For more Battle Mountain 2009 results see this thread on www.recumbents.com

Awesome race video

This is one of the best videos I have seen. It is 4 minutes of a three hour long criterium held in the UK. There is a high quality version available on youtube, just click through. Great music, nice text inserts, just a great video.

The lowracers in the video are screaming along too, 40+ kph, roughly 27 mph.

Varna

Sam Whittingham with Varna Diablo

Pictured above is Sam Whittingham with his record breaking Varna Diablo. He broke his own record last year in September reaching 82.3 mph. I just love the picture, the streamliner looks so elegant in that shot. It really makes me wish for a commercial two wheel streamliner platform. Quest velomobiles and other commercial velomobiles have a similar finished look. Most homebuilt streamliners look more like this:

John Tetz Orange Foam Streamliner

John Tetz's work is actually very good and he spends a lot of time on design and engineering with his projects. His later work is quite finished. It is just that when I see the Varna Diablo, I see elegance and beauty. I would love to have such an beautiful machine.

Ultimate Cycle Commuter

EcoVelo has a nice article up on Bicycle Design’s “Commuter Bike for the Masses” design competition. A recumbent design won the competition and I do like that a recumbent won, I am not a huge fan of the winner. Go take a look at ecovelo for the winning entry.

Quest Velomobile

Personally I would recommend a velomobile for the ultimate cycle commuting vehicle for the masses. Something like the Quest would be great for many people. Sure it weighs 70 lbs give or take but the carrying capacity is huge and it flies on the flats, 25-30MPH by non-athletes. The stability of three wheels is also very user friendly.

John Tetz Streamliner

Now for myself and anyone wanting 2 wheels and less weight, I would go with something like John Tetz's streamliner design. His zote-foam fairing adds 7.2 lbs (3.3 kg) give or take to the bike underneath. This is a heck of a lot less than the 70lbs total you see in the commercial velomobiles. It comes at a cost, less durability, not quite as finished appearance and the need for home repairs. But the foam designs he has are relatively easy to repair and pretty durable. John accidentally experienced a 40mph crash in a previous iteration of his design. Here is his report from that crash:

How does it hold up to high speed crashes? A few months ago I crashed at the end of a 40 mph (64 km/h) grade with the first foam shell, when the Sachs 3x7 hub locked up after hitting a high-speed bump (one of the pawls jammed). The bike slid for about 75 feet (22 m) flipping back and forth until wearing the tire flat, I lost it to the right hitting the ground hard. But interestingly I got out of the vehicle on the left side! It must have done a complete roll-over. Also, it did not slide very far - another advantage over slippery hard shells.

An after crash inspection showed a deep scar in the foam on the right side where the seat frame was located along with several scratches and a scatter of deeper scars. The left side also had scratches and a couple of deeper scrapes, evidence that it must have rolled. Basically nothing happened to me. No loss of precious skin, except my little finger must have been bent in a way that a tiny bone in my hand was sprained, possibly fractured. Not bad for a high speed crash. I shudder to think what I would look like on a unfaired bike. This foam can indeed make a light fairing and still have reasonable crash protection. I have a seat belt in the hard shell - I need to add this in the foamshell to stay inside when crashing.

If I had the time and willingness to make a few prototypes I would love to put a streamliner shell around a raptobike using John Tetz's design as a guildline. I would absolutely love a streamliner. In fact I suspect streamliner kits to put around a raptobike would be a reasonable small side business for some entrepreneur. For me a streamliner would be an incredible commuter machine. There is decent storage available in the one above. Check out the storage compartment

Streamliner storage

Streamliner followup

So I was thinking about a homebuilt streamliner in a previous post. Considering the idea led me to ask "What bike would be a good platform to use for a streamliner?". Of course this leads to the question of what do I want to do with a streamliner? At this point I think my goals for a streamliner are simple.

1. Get familiar with the process of making a fairing and mooring it to a bike.
2. The streamliner resulting from this should be practical, useful for commuting and foul weather riding.
3. The streamliner must have some cargo capacity built in.
4. It should have internal mounting for front and rear lights.
5. It should be highly visible.
6. It should protect me against the elements
7. It should have moderate aerodynamic improvements from the unfaired bike.
8. Front and Rear suspension are desirable as well.

Looking at my stable the Vivo is a great platform for a commuter streamliner. It has an upright position, its steering should fit into a basic fairing, it has suspension and it isn't unreasonably high.

Homemade streamliners

Oh dear. I have been pointed to the Mars group in NY who make homemade streamliners like the one shown here. This is seriously cool stuff. John Tetz had a 40mph fall in one of these foam streamliners, he was uninjured except for a pinky injury (no lie) though the foam was damaged, he flatted out and there was bike damage. But a 40 mph naked crash on a bike would be life threatening, so that is pretty amazing. Additionally John Tetz gets a 35% aerodynamic performance increase from his 7lb shell designed for transportation usage not racing. I am starting to get very interested now. My laptop + commuter clothes is more than 7lbs, 7lbs is not a massive penalty on climbs considering a 35% aero bonus. Here is a list of the tools he says are needed:

The simple tools needed to build the fairing are several razor blades, contact cement, and a professional heat gun (the kind you find in a hardware store, NOT a hair dryer), plus some thin vinyl upholstery material for hinges and some hook and loop material (e.g. Velcro). Other materials you might need are some Coroplast (Ref 2). Seems like no fairing is complete without some Coroplast which is used to regain lost stiffness around the side door and along the "bomb bay" doors.

John Tetz does his work in his attic, the Spollen brothers do theirs in a 1 car garage. This is the kind of space I can work with. Hmm. This might be an interesting passion. There are obstacles but time, effort, and research will be on a hobbyists schedule and budget. This could be fun.