Daniel Fenn, who will attempt to set a new record for the 24h HPV next weekend still works on the vehicle, he wants to use for this: A new variant of the Go-One Evolution R. The R4 (4th model of the series) is again lighter than his last velomobile and Daniel writes in the German Velomobilforum that it is still very robust – as he needs it due to his driving style.
Daniel writes that the noseboom and the rear wheel stay have half the weight of his R1.
The shell of the bottom bracket weighs 21g. Some regions of the rear part of te R4 were not done in honeycomb this time but still as sandwich as they will carry the wheel holds. Daniel is a bit worried about the seat which is a little too hard, he writes. It is a supporting part of the construction and weighs 500g. 50-70g less would be sufficient as well, he writes.The weight he saves with the new steering tie rods is more than 300g.
The entire body with rear compartment, bridge, bearing for the idler roller and the steering tie rods weighs about 7700g. Daniel thinks that 7kg are the limit.
Including seat, mast (noseboom) and rear wheel fixing it makes less than 9kg and makes Daniel heart laugh;-) With all parts assembled he will end at 18kg for the entire vehicle.
It is not a cheap fun to build like this. The materials only for the selfmade parts cost around 1800€
Daniel states explicitely that although he built it light, he did not do it careless.
See the photos:
Very impressive weight savings. I like what he is doing, he puts pressure on the other manufactures to improve their velomobile or go out of business.
Hi Jon,
yes, I think he and the Beyss-brothers really put pressure on the other manufacturers to offer lighter models (at least additionally to their standard-models). Today, in this extreme weight saving orgy (*G*) this leads to extremely high prices (I remember roughly 12000 Euro for the Evo-R). But it shows the market where the journey is going and in a couple of years, we will see velomobiles with a weight above the R4 but below the standard-evolution (say 22kg) for an affordable price… Just great to see Daniel’s approaches to save weight. He even took material off from the SA-hubs on a turning lathe… I just hope, he did not forget about his training for the record;-)