A velomobile journey
from Rüsselsheim (Germany, close to Mainz)
to Biebertal (nearby Giessen) in October 2000

     Joachim Fuchs, Karlsruhe, jo-fuchs@gmx.de

I took my velomobile into the train in Karlsruhe/Germany and went to Rüsselsheim. I could travel all the distance on my velomobile, but I ran out of my holidays.
In Darmstadt on the platform, there was a large banner with a question on it. My answer to this question was "I don´t know either".
I suppose you want to know the corresponding question.
Just click on the picture! That´s the way it works, the thumbnails are only a preview.

The next morning, we intented to start early. Exactly at eight a clock, Gerd arrived with his Leitra coming from a town one our away.

In the north of the river Main crossed the Taunus with its mountains. The weather was fine, unless it rained all the day before.
Jürgen was our "scout", and in fact: we did not need a satellite positioning system...

The way through the Taunus began with soft hills...

... continued through dark forests...

... across fields ...

 ... and we didn´t have to wait long for mountains.
I did not take any picture from them, because I had to close up to Gerd, who was very busy pedaling! I just had the feeling he accelerated as the mountains got steeper...
After passing all the hills, we were hungry.
My friends took two cakes, so I could´nt take less than that. The first apple cake was no problem, but the marzipan cake was!
The pieces were quite large, and my first question was: do we have to go uphill next?

It is not far any more: that is the Lahn channel that goes through a tunnel. The building is from around 1850. During riding I had a look to the apples that fell from the trees close to the street. Going slowly, the fairing opened (have a look at www .eolo.de), I picked up a large apple and accelerated again. Gerd behind me had no idea what I intented to do, and had to break hard. I was so sorry. But the apple was fine! May be, because of enzymes that cracks the marzipan... 

Finally, we arrived at Biebertal and Reinhold and Margitta did welcome us. They had invited to this velomobile meeting. We and twenty other velomobile riders were accommodated at an former forest house. In the morning, it was quite cold, and there was a lot of dew drops on the screen.
This is the right moment to present the velomobile typse that were in Biebertal. On the left hand side, there is a Leitra, followed by two cab-bikes and a further Leitra. The yellow and blue vehicles are Quests, right of them is a Limit, a Quest again, a Cab-bike and Aeolos, the velomobile of the author (to the very right).
There were no Go-one´s present at the meeting.

Together, we travelled to Gießen, where we are just standing in front of the townhall. There was free champagne and orange juice, and the mayor
was testing in a Cab-bike.

Jürgen´s Leitra takes a first sun bath in the morning. The solar module on the front part powers a ventilator; but is only needed at hot weather.

A new vehicle is the "Quest" from Ymte Sijbrandy and Allert Jacobs. It is an open vehicle and fits well to the demands of the Netherland traffic.
Last not least: they are quite fast, and Ymte´s tachometer showed a maximum of 101 km/h / 63 mph.

This ist the Quest viewed from the front (on the left hand side is a carbon Alleweder now called “Limit”)

Another new vehicle was the Alleweder-Tandem. This is Reinhold (the builder) and Ulla Eick (the "stoker").
Reinhold: do you have orders for marriages?

Reinhold and Margitta were very engaged and organized a visit at the firm where the Cab-bike fiber shell is produced.

Mirrors of the Cab-bike...

... and discussions, here about the Alleweder tandem.

Frank from Erbach came with his "Twike" and the help of countless electrons...

A propos electric drive: Horst Scherer presented his disc driven recumbent bicycle. The motor is integrated in the front wheel. The support power
was amazing, he overtook us all. But he had to recharge now and then to rearrange the electrons...
;-)

Reinholds working place with two Cab-bikes in it. A wonderful spot in midth of green nature!

Back again in the old forest house at our accomodation, people are standing around the eye-catcher "Twike". It is an car powered with electric
energy. The additional pedal drive gives only approx. 10% to the total power.

These are three velomobiles present in Biebertal: the vehicle in the front is a Leitra, the velomobile in the midth is Aeolos and the Cab-bike is
behind. Aeolos is a single track vehicle (two-wheeler), whereas the others are tricycles.

There was a lot of diskussion during the coffee brake. Why are there only so little velomobiles produced up to now (500 estimated)? How can the
producers share costs? How can we tell people how it feels to ride in a velomobile?
For people "outside", it is just a curious vehicle. Experienced velomobile riders instead just want to commute without getting wet in rainy weather.
And they want to enjoy riding such a comfortable vehicle. We agreed that the flux of information is a main problem.

There was a lot of diskussion during the coffee brake. Why are there only so little velomobiles produced up to now (500 estimated)? How can the
producers share costs? How can we tell people how it feels to ride in a velomobile?
For people "outside", it is just a curious vehicle. Experienced velomobile riders instead just want to commute without getting wet in rainy weather.
And they want to enjoy riding such a comfortable vehicle. We agreed that the flux of information is a main problem.

After passing a nice weekend in Biebertal (the food was excellent, Margitta!), we had to leave to Rüsselsheim again. To shorten the trip, we used the main road in the flat, which is the direct way to Rüsselsheim. Here we made a short brake:

 In between (more exactly: at a stop with the marzipan cake) we saw a bicycle race passing (the "Hessen-Rundfahrt", Hessen is a county in Germany). Bicycle riding can be exhausting:

I prefer the velomobile seat instead. We were invited to Jürgen Eick, were we stayed to the evening. Joachim from Heilbronn visited us with his
"pick-up"-Cab-bike. We had a lot fun this evening!

I had to leave to Karlsruhe the next day for work. It was a comfortable train with a lot of space in the bicycle compartment. The velomobile does not take more place than the normal bike.

That´s the end of the story. Thanks for reading the whole text! I hope you got an idea what velomobiles are (and what to do with them...).
See you at the next velomobile meeting!

Joachim Fuchs