Manufactured in Montreal the VT1 velomobile from Velomtek is in production and is now available to buyers in the USA. CEO Francois Garneau gives us a close up look at this amazing vehicle then shares the details of their process for purchasing via pickup or delivery.
Lars Veibke started Carbontrike in Sweden years ago before entering into a collaboration with Bacchetta in 2018. Fast forward past Bacchetta’s sale and split up into bike and trike business, covid complications and visa nightmares and today Lars is back up and running in Florida. He brings us up to date on this exquisite carbon fiber trike and his plan for sales and development in the future.
The Florida Senior Games were held in December and bents were very well represented in the biking category. Our own Larry Seidman brings us his report on the riders and results from the competition in the Sunshine State.
00:00:00 Intro
00:00:48 What’s on Today’s Show
00:02:10 Panel Introduction
00:04:20 Sponsor Introduction
00:07:05 Carbontrike Back in Business with the CT 2.0-Lars Viebke CEO
00:48:20 Velomtek VT1 Velomobile Now in the USA-Francois Garneau CEO
01:55:25 Florida Senior Games-Bent Rider Report-Larry Seidman
02:02:15 Sponsor Thanks
02:04:50 Announcements
02:06:10 Goodbye to panel and crew
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Welcome bet Riders around the world my name is Gary Solomon and you’re watching the laidback bike Report what a pleasure it is to have you all with us today thanks for joining us let me tell you what’s on the show today we’re going to kick it off with a report uh from carbon trike the carbon trike 2.0 you might recall a few years ago was
On the scene and uh the Swedish developers uh were bringing it to the USA well we have Lars with us from carbon trike and we’re going to talk to him all about what the plans are now for the carbon trike 2.0 I think you’re going to like that and then uh from
Montreal we have a very interesting interview with uh Francois garno who is the CEO of vom tech the uh vmobile that’s actually manufactured here in North America uh and uh the news is that they are going to be shipping to uh the USA actually have started that process
So if you’re interested in a vobile that’s manufactured here I think you’re going to enjoy that segment we’ll talk to France there and uh the third segment is a sports report from our own Larry Sidman who’s going to talk to you all about the recent Florida senior games
Where uh recumbents showed up and uh honestly ran very well he’s going to have some interesting results for you so I think you’re going to like that as well so with that let me introduce you to the crew we have on hand today there we go so there is uh from uh
Raymond Mississippi Trey beroy handling the media today hi Trey Howdy Folks good to be here and Colorado Springs is where we find our own Larry Sidman who I mentioned is going to do that sports report he’s also hand handling the directing duties today hi Larry hey Gary and everybody
Else and recently sliding onto the scene here we’re very excited to have our old pal Peter stall from the bicycle man right with us today in the shop Peter how’s it going going good okay he’s doing his taxes while he watches the show as well so uh I Peter
If you could just interrupt whenever you need to to talk to us we’re happy to have you with us today all right guys let’s uh let’s move on and talk quickly about how uh you the viewers can participate uh in the live webcast today
You can do so on the live chat either uh on Facebook or on YouTube uh you can uh ask questions of our guests you can comment on what you’re seeing and we really would appreciate if you let us know where you’re watching from we’ll
Pop that on the screen as I see them as well and uh yeah we uh we appreciate you guys tuning in now how can you support the laidback Bo report if you like what we do you can like us on Facebook subscribe to us on YouTube and you can
Click that little wide eye up there it’ll take you to the laidback bike report uh website where you can find information about UPC coming shows uh find out information about past shows uh find out other ways you can support us including becoming a patreon uh uh member a supporter like
All of these fine folks here and you can do that for as little as a dollar a month find out more about that on the website now we also have major sponsors from the industry that we so appreciate every year we’ve got new ones for or we
Have a new one for 2024 and many returning so let me tell you who they are we’re going to kick it off as always with terracycle makers of exquisit recumbent parts and accessories for your bent don’t just trike Adventure trike ter Cycles racks and bags are like having a
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Bestselling models and configurations in stock head over to asub.edu and simply choose the model you want add your preferred accessories and your bike or trike will be at your dealer in just a few days and recumbent PDX with 150 trike inventory recumbent PDX is the West Coast only cat trike mega store we
Have over 20 trikes on our showroom floor just waiting for you to test ride through our beautiful Portland neighborhood call or email to schedule your test ride today and we’re excited to have Connecticut Yankee Peddler back as a sponsor now they feature multiple brands of trikes including electric
Assist models test rides and Southern Iowa Hospitality are always available at their mega store in chitan Iowa all right all right guys that is awesome we are going to now jump right into our first segment and this is the carbon trike 2.0 update that we’re going to
Tell you about the interview I held with uh Lars the CEO uh a couple of weeks ago down in Florida so let’s hear what Lars has to say Larry let’s see it all right guys we are here with Lars from carbon trike and LS is going to tell us all about the
Latest with carbon trike Lars how are you today it’s good it’s much better than Sweden where I came from yes before you know no snow I really hate snow you know so let’s start out by talking about uh some personal information perhaps tell us your connection with uh with
Bikes uh recumbent bikes and the such so I’ve been biking all my life and I’ve been building like recumbents all my life I started to build build my first uh it was a recomed bicycle in car F actually it wasn’t one in stainless steel but then in one in Cara fiber
About uh 25 years ago or something uh so I started with I I wanted like a the ultimate touring machine it’s not racing touring uh so I was traveling around in Europe touring around so I built my own recumbent bike for touring in carbon fiber fully suspension and so on and so on
And and then I’ve been building and biking all the time you know um so and then I I got in more and more into carbon fiber I was educating myself I took like three University degrees in the end one in Composites and one one in product development and one in mechatronics um and
Basically I am one of the best or maybe the best one in the world developing and producing carbon fiber trikes let’s talk about the development of the carbon trike in Sweden when tell us when that was and what was that like a long process I started like
2004 with the with the first like thinking of making something like that 2008 he started carbon tries at trying the goal was to to have the first carbon fiber trike on the market uh like full carbon thing on the market U uh and we were ready with that about
2013 and the plan was from the beginning like as we were in Sweden the plan was selling around in Sweden and Europe and so on H didn’t get that way so we started to sell to us immediately because it seems like the main Market is in
Us uh so and we were selling around all around in the world very few in Europe actually and only one I think one in Sweden and very few in Europe so after a while we felt like us is the market and we were doing everything by hand we were
Like about a few people and we developed the equipment at the same time to be able to do these things it’s uh it’s rather complicated to do them but we we had to develop our own autoclaves it’s like a pressurized oven uh we had to develop our own vacuum system our own
Bagging system and inventing a lot of stuff while selling getting money in and it took a lot of time to make these buy tracks uh and we got orders but but people had to wait several years after a while because it took too much time to make them so
Um and it was we had to make like a big huge investment to get up the volume but we couldn’t do that because we were not at the right place it it’s not really smart to make uh tries in Sweden when you because you mainly sell them to us
That’s what got you thinking about doing a collaboration no it was not my IDE it was actually Mark Swanson at bash he they felt like the rec bike business was shrinking and shrinking and shrinking and they wanted to get into tracks so he actually they reached me or us around
2017 and we started to discuss about doing something together um after a while he actually like bought a ticket for me to get here during winter in Sweden uh you know and I really hate snowing in Winter and this is the best weather in the world so it was rather a good sell
Point and so around 2018 we started to make a joint venture together with a goal to make the first mass produced carbon fiber trike and or race trike at least and that was going to be the the carbon trike 2.0 yes yeah it’s CT 2.0 so so the goal was using the
Benefits Bashar had like they know how to produce things and they knew how to produce things in numbers they were on the right spot here in us but they didn’t know how to do any track uh we knew how to make tracks but not in volume so this was like a perfect
Combination like um mainly having us me and my cowork Arthur in at that moment as developers and having them as Sellers and be having us as like responsible for Trikes and also like developing their bikes a bit more uh but basically getting up the volume and getting these uh tracks out to people
Without waiting like several years tell me how that marriage went then so you it sounds like you were off to a good start yeah we had like a the plan was also it was a combination you know both having like something that would work and having something that would provide us
With a like a visa to get to be able to move to us uh so that was one of the reason we had a join Venture together like 5050 we started a company together join Venture company together H you’re using that devel uh investment to get a visa to because
We the plan was to get here legally we took our old trke and 3D scanned it because that was made by hand completely so uh so we had all the molds and everything was made by hand before uh we 3D scanned it and Arthur made a really good work uh recad it completely
To be able to produce it because you have to make some changes when you produce it in numbers uh to be able to to use the same Factory as uh bash was using for their bikes um so all that took around one year a little bit less than
One year but a lot of trips to Taiwan to the factory and uh around and developing all this stuff together trips to us and so on um so around 2018 we were ready um and then took a few months before we got up the production without any problems I did
Come down to visit uh Mark and the guys at basheda to see the carbon trike 2.0 and I got a chance to ride it around the parking lot a bit I was very impressed with it so tell me how tell me how that went then so that now you’re
Ready to start marketing and selling how did it go in 2018 when we start selling it we couldn’t start selling it immediately because it’s a pH where when you have to ramp up the production getting everything working everything is not working from the beginning um it
Took like a almost half year to get everything solved like um and that was really around 2019 um So the plan was actually moving here before but we couldn’t do that before the production was ready so just before when we were looking into moving here the pandemic hit so exactly the same
Time like my my coworker came back from from Florida he was visiting here I was going here once again the last time before applying for the Visa and so on and then the travel ban started we tried like we tried to get like an exception for for the travel ban and all everything
Um felt like this is okay good for for us before because people has to get out and move and so on and it wasn’t possible getting any any exception and so on so actually for about 500 days I was not legal getting here to
Us H and but they had to still keep on doing the tries because you know they had start to sell but they couldn’t do it with us because we were not legal to go get here so they sold like around 100 trikes I don’t know really exactly what
Happened with these trikes at some point then basheda made some major decisions uh after covid started waning and they actually decided then that they were going to sell their two- wheel business and they subsequently did that they sold it to uh Dana liberman over at bent up
Cycles out in California but uh the trike business the carbon trike uh you still had the same goal in mind and so why don’t you kind of start then when you were able finally to get to the the plan to get back to the USA tell us take
It up from there tell me what happened then the plan was to getting Arthur my coworker but he couldn’t wait during the co so he’s not part of it anymore and the plan is actually getting more us workers here instead of getting Swedish people uh that will make it much easier for me
To get my Visa working and so on um but but we starting I have around 50 trikes now carbon carbon trikes here uh ready to assembly and sell almost completely um and um restarting selling direct to customers okay we’re going to get into your sales and your marketing now and
That sort of thing but I thought maybe at this point it might be a good idea to take a a have you described the CT 2.0 in more detail for us I see you have one over your shoulder there behind you on a stand could you for our viewers describe
For us the carbon trike 2.0 what are its features what are its benefits how does it differ from the other trikes on the market there is like three competitors main competitors we have it’s a k 700 it’s uh I VTX and it’s green speed Arrow we are the only one in carbon
Fiber the other ones are in metal that is good in some sense um we are the only one with like an in like the only carbon fiber track on the market with a mon Co frame it’s like a frame that are in one piece instead of
Tubes uh so if you want a carbon fiber track Ray strike it’s the only option uh we have uh used the benefits of carbon fber uh you’re getting some dampening in in the in the frame the front part it’s like a wing construction with some dampening it’s is not an active
Suspension but a passive suspension it’s a seat that are integrated in the frame okay the other tracks also have integrated seats both the cat TR and the greas speed Arrow but our are um adjustable for the rider so you can have it for different Riders because you can adjust the back rest
Make it shorter and longer and you have like a part in the bottom that keeps you seated when you are doing when you turn fast so you don’t slide off you know the uh the c angle the range of the seed angles it’s 28 degrees uh so if you
Compare that to like uh Kar 7 25° so that one is a little bit more inclined uh if you compare to the green speed arrow that one is extremely it’s 20° only and uh the I VX they can change the angle but we choose 28 Dees because
It’s like a good combination you know if you’re making it too upright you’re going to lose speed it’s going to get more wind resistance if you’re getting it more too inclined you’re going to lose speed when going uphill actually um uh so this is a good combination and you
Want to be able to see to so 28 degrees is a really good combination it’s not really super extreme still racy but uh but not without losing you know speed going uphill because most roads are both flat and Uphill okay if you’re going uphill and if you’re racing wait is going to be
Important to you so tell us about the carbon fiber and how that fits into the weight reduction on this TR it’s the lightest on the market it’s uh I think the second light the second lightest on the market is it’s the C no no the I VTX but our are
About two pounds lighter so it’s about 26 pounds uh according to the standard you say way you are measuring it without pedals and Seed pad and neckrest complete weight uh as people are using it com usually with pedals seat pad neckrest a fender um flag um one mirror and so on is 30
Pounds and the weight is a little bit lower than the other trikes in the market uh uh the weight the wheels are a bit lighter too so you’re getting more acceleration it’s the lightest Wheels in this size on the market uh it’s not extremely light um hard to make something lighter that
Are still possible to use and still possible to use for a lot of different Riders so you’ve talked a lot about racing which seems to be a big emphasis for this strike but you’ve told me before that there are other ways you can take advantage of the lightweight and
The advantage of the carbon trike yes uh I’m a touring Rider myself so the reason it’s you know when it’s carbon usually you use it for racing but as I like touring myself I designed it to be able to use it for touring too so you can actually fit like standard heavy duty
Piard directly on the frame in the per position just behind your seat so you’re getting a really good uh weight distribution uh and the very low uh wind resistance uh so this track can actually be used for for fast touring not extreme touring uh but for fast touring uh you can bring rather
Big Piers um and and you have all other stuff you need the touring too you have we designed the trike for the P but we designed the trike for as mudguard or Fender at the same time because we know everybody wants a fender you don’t want
The dust in your neck you know so this trike is designed together with a fender and it’s designed with with a you know integrated uh tailight Mount because safety is good uh with with the really good mirrors with a flag integrated flag mount headlight Mount and so on and so
On uh so it’s it’s actually it’s it’s it’s it’s made to be both practical and running fast I did encounter a gentleman on ragb the uh the ride across Iowa a few years ago I was covering that and he was riding a carbon trike 2.0 one
Of the early ones and he just loved it I stopped and talked to him and he was a huge fan so that’s a tour that lasts a week that goes all the way across Iowa he liked the fact that it was fast and clearly he thought uh as a touring uh
Trike it’s it me his need so let’s get to the sales aspect uh of where you are right now in sales let’s let’s talk about that so the viewers are watching this they love the idea of a carbon trike they want to they want to
Find out more and buy one how can they buy one today at the moment they have to buy it directly from us um all other companies are selling through dealers and the plan is to be able to sell through dealers in the future um we used to sell direct when we
Were in Sweden when we got over to working with bash we were selling both through dealers and direct um we have decided to sell direct now in the beginning H it’s a few reasons for that the main reason is we only have 50 track stocks and we don’t know actually
Like when these 50 tracks are out we have to get more tracks uh produce more tracks and we have to produce at least 100 tracks in each batch to to be able to get them like R cheap and so on um so if we were starting to sell everything
Through shops this shop this strike would end really fast by selling them them direct we can um getting a bit lower volume and getting more paid and getting better contact with the customers to because we want a bit more um feedback before we keep on doing more product
Development and by selling them direct we’re getting more feedback too but we will we also want to be able to go to all new track shops before starting to use them as dealers again so see that they know what they are selling and so on So the plan is selling these direct
But in the future do like the other companies selling through shops mainly okay so that gets us to the future we want to take a a look uh maybe down the road a year or two and and and ask you about some of your plans first thing I
Maybe would want to ask you about is it would seem natural that you might want to come to cycle con here in Ohio uh next year is this in the works yeah so that’s the good that’s the best place to be at least I haven’t been in Ohio I
Only been on cycle Con in uh Tennessee um but it’s the best place to be uh but definitely going to cycle con again you had mentioned to me uh at when we talked before Lars of speaking of having people that you may be interested in looking for a business partner at
Some point is this something that you’re considering rather soon actually um yeah in the beginning now it’s going to be more of a business partner than like a employee so in the beginning it’s um restarting everything we have like 50 tracks in stock here using the sales from them to get money in
To pay a business partner and so on uh but I want a local one someone that can be working together with us to let it grow and um we have a unique product um we have a lot of tracks stock just need to sell them and we are owning
This you know tooling and so on for these tracks to make them in volume it’s something that other companies can’t do um so I will look into getting a business partner here in Florida okay and so if there’s someone watching actually who might be interested in talking to you about that
They should get a hold of you yeah definitely so we are we are staying in pinelas park outside of Tampa it’s uh I think it’s good if somebody is living rather close by here obviously so yes all right so we talked about some of your ideas for the future of the
Business what about the future of the CT 2.0 as far as its development goes do you have some ideas about what uh down the road what you’d like to do as far as developing the CT 2.0 further what sorts of things would you like to do we have
Invested in these molds and so on for these trikes so we are itely going to use them as much as possible just making small changes you know different upgrades of um like maybe wheels and so on um and also in the future making a bit cheaper tracks but still using carbon fiber
Parts so we always the plan is to keep staying in this race trike segment uh not getting into the segment with other Tri manufacturers you know making because they are already good making that but we are going to stay in the area where we are the best um so
CTO CT 2.0 will probably be a CT 3.0 rather soon but rather similar to the one you have today and will there be a CT 3.0 e version uh we actually had like an e version just before the pandemic um the good thing with that is
Um it was light enough to carry up on your car so because you know when you go in electric you usually don’t carry you don’t the electric it you don’t have to care care about weight anymore because you know with an electric system um but you still
Have to be able to lift the trike and the other electric trikes on the market they are super heavy this was the lightest one on the market it was with a Shimano system and then the pandemic started and we had to stop it uh maybe we will get back to making an
Electric trike all right Lars thank you so much for uh for taking us on this uh tour of the carbon Tri 2.0 as it is and the future of it we really appreciate you taking the time out we wish you a uh all the luck in the world and getting
This thing back rolling again uh any final words for our viewers okay if you want want the best strike on the market fast strike buy our trike if you search for Caron trikes or Caron trike you will find our web page so um without an s or with s or everything
So very good well we’ll have that put down in the description of the video so folks can just click on it and they hopefully will be able to find it for uh and and find out more or perhaps uh buy a carbon trike 2.0 so LS thank you so
Much again for uh for being with us on the laidback bike report okay okay thank you well that’s great and uh we are very fortunate to actually have Lars with us live Lars how are things down in Florida today hi I’m home at the moment so it’s
A bit different here but okay it’s it’s nice you know this is Florida you know so yes I understand it’s snowing outside here so I know you know what that’s about all right let’s uh let’s jump into a couple of comments and questions that we have if that’s okay and uh first of
All uh from Daryl Jordan uh over in Wisconsin uh he’s talking about manufacturing equipment being expensive would you apply your technology to other noncycling products and he then refers to rans who did have aircraft so uh I know you’re actually manufacturing o overseas in Taiwan but you do own some
You own the molds and such tell us if you have some plans that you didn’t talk about in the video there for any other sorts of products uh um no we are going to only make trikes it’s uh that’s what we are doing the best so H the competition is in different
Areas is rather High especially when you’re getting into carbon bikes you know traditional bikes the competition is Extreme so you don’t want to get into that area uh Making Tracks is a gooda area because it’s um it’s it’s it’s it’s really complicated so you will not get other
Companies doing it and at the same time there’s a market and it’s uh there’s benefits and so on so we are going to stay in this area as long as possible um okay yeah good so now the go ahead yeah we were we were doing you know we were doing everything before
By ourself in in Sweden you know it’s uh so it’s possible to doing it that too uh um but by by moving everything to Taiwan it was possible to do it in much higher numbers so people doesn’t have to wait that long to get the
Trike So the plan is to keep on doing these Trikes and we don’t expect other track manufacturers to do a something very similar because it’s it’s it’s a bit too complicated a bit too expensive to start doing it okay makes sense now uh chartech is asking a question so maybe we need to
Clear up any confusion there is here about your connection to to petta or what is now petta uh so we mentioned it a bit in the piece uh about Dana Liber who has now is now the CEO of petta and is doing the two wheelers so um is there
Any work with petta to develop or manufacture the upcoming Quattro the Quattro of course is the two-wheeler that Dana is working on and I think uh you’ve made it pretty clear this is a separate uh business so could you just make sure to clear up here for anyone
Has any confused ideas uh carbon trike betet what’s the connection at this point so we ended um yeah during the pandemic um you know B had to Ste selling the trucks and so on they got to a point when they had to end the business uh the main reason they had to
End it actually was because they run out of parts for their bikes we still had some trikes so um we bought back the trike business completely and uh they finally sold the bike business to to Donna eberman H so we don’t have any real um work together with them we had some
Contact um but they will probably still just working with the bikes and we will still only work with the trikes the market for for come at bikes are very limited at the moment so we not very interested getting into bikes and I think Donna will only stay with
Bikes so this will be separate yeah but the reason we still keep on calling it The baj it’s because we are still using you know part of the bash um the production and so on is is is partly B so so it’s still say by yeah BCT carbon trike is that
Right you’re still kind of using that logo kind of thing yeah okay makes sense and we are actually staying at the same place very close by where bash were before it’s only like two miles from old bash Place good so it’s it’s a lot of baj stuff in tracks still
Separate you know from from the bikes okay that clears things up all right Peter you I know had a couple of comments and a question here um for Lars Lars that’s Peter stall the bicycle man no stranger to manufacturing trikes himself the Avenue trikes um Peter uh
First of all you made a comment about the uh seats and the uh any adjustments and stuff uh go ahead and and uh make that clarification if you would Peter well yeah I believe the seat adjusts for torso length not for recline angle that is correct okay good the
Other question so how how is that I’m not even clear about that so um Lars how is any adjustment made on the on the seat like on the uh HP the HP V seats the carbon seat yeah it’s about the same type of adjustment yeah like they have on some of their seats
Yeah okay and Peter you CLE question you are adjusting you know moving up and down the back rest so you can adjust it for for short Riders until all the way up to Long Riders but the seat angle is uh fixed because it’s integrated in the frame so it’s
Extremely the 28% angle that you mentioned in yeah okay and Peter did you I in the private chat you had a couple of questions there do you want to ask well I wanted to say that seeing the bike at the uh at the show I was extremely impressed with the design of
It um there’s a term in the industry called uh black aluminum and that’s where you design something out of metal and then you replace the metal with alumin with carbon fiber and uh that’s the simple way to do it Tre started their carbon bikes that way and terat
Trike did a carbon trike that way um but this is a bike designed from the ground up to made out of carbon which allows them to use a shape that distributes the loads really well and by the way is the coolest looking trke on the planet so
That’s really a good design and I’m I’m sure it’ll be a success as they continue to improve the product uh I was wondering what the weight limit on the trike is and if the weight limit on the E verion is different uh we don’t have an e version
We will see if we have it but the weight limit is uh let’s see I’m not very used to us we give it to us in kilos kilos it’s it’s around 100 kilos um it’s actually not limited very much to the weight of the rider it’s more of the
Size if you’re getting too big you’re going to be it’s going to be hard for you to steer because your butt would actually Hit The Handlebar so it’s it’s mainly the depending how you look like in the end if you are if you have a big it’s it’s a
Race track so it’s rather narrow so if you are too big you will you know you will not fit the trke anymore um so it’s it’s around 100 kilos how much is that in in pounds it’s like Peter answered yeah that’s 220 pounds so uh there are some Riders uh that want
Want to go by the fastest trike out there although they’re really not fast Riders and they’re it’s really not suitable for them but it’s not an unpopular idea you’ll run into them sometimes um and but they with will be the problem there but it is the same
Thing with the uh uh with the catrike um not as much I think on the green speed arrow and the ice btx yeah I think they are similar all of these are other similar they are narrow trikes all well they’re narrow but on the on the green speed the handlebars move forward
And backward so they don’t hit your legs and on the ice it’s indirect steering so it moves in an arc that’s centered around the center of the frame instead of centered on the Kingpin steering very it’s very similar to the to the IE strike it’s the same okay okay I didn’t
So it’s a bit better than the uh than the um catrike because you know the catri it has direct steerings going sideways when you steering it well yeah that’s even more impressive that you have a bike with indirect steering that weighs 26 pounds so it’s EX steering is most of
The things are very similar to the to the ice VTX actually it’s uh it’s only the bottom bracket it’s a bit higher on the VTX is super low and so we have like two inches higher or one or two inches higher bottom bracket um but the rest of the TR is
Very similar to the I VX because we like it actually so so it’s very similar to the VTX it’s a bit better uh turning radius or a little bit bit better on our track but the steering is very similar okay very good well I’m looking forward to seeing
I’m looking forward to being able to to ride one more than around the show uh and carbon fiber you know you can get some dampening you know from from the C common fiber so we we made like the Cru form the thing between the frame and the
Wheels it’s shaped like a wing rather narrow Wing so you’re getting about half inch of passive suspension so that’s about the same as a catrike dant front suspension uh not no it’s it’s a little bit similar to the uh to the green speed Arrow but they used aluminum and it’s not really smart
To try to use the dampening from aluminum because faue life of aluminum is not as good I believe the deont uh list their their front travel is around a half an inch well that’s a little more than okay okay like when you sit on it it’s very little
So yes very little yep it’s nice a little bit is nice some people want to go Offroad they need more suspension yeah suspension and active suspension so yes okay guys I’m going to actively suspend the rest of this conversation it’s been great though what a nice opportunity to have two really
Knowledgeable guys in the trike business chatting for us and letting us know their thoughts on a couple that the front travel of the deont is a half inch okay okay thank you Trey but then when you sit on the deont there will be a little sag in the suspension so you’ll
Actually get a little bit less than that probably so I I think you’ve got a great product I’m looking for have like one third of it or maybe one fif of it in SEC when you see on okay all right Peter thanks so much for the uh for the extra comments there
We appreciate what you had to say as always and uh with that I think I’m going to thank Lars once again for his contribution to the show today uh thanks for working with me and uh we wish all the best for carbon trike and if nothing
Else we hope to uh to see you in September uh in Ohio for the first time for you yeah at the cycle con all right getting up there yeah okay well we’ll welcome you with open arms LS thanks again pal we will see you again soon
Okay bye all right bye bye all right folks so now let’s move on to our second segment uh it’s a vmobile segment and we will be talking here with franois garau of vam Tech with the vt1 the uh the vobile uh manufactured here in North America in Montreal so the first video
You’re going to see is uh actually Francois giving us a tour the latest version of the vt1 and what’s uh what’s all in it and um and you’ll get a nice look at that and then we’re going to get into the interview that I did with franois uh and talk about their plans
And their shipping now to the USA and what all is involved with that so I think you’ll enjoy this and uh luckily we also have Francois with us live so afterwards we will chat with him and answer your questions and comments there as well so Larry let’s start out with
That vt1 tour hi my name is Fran from V today I’m going to show you our latest development for our V mobile the vt1 d-4s as shown here this vehicle is made of a aluminum frame and a carbon fiber uh body shell and on top we have the uh base cat clear
Coat automative paint the shape of the vehicle is aerodynamic to uh to reduce the Air drag and uh on the front section we have the uh lead uh turn signals uh left and right for the front and the rear we have the air Inlet to provide good air flow to the
Rider and this plug is used for riding in cold condition this is the headlight and on the back we have the mirror oriented mirror and turn signals on top of it that is very useful feature the front wheels are 2 in by 1.5 Marathon racer type and uh we have drum
Brakes stery Archer drum brakes uh 90 mm which is very efficient and uh low [Applause] maintenance we have the door we have the door lock here that is an option for the vt1 the headrest this is the flag kit very interesting riding in traffic
Zone and on the back we have the uh turn signals and this is the tail light that is flashing for giving you a good visibility on the on the roads this is the braking light that you will see further in this video the hand so you can
Turn or move this video The V mobile like this on the left side it shows the the front uh wheel cover made of a carbon fiber this is an option the short visor this this is a uh a standard equipment and uh on this left uh it shows the full
Visor or the uh race cap that is very efficient for riding in cold or rainy conditions and this part can be flipped or oriented to provide bigger or less air flow in into the the uh into your into the uh the the bubble recently we test the bigger tires
That we can put on the vt1 these are the big band plus 20 by 2.6 2.15 uh so it’s a low press tire so and it provide good uh shock absorption of the roads now we will show you the inside of the vt1 so on front we have the bottom
Bracket here with a torque sensor in it for the electric assist uh we have the uh the torque uh not the torque but the um the crank set with one train ring uh clip pedals the main frame of made of aluminium the uh cell phone support this is the cycle analyst that
Gives all the parameters to ride for Speed uh um Power uh uh battery voltage and a lot of parameters we have the uh steering mechanism it’s a t style uh design on the left handle bar we have the brake lever the uh switch for the cycle analyst and the throttle here to
Ride in 100% electric assist mode on the right side we have the brake lever the shifter the 14-speed shifter for the hola and the multi-function switch to activate the or uh and other 12vt accessories the seat is made of carbon fiber designed and made inside at VM
Tech uh with the uh Vint it seat mesh very comfortable the cup holder the main battery 52 volts 20 amp per hour with a lock device the uh junction box and the Transformer to drop down the 52 volts to 12 volts to the Circuit so this battery can be easily
Removed for charging outside the V mobile in the back we have the uh wheel guard that is very uh interesting for uh protecting your uh your uh equipment or your cloth or uh anything you bring inside a vmobile and now I’m going to show you the design of the suspension and the
Motor so the front chain coming from the chain ring goes to the inlet of the transmission and the the outer chain is coming from the the rollof to the single sprocket on the rear wheel so on the back we have the green technologies V2 uh uh direct drive motor that is very
Powerful a high torque with up to 750 w and it has the regen capacity so you can break uh the uh very efficiently with only by using the regen mode and then you can recharge your battery uh very efficiently and the suspension is designed with a p here on on both sides
So it’s a very rigid design and we have two elastomer that has in the shock absorbers they are two two different styles and uh three different locations up your uh body uh size or and weight now I’m going to show you how to get into the V mobile it’s quite
Easy you put your feet down [Applause] Orient these two uh door latch at the right [Applause] orientation then you lock the door in place you can check the orn functionality you can check the headlight functionality and uh left or right flashers or let turn signals and then you are ready to put
Your feet on the pedals and start writing uh since we have two two holes in in the in the floor of the of the body shell you can put your feet on the ground and go backward and like a fling Stone style okay so it’s very interesting uh
Feature so at the end of your right you stop you attach the park brake on the left side to prevent the vt1 to move you get out of the mo of the V vt1 you can turn the power off by turning the the key off and that’s it
So very easy to use very easy to handle uh and uh you go you can go up to uh 25 25 M hour as a as a uh normal maximum speed for electric assist ebikes and the vt1 is available with electric assist or not so um it’s it’s two different configurations it’s available
In different colors many options uh so if you have any questions about uh more details about the ven meals uh and the U availability and pricing so feel free to call us uh or send us an email and it would be a great pleasure to answer all
Of your questions so thanks for watching this video and uh talk to you soon or see you soon at VM Tech bye-bye folks I’d like to welcome franois gno to the laidback bike report Francois welcome back hi Gary how are you today doing great and we’re so glad
To have you on to talk uh a little bit more about vam Tech and what you are up to now so we’re going to get an update uh about the vt1 the vobile that you have been working on for quite a while now and uh the latest news has to do
With uh where you are now selling is really we what we want to focus on okay so if we can let’s start there um you are now Marketing in the USA so this is a big step tell us a little bit about how that came about okay uh we started the uh the
Process to um uh for selling our V mobiles to us customers early in 200 23 and um we talked with couple of peoples will said okay what is the pricing and what what are the options and what is the manufacturing delay for getting a vom mobile and uh uh so month
Month after month I was getting in contact with potential customers uh and uh because many of of my uh newsletter subscribers are coming from USA from Vermont to California or Flor and um uh in September uh last September I was getting in touch with a guy living in Min
Indianapolis uh his first name is Frank and uh he said okay fris I’m really interested to um to have a a vt1 for my uh for my transportation mean and to to leave my my car in the garage and using a V mobile to go to work or to go to the
Shopping shopping and U so I said okay uh what kind of configuration would you like to to have your pt1 so I say okay uh uh so I I prepared a manufacturing contract this is the this is the uh an Excel form that shows all the details for configuring
The product in terms of the color which option you would you like like uh what what the are what are the coordinates of the U the customer and uh so we get through all the details for this manufacturing contract and at the end we have the final price and the shipping
Price if if if we want to to have the vmobile shipped to the customer and uh so we start from there and uh I think in in October we start the manufacturing process for his vt1 which is a vt1 that E-1 14s with fully equipped um M mobile and um so manufacturing
Process was going well and uh uh in at the end of November we said okay now we are very close to deliv your1 so he said okay uh I plan to come from um Indianapolis with my pickup truck and go to B and uh see your shop and discuss
With you and uh and bring my V mobile at home so uh we uh since it was our first experience for getting all the documents for Customs for uh to import a vobile uh in USA uh we was uh in relation with um Logistics specialist in Quebec
That are uh involved in selling product around the world and uh so with with the the help of these these people we were able to uh prepare all the documents uh that were given to the customer uh just before he leave the shop so uh so he came here with a truck
We set up all the things for him make sure that uh uh he was introduced with all the basic functionalities and what is important important to know about uh using a vt1 and and then uh we put the vobile in his truck properly uh attach and then he
He went back to USA uh going through the um uh customs in I think Windsor and uh and the day after he was at home and he was experiencing this vt1 under a rainy day but it was fine because he he chose the full visor option
And then uh yeah so uh Fran so let’s let’s explore that uh that trip through customs that was it Frank did you say his name was yes his first name is Frank yes yeah so Frank then picked up his uh his vt1 from you and traveled back
Across the border there at Windsor as you said and did he talk to you have you learned a bit about that particular experience what was that like for him because for the folks that will be picking up one of the two options picking up or shipping I guess from the
US I I I’m guessing they want to know more details about that can he can you uh explain to the folks what he experienced um since uh the customer would like to bring his vehicle mobile at at home uh by his proper uh by with
His truck um the first step was to um to fill out one or two forms so they ask for the uh driving driver license they ask for the the uh documentation about which vehicle to be use for bringing the products to to the borders and the other
Things was to prepare the document for the the custom clearance so for the customer uh when he he he leave our shop he got I think six five or six different documents that that uh was very uh that were approved by us or by by the Logistic Company or by the federal a
Agencies in USA and uh so we crossed the border by just showing these products these documents to the uh to the uh border agent and it was going fine and he was coming back to home and uh I think that the only thing he have to pay was the
State tax about the import value uh for this product um but this is Norm procedure that he was probably have to to do in in in the days or weeks after I don’t yeah yeah that’s I’m sure that’s that’s true so just to be clear then so the costs of transporting the vobile
Across uh the border from Canada to the US okay there were no other besides his state tax which is going to happen anyways there were no other costs involved uh yes there are some cost but they are not big because uh just to have a rough ID so it’s about the cost for
Importing theom mobile is about uh three $300 approx okay that’s really important to know so because we’re going to move on now to talk about uh shipping uh now instead of a pickup and so what we would what the customer is going to want to do
Is compare the cost of picking it up himself plus the cost I guess his Transportation cost he’s paying some gas to to for his vehicle to come and get it so maybe another 100 couple hundred dollars depending where they’re coming from so say maybe $500 so now we need to
Compare that sort of price with shipping costs so let’s start with uh the the story of shipping if I wanted to buy a vt1 here in Ohio say and I want needed you to ship it to me tell me the process tell me the cost at least approximate costs of doing
That uh has a reference um before to uh to confirm with u with the customer Frank to say okay um come here to pick up your V mobile he said Okay C can I have an alternate um option to ship the product to us directly so I I
Asked our listing company to to provide a quote for shipping the product directly to his door and it was approximately $1,000 us uh for the uh the transporter uh and and this shipping cost will include uh uh with on the shipping cost we have to include the the
Cost for making the uh the wood the wood crate because wood crate is about $250 um so the wood crate plus the uh the shipping uh by a Transport company directly to uh his home would be approximately $1,250 so so now since he was coming
Here with his truck as I as we said have to pay for one hotel room and uh uh and for the gas but the the cost the overall cost was reduced because was was using his his vehicle right so it seems to me then that so that the option for folks living
In the Eastern third say of the US especially the Northern Tier of the us the option for coming to see you there are um advantages to that which maybe we’ll talk about here in a second so that cost and picking it up bringing it back it looks like it’s going to be
About half the price of what it would be to ship something like that by the time you add everything in I think that’s probably a fair assessment the advantage of shipping especially becomes important for those folks in the western two-thirds of the United States where it
Becomes less and less uh easy to drive to Montreal say so that’s really good information to know those those costs may increase a bit with more distance but probably not very significantly so folks will have a good idea now about the costs involved with that Fran give
Us an idea about the uh the weit time if I was to order a vt1 today how long would it be before it would be ready to either pick up or ship okay uh based on our our actual production uh we are building now the the five um we started
To build the five next series of IL mobile the first unit of this five uh unit uh kit is uh has been delivered to the first one was delivered to the guy in USA so now we are building the four others uh and this and the number two of
This uh five units is almost done we going to make the test ride and the final quality control tomorrow so this vehicle it’s a orange one fully fully equipped with all options so it will be available for shipping in the coming days and we are in a way to build uh the
Three orders uh beginning of January and uh so for for the next two or three uh units to be built I would say they deler The Waiting uh the time to to get devil mobile could be from couple of weeks to maybe one or two months uh and uh at the
Beginning beginning of next week when the um the uh all the orders will uh will arrive we hope so uh then the uh manufacturing delay could be from what from one one month to maybe two or three months uh and uh so that that are the uh actual uh information okay yeah that’s
Fair enough all right so now that we’ve covered uh the product and the shipping and the picking up of it let’s uh finish up here with the competition and the advantages that you see against the competition that you face so the vast majority of velomobiles uh that are out there today
Are are are done in Europe um many bu vmobile World representing a number of different companies there and such so um tell us how you see vam Tech competing against those what’s the advantage why would I buy a a vt1 versus a a bulk or
Um Milan or one of those other ones if I’m sitting in the US tell me why I should it’s a good question uh our V mobile is is quite different than the I would say uh original shape made by European uh manufacturers um uh it’s designed with the electric assist eded instead of
Adding an equipment uh on the uh on the bottom bracket or in the rear wheel so it’s in really integrated into the design uh uh the vt1 is available without electric assist uh that that is the vt1 d14s and uh our vehicle is I think more designed for uh commuting activities or commuting
Usage uh and uh it has been designed also to be very easy to uh to um to maintain by using a couple of uh very basic tools uh and uh the only thing is since we are local it’s more easy to join us uh on the same time zone uh it’s
It’s possible to uh to visit us by uh if you are having a car or truck maybe in a couple of hours you can come to Montreal area and visit our shop see our product uh make a test ride with an electric one or non-electric assisted good mobile and then you could have
Um a lot of information that is not really available only on the website or on the videos uh and as many uh potential USA customers have have said to me in the past they said since you are local uh for me it’s an advantage because communication is more easier and
Uh it’s there’s a possibility to to pick up our V mobile to directly to your shop uh and um and the functionalities and the design of our product I think it’s uh it’s very interesting for uh people who who look for an alternative to cars
Uh and um to be to get uh fully protected for the cold weather condition or for the rain uh there’s a quite lot of um interesting uh cargo space Also and uh um for some people like One customer in in SAS in saskat onean Canada uh he
He carried a a small uh trailer in the back and he has a project to to build a custom trailer in the coming months to do a camping and uh uh some um long long distance riding with his C mobile for next for the next year so uh
And for every every users in whe whatever if it’s in Canada or USA uh for for every users they have different kind of uh uh usage and this will be interesting for us to see what what are the things you can do with with your V1 and what what kind of pleasure
You you can have uh by using this vehicle So based on the experience we have now this is what I could say absolutely now I guess the one thing you didn’t touch on there that we should probably talk about is pricing and maybe the pricing advantage that you may have
Versus some of the European velomobiles do you want to talk about that a little bit uh yes I I agree um uh because if we are looking to uh an electric assist bu Mobile coming from Europe we talk about uh I think it’s uh
Maybe 13 or 14 uh thousand uh in USD and plus the shipping cost that may be 1,500 or maybe $2,000 dollar for the shipping so so in terms of uh product cost and shipping cost uh you have all the details or if you go to our website uh you have all
The details for the U electric assist one and non electric assist one and uh and all the options that are available for the bt1 are uh detail in the manufacturing contract because there are plenty of them they are not only the the the front wheel covers or the the seat
Mesh there are other options that are uh offered uh to our customers so so to have to have a a rough idea of the pricing you can go to our website can see the uh the numbers and then for more more details or having a detailed quote uh getting
Touch with us and uh we will uh we will have to promote uh and and to to to give you the better the better price for you the other thing also that could be interesting is so if if there’s a customer who already have a F mobile and
Get in touch with people who is interested to buying one and at the end of the process this new customer is coming back to us and say okay uh I want to I want to have a contract and order a vmobile then uh we will provide a bonus
To um to the new customer so if if this customer is doing that with uh many people many new customers in in his region uh it could provide a good bonus it’s more like an ambassador program but maybe not as detailed at as what we have with automobile World company but uh
The the goal is to um is to um you want this is an incentive program we yes that’s a good word so it’s an incentive for other uh customer to uh to to use the experience and the knowledge of the existing users uh as an example there’s a the potential user living in
Um in the state of Washington and uh he asked me recently okay fris is there a vobile user a vt1 user that’s living not too far from me and I said yes there’s a there’s a guy uh living in Vancouver it’s about one hour and a half from you
And uh he could give you his experience with with his V1 so that kind of collaboration between uh between villan Tech and existing users and potential uh users uh that may be a win-win uh setup absolutely that sounds like a good idea all right Fran let’s finish up uh by
Talking about uh any future plans that you have I always like to ask that question what do you have in mind anything you want to share with us now about the future plans for vom Tech um right now I would say that uh we we made a lot of U design Improvement
And we add also a couple of new features in the last three four months and I would say that uh for the next three maybe six months we would like to really um reduce our uh manufacturing cycle time uh with the the existing design and
Uh and to be able to to be able to uh to to sell and to deliver uh much more Avil Mobile in 2024 that is the actual uh main goal so uh that’s what I say for the moment that sounds great and one last Quick one uh any thoughts about
Bringing a vt1 to cycleon to the uh to the recumbent show in Ohio coming up next yes uh after talking to you uh about that recently and uh also after viewing a couple of U videos that that’s showing this big event uh I think think
That would be it would be a great place to promote our products and uh being able to meet a lot of people uh interested into recent world and uh so I think we going to plan to do something for September next year yes and that would be awesome look forward to
Hopefully seeing you then in September next year so all right friends SW then I want to thank you once again for um taking time out to share the latest from vam Tech all the way from Montreal it’s a pleasure having you on thanks okay
Thanks a lot for your time and U talk to you soon good night and he is gonna talk to us soon because as promised there is Francois live with us uh from Montreal Fran thanks for coming on the show live with us hi everybody um feel free to ask any
Question uh that you may have right and I have a few questions that we’ve been getting on the live chat and yeah folks if you haven’t asked them yet and you have some more questions just pop them into the chat and we will get to them so
Let’s start out with a question here from darl Jordan how about knobby tires or studded tires for those folks in Northern climates like yourself it’s lots of snow on the ground can the vt1 be fitted with such tires yes uh I can say that uh uh two of our um pt1 owners
Has already installed stud tires uh the first one has installed that um in early of 2023 and I got an image um at the end of last week from another customer living in Saskatchewan and uh he was he has installed the uh new tires with Stud
For running on IC and and snow uh surfaces and uh he was uh so I’m I’m looking to to get some more details about how how he how how easy was to to ride with his his vt1 mounted with these ST tires but uh yes I I confirm that we can do that
Quite easily yes good good all right let me get there’s a couple of questions here that relate to the hatch the the opening uh first let’s see yeah Daryl uh Jordan I also like that the door sill is slanted to make it easier to get in and
Out and our buddy uh Ron Thompson guest previously on layback bike report uh says it looks like the vt1 might be easier to get in and out of than the others so you showed in that first uh video when you’re giving the tour you got in and out but you might want to
Maybe expand on that a bit why the why is it so easy to get in and out of the vt1 compared to those other European velomobiles that we talked about uh basically because the instead of having a manhole to get into the vobile we can
Just uh flip the door to the to the front of the uh the body shell and and and then put your feet uh Your Right feet on on the velomobile floor which is a very uh stiff and strong comp composite uh compos Comin fiber composite structure so you can put your right feet
On the floor then your the second the the then the the the left feet and then put your your hands on both sides and and get very uh and be installed on on the seat and then you flip the door so so for my purposes and for after talking
With many people um who were interested to get into the mobile easily and getting out uh that’s why we we designed this um uh the this door or this feature because previously to design the vt1 with the this this door I I ever um tried two
Other V mobiles so a quest and and a DF I was getting into these tuil mobiles and make a test and make a test ride and I I I I I was considering that that it it it was it was okay to get in and out
But uh uh for some other people who are not maybe as flexible uh they they they they say okay can we have something that make it much easier to get in in and out and uh that’s why we designed this uh the V1 this way makes a lot of sense all
Right Tom Berg asks what about the weight savings from the previous version so this is a little bit of an update uh I believe from what you started out with on the vt1 uh so what about weight safeties were you able to shave some weight off of that previous
Version uh yes we when we started the the manufacturing process of the vt1 uh the first one that was delivered uh at the end of 2022 uh and from this the serial number one to the serial number like 10 or 11 uh we I think we were able to remove
Approximately uh seven to from seven to 10 pounds because we we reduce the U the uh the weight on the frame we reduce uh uh the the weight on the body shell because we change uh the way we manufacture the body shell in some areas
We uh we reduce uh the the uh the quantity of core that we install in the during the lamin laminating laminating process uh and uh so we we improve the the design and reduce weight uh here and there in in in the mobills and so
Uh uh so from the sural number one to the actual uh version that we are in the shop we got approximately uh seven to to eight from seven to nine pounds and uh in the future we are looking to to reduce uh to to cut a few other pounds
Uh also so it’s a continuous continuous Improvement uh because every time we reduce the weight of the components that may reduce the capacity to absorbing shocks or um or different uh events that that that may appear when you Rite so so so we are cutting some weights here and
There but with uh uh we stay con we stay conservative by doing doing this engineering works so uh but as I said we are continuously improving the design and uh uh that’s that is very important for us all right all right now Francois you were telling me uh off air early
When we were doing the interviews that you had the sky in Washington State that you were working with and I don’t I had an inkling it was Mark Harris cuz I know Mark I didn’t I should have said something uh because Mark’s a good uh friend of the show he’s actually been on
The show before amazing guy Mark hello he’s saying hi to you and actually uh he actually has a question or comment here let’s see so from Olympia Washington of course and he says he has been helping you with location of bike dealers and future recumbent events so some
Marketing in the future he’s a he’ll be a good asset for you uh I can recommend him it’s too late because you’ve already uh adopted his help so um do you have anything to say uh back to Mark and maybe uh maybe talk a little bit about
How you want to promote uh the vt1 you talked a little bit about the nearly an ambassador program but the promotions that you have worked with Mark and such yes uh yes I ever talked to Mark a couple of times in 2023 and uh I I was very impressed about how the U
The equipment he has in his garage with trikes suspended suspended to the the ceiling and um and also um when I discussed with him about the potential uh uh usage for making long rides and going to uh different uh recumbent uh event on the west side of the
USA and uh for for us the the marketing strategies for now is to um to promote our products either in Canada or uh in USA with uh with direct sales uh and um I know that promoting our products with um dealers is also uh very is another strategic um
Opportunities for us but uh for the first series of vom mobiles to be delivered I consider that selling the products to the directly to the customer uh provide us more uh information for uh how they using their their their vobile um what we can improve uh so so
For us it’s it’s it’s more easier to to make some kind of tracking and um and uh when people are riding with their F mobiles whatever it’s in in summer or winter conditions uh just by riding their vmobile in their cities this is acting as as a promoting activities and
Uh but we we still interesting to to get in touch with potential uh dealers in for this year and um I’m I will I will check for which leader could be interested uh to promote our products uh maybe one in the East one in the middle and one in the in the
West west side of USA so if some other if some uh dealer uh owners are interested into our products feel free to contact me and uh we can discuss how we could uh doing business together very nice all right a couple questions from James R here first you did mention
In the piece about the 25 M hour uh speed limit on the motor uh and which I think is also in effect in Europe but uh James says he thought that the limit in Canada was 32 kph so uh is it different for V mobiles or is there some
Misunderstanding here uh no because U the the since the VT one with the vt1 d-4s is a is considered as a e tries so uh so it has to be used and configured with the same regulation as for the ebikes so um uh so the top speed with electric
Assist is at 32 kilm per hour uh and uh the uh the power for the motor is rated to 500 watts in Canada and in and 750 watts for USA I know that there are some states in USA that are not that doesn’t have the same uh Power limits or speed
Limits uh so it depends on which state are you living uh and uh that’s why since we have two configuration right now for one for shipping to Canada and one for shipping to USA uh and since the cycle analyst uh is uh fully customable um uh uh equipment
Uh so when the evil mobile is coming out from the shop it it’s configured to be a class two ebikes but after that if the customers want to make some tuning uh on the motor or the controller or the psychist it’s still possible to do it but uh it
Becomes the responsibility to the user to uh to make these changes so that’s what I could say for the moment all right and his second question regards uh spare parts um what about spare parts are these just standard things you can get at any bike shop or are you gon to have some
Available uh this is a good question uh we have spare parts in stock um but the parts that could be replaced including uh chains or tires or uh brake components so some of these components can be available on the market on the on internet uh and um for more uh vum Tech
Uh custom parts uh either for steering mechanism or uh suspensions or um these parts are are available now in our shop so if someone has a brick AG uh for uh one part they they can just have to call us and they they they will be in stock
Uh so that that is uh what I could say for for at this time all right and darl Jordan again uh what’s the sight line from the seat so like how far how close can you see the pavement in front of you uh if you’re sitting in a vom tech vt1
Uh that is a good question um when the the seat is adjusted at the proper height and proper uh uh recline uh value I would say that U um probably that maybe 8T uh on eight to 8 to 10 feet uh to the from the front
Or the nose of the mo of the mobile we can when see we can see the ground I I didn’t make this measurement but it’s very it’s very close to this this value all right yes and recycle Fu says this is more of a comment I do find the Tech
Quite appealing as presented with fair pricing for options including gearing and shipping so and you talked about this you probably don’t need to say too much more but uh your uh your value uh compared to some of the economic uh values uh offered from the European velomobiles is is quite strong again you
Clearly delineated the differences and and this this Vel mobile may be different may be for different people than those but there is a there is a significant value difference uh pricing wise uh with the vt1 yes yes exactly and uh uh as mentioned before since we are
Uh locate more closely to probably more close close close to your your home so if you want to get in touch with us uh it’s we are on the same time zone or maybe on the same time zone and um um we try to to improve our our
Design and products to to coverage a lot of usage for f mobiles uh but designing of vmob is almost a um um a work of compro compromises because we want to have uh lightweight components for the body shell the wheels and everything but we also have something that is quite easy
To to go up Hill and to bring some stuff in the back of your of the seat and to be able to ride into into rain or to ride into cold weather conditions so so uh we we we have to to choose uh design options uh to uh to get the the actual
Manufacturing configuration and and I think that for a lot of people who are interested to to ride in nmobile uh in the coming uh coming weeks and months uh uh I think we can offer a good products for people who want to um to keep their
Cars uh um at home and and and being able to to get in shape with riding in vmobile and I would add that since it’s a electric assist uh vehicle uh the uh the the cost for charging the batter is about 10 cents so maybe 10 to 15 cents
So uh and you can charge it with any uh 120 volts ac power outlet uh so this this feature is uh is a I consider it’s a very interesting feature for many people yes very good okay and this is going to be the last uh question from
Comments from darl how does it handle speed bumps let’s maybe just uh ask more generally uh the suspension you showed the suspension uh in your little tour of the vt1 do you find the suspension will be adequate for most people’s needs yes um uh from All of Me All of the cons uh
Bt1 owners some of them said okay I will uh choose the standard uh Marathon racer 20 by 1.5 inch tires on the front and they they are okay with that some others say okay I would like to have more uh air volume on on the front uh tires so
They go with the marathon plus 20 by 1.75 that provide more a little bit more cautioning effect and uh and the tires that we have tried uh in November with the the Big B plus uh inflated at about 35 PSI 30 or 35 PSI that provide a very
Big difference for the um C cushioning on the front because the the rear suspension can be adjusted with your body weight we have two different size for the the elastomer so the rear suspension is uh is very efficient but for the front portion uh actually you have the choice
To from three different tires and uh we also looking for Designing um suspension strut uh um in the coming month for the the front that may have a a stroke of maybe 15 to 20 mm so uh we are looking for this um design Improvement or design
Option in the during the during this year all right and lastly this is a comment not a question from Susan mlin I assume she is perhaps an owner of a uh dealer in Canada as an electric bike and trike dealer we find representing vam Tech to be an excellent experience good
Value for great quality and very professional to deal with Francois and his team so that thank you for the comments Su Susan thank you Susan and she you she is a uh the owner of a a bike shop yes she is involved in the uh the dealer in Kingston uh Ontario with I
Cycle um dealer they so they they are our first dealer in uh in Canada for this time at this time very nice well we hope you’ll get some more dealers and speaking of dealers let’s let’s bring Peter up if we can Larry just pop back
In we thought we lost you there for a minute Peter are you still with us yes all right so Peter uh this is Francois Peter of course is the bicycle man owning that fine recumbent shop there uh in New York State uh Peter go ahead with any questions or comments you have for
Francois well we’ve had uh I think we’ve had three used Rec Us velomobiles in the shop over the years and uh you know some were extremely hard to get into and some are awfully heavy and we have one actually in our Museum that is gargantuan it’s really old it’s from the
80s made in Colorado more research on that but anyway looking at the development of of velomobiles I think that uh because a vmobile is heavier than a standard trike and more Dynamic I think having e assist and dynamic break is wonderful maybe essential in hilly
Areas I think it’s a great idea I think the luggage space you have is fantastic I think I think a practical luggage a practical vobile is going to be the most uh popular thing in the market and you know there have been velomobiles from one end of the spectrum to the other
There’s full race bikes and then there’s the uh uh Organic Transit which was a really unique vehicle but it was huge m I think the ease of getting in and out of yours is very good we’ve we had the customer want to get into a used one we had one day
And we looked at each other and said you know I don’t think we can get you back out without rolling it over yes so I think that’s that’s a real uh a real good feature I think the uh uh how I had a couple questions how
Does it adjust to the rer do the boom adjust or the seat adjust you said the seat adjust for height what a great idea and as you were talking about the visibility forward that’s of course critical to be able to adjust the seat height that’s great I hadn’t heard of
One that does that before but I’m not an expert on V mobiles yes the uh when you are getting into the V mobile the first step is to um adjust the seat so the seat can be moved uh there are approximately three inches of stroke from F to forward uh
From yes I have to forward the direction uh and then you have the the you can adjust the seat height you have 2.5 2.5 inches for the seat height seat adjustment and then you can adjust the uh the recline angle by uh moving the uh the rear
Support to different locations uh on the angle bracket that that were that are installed on the floor so when the seat is adjust adjusted properly to have your head at uh at proper position to see properly um all around all around you then you adjust the the bottom bracket
So the bottom bracket is is attached with two uh screws socket cap screws and there are um so you you can move the botom bracket by approximately uh there’s a stroke of approximately eight inches so uh from people who has short legs or uh or or for people who who has
A very long legs so you can adjust very easily the um the bottom bracket positions and after that um when it’s done you you you adjust the uh the chain length by moving the one of the front one of the two front idlers just just underneath the uh the bottom bracket so
Adjust the uh one of the these two iders and and then when the the chain tension is uh is properly set then you are uh ready to go yes very good uh what is the overall width of it the overall over overall width uh is 30 inches okay from from from each of
Two tires from left to left to uh Right Tires it’s a 30 in and um The Zone where you have the two mirrors you can add approximately uh 1.5 yes approximately 1.5 inch on on each side so uh if you want to go through a door uh you may
Need approximately 33 in wide uh for the opening okay that’s good we had the uh yeah there there are certainly velomobiles too big for that the uh Organic Transit was 48 inch yes yes you know you have to have a garage or you store It Outdoors which is you
Possibility and what’s the overall weight uh of the E version the E version Ely approximately 1,000 uh one 100 pounds yes uh and we are looking for maybe reducing this overall weight during the the coming weeks and months but I would say that approximately uh it’s approximately approximately 100 pounds and
Um uh it depends if you add the um the front wheel covers or the the full visor but uh but the these options are not very heavy but uh yes it’s about this this this value well I’ve been you know thinking to myself for years that it’s going to
Be you know we’ve had bikes from racing bikes we’ve had bikes up to the the uh five foot tall 4 foot wide uh Organic Transit and there’s going to be something we’re we’re the industry is looking for that sweet spot and I think uh going through a door
Weighing 100 pound with e assist having Dynamic brakes easy to get in and out good luggage space also uh it looks like it’s be quite easy to work on because you remove the the uh the rear wheel cover and you can get at things a little
Better yes the the one we have in our Museum you have to disassemble it and remove it from the shell to fix it and then put it back in the shell and reassemble it we haven’t tried yet but that’s what it appears like it’ll be but
So I think that’s great I think that velomobiles have a great future I think they’re going to be popular one day and I think it’s going to be along the lines of what you’re doing more practical it’s not racing it’s commuting it’s car replacement yes so I think that’s where
The Market’s going to be and I commend you I think it’s it’s exciting it’s really exciting and available in North America is wonderful also yes and and there’s also a a a great intention for us to design uh a vehicle that is easy to maintain by by the owner so you don’t
Have to to have a lot of um a lot of uh experience in the bike mechanic bike mechanics so just by having a Allen key set and a in a in a ranch and you can mostly uh Dismount all the V mobile in in a few hours so uh and all
The adjustments uh can be very easy to uh to do uh when we ship a V mobile we Supply we provide a detail user manual for all the basic uh maintenance uh task and also the uh warranty manual so and we provide uh all the supports to our
Customers uh uh to to to to provide the best experience for uh their products so this is where we uh this is our mission yes I think the the rolloff Hub of course is Extreme reliability we had a couple tour to through here one time with two rolloff
Hubs on two bikes they ridden 50,000 miles and they broke one frame but the hubs were fine and they described you know foring the river in Peru and stuff and they had ridiculous loads on the bikes it was you know I asked them how how much they’ had to service the bikes
They said well we left Germany in 2003 50,000 miles ago they had to change the oil 10 times so the hubs are wonderful and they they ran better than new they were quieter than new they were perfect yes and so then I’d like to point out also that uh except for
Freight it’s $10,000 with e assist and rolloff wow that’s great yes exactly that that that is what you can see on the on the website yes yep that’s very good I’m I the industry is getting closer and closer to something that’s going to take off and I I think you’re
The closest thing we’ve got in North America obviously not a not a far cry from some expensive of trikes that are assisted in fact cheaper than some we have $14,000 trikes on the floor there you go it’s very competitive absolutely so the other question is how do you do
That oh uh don’t give anything away you don’t want to give away uh yes because Avenue trikes is not going to do a m yes because the the cost of the components uh material cost whatever it’s the epoxy uh the carbon fiber uh aluminium Alloys that we are using which are ironic
Aluminium Alloys so for all the components we we install in in V mobiles we we try to get very high quality components because reliability and and efficiency is very for important for us uh and uh so now we are building these V mobiles in in a very small scale uh uh
Process because uh we are building one by one but uh in the future we want to uh improve our uh production process to to reduce the manufacturing cost and be being able to um uh to get a more uh profit for every sale because we in in
2023 we we we developed a lot of U uh we improve a lot of things either for the design for the manufacturing process we did some a lot of R&D also whatever it’s for the the painting process for the laminating process uh and I think that this year in 2024 uh we
Would like to ramp up to uh maybe uh making maybe from 40 to 60 units for the this year uh and uh and hoping that for this quantity there will be a many many units to be delivered to United States uh customers I think you’re I think it’s
Great I’m just I want to keep an eye on it and see how it goes I think it’s really it’s an exciting development okay thank you very much all right thank you Peter appreciate that so and Francois thank you pal uh it is exciting to once
Again talk to you and see what’s going on there in Montreal I’m excited to hear that you are uh hopefully going to be seeing us uh in Ohio in at the cycleon it’s September with the vt1 and uh we’ll be able to catch up with you again there
In the meantime stay in touch and uh yeah any last words before we leave you Francois I would say that uh the trikes world and recumbent worlds and vobile words uh is is a very exciting um I would say Market segment because uh for us to promote um uh to promote um uh
Um uh low low carbon uh footprint vehicles that are easy to use Easy to maintain uh safe to ride and uh being able to to keep keep your car uh in the driveway and and uh getting in better shape by every time you are using a V
Mobile you are getting in better shape so uh I’m also uh um surprised by why we are not why there are no more vmobile manufacturers in North America we are the only one in Canada and in United States uh I think we have a very specific products uh and uh I
Hope that this year and the coming years will be uh the time for uh vobile um uh Market to to getting larger and larger so this is my my my biggest hope and and I Thanks you Gary and all the people who are um trying to promote these these
Vehicles for a new and safe and and green World Yes sounds wonderful yes well you’re doing your part that’s for sure Fran so best of luck bonance I guess I should say and we will we will see you again byebye see you soon all right okay folks
Let’s move on to the sports Report with Larry Sidman who is going to tell us about the recent Florida senior games and the bents that were there Larry the Florida Senior Games took place December 2nd and 3rd in and around the Tampa Florida area the 20K and 40K road races
Were on Saturday December 2nd in Dade City Florida there were two different race directors this year the two road races were put on by Tim moleno of top view Sports the courses were a loop as shown here one lap for the 20K and two laps for the
40K the time trials were headed by Stephen Perez Lua of Perez luula coaching the 5K and 10K time trials were the following day December 3rd near Florida poly Technic University in Lakeland Florida here’s what the start of the time trials looked like with riders going off at 30 second
Intervals the courses were mainly flat including long straightaways and a small incline leading into the U-turn here’s the 5K course and here is the 10K course the start of the day was Kyle Larson on his collaboration of cruise bike and marsiglio he was not only the fastest recumbent racer he blew away the
Entire field of every cyclist averaging 28 miles per hour in both the 5K and 10K here are Brian cesne and Dan Zimmerman of spokes fighting Strokes Dan had a few things to say on his Facebook page after the races I’m winded but able to race felt good thinking strong finish
Bite the bullet then broke a pedal on the Arrow pedal attached to my shoe all the years of riding this never happened I checked the tire and chain but not the pedals Ries pass me managed to put my good leg on the boom and pedal with my
Bad leg two miles back mad at myself and sag wagon it turned around a quar of the way before it got to me pissed really pissed may pass me everybody passed me Roger will and Vicky May did wonderful had mechanic rebore the pedals the pedal shaft and installed the pedal
Waited for the 5K race then Dan talked about the 5K worn out but had to race now went fine nobody raced in my class so no barometer of how I did May did wonderful again medals for all in our age groups here are some pictures of the racers from the time trials Roger
Reddish Vicky s will SAR and Donna Walsh on the podium and here are the results like to point out uh Kyle’s numbers are legit he actually did that fast in both the 5K and the 10K 28 milph can’t emphasize that enough and also pointing out that Donna Walsh was the
Only recumbent to finish the 40K road race this was probably the largest showing for recumbent at his senior games with 11 people in results to wrap up here is a group of eight smiling with their Awards we hope this large bent turnout will continue to encourage you all to participate in your
Regional Senior Games back to you Gary all right thanks Larry uh so I think you’ve got a couple of updates about senior games and some other things yeah first of all uh a couple of sad notes is uh Roger who was at the Florida games he’s in the hospital in Colorado
Springs so uh our thoughts are with him and his wife Gabby uh other bit of sad news is the national senior games came out with their qualifying rules for the 2025 National games and recumbents will only be allowed in the time trials not being allowed in the road
Races and the time trials will be considered open so you don’t need to uh qualify and I’ll paste that into our group chat now if I can get that going and Larry you mentioned to me uh before the show that one of the concerns with that determination by the national
Senior games uh is even though individual states don’t have to adopt those rules they’re very influential and most likely will is that is that what you yeah I mean some states like Utah’s a big one they’ll they’ll still allow uh recumbent in the road races and I guess
Nebraska Wyoming and Nevada out out here in the west will allow in the road races okay all right and uh yeah please uh if you guys uh will help uh us thinking about Roger reddish a good friend of the show an interesting fella out there in Colorado who does a lot of
Racing uh and it’s always difficult for him but he seems to do a great job we’re sorry uh that you are having some health issues Roger we wish you a quick and speedy recovery so uh Larry is that it that’s it yep okay so yeah I think
You’ve got that into the uh chat now so appreciate that and thanks a lot for putting that uh report together for us all right thanks Larry all right let’s um just a reminder I guess at this point for you guys about viewer submissions we didn’t have in this month but uh we have
The many months if you would like uh to show pictures and uh a couple lines of text about your accomplishments or events that you have attended and wish to share please send them to us at lback report atgmailcom and we will be happy to share it with uh all of our audience
All right guys let’s jump into the sponsor thanks uh the guys that make this uh all possible for us every year and we’re going to kick it off of course with terracycle are you tired of feeling like your bent was made for someone else ter Cycles handlebars and Stems allow you to
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Always available at our mega store in chitin all right guys uh announcements so Trey and I are going to be heading down to Florida looking forward to that next month uh we’re going to cover a couple of Events first the catrike factory event is back and
That’s going to be on February 17th and then we’re going to be heading down the road to the with Luchi Trail for the big honk and trike event uh that starts on uh February 18th and we’ll be there for a few days and hopefully meet up with a
Lot of you there right your trikes on that amazing Trail and we uh we really hope to see uh many of you there now next laidback bik report is February the 4th at 2 pm eastern time as always and uh we’re working on a couple interesting
Segments for you and we’ll let you know about those during the month now how can you support the laidback bike report like us on Facebook subscribe to us on YouTube and don’t forget to hit that little white eye there and and it’ll take you to the layback bik report.com
Website where you can find out so much more about us past shows what’s coming up you can buy a hat there and you can also become a patreon patron uh for as little as a dollar a month like these guys we really appreciate all of that
Help all right Larry bring up the crew and any of the guests that are left with us here wanted to thank all of you guys for a wonderful job a lot switching Larry you did a great job there and of course thanks for that sports report
Again and Trey yeah buddy thank you for uh for everything that you do supporting the show every day Peter such a great thrill to have you back on the show so much contribution today we really appreciate your thoughts on all that stuff and fr sure and Francois again
Thank you for being with us today so thanks to all those guys and most of all thanks to all of you for joining us on the laidback bike report every month so with that until our next webcast from all of us here at the laidback bike report so long bent Riders
2 Comments
Mark Swanson is a friend of mine. I met Lars in May last year ans tried his trike. It is amazing. I hoped to help him launch his brand but haven't heard from Lars.
The only issue for the Velomtec velomobile for me is no front suspension. However getting in and out next to my Bulk is far nicer and easier with Velomtek. Seat height adjustment is excellent idea too.