I took off this morning and rode my normal 30 mile loop. It was my first time doing my normal route in the Quest. I still need to do some adjusting on the shifting, but the Quest performed very well. One of the questions I had was about how the ride on these roads would be in a Velomobile. My roads are rough. And a trike rides rougher than a bicycle. It’s just a basic three wheels versus two wheels thing. And you can’t dodge holes and rough spots nearly as well with three wheels, either. But the Quest, with its suspended ride and wide tires, actually rode smoother on these roads than my bikes do. I was impressed. It’s pretty obvious that most folks around here haven’t seen a velomobile before. The reactions to the Quest were crazy.
It’s too soon to do speed comparisons, but I couldn’t resist doing them anyway. I’ve been wondering how the Quest’s speed would compare with my F-5. Recumbent bicycles have a different speed profile than upright bikes. If you compare a racing recumbent with a racing upright bike, the recumbent will be faster on the downhills and flats, but slower on uphills. The recumbent doesn’t gain enough on downhills to make up for what it loses on uphills, so the bottom line tends to be that on a flat route, the recumbent will be faster, but on a hilly route, the upright will be the faster bike.
With a velomobile, the differences are even more dramatic. It’s weight and superior aerodynamics makes it even faster on a downhill, but slower yet on an uphill. But, as with all pedal vehicles, the strength of the rider makes the biggest difference in how fast a particular vehicle will be. It’s even more pronounced on a velomobile. The reason is that to gain any advantage from the velomobile’s superior aerodynamics, you have to be riding 13 to 18 mph or faster. Below that range, rolling resistance is the biggest obstacle to speed, and with its heavier weight and wider tires, a velomobile rider will be slower in it than he would be on a bike. Yet, when above that speed range, the same amount of power on the pedals will move the velomobile faster than any other pedal vehicle.
So if you are a slow cyclist, you’ll actually be slower in the heavier velomobile than you would be on a bicycle. But a racer can gain a lot of speed in a velomobile. So, for me, somewhere in between a slow cyclist and a racer, I wondered how the Quest would compare with my F-5, a pretty fast recumbent, on the roads I ride. I don’t have a power meter on any of my bikes, but looking at my average heart rate, versus the speed it produces on the F-5 and Quest, should be a pretty good comparison. There can be a pretty wide variety of average speed and average heart rate on my rides. But a 15 mph average is pretty normal for me. On slower days, either I was at a recovery pace, or there was a lot of wind, or some other out of the ordinary factor. On days where I averaged faster than 15 mph, I was definitely putting out more than a normal effort.
I looked at the last few weeks of riding. On my 30 mile rides on the F-5, on the days I averaged 15 mph, my average heart rate varied from 123 to 135. On this first ride in the Quest, on the same route, I averaged 16.9 mph. But my average heart rate was 142. So, while I was faster, it was a harder effort that produced it. I need some more rides to do a more valid comparison. But it does look like the Quest will be at least as fast as the F-5, if not a bit faster. I’m thinking it will make an excellent winter ride.
But, considering I’m only working part time these days, the Quest is a bit more than I can afford for my long term winter ride, unless I run across an especially good deal on one. But even if I have to settle for a velomobile that’s a bit slower than a Quest, it looks like it won’t be very much slower than my normal riding. But, I’m getting ahead of myself. For now, it’s time to just enjoy riding Greg’s Quest.
The Quest.
The view from within.
