Fietser.be Nieuwsbrief 10/12
Geplaatst: wo 17 okt 2012, 22:36
Dear Friends,
it's been a while since we sent out an international newsletter. Most of what we could produce was sold locally (1) and by word of mouth, with the effect that our limited means left our English and French communication underprivileged.
Anyway, the acute motivation for this email is the invitation we were offered by the organisation of the MOBILITY 2012 fair in Brussels, to exhibit our biomotive and hybrid bio-electric vehicles as the real and present solution for people transport. Friday october 19th is reserved for mobility professionals, but we've got free tickets for our entire customer and relations database for the entire weekend friday to sunday october 19-21st. You can download your free ticket for two here.
Evolution of the WAW
Apart from the meta stuff of redesigning the production process, we've been working hard on further improvement of the WAW. The impact of the hybrid bio-electric eWAW, of course, has been quite a shock - even to us. We see the most avid cyclists come to test a WAW, reluctantly try out the eWAW, and return with the widest grin ever. Even for powerful cyclists it's just a healthy, safe and comfortable way to combine sports and mobility. I myself have never looked back since discovering hybrid cycling.
Over time people have taken the light weight architecture of the WAW for granted and there has been a lot of whining on the internet about the no-nonsense interior. People actually riding used to shrug and answer these people that the entire composite coachwork of a RAW weights exactly the same as the nice interior shell of the Sunrider velomobile alone (9kg). But we've become milder with the years and many WAWs and eWAWs are now fitted with a luxurious felt interior. Apart from the aesthetics it's actually fantastic for acoustics. The Ferrari of velomobiles, with a Bentley finish .
Our famous air horn attached to the pump, limited edition with fancy pink hose:
The religious dispute on chain idlers or tubes has led us to using tubes for the returning chain, and the Fietser.be carbon infusion power idlers for the pulling chain.
Stephane has integrated cable ducts into the carbon frame for elegant cabling of the on board electricity. Hard to include a picture as it's all neatly tucked away.
The long awaited on-board electricity has been tested and finetuned and is available on new WAWs and as a kit. We've never been happy with the small surface of powerLEDs but we found a great solution. In the front we've custom buillt integrated, 10mm diameter LEDs into the mirror stalks. Very discrete yet visible, and a decent indication of the width of and distance to the WAW. In the picture, a Philips 60 lux capped beam high beam is built into the nose. Aft we used black anodized aluminium indicators from WatsenDesign in Canada. Expensive in velomobile terms (as opposed to motorcycle standards) but the best we've ever come across. It's a lot of work wiring the on-board electricity so we might as well use the best base material.
A little video tour of the lighting in our showroom: http://youtu.be/ZLt9a0eCpC0
Dashboard, indicators and parking light: http://youtu.be/VZ2cyb6Ca5Q
For those who need more than four large bicycle panniers of luggage room, our customer Salvador found a great trailer: the Burley Travoy is the perfect trailer for the WAW. It even folds away.
Meanwhile @ Fietser.be
more shop pics...
For those of you who have been following Fietser, some words about the important pivots we went through lately. We've been through some extremely busy times since we moved into the big shop a year ago. As long as the WAW was in a development phase we were willing to suffer considerable losses selling a locally crafted carbon/kevlar machine at the price of a glass fiber one. Our mindless optimism relied on the belief that we are truly inventing the future, but also on burning a few ton of cash, and about a decade of volunteer work from Dries and me. Due to increasing reluctance of the Great Sponsor and Dries' need to go earn some money for his young family, we were in dire need of providing a sustainable future for our baby. We had to either ditch the carefully designed lightweight and safety features of the WAW, increase price to a sound level, or produce much cheaper. Stepping down from the carbon/kevlar architecture was irresponsible, heavier was against our heart, increasing price possible but against our mission, outsourcing to low wage countries too complex.
Fortunately we found a partner company willing to invest in revving up the WAW production, while preserving the quality and craftsmanship we had built up over the years. Katanga is led by Stephane Boving, a Belgian engineer living in the Czech republic. The Czech are at least as advanced in building tech stuff, they're paid well and remember the art of industrial production. After many trips, internships, teleconferences and gradual transfer of technology, the Czech production is up and running - and we're very, very happy with the transition. In our best days we brought down the real weight of a standard WAW to 26.5 kg, now we're back at the advertised 28.5 kg - but with the benefit of impeccable and consistent quality and finish. Production cost is now a little lower than retail price, and so we reached our goal of creating a sustainable and reliable production system. On a sadder note we had to lay off our production staff. Our service was fairly famous but compliments don't pay the bill... having a full time guy for answering emails wasn't entirely viable. Oh well, we tried, entrepreneurship in Belgium is doomed anyway.
The positive side is that we can now produce larger quantities of perfect WAWs. Selling WAWs has never been a problem. The WAW has been a life-altering experience for our clients, and word of mouth plus a little web site is enough for constant sales of the 3 to 4 WAWs we could and can produce for now. Although there are a few new velos on the market that optimize some properties and compromise on others to become faster than de Quest/WAW generation, they have a long and expensive way to go developing into fast, practical and safe everyday vehicles. I trust the WAW is now the most efficient and practical human powered vehicle in real world traffic.
The eWAW turns out to be quite a hit by removing boundaries for less sportive riders; parallel to that we see an important shift from a public of radical cyclists to just 'commuters with a brain' - the population of which is presumed much higher. For commuters the WAW is a free or profitable means of transport. We see this reflected in average sales prices being much higher than a few years ago. Once people make the paradigm shift it doesn't matter if the WAW is 10% or 15% of the cost of a fossil car: it's just a tremendous relief from debt, taxes and road rage. I think from now on it's all a matter of communication, service and some finetuning.
------
A little extra side news...
One of my early velo designs was revived by a friendly Canadian guy, Jeff-o. The Bratmobile was a conceptual exploration of a simple facet approach to retrofit fairings. Jeff-o adapted the 3d model to his Catrike, built a nice and fast velomobile shell and promptly won the Grand Prize of the 'Wheels Challenge' issued by instructables.com. 37.000 unique visitors isn't bad for a velomobile page.
If anyone feels brave enough to produce this or any other of Fietser's open source designs, drop us a line and we'll see what we can do to help you on your way.
A not yet to be namend British university is sourcing funds to build the Yada, an adaptable high-/low-racer fit for both long distance racing and (electric) city use. It's construction method based on waterjet cut sandwich beams was quite revolutionary back in 2004 and I haven't seen anything like it go live in the meantime. Zeitgeist seems to be catching up.
Watch out for a second great article on the eWAW in lowtechmagazine.com next week.
So, I think I've let it all out now...
Regards,
Brecht Fietser
(1) A few years ago the law on cycling allowance came into force in Belgium, to the effect that the WAW was triple subsidized, not to mention the obvious economies on mobility cost. With a total cost of ownership of about 7ct/km, the WAW is half as expensive as fuel alone, adding a tax free 21 ct/km means an extra day's wage a week for many cycle commuters. See our Velonomicspages (for now only in Flemish, a translator with an economical and fiscal background is welcome).
it's been a while since we sent out an international newsletter. Most of what we could produce was sold locally (1) and by word of mouth, with the effect that our limited means left our English and French communication underprivileged.
Anyway, the acute motivation for this email is the invitation we were offered by the organisation of the MOBILITY 2012 fair in Brussels, to exhibit our biomotive and hybrid bio-electric vehicles as the real and present solution for people transport. Friday october 19th is reserved for mobility professionals, but we've got free tickets for our entire customer and relations database for the entire weekend friday to sunday october 19-21st. You can download your free ticket for two here.
Evolution of the WAW
Apart from the meta stuff of redesigning the production process, we've been working hard on further improvement of the WAW. The impact of the hybrid bio-electric eWAW, of course, has been quite a shock - even to us. We see the most avid cyclists come to test a WAW, reluctantly try out the eWAW, and return with the widest grin ever. Even for powerful cyclists it's just a healthy, safe and comfortable way to combine sports and mobility. I myself have never looked back since discovering hybrid cycling.
Over time people have taken the light weight architecture of the WAW for granted and there has been a lot of whining on the internet about the no-nonsense interior. People actually riding used to shrug and answer these people that the entire composite coachwork of a RAW weights exactly the same as the nice interior shell of the Sunrider velomobile alone (9kg). But we've become milder with the years and many WAWs and eWAWs are now fitted with a luxurious felt interior. Apart from the aesthetics it's actually fantastic for acoustics. The Ferrari of velomobiles, with a Bentley finish .
Our famous air horn attached to the pump, limited edition with fancy pink hose:
The religious dispute on chain idlers or tubes has led us to using tubes for the returning chain, and the Fietser.be carbon infusion power idlers for the pulling chain.
Stephane has integrated cable ducts into the carbon frame for elegant cabling of the on board electricity. Hard to include a picture as it's all neatly tucked away.
The long awaited on-board electricity has been tested and finetuned and is available on new WAWs and as a kit. We've never been happy with the small surface of powerLEDs but we found a great solution. In the front we've custom buillt integrated, 10mm diameter LEDs into the mirror stalks. Very discrete yet visible, and a decent indication of the width of and distance to the WAW. In the picture, a Philips 60 lux capped beam high beam is built into the nose. Aft we used black anodized aluminium indicators from WatsenDesign in Canada. Expensive in velomobile terms (as opposed to motorcycle standards) but the best we've ever come across. It's a lot of work wiring the on-board electricity so we might as well use the best base material.
A little video tour of the lighting in our showroom: http://youtu.be/ZLt9a0eCpC0
Dashboard, indicators and parking light: http://youtu.be/VZ2cyb6Ca5Q
For those who need more than four large bicycle panniers of luggage room, our customer Salvador found a great trailer: the Burley Travoy is the perfect trailer for the WAW. It even folds away.
Meanwhile @ Fietser.be
more shop pics...
For those of you who have been following Fietser, some words about the important pivots we went through lately. We've been through some extremely busy times since we moved into the big shop a year ago. As long as the WAW was in a development phase we were willing to suffer considerable losses selling a locally crafted carbon/kevlar machine at the price of a glass fiber one. Our mindless optimism relied on the belief that we are truly inventing the future, but also on burning a few ton of cash, and about a decade of volunteer work from Dries and me. Due to increasing reluctance of the Great Sponsor and Dries' need to go earn some money for his young family, we were in dire need of providing a sustainable future for our baby. We had to either ditch the carefully designed lightweight and safety features of the WAW, increase price to a sound level, or produce much cheaper. Stepping down from the carbon/kevlar architecture was irresponsible, heavier was against our heart, increasing price possible but against our mission, outsourcing to low wage countries too complex.
Fortunately we found a partner company willing to invest in revving up the WAW production, while preserving the quality and craftsmanship we had built up over the years. Katanga is led by Stephane Boving, a Belgian engineer living in the Czech republic. The Czech are at least as advanced in building tech stuff, they're paid well and remember the art of industrial production. After many trips, internships, teleconferences and gradual transfer of technology, the Czech production is up and running - and we're very, very happy with the transition. In our best days we brought down the real weight of a standard WAW to 26.5 kg, now we're back at the advertised 28.5 kg - but with the benefit of impeccable and consistent quality and finish. Production cost is now a little lower than retail price, and so we reached our goal of creating a sustainable and reliable production system. On a sadder note we had to lay off our production staff. Our service was fairly famous but compliments don't pay the bill... having a full time guy for answering emails wasn't entirely viable. Oh well, we tried, entrepreneurship in Belgium is doomed anyway.
The positive side is that we can now produce larger quantities of perfect WAWs. Selling WAWs has never been a problem. The WAW has been a life-altering experience for our clients, and word of mouth plus a little web site is enough for constant sales of the 3 to 4 WAWs we could and can produce for now. Although there are a few new velos on the market that optimize some properties and compromise on others to become faster than de Quest/WAW generation, they have a long and expensive way to go developing into fast, practical and safe everyday vehicles. I trust the WAW is now the most efficient and practical human powered vehicle in real world traffic.
The eWAW turns out to be quite a hit by removing boundaries for less sportive riders; parallel to that we see an important shift from a public of radical cyclists to just 'commuters with a brain' - the population of which is presumed much higher. For commuters the WAW is a free or profitable means of transport. We see this reflected in average sales prices being much higher than a few years ago. Once people make the paradigm shift it doesn't matter if the WAW is 10% or 15% of the cost of a fossil car: it's just a tremendous relief from debt, taxes and road rage. I think from now on it's all a matter of communication, service and some finetuning.
------
A little extra side news...
One of my early velo designs was revived by a friendly Canadian guy, Jeff-o. The Bratmobile was a conceptual exploration of a simple facet approach to retrofit fairings. Jeff-o adapted the 3d model to his Catrike, built a nice and fast velomobile shell and promptly won the Grand Prize of the 'Wheels Challenge' issued by instructables.com. 37.000 unique visitors isn't bad for a velomobile page.
If anyone feels brave enough to produce this or any other of Fietser's open source designs, drop us a line and we'll see what we can do to help you on your way.
A not yet to be namend British university is sourcing funds to build the Yada, an adaptable high-/low-racer fit for both long distance racing and (electric) city use. It's construction method based on waterjet cut sandwich beams was quite revolutionary back in 2004 and I haven't seen anything like it go live in the meantime. Zeitgeist seems to be catching up.
Watch out for a second great article on the eWAW in lowtechmagazine.com next week.
So, I think I've let it all out now...
Regards,
Brecht Fietser
(1) A few years ago the law on cycling allowance came into force in Belgium, to the effect that the WAW was triple subsidized, not to mention the obvious economies on mobility cost. With a total cost of ownership of about 7ct/km, the WAW is half as expensive as fuel alone, adding a tax free 21 ct/km means an extra day's wage a week for many cycle commuters. See our Velonomicspages (for now only in Flemish, a translator with an economical and fiscal background is welcome).