C y c l i s t R e c u m b e n t The RANS Fusion - Steve Briggs

Letters . . . Continued from page 7Chris Jordan's unique velomobilePOD VELOMOBILEAs you may know, the original Pod velomobile that was startedin Santa Cruz County in 2004 failed. You asked me to keep youinformed, but I forgot. Sorry about being late to respond!I added a full fairing in the meantime (summer ʻ04) to a TerraTrike.When the Pod failed, I had “part of” a velomobile already, so it had todo as an alternative Pod. I have a pedal-assist on it, which helps oninclines, but it is now considerably faster, so I often easily overpowerthe motorʼs top speed and turn the motor off.The fairing is composed of Mylar (aluminum foil/fiberglass “sandwich”)mounted to a Zzipper fairing, two ChroMoly tubes formed in a“T” and an upside down “U” roll bar and two large panniers.The insulation is outstanding: it reflects the hot sun off, and thatinner fiberglass adds to keeping the inside cool. It had a floorboard,but I wanted an easy reverse with my feet. Santa Cruz is not wellknown for snow, and I like air flowing through the floor and windows.I never put it back on.The crank size problem was an easy fix with crank-arm shorteners(from 170mm to 150mm; I think), but doing without the floorboardsolved the space problem completely.The wheels touch the Mylar, especially when turning, but is has asoft “whir” that turns into a high “eeeeee.....” at different pitches (atdifferent speeds). I have a small stereo tape/radio, and the soundscombine (the Currie motor, the music- like a concert hall in there-, andthe soft wheel-whirr). These audio distractions do not bother me atall.My neighbor is convinced it is a spaceship. Tourists have descriptionsof everything from an oversized rolling Thermos to an escapeefrom Reynolds Aluminum!I rolled it twice due to the motor — not me, of course — and raninto a big light pole, but aside from being an elderly TerraTrike, thisvehicle is keeping right up to “todayʼs transportation”. I did receivethe original Pod base trike (an EZ-3 tadpole), so I have the best ofboth trike worlds: enclosed or convertible!Chris Jordanchrisj@sasquatch.comRCN 15TH ANNIVERSARYWhat a great magazine to come home to! My RCN 089 arrived acouple of days after I returned home to Plantation, FL from my stemcell transplant treatment in Tampa. I devoured the issue (well, notliterally - Iʼm not that hungry!), and I especially enjoyed the lettersin support of RCN from recumbent luminaries such as Zach, Mark,John R, Randy, John S, Kent, Paulo, Kelvin, and “Wo”. Iʼve met andridden with many of these fine people, and read stories and articlesby others, and itʼs a testament to the world of recumbents how manyhigh-quality people share our love for this sport.Iʼve been riding recumbents since 1996, and the 1995 RCN BuyerʼsGuide was instrumental in helping me choose my first fast ʻbent, aVision R-45. Since then, itʼs been a primary source of inspiration andmuch needed information, and Iʼve saved every issue I received. Iconsider it an honor to have been published in RCN as well.Keep up the wonderful and necessary work youʼre doing, and tellyour family (“the staff”) that their efforts are greatly appreciated bythose of us who love RCN.Shari Bernhardshari.bernhard@gmail.comEditorʼs Comments: Many RCN readers will recognize Shariʼs namefrom previous RCN articles, etc. We wish Shari a speedy recovery.RANS FACTORY TOURI passed through Hays, KS recently and stopped at the RANS factory.RANSʼ Randy Schlitter graciously gave me a tour. The facilityconsists of three buildings in a “U” shape. There are two large metalproduction buildings that are joined out front by an office building.Needless to say, there are lots of machines for cutting, shaping, bendingand joining various metal bits. Some of these are of Randyʼs owndesign. As you can see from their website, RANS make a variety ofairplanes, both in kit, and now in complete form. A variety of differenttechnologies are used on the different planes, including different typesof wing and fuselage coverings. The bikes are blended into the wholeoperation, since some parts of the production process, like welding,are the same. Instructions about stopping for a tour are on the RANS24 Recumbent Cyclist News