Who remembers Anotherkiwi ?

[Nealh]

It has been some two years or more now since Tony aka anotherkiwi has graced these pages with his experience and knowledge. Having moved from uprights to trikes he then developed a passion to build a Velomobile so jumped ship to a more specific forum or two, one in Germany and one in France where he lives.
Well he accomplished his dream of a trike velomobile all hand crafted by him self, the skills weren't an issue to him as he was an accomplished small boat builder skillful in the use and bending/shaping of plywood and epoxy fibreglass.
Some might remember he lived in one man little apartment /flat some two floors up and he used it also to build his small craft inside and posted some pics of the small space that accounted as his living quarters come workshop, his girlfriend never lived with him as there was no room for her as well so they lived separately.

Below I post two pics of the project AK started during lockdown 2020 and finished last June.
The gearing is Alfine 8 and the drive is a BBS01 with an external KT controller and lcd, folks may remember he like me had one of the early GSM's from Woosh but unfortunately he snapped the main drive axle on his one following a crash on his trike. With it mounted on the boom he had an off where he was sent flying over the front end due to having hot rodded the power with a little to much current.
On one of the forums abroad he has partly documented the build which I have been catching up on and has various pics of his process and the patience needed as he had little or no money due to lock down and no work.
The design is an Agilo I believe and is serial #001 as one buys the plans etc from the designer as a self build project.

Here the finished Velo sits on his 2nd floor veranda/balcony ready to be winched down to the ground. The forum sadly lost a very knowledgeable and clever contributor but obviously someone else has gained him.

Not bad at all weight wise a fully encompassed trike velo coming in at a remarkable 41kg.

 

[Nealh]

Skimping and saving by using parts scavenged off his bike and trike builds Tony's build for parts came in at 2402 euro's.

Scary moments for Tony as his hard work is precariously man handled over the balcony and lowered down .

 

[Jodel]

I felt quite pleased with myself having used kits to convert a tandem and a solo bicycle, but that sort of build really is at another level - skilled guy!

 

[Nealh]

Sadly the GSM failed as on a previous upright Tony had an off and over the bars crash and hadn't realised the main internal motor casting had suffered damage.
A new BBS01 was purchased pushing the build cost up nearer 3k.
Initial test runs show battery consumption is 5.3 wh pe km, later following some set up tweaks wh per km was down to 3.6.

72.7km/h achieved during October 21 and a towing hitch added for a trailer.

Small video of Tony and the designer riding, btw AK is the one with less hair.

 

[flecc]

Thanks Neal, I'd wondered about AK so it's good to know he's still actively in the cycling related world.

I've got the greatest admiration for what he's achieved, having previously done my own conversion builds in an equally tiny flat, but mine is at least on the ground floor and the builds didn't entail that level of craftmanship.
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[wheeliepete]

Good find Neal, have wondered about Tony a few times over the last couple of years and hoped he was OK, always a bit worrying when a regular poster disappears for no apparant reason, esp. in that time. Glad to see he's been keeping busy, what a great machine!! Prob. a good job his girlfriend lived elsewhere, he would never have got away with building that in the bedroom

 

[Nealh]

I pm'd him some time ago as I have done so with d8veh asking after them as both are still registered, also tried Kirstin but he it seems de registered.

The other day AK got in touch and provided me with a link to his new build and where he is at. The reason he left was the way threads like the breixit one was going and the rhetoric being deployed, he mentioned being drawn in and end up saying something he would regret, he didn't leave abruptly but did say his goodbye's in the main forums.

He had a few teething issues after the build was completed and with some input from the designer who personally paid him a visit, some minor tinkering carried out and the velo moved on to working machine. He is using his same battery set up carried over from the bikes using 44v's.
Tony had some problems with the alfine set up and working and out of the blue after xmas 21 a wow factor hit him, a benefactor unknown to him gifted him a brand new rolhoff to use on his bike and to this day has remained anonymous.

Another nice touch was he thanked me for something I mentioned on setting up the BBS programming which was to split the nine PAS levels, using the first few for high current lower speed settings and the last four for high speed low current usage for extended range.

AK has a calling and is hoping to ride the 1400km on it to Holland where velo's are quite big on the scene and apparently a mecca for some to go to, he retires in august this year so looks like plans are a foot.

 

[Nealh]

The forum he is on now is a dream for him he has like minded velo riders who also have built there own machines and his input is high regarded and well received.
Tbh Tony was wasted on here but he liked the tech side of batteries and controllers to achieve his needs, now he uses ES for tech stuff.

 

[flecc]

The other day AK got in touch and provided me with a link to his new build and where he is at. The reason he left was the way threads like the breixit one was going and the rhetoric being deployed, he mentioned being drawn in and end up saying something he would regret,

I'll never understand why people protest at such threads in an unrelated forum when all they need do is ignore them.

Such off subject forums exist in other specialist websites simply for the valuable traffic they generate. This pedelec site often goes very dead, especially out of business hours, and such a lack of traffic makes it more difficult to attract the advertising it needs to keep running.

That's where having a forum like Charging Post for any subject other than the core one of the site is valuable, attracting contentious threads like the Brexit one that generate large traffic volumes.

Currently with 5269 webpages and 105,361 posts, it's become a general purpose thread dealing with any issue of the day, most recently Covid and now Ukraine.

For those who avoid politics and/or cannot keep their cool, don't go there. Otherwise welcome.
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[Nealh]

I'm in the ignore camp, I just can't be bothered. Much like the cyling health/diet thread, so much BS in there I stay clear.

 

[flecc]

I'm in the ignore camp, I just can't be bothered. Much like the cyling health/diet thread, so much BS in there I stay clear.

Agreed on that crackpot thread which I also ignore. It too should be in The Charging Post forum. I think the word Cycling in the title was just to sneak it into the main forum.
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[georgehenry]

I am another one who enjoyed his input.

 

[guerney]

What a great build! And 11kg lighter than Light Motors 428

Agilo vélomobile - BentRider Online Forums

Agilo vélomobile Homebuilders

www.bentrideronline.com

 

[Nealh]

The finished item although a bit flimsy (has to be for lightness), is a quality looking finished item.

 

[guerney]

Very cool looking vehicle. Did he make the bike himself from scratch, or did he start with something basic ready made? If some Chinese company heat formed plastic to make that shape instead at the same weight in the millions for cheap, I'd buy one - if it breaks, easily patchable.

 

[Nealh]

Tony bought the plans and built from scratch ordering sheets of very thin ply, he has a back ground in small boat building so the process is a cross over from that.
Here is the thread for his build is is 37 pages of chat and pics.

Agilo velomobile

You might want to start watching https://www.sitko-velo.de/ , something is happening there soon. This morning I was clicking through links and after an error page was redirected to a page I wasn't supposed to see : sneaky:. I wrote a short message to Bodo asking for more information and the...

www.velomobilforum.de

 

[Nealh]

Whilst on the subject of velo's, motorists are up in arms as they were held up in log jam on the A64 in N.Yorks by a bright yellow velo sporting RAF roundels. The guy was smart and used road positioning to prevent most close pass attempts, the remarks left by angry motorists confirms that most are self centred individuals who think of nothing but how they are inconvenienced in there polluting machines and how this guy should be paying road tax etc,etc.

It is the typical argument these mortons moan about all the time , how much pollution and damage does a man powered machine out put, none so the argument is already lost.

 

[awol]

Thanks for this post Nealh.
I'm sure I bought my GSM motor based of his posts and had lots of other helpful info from AK.
That velo sure does look a nice build.

 

[GLJoe]

Agreed on that crackpot thread which I also ignore. It too should be in The Charging Post forum. I think the word Cycling in the title was just to sneak it into the main forum.
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I think you are being somewhat disingenuous here.
As the person who started that thread, I subsequently explained (directly to yourself IIRC) that at its inception, due to the way that I read forum posts here (i.e. I just hit a button to view all the 'new posts') I was unaware that things like covid discussion were taking place in the brexit thread over on the charging post area (as it appears that area of the forum doesn't appear in the 'new posts' ).

Therefore of the forum areas I was aware of at the time, the main forum area seemed the most appropriate place to post it. Especially as it seemed to me to be somewhat akin to the site owners sticky "case studies - how has cycling changed your life" or whatever its called.
For me, Cycling and health are very closely correlated. And at the time I instigated the thread, health seemed directly correlated to ones susceptibility to serious illness due to covid, nobody seemed to be discussing anything to do with this, hence my compulsion to start the tread!

I would also point to your own 'the price of electricity we use to charge' thread. That is fundamentally a thread about the price of electricity in general.
Let me quote yourself from above with some minor wording changes:
" It too should be in The Charging Post forum. I think the words 'we use to charge' in the title was just to sneak it into the main forum"

 

[flecc]

I think you are being somewhat disingenuous here.
As the person who started that thread, I subsequently explained (directly to yourself IIRC) that at its inception, due to the way that I read forum posts here (i.e. I just hit a button to view all the 'new posts') I was unaware that things like covid discussion were taking place in the brexit thread over on the charging post area (as it appears that area of the forum doesn't appear in the 'new posts' ).

There was nothing wrong with your thread to begin with, but it later became a repository for a variety of waffling about crackpot subjects not even vaguely related to cycling.

I would also point to your own 'the price of electricity we use to charge' thread. That is fundamentally a thread about the price of electricity in general.
Let me quote yourself from above with some minor wording changes:
" It too should be in The Charging Post forum. I think the words 'we use to charge' in the title was just to sneak it into the main forum"

I did post this in The Charging Post first WITHOUT the words to charge, but added the e-bike forum entry afterwards so that aspect of electricity use for charging our batteries was there for the e-bikers to see, since most don't enter the Charging Post. I've also posted further on the subject since with new posts, but ONLY in the Charging Post.

So not guilty.
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