the Flevobike Alleweder

This is my website about my velomobile, the Flevobike Alleweder. I bought it about in november 2001, third or maybe even fourth hand, but I changed a lot in it. You can read more about these changes in the other sections.
The Alleweder is mostly used for commuting, which means that I ride it almost on a daily base for about 38 km. Of all the bicycles I have, the biggest milage is done with my Alleweder. It is really an all year round kind of bike, which it originally was designed for (Alleweder literally translated means "all weather"). Compared to other velomobiles which are available today, I think the Flevobike Alleweder comes close to the ideal velomobile, although it is one of the oldest on the market.
On this website you can read why I think the Alleweder is far better than most velomobiles.
The site contains my personal opinions and ideas about my Alleweder and velomobiles in general, so you do not have to agree with it and please feel free to react !

late love ....

It surely was not love at first sight when it comes to the Alleweder. I remember that about 12 years ago, a friend of mine and me drove all the way to Dronten in the Netherlands to test ride a Alleweder. We had rented one for half a day and brought our own set of SPD-pedals. We also brought one mountainbike, so that we could ride together, taking turns. We drove around for a couple of hours, tried all kinds of surfaces and looked for slopes (which was not so easy in the flat Dutch polders), but neither one of us got a good feeling about the Alleweder. We both agreed that it was way too heavy, we did not like the seat at all and it was too expensive. When we drove back home, we both agreed : we did not like the Alleweder.
It took more than 10 years before I got interested in velomobiles again. I had my own recumbent by that time, a Greenspeed trike, which I enjoyed mainly because of its' comfort (I've never been a racer -and never will be). I'm also a good weather biker, meaning I'd like to ride as often as possible, as long as it does not rain ! I do not mind wind and cold, but I hate rain ! I always used my bike to go to work and because of some reorganizations there and because I moved to another place, I started to look for a more comfortable bike to commute. My main goal was comfort, so I did not want a hard shell seat, I did want suspended wheels and price was also an issue. Together with that same friend, we discussed and compared all the available velomobiles at that time. After considering all the cons and pros, we decided to go for a second hand Alleweder. The main reasons for this choice were (and still are) : the aluminum body is easy to work on and with and because of the price. Because I did not like the looks of the Verhees Alleweder, I started looking for a Flevobike Alleweder.
On the Dutch Recumbent site www.ligfietsplaza.net I found a second hand Alleweder for sale. The add showed some nice pictures, it seemed to be in a pretty good shape and price was more or less right (1200 euro's) . So it was all the way to the Flevopolder again to buy it after a brief inspection. After I bought it, I brought it to the producers of the Quest and the Mango (velomobiel.nl) for an overall check-up and some minor changes.
I've been riding my Alleweder for more than 2 years now and I really like it ! I cannot exactly explain why I did not like it 12 years ago and I'm very enthusiastic about it now. It is still heavy (weight comes close to 40 kg) and the model is the same after all these years, but still ....
I have 8 bicycles in my garage, but the Alleweder has the biggest milage of them all.
Definitely a late love !

mirrors and grip

When I first bought the Alleweder, it had only an original left mirror, that aerodynamic one. The view was way too limited and one sided only, so I removed it quickly. I asked the guys from Velomobiel.nl to put 2 new mirrors on my Alleweder, the same they use for their velomobiles. The hole that was left after removing the original mirror, was covered with reflective white foil. I put the reflective foil both on the left and the right side, to keep things symmetrical. Although the new mirrors are likely to be less aerodynamic than the original one, rear view on both sides has improved dramatically !

I also soon discovered that you ‘re not only supposed to ride your velomobile, but also you have to manoeuver it from time to time. In the beginning I used to lift the Alleweder by the tail just above the tail light, but that was not practical at all.

I remembered that I once saw a picture on the internet showing an other Alleweder which had a grip attached at the back. So I shopped for a nice grip which would not look like it is used for furniture en found a stainless steel one. I still think its shape fits the Alleweder well and it comes in handy many times. Not only for parking when arriving at home or at work, but also when a mechanical breakdown prevents you from riding it. This happened to me once in wintertime when the snow piled up so high that I could not drive my Alleweder anymore and I had to walk and push it.

Another big benefit of the grip is that it is providing me an “eye” to lock up the velomobile. Since the grip is attached very solid to the Alleweder, I can use it to secure my Alleweder to almost anything. Not that I feel comfortable leaving my velomobile behind unattended, but just in case I have to, I have the opportunity to do so.

seat

When I bought the Alleweder, it still had the original aluminum seat. It was not comfortable at all, so it had to go. I still had the seat of a Batavus Relaxx lying around somewhere, which was a kind of recumbent I used to ride a couple of years ago. It only took a couple of weeks to get adjusted to that seat and I even took for a cycling holiday, so why not use that seat for the Alleweder. A friend of mine made an extra stick underneath the seat with 2 small plates out of stainless steel, so that we could attach the seat in the original holes in the Alleweder. For the top of the seat, he created a special mount so that we could attach the seat to the top of the back space above the real wheel. It is only mounted with one bolt and I feared that that would not be enough, but so far it did not move an inch. The seat is not adjustable, which is fine since I'm the only one riding the Alleweder.
Recline is around 35 degrees, which suits me fine (I never really measured it).
Because the seat has a mesh back, I never have a wet back. Even in summer a breeze flows through the pedal hole and makes it possible to keep on riding, even in high temperatures.
The seat is a bit heavy (the original weighs a lot less) but is much more comfortable. And that is still the main reason for keeping it.
I'm considering replacing it with the Versatile seat somewhere in the future, which would save me some weight without giving up comfort. But according to Flevobike.nl, their seat is not available seperately yet ....

drive train

When I bought my velomobile, it came with a SACHS 3x7 speed hub, with rear derailleur and thumb shifters on the old Y-model handlebar. I still remembered the main advantages from this kind of speed hub from my trikes, so I really liked that. What I did not like at all, was the rear derailleur. Especially since it was working with a 20” wheel, the chain was way too close to the ground and picked up all kinds of debris.
First things I wanted to change, were the thumb shifters and that handlebar. I had it changed with the bent handlebar that is used in the Quest and the Mango and had that one equipped with twist shifters. The bent handlebar was a big improvement, the twist shifters not really. As soon as my hands started sweating a little bit, I could hardly twist the shifters at all. This made me wear bicycle gloves while riding my velomobile, not a good thing, so I needed to change that.
I also needed some changes for the chain line. From the 21 speeds I had, I only used 3 or 4 at the max. I live in a real flat area and since the Alleweder is mainly used for commuting, I started looking for an internal speed hub.
I almost immediately ruled out the Rohloff hub, both for its high price and because for the mixed reviews I read about it. We have a couple of regular bicycles which came equipped with the SHIMANO 7-speed NEXUS hub and they have been working for years without any malfunction. And around the same time, SHIMANO launched their new 8-speed hub, so I decided to go for that one.
So I took my velomobile all the way to Dronten again to have Velomobile.nl install this new hub. I also asked them to make a cover for the chain after installing the hub, so it would be protected from the elements as much as possible. The only part of the chain that still is exposed, is the part running through the pedal hole in the bottom, but it does not seem pick up that much dirt.
Of course this way the chain line has a little more friction, but I cannot say it slowed me down much. My regular average speed is still between 30 en 33 km/h, which suits me fine. I probably could ride faster than that, but I do not feel the need to do so. That only happens occasionally when another biker is trying to pass me or when I want to pass another rider.

So far, I cannot say anything bad about changing to the NEXUS hub : it did not slow me down and the twist shifter is much easier to use (no more bike gloves !), even on hot summer days. And of course the luxury of being able to change gears while standing still, no derailleur can compete with that !

A lot of people are claiming that the SHIMANO hubs are simply not good enough to be used with recumbents/velomobiles. I can only tell you this : the hub in my Alleweder has been there for + 5000 km without any malfunctions, and I am not a light rider. Together with my Alleweder we’re talking about a weight of + 120 kg, which is not light in my book and so far the hub held up well. I guess only future will tell, but I’m not really concerned about the hub letting me down (knocking on wood right now !).

tires

After all the main changes, I put 3 Vredestein Monte Carlo's on my Alleweder. I used to have them on my previous trikes and they are very puncture proof. They are not so comfortable, but since the Alleweder has suspension on all it wheels, it was not much of a deal. Soon however I discovered that the rear wheel had a tendency to slip on sandy and wet surfaces. So I went looking for a tire with some more grip and found the Vredestein G-Ribs. This tire is a bit wider and has lateral ribs (hence the name !) that improve traction. Because the G-Ribs are not that puncture proof, I added an tire liner between the tire and the inner tube. Of course this adds some weight, but it did not slow me down noticeably. The only disadvantage was that this tire did not last that long : after 4550 km I already had to replace it (all the ribs were gone by that time).

Than almost 2 years ago, Schwalbe came out with their Big Apples, a real big, wide tire. The BA's also claimed to have some kind of puncture prone layer.
Like I mentioned before : I used to ride the Monte Carlo's on my trikes, but they lacked comfort. Ian Sims from Greenspeed suggested mounting Tioga Comp Pools instead, and that made a world of difference ! Handling was so much better on the trike, smoother and not that harsh. Only problem with the Comp Pools was that they were not puncture protected.
So when the time came to replace the rear tire of my Alleweder, I changed all 3 tires and replaced them with Big Apples. I could only use the 2.00 wide version, for there was not much room left in front.
So far I've only ridden them for 1000 km, but it is a big improvement ! The Alleweder rides much smoother and when riding through potholes etc it is less noisy. Only the rear tire has a tire liner so far and I have no plans to put some in the front . So far, I've only had one flat tire in front the night after I put it in my garage, which is not too bad. The Big Apple has a little bit more traction than the Monte Carlo, but less than the G-Ribs.

Because the Big Apples are wide , they stick out more than my previous tires, meaning more dirt is thrown up sideways, specially when it's raining. Therefore, I had some mud flaps installed by the guys from Velomobiel.nl. These are only temporary, for I do not like the looks of it at all, but they do work excellent : no more dirt is thrown up sideways. They are going to be replaced by new ones that will have much better looks. To be continued !

reflection

When I fist bought my Alleweder, it was already painted in that red color ("roover-red" is the correct name of that color). That was not bad, I only found it a little bit boring, especially with the black nose cone. To paint that in exactly the same color as the rest of the bike, was impossible (it was painted with car paint and a complete reddish velomobile did not look too good either). One day when out shopping at the mall I came across a row of paint spray cans. When I saw the silver color, I knew that I wanted that one. It is pretty neutral compared to the other colors and it kind of breaks all the red.
I also wanted a logo on the flanks and after looking at several of them, I chose the one from Monster Inc. All of its colors are reflective, even the black.
Because only the logo was not sufficient enough, I decided to experiment with reflective white foil squares. I wanted everything in such a way that at night, every road user would have a pretty good view on the dimensions of my velomobile. For the same reason I also used some squares at the back below the tail light.
I also put some reflective dots on the wheelcovers. They serve a dual purpose : not only do they “move” when riding it at night, which attracks a little more attention, they also let me know where the valves of the inner tubes are placed behind the covers. When I need to check tire pressure or inflate the tires, I never need to search for the valves. This comes in pretty handy, especially for the rear wheel !
I still like the complete look of my “monstermobile” and hope it will last for a couple of years to come ....