No Camber Tests

From the Sunday Times 17th June 2012

We had a nice bit of publicity from the World Championships at Fowlmead in the Sunday times last weekend, although not totally complimentary about Quattro. “a four-wheeled recumbent of such comical appearance that you’d think it belonged to a low-budget 1950 ski-fi film". But there is no such thing as bad publicity and a two page spread in a national newspaper can only help our cause.

Kingpin Bent to Eliminate Camber (Do not try his at home)

New Fatter UJ Ring

UJ with Eight Bearings Fitted

I made some new double depth UJ rings that can now take eight bearings rather than four and a new slightly shorter and hollow drive shaft. I was still running the same 19mm diameter solid steel one that was made for me half way across America.

So Steve and I set off to Reading Velodrome again to test the new setup.



No Camber and 145mm Ground Clearance

Interestingly I have ended up with about 145mm ground clearance, any less, and the wheels would rub on the fairing.

The initial conclusion from the testing was that there was little change; I was able to maintain 30mph (48kph) reasonably comfortably with a number of laps at 32mph (51kph). We did try taping up the nose vent and that did seem to help the speed a little. I left Reading feeling disappointed that there wasn’t a dramatic increase in speed but when we got back to work, I noticed that yet again, one of the tyres was completely flat and just like at Fowlmead, it was caused by a piece of metal and I have no idea what effect it had on the testing. This means that a return trip is needed to repeat the tests.

Lee Wakefield sent me a link to an interesting looking device that wirelessly monitors tyre pressures; it is designed for trucks but would work just as well on Quattro.

http://www.tyrepal.co.uk/products/tyrepal-td1200

Tyre Presure Monotor

The trouble is that at the moment, our tests on Quattro are not very scientific; it may be possible to see a large improvement but any small changes in performance could go un-noticed. I do have a very old pair of SRM Cranks that are in Germany, being updated and calibrated. I am not sure they will be of much use for my Quattro because of the very narrow custom chainset. Graham Sparey-Taylor’s Quattro may be easier to adapt as he has a more standard bottom bracket arrangement and he has also made provision for an electric motor, which could also be used to give a constant power input.

STOP PRESS

Following his recent success, newly crowned World Champion Steve Slade has been offered a lucrative sponsorship deal with Raleigh Cycles and is seen here modelling his new team strip.