Velomobile Seminar 2012 – Secondhand Reportage

7th Velomobile Seminar

By all accounts the seminar and tour went very well.

Photo of Dronten Mayor in DuoQuestThere was a favourable report in the Dutch press and, the Mayor of Dronten, after describing industry as, “These are people who look at life differently. They do not wait, but just do it,” himself joined the tour, riding for a short way in the DuoQuest.

The official 2012 Velomobile Seminar blog, among other things, concluded that:

  • Both the Location in Dronten and the Venue, der Meerpaal were ideal.
  • Organisation and support were excellent
  • The tour
    • had good weather
    • was a well chosen route
    • and was a good advert for the velomobile
  • The Mayor of Dronten gave an inspiring speech

Reading between the lines, and from comments on other sites, there are plans to do it again, and sooner rather than later!

Fietsdiensten.nl, a Dutch site dedicated to the promotion of cycles as a realistic alternative to motorised vehicles, have a page covering the Seminar including links to several photo galleries.

Photo of a row of velomobiles on tour

A pretty thorough report, courtesy of Google Translate, is on Theo van Goor’s blog.

The seminar itself had a mixture of presentations, something for everyone, ranging from practical reports through to social theory and in depth technical papers.  It is expected that the proceedings of the seminar will be made available on the Seminar Website.  A few papers and slides were already available for download via the program page and a couple of Power Point slide presentations of papers are also available from the presenter’s own websites.

First, Wim Schermer’s paper on the Velo Tilt concept velomobile, to be built on the Fast FWD Munzo tilting trike, is available as a series of images on his blog.  CAD generated photoreal image of Velo Tilt

Second, Titus van der Brink’s presentation on the development of his Plywood Velomobile, is available as a .ppt download from his original post.  He also has some brief comments on the Seminar.Photo of Plywood Velomobile Prototype 2

Alexander Vittouris and Mark Richardson from Australia, whose paper is already available, took the sustainability idea of the velomobile to the next level with a paper presenting ideas for bamboo construction.

The seminar concluded with what sounds like a very interesting presentation by Miles Kingsbury covering many of his projects of the last 40 years.  Naturally his Quattro four wheel velomobile which travelled across the US in the ROAM of 2011 was featured.CAD image of Quattro Velomobile

7th International Velomobile Seminar

7th Velomobile SeminarThere are a number of events of both cycling and velomobile interest in the next few weeks. Of particular interest this year is the 7th International Velomobile Seminar to be held in Dronten in the Netherlands. Velomobiles.co.uk is pleased to announce that we are registered to attend and expect to be able to report on all aspects.

Dronten is home to 3 of the 4 principal Dutch Velomobile Manufacturers, Velomobiel, Alligt and Flevobike, so the location makes perfect sence. The venue is De Meerpaal, a large event and conference centre, which is located in the centre of Dronten, not far from the town bus station.

The seminars have been held periodically since 1993 and serve to bring together manufacturers, users, policy makers and any one else with in interest in human powered transport and velomobiles in particular. The purpose being to share knowledge and best practice in both technical aspects and also social acceptance of the velomobile concept.

Number Location Year
1st Copenhagen, DK 1993
2nd Laupen Castle, CH 1994
3rd Roskilde, DK 1998
4th Intelaken, CH 1999
5th Gemersheim, DE 2004
6th Copenhagen, DK 2009
7th Dronten, NL 2012

This year’s event builds on previous seminars with two days of papers and presentations followed by a social gathering, at which there will be an attempt to break the Guinness World Record of the number of velomobiles gathered in one place. According to the provisional schedule Day 1 (6th September) focuses on the social and environmental aspects, particularly the World Class Dutch Infrastructure. Day 2 (7th September) is dedicated to technical presentations. Day 3 (8th September) hosts the record attempt and a velomobile tour.

Along side the seminar there will be an exhibition space both for the trade and enthusiasts with home builders welcome to exhibit their creations.

Registration for the event is not difficult, though it is a bit convoluted. You must first register an identity on the Dutch HPV Association website ligtfiets.net, which then allows you to subscribe on the event pages for either the seminar or the social gathering. Of course you are welcome to register for both! Payment details are then emailed to you. Preferred payment is by bank transfer and it was here that I had some difficulty, as my UK bank was requesting more information than was available in the registration email. Since it is Velomobiel that are providing the payment service for seminar registration, I was able to communicate with Ymte Sijbrandij directly, and complete my payment via Paypal.

So check back here on the 6th, 7th & 8th of September for our view from the centre of the velomobile world.