What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of a Velomobile?

A velomobile is generally defined as those funny looking recumbent bicycles with shells around them. The shells can provide a measure of protection against the weather, and can make the vehicle much more aerodynamic. Effectively, this allows you to go faster with less effort than you could on a conventional bicycle.

The advantage of using a velomobile is that you do not need to burn any fossil fuels to get around. You can even get electrical motors to assist you on the hills that are powered by your pedaling actions.

Velomobiles tend to be heavier than bicycles, but due to the aerodynamics they are usually easier to go fast in. They provide much better protection from the weather, and are much more stable.

It is a lot more difficult to roll a three-wheeled velomobile than it is to fall off of a bicycle, and it is extremely unlikely that you are going to be thrown over the handlebars to land on your head. If you do somehow fall off of your bike, you have a much shorter distance to go before you hit the ground from the seat of any recumbent bicycle.

Apparently, they are much more popular in Europe than they are here in the United States. I have seen them before from a distance, but until the last few years I rarely saw one close up unless a friend that owns one happened to drive one over to meet up with us for a run.

They can come in many different shapes and sizes, from completely home made, to ones that use a commercially produced recumbent bicycle that has been retrofitted with a custom shell, to a unit that is purchased directly off the shelf. Well, directly from a store, at any rate.

Velomobiles do have a few drawbacks, however.

First, they are generally lower to the ground than bicycles and are not something that the average driver is going to be looking for. Many riders try to get around this by having a flag on a pole extend up into a driver’s field of vision, but this is still a poor substitute to always being visible.

Second, your head is at the same level as an automobile’s tailpipe, so you will be sucking in all of the pollution from any passing traffic that happens to be driving near you. In the short term, that probably isn’t a very big deal unless traffic is heavy, but it can have some serious long term consequences if you commute regularly in one of these.