New England Human Powered Vehicle Rally

Hi Folks,
Just a quick note to let you know that the 2005 New England HPV rally is coming up on Oct. 8 in Hatfield, Massachusetts.

So far it appears that a number of people will be coming with their velomobiles - I'll be there with the Quest, There will probably be a couple of Mangos there, and a fellow from Buffalo, NY will be there with his new Versatile, and possibly a kit built flevobike Alleweder that he has ordered from Velomobile USA. At this point I don't have anyone registered that intends to bring other types of cycles, but the event is intended to showcase all types of Human Powered Vehicles.

Please visit my website - www.velomobiles.net for additional information and registration details.

The event is being done in conjunction with the Hatfield Lions club, and proceeds from food sales will go to the charities they support. Proceeds from the rally registrations and T-shirt sales will go towards the Wildfire HPV velomobile project.

Feel free to email back with any questions

Hope to see you in October!

regards,
-Ethan Davis

I've never seen one of these here in Michigan, are they single rider units only?

hope that's not a dumb question, you have sparked my interest, I'm going to check into these. thanks for the info.!!

Not a dumb question at all!
There are a fair number of recumbent tandem bikes and trikes, and even a couple sociable (side by side) recumbent tandem trikes in production. As for tandem velomobiles, at present there are almost none, but right after WWII, when Europe was recovering from the war and resources were scarce, such machines were built, along with numerous microcars. In fact there is a microcar museum in GA that has a few of these post WWII era Velomobiles. I haven't had the opportunity to spend much time at their website yet, though to find out more.
The only thing that comes close to a tandem velomobile that is currently in production is the Twike, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administratin (NHTSA) in their infiinite wisdom has seen fit to prohbiit these from the roads in the US. In spite of this (guess they don't have their own police officers to enforce their edicts) several people have been able to import and use them in some states. The Twike isn't a true human powered vehicle, though, since it's powerful electric motor and supporting batteries make it so heavy that human power makes at most a 10% contribution to moving it around.

cheers,
-Ethan

with all the gas problems facing us, it seems that the NHTSA should reconsider it's position on this now..........removing the ban on road use but putting proper restrictions in place may boost interest and developement of new technology.
(such as lights, helmet laws, or a restraint system)

the Twike may not be the answer to this but something more "bike like" may be.