Rob English's commuter velomobiles

I really enjoyed this piece by Rob English on the ‘velomobiles’ he uses for his commute to work.

English is one of the best bicycle frame-builders in the US. Owning an English bike is one of my bucket-list dreams — his frames are not only beautiful, but I also love his iconoclastic approach to design. Never one to blindly accept common knowledge, he has this wonderful way of looking at problems differently. He has a knack for looking hard at the data, the context, and the history, and finding different solutions. The bikes that come out of his shop are often quirky and, just as often, serve as fascinating counterpoints to industry trends.

Case in point: I’ve seen ‘velomobiles’ — human-powered, recumbent tricycles with full fairings and windscreens — before, but usually in a racing context, e.g. land speed records on salt flats, etc. But I’ve never thought of them as a commuter vehicle before. English makes awfully good points: compared to traditional bicycles, they offer better weather and crash protection, more storage, and better stability on slippery surfaces.

I try to use my bike as transportation as much as I can — for grocery runs and other errands — but it’s definitely harder-going in the winter. By February I usually have a sinus infection and, after one too many close calls with black ice, I’ll have given in to the lure of my car’s heated seats. Maybe English’s velomobiles are a glimpse of a better way.