Dear PodRide Supporter,

Time for another update on PodRide’s development, just in time for Christmas.

NEW PROTOTYPES

We’ve been quiet, but working towards the production of new prototypes. We experienced some unexpected and significant technical problems in changing the format of our 3D models from that produced by our designer to that used by our guys producing the many detailed 2D drawings required for manufacturing. In the end we got it sorted out and now have three companies providing quotations for building the PodRide frames, both prototype and production. These quotations require a considerable effort on the part of the manufacturer to quote on. (About a two month turnaround). We have received one quote back and expect the other two in the next two weeks or so. We will then choose our frame maker and begin manufacturing of three prototype rolling chassis.

During this time we also made some changes that greatly simplify the ability to upgrade from a non-electric version of PodRide to an electric version. This provides those that purchase a non-electric version of PodRide an easy upgrade path to electric if their needs change going forward.

We have also redesigned the seat for PodRide making it much lighter, and allowing adjustment of the recline angle via a quick release mechanism, and can even fold the seat all the way forward allowing easy access to the rear cargo bay behind the seat. We also added a quick release mechanism to adjust the seat position back and forwards in relation to the pedals. (The original prototype seat was fixed in place, had a fixed recline angle and was significantly heavier.)

DRIVE TRAIN

We would like to let you know more about the proposed design of the drive train on PodRide. As we mentioned in our last update, we removed the mid-drive motor to provide more room for your feet. (By reducing the Q factor.)

The new design has the pedals/crankset going to a hub motor, to the gearbox, thought to the differential, which drives the rear axle and rear wheels. This design makes it easy add or remove a motor in the configuration, and we have been able to achieve this without requiring a different chain path or additional jockey wheels for motorized and non-motorized PodRides.

Using a hub motor makes it a little cheaper than a mid-drive, and makes it quite simple to swap out to a more powerful motor if regulations change in the future.

This design also allows us flexibility with gears and the crankset.

ENVIOLO CONTINUOUSLY VARIABLE TRANSMISSION (CVT)

With regards gears we have evaluated many options and chosen the Enviolo Cargo CVT Hub (formerly Nuvinci). This is Enviolo’s heavy duty Continually Variable Transmission (internal geared hub) with a 380 % ratio range. Instead of having an exposed cassette of gears as found on most bikes, the gear mechanisms are fully enclosed and protected from damaging dirt and water, and are maintenance free. Also there are no fixed gears like on a cassette that make gear changes clunky. Instead you can glide up and down the gear range, silky smooth. You can even change gears while stopped at an intersection.. try doing that with regular gears. There will also be the option of a fully automatic gear changing, so you set your preferred pedal cadence, and the gearing will automatically change so you can pedal at the same pace even up or down hill, and optimize your enjoyment.

OPTIONAL EFNEO GTRO 3 SPEED FRONT GEARBOX

PodRide will come with a standard set of pedals and cranks up front, but we will also provide the upgrade option of the Efneo GTRO geared crankset. This is a 3 speed crankset which in combination with the Eviolo Cargo Hub allows you to more easily tackle hills and get a higher top speed from pedalling. We recommend this option for those considering 4 wheel PodRide without an electric motor, and/or those that live in hilly areas.

The GTRO gives you the equivalent of 3 chainrings in one, and like the Eviolo CVT, the GTRO has a sealed and protected mechanism, and you can change gears under load.

If you choose to have the Efneo gearbox up front, this has a 1.8 times multiplying effect on the Enviolo CVT gearbox taking the gear range from 380% to 684%. That’s like having a 11-75 tooth cassette!

Regarding the hub motor, we have selected a Bafang motor, due to the fact that they provide great value for money and have good support internationally. Rather than going for the lightest motor, we have selected a heavier unit that is stronger and less susceptible to burn out.

We’re excited about PodRide’s drive train and hope you will be too. It’s designed to be capable, reliable and require minimum maintenance. You can find out more about these components via the links below..

Enviolo CVT Overview video: https://youtu.be/7QQQQGWnYPU

Eviolo Automatic Gear Shifting video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxNEeG26hTM

Efneo GTRO Product Review:  https://road.cc/content/review/227796-efneo-gtro-3-speed-front-gearbox

OTHER HAPPENINGS

1.  NEW OFFICE

PodRide now has an office in a startup hub that is sponsored by Audi. The facility has a bunch of shipping containers that have been converted into offices. This provides us with a small but adequate office from which to work, so we have somewhere to keep the prototype and all the sample components. The best news is that because of the sponsorship it’s rent free, just a small monthly management fee and outgoings.

2. NEW TEAM MEMBER – JOANNE

We have been very lucky to secure the services of a highly experienced supply chain expert that has 15 years experience in the bike industry working for some of the world’s leading bike brands managing suppliers/factories, production and QC. Joanne will help us significantly with the development and manufacturing of PodRide.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR

The team at PodRide would like to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. (Or whatever other occasion that you might celebrate at this time of year.)

Dear PodRide Supporter,

Time for another update on PodRide’s development. We’re happy to report that we’re making good progress.

In April we mentioned that we had brought on a new team member in Mike Singleton whose mandate was to reduce the number of components, complexity, cost and weight of PodRide. We also mentioned that he was making good progress in these areas.

We have essentially completed the design simplification of PodRide’s core chassis and other components such as steering etc., required to put together a working “rolling chassis”.  In the new design the weight of these items has been reduced by 50%, and due to reduced number of components and manufacturing processes, we expect that associated costs will also be reduced.

Since our last update, we’ve also added James to the PodRide team. James is a highly skilled engineer with automotive and extensive Finite Element Analysis (FEA) experience.

James has spent several weeks performing many different computer simulations to stress test PodRide to determine any points of concern. One of the tests simulates a fully loaded PodRide, with passenger and cargo total combined weight of 230 kgs, allowing 60kgs for PodRide itself) hitting a 5cm bump over 750,000 times to determine if and where the frame may suffer fatigue cracking over time. PodRide did very well with this and other simulations, requiring only a few minor changes to the design to further strengthen the chassis.

INVESTMENT
In other news, we’ve raised additional investment in PodRide which will allow us to dive straight in to prototyping! We are now working with our frame builder to develop a number of prototype chassis that will allow us to build some rolling chassis prototypes. With these prototypes we will perform real world testing, lab testing and further development of the other components for the upper body, canopy etc.

We still need to raise further investment to get through to production and release, so if you are, or you know someone that is a qualified investor that can invest a minimum of €50,000, please let them know about PodRide and have them contact us at investor@mypodride.com for more details. Our CEO David is speaking with potential investors to present the PodRide investment opportunity.

PODRIDE PRICING
We are getting closer to being at a point where we can put together a new Bill of Materials that we can be confident in. Once we have this finalized we will be able to provide some pricing details on PodRide. It’s worth noting that there will be a range of pricing, as we are going to offer PodRide in a number of different configurations, including with and without motor, and with and without upper body. We even plan to offer PodRide in a raw rolling chassis version so that 3rd party companies (or individuals) can use PodRide as a platform to build their own cabin or other product extrapolations from the core PodRide platform.

A COUPLE OF OTHER THINGS (SOMEWHAT TECHNICAL)… 
Some of you may spot in the image below of the rolling chassis that we have removed the mid-drive motor from the design and instead put a hub motor in the drive train between the pedals and the gearbox. This allowed us to reduce the “Q factor” (this is the distance between the pedal attachment points on the crank arms, when measured parallel to the bottom bracket axle). This change allowed us to provide more foot room to make pedalling more comfortable. (Whilst in a regular open quad or trike there are usually no problems, space is at a premium inside a velomobile.)

Another change that we made is that we put a connection plate where the rear end of PodRide (which essentially comprises the rear swingarm/axle, suspension and the cargo support section) connects to the front section of PodRide. This modification provides us with more flexibility for the future to relatively simply and cost effectively create a longer wheelbase version of PodRide later for a full 2 seater or Cargo PodRide version.

The model here shows what the core rolling chassis prototypes will look like.  (Note this does not show any of the framework required for the upper or lower body that gives PodRide it’s weather protection and unique style.

PLEASE NOTE: Whilst we have completely redesigned the underlying chassis and other components of PodRide, when the full body is fitted to PodRide it will look very similar to the original PodRide, but will be a far better vehicle in so many, many ways.

The image below is taken from our FEA report and it shows the cargo and rear section of PodRide, after running a simulation of PodRide (fully laden) encountering 750,000 shock cycles over a 5cm bump in the road. The industry standard test is for a 1cm bump in the road, we increased that by 500%, and as can be clearly seen in the image, PodRide is well engineered to cope with such stress. Our next update should show you some prototypes in the real world.

THANK YOU
We want to thank you again for your ongoing support. We’re continuing to move forward, and we’re building a better and more affordable PodRide.

Regards 

PodRide Team

Dear PodRide Supporter,

Time for another update on PodRide’s development.

In our last update we mentioned that we were not satisfied with the high number of custom parts and the associated complexity in the PodRide design. The design had too many custom components, which translates to higher production costs, more manufacturing and assembly issues, a higher retail price, more spare parts & support, and overall not a good thing.

To address this matter, we brought on a new team member in Mike Singleton. Mike’s mandate is to lower the parts count, lower the weight, and greatly simplify the design so we can produce and sell PodRide at a lower price. There is still much to do, but Mike is making good progress and a real impact on the PodRide design. By the time we are finished, we may achieve a reduction in the number custom components in the vicinity of 25 to 40%.

In addition, the design has been modified to greatly simplify many components so that they can be produced in fewer manufacturing processes – again reducing complexity and cost.  (Please note: that these design changes are “under the bonnet”, and PodRide will still very much look and perform like PodRide from the outside.)

To provide you with a better insight into the type problems that we’re solving, here are a couple of examples.

1. Upper Body Tube Joining:
A major issue in the manufacturing of PodRide is the assembly of all the tubes in the upper body that form the shape of PodRide. In the prototype, and in the previous CAD models we were using joiner plates that were made from metal which is cut and bent to the needs of each join. These are relatively simple to make, but a significant issue comes from drilling and precisely lining up all the corresponding holes in each tube that needs to be joined. This method also requires a huge amount of rivets or other fasteners to assemble the framework.

To greatly simplify upper body assembly we have designed a far simpler and more effective means to join the tubes. It involves a simple “branch” piece molded to suit the number and orientation of tubes that form the join, then we have “buds” or “tube connectors” at the end of each branch. This provides a simple mechanism to clamp and hold the tubes in place, without the need for drilling any holes, or using any rivets or other fasteners. This new design will make assembly much faster, easier and cost effective.

This diagram shows how a join was handled on the original design and PodRide prototype with joiner plates..

Shown below is our new approach to joining tubes. With the new connector we negate the need for any holes to be drilled in the tubes or the connectors, and remove the associated precision and alignment issues, making assembly much faster and simpler. It’s also much better visually. The tubes get inserted into the bud and a threaded compression coupler is used to squeeze down and lock the tubes in place.

 

Rear Swingarm:
Another example of our design simplification is seen in the rear swingarm that holds the axle for the rear wheels. We have simplified the design, removed elaborate tube bends, reduced the complexity in the welding, and the number of manufacturing processes. We achieve the same functionality but with a cheaper and stronger component, that is 35% lighter!

This is the original design for the rear swingarm.

 

The new design utilizes simpler components, reducing manufacturing costs and simplifying welding/assembly.

So in summary we are happy with the progress that we are making in the simplification of PodRide with the goal of making PodRide more affordable for more people.

Investment:
Our other priority right now is raising investment needed to fund the completion of product development & testing, and then begin manufacturing.

We are getting closer to production, but can’t do it without additional funding. We are now actively seeking investors to help us get PodRide on the market. Our CEO David is speaking with potential investors to present the PodRide investment opportunity. If you know someone that is a qualified investor that could invest a minimum of €50,000, please let them know about PodRide and have them contact us at investor@mypodride.com for more details.

Thank you for your ongoing support.

David, Mikael and the PodRide Team