I own a velomobile, which is a three-wheels recumbent tricycle with a hard shell. It is a tadpole configuration with two wheels in front and one at the rear. I had it for over six years and always have a concern regarding rear tire blowout. It never happens to me but many people owning a velomobile have scary experience with rear tire blowout. It loses
lateral stability once rear tire loses traction. The Aptera has a similar configuration. I wonder your design team looks into the rear tire blowout sceneraio or not.
Thanks for sharing. Hopefully someone from Aptera could share their experiences and/ or insight.
As far as the tire...they had on the 2009 prototype..it was an air tire, size: P165/65R14
I haven’t seen a tire specification on the new vehicle. I never owned a run flat tire, if that helps..but any air tire can blowout.
Maybe another ”vote” for the airless tire if viable?!🤞
Oooo! You have a Quest? I am very jealous. In my avatar, the red vehicle is a better.bike PEBL, which is a much more upright electric/pedal reverse trike. I have about 2,500 miles on it in the year+ I have had it.
No flats, so far.
Fantastic velomobile. I have been a huge fan of those vehicles for a long time. Even had thoughts of starting a velomoblie company myself, but low in funds sadly. You bring up a good point about the rear wheel of the Aptera. Maybe with the vehicle being AWD it can cleverly adjust for loss of control in a situation like you mention. But this is a guess
Possibly some stability control over the two front wheel motors would compensate.
Still working on my FAW+ with Graphite/Epoxy skins instead of aluminum...it has been a 9+ years project. I'd want to know all about rear tire blow out...want to get this carbon fiber FAW+ on the road this summer.
The Rotovello becomes very directionally unstable when the rear tire loses air pressure. In one way it acts as an early warning tire pressure alarm system.
I'd vote for airfree tires. I have them on my citezen bicycle, Polaris has them on their ATV. A flat is a rear problem on a 3 wheel vehicle. Most cars today don't even have a spare or a jack at all. It's time for air free tires.
🙏 let‘s watch Michelin’s testing on their airless on the Chevy Bolt
If it works they could be available by 2023 at least for the Bolt. As you know... the Aptera is much lighter. Again Aptera has to focus on launching the vehicle and can’t get into too much new technology yet, nor do they have spare vehicles for their party testing😉