Mal Veale Cargo Bike
2004-02-22 08:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
archershipshttp://www.pedalpushers.org.uk/veal/
Three Wheels on My Wagon
Four years ago, Mal Veale had a revelation. Mal is a full time self-employed builder and joiner, and part time designer, eco-artisan and human powered vehicle factory.
"I had a three ton van, and I realised most of the time I was using it to carry about 100kg of stuff," Mal recalls. This set him thinking. For a man with a clutch of sheds and garages, several deconstructed bicycles and a pair of welders goggles, the outcome was inevitable: the Vealemobile.
Mal, in fact, doesn't go in for fancy names. He calls it the general purpose load carrying or haulage vehicle. But as he puts the finishing touches to the fourth prototype, following product testing in York, he knows a catchier name for his extraordinary tricycle will one day be necessary. For the moment the Vealemobile, as it's known by several of its admirers, will have to suffice.
Mal's first trip on VM1 in 1997 was spectacular, if not exactly propitious. He fell off as the tricycle span out of control after he'd finished work early one morning. "I hadn't ridden a tricycle since I was
about seven, so I should have expected it really," he says.
The machine was soon up and running again, with redesigned seating arrangements (a hammock), and before long, Mal was using VM1 for most of his load carrying chores. The tricycle carries timber, doors, gates, sand and cement, or after work, a week's shopping or a handful of friends.
"It can actually carry 150kg of stuff up a one in ten gradient, and in terms of size it will take things up to two metres long and one and half metre across," says Mal. For example, a settee, he adds. Or a single bed. Or two or three fridges.
Living in Meersbrook, he made sure there were plenty of low gears. By way of demonstration, he nimbly leaps onto VM2 and transports his more conventional tricycle to the top of the hill and back again, without hesitation, deviation or perspiration.
After a couple of years of product development in Sheffield, VM3 has spent the spring in York, being put through its paces by the Wheel Alternatives cycle courier company. York is, of course, the cycling capital of the UK,and organisations like Wheel Alternatives are springing up amongst the
city's cycle evangelists to make use of the city's flat terrain and vast cycle route network to offer a cost effective alternative to white van based businesses, delivering packages of all kinds, including the city's
evening newspaper.
Mal believes his own design offers a faster and more versatile alternative to the often bulky and slow load carrying bikes and trikes on offer up to now, and hopes eventually to sell the machine to companies like Wheel Alternatives, or other organisations with a need for "short haul" transportation. By which he means
up to 15 miles or so.
VM4 is a little narrower and more manageable than the previous incarnations, and after consultation with his road testers, Mal is working on waterproofing measures to protect the machine's cargo. The
inspirational netting design of the trike's load carrying area works beautifully. "If you've been shopping, you just throw your bags in and off you go," says Mal.
"For any short haul job it's ideal," he says. "For example, it's great for carrying your mates home from the pub."
Mal has a couple of home made recumbent bicycles in one of his sheds -designed to minimise wind resistance by offering a recumbent riding position - together with a traditional tricycle, a portable stall in a cycle trailer for the Pedal Pushers cycle campaign, a half built trailer for the VealeMobile (which will take its capacity up to 250kg) and the first stage of Mal's wood, magnet and bits of bike frame human powered generator, which he hopes will be capable of producing up to 500w to run a
decent sized sound system.
He even has a "safety bicycle", he says, which for those not in the human powered vehicle manufacturing business, is the official name for the two wheeled sit in the middle pedal powered machine, mountain, racing or otherwise, familiar to students, commuters and participants in the Tour de France.
But after all his other experiments, he's hoping the VM4 will finally become the saleable culmination of four years' work. "I'm open for business, " he says.
The Vealemobile is light, surprisingly easy to load and manoeuvre, and will go up to 20mph - "It's a lorry, not a racing bike," Mal concedes. The final version of the tricycle, the one he hopes will soon be used for deliveries in York, will be on the market soon. With eight weeks notice, he'll make one for anyone, he says, at a cost of around 1,800 pounds.
Compared to a second hand white van, it's a bargain. And there are no worries about petrol prices, or parking, Mal adds.
One day, he says, he'd like to build bicycles and tricycles full time.Until then, he'll keep tinkering in his sheds, and happily smiling to drivers of three ton petrol powered personal transport systems as he pedals planks of wood and bags of cement up and down the hills of Meersbrook.
And in the meantime, if you need a couple of fridges shifting, in neighbour impressive style, you know where to go.
* Mal Veale can be contacted on Sheffield 2205036
© David Bocking . Web Design: Ian Loasby
Return to Pedalpushers Home Page
Three Wheels on My Wagon
Four years ago, Mal Veale had a revelation. Mal is a full time self-employed builder and joiner, and part time designer, eco-artisan and human powered vehicle factory.
"I had a three ton van, and I realised most of the time I was using it to carry about 100kg of stuff," Mal recalls. This set him thinking. For a man with a clutch of sheds and garages, several deconstructed bicycles and a pair of welders goggles, the outcome was inevitable: the Vealemobile.
Mal, in fact, doesn't go in for fancy names. He calls it the general purpose load carrying or haulage vehicle. But as he puts the finishing touches to the fourth prototype, following product testing in York, he knows a catchier name for his extraordinary tricycle will one day be necessary. For the moment the Vealemobile, as it's known by several of its admirers, will have to suffice.
Mal's first trip on VM1 in 1997 was spectacular, if not exactly propitious. He fell off as the tricycle span out of control after he'd finished work early one morning. "I hadn't ridden a tricycle since I was
about seven, so I should have expected it really," he says.
The machine was soon up and running again, with redesigned seating arrangements (a hammock), and before long, Mal was using VM1 for most of his load carrying chores. The tricycle carries timber, doors, gates, sand and cement, or after work, a week's shopping or a handful of friends.
"It can actually carry 150kg of stuff up a one in ten gradient, and in terms of size it will take things up to two metres long and one and half metre across," says Mal. For example, a settee, he adds. Or a single bed. Or two or three fridges.
Living in Meersbrook, he made sure there were plenty of low gears. By way of demonstration, he nimbly leaps onto VM2 and transports his more conventional tricycle to the top of the hill and back again, without hesitation, deviation or perspiration.
After a couple of years of product development in Sheffield, VM3 has spent the spring in York, being put through its paces by the Wheel Alternatives cycle courier company. York is, of course, the cycling capital of the UK,and organisations like Wheel Alternatives are springing up amongst the
city's cycle evangelists to make use of the city's flat terrain and vast cycle route network to offer a cost effective alternative to white van based businesses, delivering packages of all kinds, including the city's
evening newspaper.
Mal believes his own design offers a faster and more versatile alternative to the often bulky and slow load carrying bikes and trikes on offer up to now, and hopes eventually to sell the machine to companies like Wheel Alternatives, or other organisations with a need for "short haul" transportation. By which he means
up to 15 miles or so.
VM4 is a little narrower and more manageable than the previous incarnations, and after consultation with his road testers, Mal is working on waterproofing measures to protect the machine's cargo. The
inspirational netting design of the trike's load carrying area works beautifully. "If you've been shopping, you just throw your bags in and off you go," says Mal.
"For any short haul job it's ideal," he says. "For example, it's great for carrying your mates home from the pub."
Mal has a couple of home made recumbent bicycles in one of his sheds -designed to minimise wind resistance by offering a recumbent riding position - together with a traditional tricycle, a portable stall in a cycle trailer for the Pedal Pushers cycle campaign, a half built trailer for the VealeMobile (which will take its capacity up to 250kg) and the first stage of Mal's wood, magnet and bits of bike frame human powered generator, which he hopes will be capable of producing up to 500w to run a
decent sized sound system.
He even has a "safety bicycle", he says, which for those not in the human powered vehicle manufacturing business, is the official name for the two wheeled sit in the middle pedal powered machine, mountain, racing or otherwise, familiar to students, commuters and participants in the Tour de France.
But after all his other experiments, he's hoping the VM4 will finally become the saleable culmination of four years' work. "I'm open for business, " he says.
The Vealemobile is light, surprisingly easy to load and manoeuvre, and will go up to 20mph - "It's a lorry, not a racing bike," Mal concedes. The final version of the tricycle, the one he hopes will soon be used for deliveries in York, will be on the market soon. With eight weeks notice, he'll make one for anyone, he says, at a cost of around 1,800 pounds.
Compared to a second hand white van, it's a bargain. And there are no worries about petrol prices, or parking, Mal adds.
One day, he says, he'd like to build bicycles and tricycles full time.Until then, he'll keep tinkering in his sheds, and happily smiling to drivers of three ton petrol powered personal transport systems as he pedals planks of wood and bags of cement up and down the hills of Meersbrook.
And in the meantime, if you need a couple of fridges shifting, in neighbour impressive style, you know where to go.
* Mal Veale can be contacted on Sheffield 2205036
© David Bocking . Web Design: Ian Loasby
Return to Pedalpushers Home Page
no subject
Date: 2004-02-23 01:57 pm (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-23 04:50 pm (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-23 05:00 pm (UTC)My friend's father BUILT one of those.
no subject
Date: 2004-02-23 04:44 pm (UTC)about seven, so I should have expected it really," he says.
Bahaha. I have a friend who did that, only the tricycle was motor-powered and really goddamn heavy. Threw him off and broke his wrist and leg.