What to look for? – Depends on your budget and how much you're willing to invest in repair. Ask s'one w/ a #velomobile near you (or near the seller) for assist.
Today's bike ride included a stop at Groningen Airport Eelde to attend today's protest organised by @extinctionrebellionnl
While normal capitalist businesses are expected to turn a profit or they will go out of business, our local airport receives millions of euros in subsidy each year.
Not only do airlines benefit from not paying any tax at all on the huge quantities of fuel that they burn, but each passenger flying from the airport also benefits directly from this subsidy that we all pay. Fliers don't come even close to paying the full cost to society of their flights, let alone for the destruction that they're causing for future generations.
To the greatest extent possible I do my work by human power, but there are limits to how much I can control.
This morning I made a delivery to someone who lives in a village in Drenthe so that delivery was made 100% by human power as I rode there and back in my velomobile.
Parts ordered by people who live thousands of km away are a different story. I can then only control the first few km. So I go as far by bike as I can and then those parcels continue their journeys by commercial shipping companies.
I reached 70000 km with my Mango velomobile today. I have other bikes to ride, and other things to do, so it's taken me just over 12 years to cover that distance at only about 5800 km per year.
Anyway, short 12 year experience review:
It's fast, comfortable, safe, practical for everyday use, lots of fun, keeps you warm and dry in bad weather (e.g. today), let's you pretend headwinds don't exist, has needed hardly any maintenance beyond tyres and very occasional chains (the drive chain is entirely enclosed, as are the brakes), has plenty of storage space inside which is also out of the weather, uses no fuel beyond the food you were going to eat anyway, and it's an absolute bargain: total cost at this point is just a few cents per kilometre.
To paraphrase Mark Twain, "Get a velomobile. You will not regret it!" (The other part of the quote is funny but really makes no sense for such a safe vehicle).
This week's "Sunday" bike ride was on Saturday. The weather forecast for tomorrow is horrible, but the sun was shining today.
@jhembrow and I both left home at about the same time, but she went on a direct route for cross-stitch supplies while I went in a different direction to meet @twilwel for a cross-country ride. We then took an indirect route to the same destination so that all three of us could ride and stop for coffee together.
I stumbled upon this truly fascinating video that explains that steering a bicycle doesn't work like most of us thinks it does -- yet we seem to do it intuitively anyway.