Since its introduction in the German velomobile forum, the Leiba Record went straight on top of my velomobile shortlist (along with the 2014 WAW).

Designed for speed the Record might not be exactly what I’m looking for, since my daily commute leads over fairly rough roads, but it just looks purely awesome.

The Leiba Record prototype



Leiba went a unique way to construct the rear suspension. Instead of a swing arm, the whole rear wheel well together with the bottom shell moves and is suspended by a suspension strut at the top to provide 3cm of suspension travel. Lateral movement of the wheel well is controlled by two plastic covered screws in the upper seat mount (the horizontal aluminium bar). A bit crude but hey, it’s the prototype!

Time and tests will tell if that construction is simple and genius or, well… not.

Leiba Record rear suspension



A show stopper (for me) would be the current size of the rather slim 26″ wheel well. It is only wide enough to fit a skinny 559×1.35 tyre. I think that’s unnecessary restricting tyre choices.

I’m currently quite fond of the Schwalbe Big Ben for comfort and most importantly its great grip on wet roads. Leiba mentioned in the introductory thread they might build a bigger wheel well to fit 700c tyres if they be faster. Maybe a bigger AND wider rear wheel well isn’t out of the question.

Leiba Record cockpit



The prototype has tiller steering but side stick steering will be available as well.

Some preliminary specs of the Leiba Record:

length: 273 cm

width: ca. 69 cm

track width: ca. 66 cm

height: ca. 89 cm

turning cycle: 8.2 m

weight (prototype): 26.5 kg

price (glass): ca € 6,500

carbon update: ca € 1,200

All images: Leiba