Living in and riding in Perth, Western Australia and in particular having my commute take me from south of the river in Fremantle to Joondalup along the coast and return during the summer into the infamous Fremantle Doctor, winds are the bane of my life. Add to that I am not getting any younger and well I am looking to spice up my riding and to take on those winds and to hopefully reduce the time for my commute. Enter a Sinner Mango velomobile.

Now I haven’t got one yet and give the price being in the vicinity of AU$12,000 it will be awhile before I can afford one unless Lotto helps out in the mean time 🙂 That said I recently got a chance to play in the only Sinner Mango Sport Red Edition thanks to John Lewis from the Australian Cycling Forums and I am hooked. For sure first impressions where a little deflating but after thinking about it, the whole concept just works for me: the look, the riding, the speed opportunities; the design, the weather protection and having a fair shot at the Fremantle Doctor.

The photos are not great; they where taken by my youngest son on my phone but they give you are taste. Having had a chance to reflect on my little ride of John’s Sinner Mango I am hooked on the idea.

Nitramluap from the Australian Cycling Forums has the first Sinner Mango brought into Australia, a Sport Red Edition Mango. He has put together a really good walkthrough on his early edition which gives a really good taste of what they are about.

My Plans for Sinner Mango

My intended use for my Sinner Mango is threefold: my daily commuter, my Audax ride and my on-road from home touring bike and hence will likely replace three two bikes in my current fleet of four. Basically I think I will sell on my Look 555 or my Kinesis Racelight Granfondo Ltd as well as my beloved Surly Long Haul Trucker and my Giant XTC 2 mountain bike . I will still need a road-off-road diamond frame tourer for those tours where the Sinner Mango will not be ideal and hence I am considering building up a Surly Ogre or similarly to complement the Mango and hence will likely keep the Giant XTC 2 and use it for off-road touring and the odd road tourer. I would also like to continue or at least have the option to participate in group rides with the Freo Wheelers or the like so keeping the Look 555 in on the cards. Another option is still selling the Look 555, the Kinesis and the Surly Long Haul Trucker and adding a short wheel base – over seat steering (SWB – OSS) or a short wheel base under seat steering (SWB – USS) two wheeled recumbent to the mix as a tourer/commuter.

I have been tossing up between a Sinner Mango Sport Red Edition (except mine will be probably be a black and white edition similar to this Mango Tour or something along the lines of this Quest Carbon), a Quest Carbon and Mango Tour. The Tour as the name suggests has more internal space for touring and comes standard with some features which make it suitable for touring. However as my main use will be commuting and Audax rides I think the Sport Red Edition is the better option and if necessary I will add a Radical Designs Cyclone trailer to my fleet for those tours where I need the capacity. The Quest is very popular in the US market and is generally reported as being the faster than a Mango. I also really like the lines of the Quest but on the downside it has a quite large turning circle.

So my thoughts on my Sinner Mango build are as follows. This may change over time and I will update this post as that occurs. The pricing is based on a Euro /Aussie dollar enhange rate of €0.80.

Sinner Mango Sport Red Edition Proposed Build

Component Estimated Cost Base Red Edition €7,290.00 Indicators (double set) €0.00 Dual Headlight €114.00 Brake Lights (Double set) €0.00 Interior Lights €0.00 USB Outlets (Two) (Right hand side) €0.00 Electric horn €0.00 2nd Battery €50.00 2nd Mirror €15.00 90 mm Drum Brakes €0.00 Towbar €79.00 Frabic covers on front wheels €0.00 Ultegra Compact Double Crankset (50/34) + derailleur €0.00 Flevobike Hood €225.00 Sinner TourKap €365.00 SON Dynamo €250.00 Rohloff €995.00 Non-standard paint scheme €200.00 Shipping Sub Total including VAT €9,583.00 Sub Total excluding VAT €8,053.00 Australian GST (10%) $1,003 Australian Import Duty (5%) $502

Total Purchase Price $11,700

The component prices are estimated based on what information I have been able to find. The prices have not been confirmed with Sinner Bikes. Components with a value of €0.00 are included in the base Red Edition. As it is a complete bike, no import duty is payable.

My proposed build has the standard Sports Red Edition components with the following changes:

A SON dynamo will be mounted mid-drive to provide recharging of the battery. In addition a second battery will be carried on Audax rides that go into the night and on tours; The drive line may be a Alfine 11 Speed with a 22T cassette matched to a Schlumpf Speed Drive with a 39T crankset. The rear wheel’s free hub is fitted with the standard Sinner Mango 18T cassette. This will violate the Shimano recommended 1.9 ratio for the Alfine 11 Speed having a ratio of 1.78. Adding of a tow bar to allow towing of the Radical Designs Cyclone trailer if desired; Adding of a mount for a Garmin Edge 800 (not priced) and possibly an mirror/light bracket on the right hand side which could be used to mount the Garmin Edge 800 outside of the cockpit.The drive line may yet change with some thought being given to a Rohloff hub and a 50/34 compact double crankset; I will also purchase a pair of Radical Designs Velomobile bags to act as my “saddle bags.”

Sorting out the driveline is the only remaining matter to be resolved. I suspect some more playing with HPV Drivetrain Analyzer is coming along with more research into the reliability of the Alfine 11 speed hub.

Resources and other websites related to Sinner Mango Velomobiles

Your Turn To Talk

I hope you liked this post! Please do stop by the comment section below and share your thoughts (or ask your questions or to make suggestions) on the Sinner Mango Red Edition with the rest of us.

I am interested in thoughts on the specification of my proposed Sinner Mango, particularly on the drive train so please do share your thoughts by leaving a comment below 🙂

* This image has been sourced from Sinner Bikes;

** This image has been sourced from Flying Furniture

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