Could the Veltop Urban QR1 be the all-weather cycling solution we need?
Is it worth the steep price tag to import to the US?
Despite it being one of the driest Januaries on record here in California, I'm still always on the hunt for that elusive accessory to allow for year round cycling no matter what the weather.
Maybe it's an ironic twist that I did get a Cleverhood Urbanaut Cape for Christmas but there has been no rain since then to test it out. Once I'm able to properly put it through its paces, I'll have a writeup. That is assuming we get rain again this winter.
I was recently researching some other cycling accessories when I stumbled across the Veltop Urban QR1. While a proper rain cloak like the Cleverhood is great, there should still be a decent rain canopy available that can attach to any bike. The QR1 looks to be the closest actual product to fit the bill.
Of course, this product is manufactured in France (I had to translate the webpage) and I assumed it wasn't available to ship to the United States. But I was wrong! You can get the Veltop Urban QR1 shipped to the United States. It's just going to cost you.
Specifically the product retails for the very precise amount of $544.50 USD. Well, cycling accessories can certainly be expensive so that is pricey but not all that surprising. What is surprising is the shipping cost to actually have it sent to my home in California from France. The shipping cost alone is $205.95. Yes, that brings the total cost up to a whopping $750.45. That price can buy you a very nice new bike and even a decent budget e-bike on the secondhand market.
This should really be the end of the story right? Is it worth $750 to add a rain canopy to your bike? No. I suppose I'm happy that they are willing to send the product to the United States, but at that cost it won't really be a viable option for most people.
It's really hard to tell if the quality is up to snuff on this thing. Is it just a flimsy piece of vinyl that attaches to your handlebars? Or is it a properly engineered piece of equipment that will drastically increase the utility of your two-wheeled transportation?
You can't really tell from the photos or the repetitive video.
It does seem pretty easy to take on and off. You also get the added benefit of using the QR1 as strictly a windscreen if you don't need full rain protection. It does advertise the ability to divert wind and rain past your hands and away from your legs. No, you're not in a fully enclosed vehicle here, but it does seem to be well thought out to provide as much protection as possible.
And if you already have a front basket on your bike, it seems pretty easy to just have this product ready whenever a sudden rain squall may spring up. In my use case, I know that it won't rain for at least seven months of the year in my location. So the packability and spontaneous rainstorm protection won't be as important.
I should also note that there is no windshield wiper attached here. You'd have to rig something up yourself. The Veltop FAQs tells you to regularly wipe down the windshield in order to increase visibility. I suppose a thorough application of Rain-X or some sort of treatment would suffice. But I'm not sure I'd take off on a very long ride where visibility would be a concern. Again, this is something that can't really be seen in a marketing video. I'd need to test this out myself.
What if I lived in a place where it rained a lot? I could see myself starting to believe that the high cost of the QR1 is worth it. I guess if you compare the price of the Veltop to something like a proper Velomobile that costs at least $5,000, it is quite a steal.
The bigger question here is why isn't anyone else making something like this stateside? No, it's not going to be a product that sells millions but I'd bet there are certainly thousands of cyclists in the Pacific Northwest alone who would give a product like this a shot if the price was right.
An adjustable and easily removable windshield and roof that doesn't look ridiculous for less than $300? That seems like a winning product to me. I'm sure that the fine folks at Veltop have some patents and proprietary technology here that can't be duplicated. But surely, there could be a comparable product made in the US.
Maybe this is something I should personally look into myself. I could be on my own island with this one but I actually don't think the Veltop looks out of place attached to a bike. I could certainly see it fitting in front of the Tern Storm Shield Mini on my Tern HSD to offer both my daughter and me a dry, wind-free ride to school. You could even be extra fancy and try to place an extra piece of vinyl to connect from the windshield to the rear child seat cover. Plenty of DIY options could come into play. Even with the cost of the Tern HSD factored in, you nearly have a fully-enclosed Velomobile at that point for roughly $4K. Hmm, not too shabby.
Any other Americans ready to drop some cash to import one of these things?
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