The arch nemesis of the VéloSoleX isn't a Kreidler. Nor is it gas prices, climate change awareness, drowsy truckers or the abhorrent Hungarian/Chinese manufacturing standards of the 21st century. No, the only real party-pooper in immense solex touring sorties is heat. Death by heat.
When the going gets too hot, the so-called "vapor lock" occurs. This means that the gasoline has gotten so hot that its low density affects the carb's ability to dispense sufficient fuel to the engine and, as a consequence, it dies with a sickening and highly demoralizing "bwwoooooo".
This has never affected Giant Centipedes' determination to reach far destinations during hot European summer days, though. A solution has so far been to rest at day and grind on when evening, night and morning bring cooler temperatures.
However, considering the continental climate of Russia, where summers can get really hot, and the prospects of only exploring the more Eastern latitudes at night, we are currently thinking of ways to relief the engines from the great heat. One solution is, ironically, to insulate different parts of the engine, making sure that there isn't too big a transmission of heat from the engine, exhaust etc. to the circulating fuel.
Another solution is to combine this with some sort of fuel radiator that can help keeping the fuel cool at day.
A more temporary solution proposed to us by Dutch velo wizard, Joan Majoor, is to add a small amount of diesel in the fuel mix. This will hinder vapor lock from occuring because the boiling point of diesel is higher than that of gasoline. However, this will of course not prevent the fuel or engines from running (too) hot.
On display is the Refrigolex 5000™:
Oh yes, there is modding to be done!
