Originally Posted by
blickblocks
If you're frequently selling and making a good profit, then more power to you, however your product doesn't really make any sense. Those bikes you're adding the fiberglass to are garbage, and you're just making them heavier for no good reason.
I did use a cheap bike as the starting point for the Type 9. That is true, but it was an experiment, and if it didn't work, it would've been a waste of a good bike.
As for your second statement, I did make the bike heavier, but it was for a good reason. We wanted Flat-Foot geometry, and in 1991 , there weren't any crank-forward bikes to be found anywhere. In addition, I wanted a cargo bike, and the ones from Worksman were heavy, one-speed, and the cargo box was made of wood, with angle iron for the edges of the cargo box.
Worksman did come through,however; with the Y3K Ultimate Comfort Bike, which you see in the picture with the Type 7 fairing.
I don't think you realize the advantages of a utility-bicycle, with a frame mounted box. Perhaps I will start a new thread in the "Utility Bikes" forum, here at Bikeforums dot net.
I will continue to build one-off custom bikes, and this time NOT try to build any in numbers sufficient to qualify as a "production run".
If anyone wants a utlity bike with a cargo box, I will tell them they can go to Worksman, or Bakfiets, or that guy in Pennsylvania, Bilinkey. Please tell me if you know of any other cargo bike makers, buy replying here , so everyone else knows.
I should list the disadvantages of the Type 9: It weighs 55 pounds, due to the crash bumper design. Fiberglass has a yeild strentgh of 45 thousand pounds per square inch, and we decided to carry through at least one square inch of material, with a safety factor, from end to end. The stated thickness of the 'glass is a quarter inch, although one layer of 'glass is usually .030, and we used ten layers, which should equal .300, which is slightly more than .25, or a quarter inch.
I will state this again: Picture a 55 pound battering ram mounted on a set of bicycle rims. All the cars I hit are gone, with about $5,000.00 worth of body damage each, so if you *insist* on a photograph of a car after I hit it, I will have to find a used car that nobody wants, put a sandbag in the fairing of the Type 7, and ram the car. I would like to carry out this stunt with someone videotaping it, so I can put it on youtube. Please be patient. I will ram the car with one foot on the main tube, and kick the bike into the car, as I jump off, to avoid injury. I swear the Type 9 saved my life once when I was 'right hooked".
Other disadvantages: the five mile-perhour bumper law- bumpers are supposed to break at 5 MPH, to limit the damage to the other car. The Type 9 prototype would have to be changed to insure the fairing is more fragile. If you look at the photos of the Type 9 in front of the stuco wall, you will see some white dings in the paint on the leading edge of the fairing. That's the only damage after hitting a car.
The seat is all the way back , actually an inch past it's rear limit, and glued there with silicone caulk. I have not come up with a sliding track mechanism to adjust the seat. In production bikes, the Giant Revive has something like what was intended, but Giant has a patent on that.
Other reasons not to put this bike in production: The continous four inch width of the frame mono-tube invites kids to sit on it. The bike could become overloaded with too many children, and the brakes would fail from the weight.
The ability of the prototype to float could NOT be carried into production, due to holes that would be necessary to adjust the seat, or to mount the fairing, or mount lights on the fiberglass shell.
Furthermore, Mellisa wants the vehicle to be a quad, with FOUR wheels.