Babeli
Hi all,
My dog, Fernando, is a well behaved 50 pound German Shep/Chow mix who LOVES to ride in my parent's car. I of course am carless, so I'd like to attach some sort of side car to my bike so he can ride along with me. Just short distances like around the park for a bit. (I'd prefer a sidecar to a pull trailer because I'd like to be able to keep an eye on him and try to recreate the feel of being a car passenger for him.)
I came across this site that sells plans to make quadracycles strictly from PVC pipe:
http://www.americanspeedster.com/
This lead me to believe PVC pipe is quite strong if it can support two full grown men. I came across another site about how to make a surfboard rack on your bike out of PVC pipe:
http://www.rodndtube.com/surf/info/surf_racks/BicycleSurfboardRack.html
This is where I got the idea of a PVC Sidecar. Any thoughts on if trying to make this is plausible? I am hoping to do this with PVC pipe mostly because I hear it's quite cheap and I have no welding equipment/experience whatsover...Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Even suggestions on something I could buy inexpensively :) that fits the sidecar criteria. (I don't like those Chariot sidecars, as they seem too skinny for Fernando) Here are some photos I found of bicycle sidecars made for human passengers to see how they are attached.
FYI: I own just a standard woman's mountain bike from Walmart (26" wheels I think), I'm 120 pounds, and Fernando is 50 pounds.
My dog, Fernando, is a well behaved 50 pound German Shep/Chow mix who LOVES to ride in my parent's car. I of course am carless, so I'd like to attach some sort of side car to my bike so he can ride along with me. Just short distances like around the park for a bit. (I'd prefer a sidecar to a pull trailer because I'd like to be able to keep an eye on him and try to recreate the feel of being a car passenger for him.)
I came across this site that sells plans to make quadracycles strictly from PVC pipe:
http://www.americanspeedster.com/
This lead me to believe PVC pipe is quite strong if it can support two full grown men. I came across another site about how to make a surfboard rack on your bike out of PVC pipe:
http://www.rodndtube.com/surf/info/surf_racks/BicycleSurfboardRack.html
This is where I got the idea of a PVC Sidecar. Any thoughts on if trying to make this is plausible? I am hoping to do this with PVC pipe mostly because I hear it's quite cheap and I have no welding equipment/experience whatsover...Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Even suggestions on something I could buy inexpensively :) that fits the sidecar criteria. (I don't like those Chariot sidecars, as they seem too skinny for Fernando) Here are some photos I found of bicycle sidecars made for human passengers to see how they are attached.
FYI: I own just a standard woman's mountain bike from Walmart (26" wheels I think), I'm 120 pounds, and Fernando is 50 pounds.