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07-27-12, 11:01 AM
(I'm sorry if I'm in the wrong forum!)
After watching a youtube video with a 36 speed pedal pickup truck (actually a quadricycle with sheet metal frame) I wanted one of those soo bad. It looked hard to pedal, even with 36 speeds. One day, looking back at the video, I had an idea to use two simple 15 speed MTB bicycles, and bolt them together with angle irons. I would use a welder, but look at my username ;P
So, that takes care of the connecting together part, but, it'll still fall over, so I had an idea to use 4 irons and make 2 triangles, and on the back have 2 brackets and a slice of my ten foot long galvanized metal conduit pole and bolt the brackets onto the back of the bike, then bolt the metal conduit onto the brackets, to make a sort of safe connection. I have 2 triangles of irons on the front atm, and will work on the back soon. So connection is planned out and almost done. So, what about steering? Well, I disabled the front brakes (standard brakes) and put a long bolt through the hole in the fork and put a small angle bracket on it, and did the same to the other bike. Then, I took some metal conduit, bolts, and locknuts and put the bolts through the slice of conduit and the angle bracket's hole and locked it on. That works for steering! Now, I had to hatch an idea for a seat, to make it so that you won't have the use those bike seats that squish into your buttocks causing you tremendous after-pain. My idea? Take a seat post and find a wood drill bit the size of the small part of the post. That way, I could use treated wood and drill a hole through one part of it the perfect size for the small part, so it rests on the bigger part without falling through. Awesome! But, that's not enough support. So another idea was to also take a rack (that is tightened onto the bike's rear wheel's nuts) and to take 2 big angle brackets and drive metal screws through the rack, through the bracket, and into the wooden bench. Awesome!
Now, for the shell. For this idea, I looked into velomobiles. Velomobiles use this type of plastic called Corrugated Plastic or Coroplast. Coroplast is commonly used for election signs, for sale signs, yard sale signs, etc. Well, just by luck, I found out that my city actually gives away free coroplast. Why? I mean, they are so expensive in stores? Unusual. They recycle whatever the people don't take. Awesome! So I'll just use coroplast. Pause, how to I connect it together to make a shell? PVC glue! It dissolves some of the coroplast and then hardens to make a strong glued connection. For a door, I can just take small cheap hinges and for windows I'll use plexiglass. You can paint coroplast, and plexiglass is like plastic, so you won't spend a fortune for glass replacement if it ever shatters, and you can make that beautiful car looking bike! Alright. Really cool, but, I want more. Like I said earlier, it seems hard to ride, so, why not give it an engine? I've been debating over gas and electric engines for a while now. I chose gas, because it has more power and when it runs low on power, it doesn't slow down, and it only takes seconds to refuel instead of charging the battery for multiple hours. For this project, I will use a weed eater or chainsaw engine and put a sprocket on the small peg. These bikes have 3 ranges, and 5 gears, so now is the time to decide whether it'll have right side driving or left side. I choose right side because that's the way I want to drive. What I'll do, I'll use that rack that I used for the seat and put the engine on it, a bigger gas tank, and will mount the clutch on the handlebars somehow, and remember how I put a sprocket on the engine peg? Well, now it's time to go buy chains. Multiple chains, as a matter of fact. We got to hook on at least 2 (estimating) chains onto the current chain. After doing that, make sure the chain is tight and put in on the sprocket on the engine and it should drive. Bolt the engine down onto the rack, same for gas tank. Then on the inside of the gas tank, where the bolt head is, you should put 10 layers of waterproof tape over it. Both the bolts. Now we have a working engine which drives the chain! Good part is, you can still use gears and ranges, and the engine can now gear, which will give the little engine a high speed. So, the check list below:
Engine - Check!
Connection - Check!
Shell - Check!
Windows - Check!
Seat - Check!
Music - X
One more idea I had, was to use a rechargeable 12V battery and power a car stereo, and speaker. I don't know much about stereos and speakers and connecting them, but I do know someone who does. I'll give you more detailed info once I understand. But basically, I found a power wheels car thingy out to the curb with a charger! Not only that, it also had another battery! Lucky day! So I will use parts from the power wheels car thing to power a stereo. The batteries are 12V 9.5AH SLA. That's just freaking awesome. Lucky.
Now, I haven't tried almost any of this, the only thing I have done atm is the connection and steering. But there's my idea. We'll see if it works. I can't take pictures because my phone is broken, but I'll use someone else's phone and get some images and show you all. Thanks for reading through this, also, I need some help.
Do you know what size sprocket I should put on the engine peg? and
Do you have any idea what to do about AC? I have two batteries so one for the music, and the other for AC.
And... How can I charge a battery with the engine? Is that how cars work?
Thank you once again!
After watching a youtube video with a 36 speed pedal pickup truck (actually a quadricycle with sheet metal frame) I wanted one of those soo bad. It looked hard to pedal, even with 36 speeds. One day, looking back at the video, I had an idea to use two simple 15 speed MTB bicycles, and bolt them together with angle irons. I would use a welder, but look at my username ;P
So, that takes care of the connecting together part, but, it'll still fall over, so I had an idea to use 4 irons and make 2 triangles, and on the back have 2 brackets and a slice of my ten foot long galvanized metal conduit pole and bolt the brackets onto the back of the bike, then bolt the metal conduit onto the brackets, to make a sort of safe connection. I have 2 triangles of irons on the front atm, and will work on the back soon. So connection is planned out and almost done. So, what about steering? Well, I disabled the front brakes (standard brakes) and put a long bolt through the hole in the fork and put a small angle bracket on it, and did the same to the other bike. Then, I took some metal conduit, bolts, and locknuts and put the bolts through the slice of conduit and the angle bracket's hole and locked it on. That works for steering! Now, I had to hatch an idea for a seat, to make it so that you won't have the use those bike seats that squish into your buttocks causing you tremendous after-pain. My idea? Take a seat post and find a wood drill bit the size of the small part of the post. That way, I could use treated wood and drill a hole through one part of it the perfect size for the small part, so it rests on the bigger part without falling through. Awesome! But, that's not enough support. So another idea was to also take a rack (that is tightened onto the bike's rear wheel's nuts) and to take 2 big angle brackets and drive metal screws through the rack, through the bracket, and into the wooden bench. Awesome!
Now, for the shell. For this idea, I looked into velomobiles. Velomobiles use this type of plastic called Corrugated Plastic or Coroplast. Coroplast is commonly used for election signs, for sale signs, yard sale signs, etc. Well, just by luck, I found out that my city actually gives away free coroplast. Why? I mean, they are so expensive in stores? Unusual. They recycle whatever the people don't take. Awesome! So I'll just use coroplast. Pause, how to I connect it together to make a shell? PVC glue! It dissolves some of the coroplast and then hardens to make a strong glued connection. For a door, I can just take small cheap hinges and for windows I'll use plexiglass. You can paint coroplast, and plexiglass is like plastic, so you won't spend a fortune for glass replacement if it ever shatters, and you can make that beautiful car looking bike! Alright. Really cool, but, I want more. Like I said earlier, it seems hard to ride, so, why not give it an engine? I've been debating over gas and electric engines for a while now. I chose gas, because it has more power and when it runs low on power, it doesn't slow down, and it only takes seconds to refuel instead of charging the battery for multiple hours. For this project, I will use a weed eater or chainsaw engine and put a sprocket on the small peg. These bikes have 3 ranges, and 5 gears, so now is the time to decide whether it'll have right side driving or left side. I choose right side because that's the way I want to drive. What I'll do, I'll use that rack that I used for the seat and put the engine on it, a bigger gas tank, and will mount the clutch on the handlebars somehow, and remember how I put a sprocket on the engine peg? Well, now it's time to go buy chains. Multiple chains, as a matter of fact. We got to hook on at least 2 (estimating) chains onto the current chain. After doing that, make sure the chain is tight and put in on the sprocket on the engine and it should drive. Bolt the engine down onto the rack, same for gas tank. Then on the inside of the gas tank, where the bolt head is, you should put 10 layers of waterproof tape over it. Both the bolts. Now we have a working engine which drives the chain! Good part is, you can still use gears and ranges, and the engine can now gear, which will give the little engine a high speed. So, the check list below:
Engine - Check!
Connection - Check!
Shell - Check!
Windows - Check!
Seat - Check!
Music - X
One more idea I had, was to use a rechargeable 12V battery and power a car stereo, and speaker. I don't know much about stereos and speakers and connecting them, but I do know someone who does. I'll give you more detailed info once I understand. But basically, I found a power wheels car thingy out to the curb with a charger! Not only that, it also had another battery! Lucky day! So I will use parts from the power wheels car thing to power a stereo. The batteries are 12V 9.5AH SLA. That's just freaking awesome. Lucky.
Now, I haven't tried almost any of this, the only thing I have done atm is the connection and steering. But there's my idea. We'll see if it works. I can't take pictures because my phone is broken, but I'll use someone else's phone and get some images and show you all. Thanks for reading through this, also, I need some help.
Do you know what size sprocket I should put on the engine peg? and
Do you have any idea what to do about AC? I have two batteries so one for the music, and the other for AC.
And... How can I charge a battery with the engine? Is that how cars work?
Thank you once again!