Originally Posted by
jmraspa
Wow! I never thought I'd see another one of these. We have a similar rickshaw at the Bike Oven here in LA where I volunteer. Except ours is not a fancy red color with shiny fenders. It's more like ugly rusty with wobbly wheels (which have something like eighty spokes on them built into a weird six cross pattern!). But it's tons of fun, and we're always pulling people around in it on group rides. Even loaded with two people it's not tough to get up hills. Just the getting started part is hard, but once you get going the weight in the back seems to almost push the rickshaw forward for you.
Now if only it had something better than rod brakes from 1950 that rubbed against rusted rims...
P.S. I recommend setting up some kind of chain tensioner on it. Ours had the tendency of throwing the chain quite often, but now that we put the tensioner on, it hasn't happened since!
Ya... the chain tried to derail right off of the bat. A tensioner is an absolute must! It doesn't have the original rim brake up front anymore. It has a foot brake (like a brake pedal in a car) over the bottom bracket (really crappy place for a brake) that has solid linkage to a drum on the drive side rear wheel. I tried to ride it but it seems the rear axle is stripped or something. It seems to me that the axle would be splined and is slipping where it meets the hub. I don't know.... but I will soon! I am gonna rip it apart tonight and figure it out. I doubt I will be able to get parts for it so I'll just make something work. I think I'll add disc brakes or figure some way of swapping rims for rim brakes because there is no braking surface on the rims at all. Joy! Another project!