PVC Stoker. Doesn't complain when you hit a bump without warning
 

Just in time for halloween.

Mike Machenry's PVC stoker how to.

:roflmao:BRILLIANT!

http://www.mustangmods.com/data/10900/brilliant.jpg

Triplet sales will definitely pick up after this; everyone with a tandem, and a conventional flesh-and-bones stoker, will want to upgrade so they can add another rider!

Didn't somebody on here use a full blown anatomically correct skeleton for this? I've been wanting to do it for ages, but don't have the coin for an actual skeleton. This is an awesome alternative and to sweeten the deal, my tandem is exactly like the one in the video!

Hey I'm glad you all like the video. Some guy (who I think is probably a friend of a friend) posted a comment linking me to this thread.

I did actually consider a real classroom skeleton for the project. The major barrier there was as you pointed out, cost. PVC pipe and connectors are really cheap and I build with it all the time so I enjoy it. I'd love to see copies of this. It's tons of fun. I'm not sure how easy it is to follow what I did. I decided to do a lot of quick jump cuts and not much explanation since it would be a very boring video at ten minutes long. So if anyone wants more details let me know. But I think it's actually pretty straight forward to just look at it and figure out how it works, taking liberties where you'd like (especially with cosmetic parts like the head)

Oh, man, I'd love to see a triplet with two humans and a PVC rider. Making this project has actually really made me wish I had a triplet. Come to think of it if I had a triplet I'd have made two PVC men. But tandems are expensive enough as it is. I had to get a really cheap one on craigslist.

Anyway, thanks for the comments.

-mike

Do you need to communicate with the PVC stoker?

No! That is the beauty of it.

Hey Mike, I built my own! I actually started to ride over to the Home Despot to buy the PVC stuff when it occurred to me that I had a couple of not-so-perfectly-good bikes to chop up. It took me roughly 10x as long as I thought, but I'm happy with the results. We took our maiden voyage together on Friday for the Halloween critical mass. Here are some pictures and a video:

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y64...G_9873_001.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y64...r/IMG_9875.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y64...r/clarance.jpg
He had to wait outside when we stopped at the tea room. Apparently they don't serve "his kind" there. I didn't really intend for him to be "anatomically correct" that piece actually slides over the seat post. He doesn't look nearly as rude when he's on the bike.

Finally, here's a video of us riding down some stairs in a shopping mall.

http://www.bikesandbombs.com/gallery...2FMOV07446.MPG

His knees kept bending the wrong way, but pedaled pretty well considering he is made of Huffys and has inner tubes for tendons.

http://img.stimpy.net/pics/bike/deat...0/IMG_0583.JPG

Video... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_taH_2Qugg4

Somehow I can't imagine Sandy/SLC having a huge critical mass turnout :). Glad you all are keeping the spirit alive.

We get close to 200 in the summer. Friday was pretty good, I'd say there were over 100 riders. We have a pretty good thing going, IMO. No so many that it's chaos, enough that we make a scene.

Also, love the skeleton tandemgeek.

Awesome job on the stoker! I really love that it's all bicycle parts. My PVC guy needs knee surgery and I really like your inner tube for the knees idea. I think I'll use that when I fix them. As for the knees hyper extending I initially had that problem with mine. What you need to do it just make sure that the knees are always bent a decent amount and never got too close to straight. You can do this by making the legs a little longer or by lowering the seat.

-mike