R
Racer X 69
Guest
Your dad sounds a bit on the eccentric side.
So the Miata has a bicycle rack on it, where is he planning on carrying the pusher contraption he (you) is (are) building?
Y'all ain't gonna believe this!
- Thread starter Duck
- Start date
Your dad sounds a bit on the eccentric side.
So the Miata has a bicycle rack on it, where is he planning on carrying the pusher contraption he (you) is (are) building?
Duck
Sarcastic remark goes here
That's already been fixed, I think. I haven't driven it since he had it fixed, but he says it spent a day at the shop.
Mid-life crisis, methinks.
It must be where I get it from. My mom's not the slightest bit adventurous.
In the Mazda's tiny little trunk, or on the passenger seat. Probably both. We gotta make it so it can be taken apart.
Duck
Sarcastic remark goes here
I found some slightly stronger angle-iron in the barn, than that bed frame stuff I stripped down last night. Same thickness, just a half inch wider on each side. It should leave room for the axle nut.
And I remembered that electrical conduit comes in two thicknesses. The outdoor stuff has a thicker wall, and you use compression fittings instead of set screws.
We disagree on the hitch though. He wants to use some nylon block that disappeared a long time ago that we'll never find, .. I want to use an actual universal joint from a small farm tractor PTO shaft, like what would run a 48" bush hog implement or something.
And I remembered that electrical conduit comes in two thicknesses. The outdoor stuff has a thicker wall, and you use compression fittings instead of set screws.
We disagree on the hitch though. He wants to use some nylon block that disappeared a long time ago that we'll never find, .. I want to use an actual universal joint from a small farm tractor PTO shaft, like what would run a 48" bush hog implement or something.
catalinaflyer
Well-Known Member
I don't have many hero's in my life other than Racer X 69 but your dad is now the top of my hero list. Let me know next time he wants to build something like this and I'll send a used RC airplane engine thats 55cc and turns about 9,000 rpm. I just recently took a very large brushless airplane motor and put it on my son's electric scooter with 44.4 volts of high energy LiPo batteries which promptly stripped the belt. I then adapted it to chain drive and it smoked the rear tire and blew it. Haven't messed with it since but you dad has given me inspiration.
If he's really in for an adventure I have this barstool thingy that will run well over 80 so he can take the interstate if he's in a hurry.
View attachment 6475
Its powered by a Suzuki GS400 motorcycle engine. I had to stretch the frame 15" because when I first got it if you twisted the throttle it would just flip over backwards at any speed, now it just smokes the tires and spins in circles. I'm sure it handles well if you don't have a belly full of liquid encouragement before getting on it but I haven't tried that yet.
View attachment 6475
If he's really in for an adventure I have this barstool thingy that will run well over 80 so he can take the interstate if he's in a hurry.
View attachment 6475
Its powered by a Suzuki GS400 motorcycle engine. I had to stretch the frame 15" because when I first got it if you twisted the throttle it would just flip over backwards at any speed, now it just smokes the tires and spins in circles. I'm sure it handles well if you don't have a belly full of liquid encouragement before getting on it but I haven't tried that yet.
View attachment 6475
Duck
Sarcastic remark goes here
I took an ordinary 10 speed mountain bike when I was about 14 or 15, .. used some 2-1/2" electrical conduit or something to extend the fork like a chopper.
I got bored with that quickly, so I torched off the rear end behind the seat post. I used 3/4" electrical conduit to simply make it longer. I re-used the original tail ends down by the wheel. So the top crossbar of the bike was horizontal again, even with the extended fork. The seat was 5 feet high. I had to connect three 10-speed bicycle chains together to make it long enough to reach the rear wheel.
At first you had to lean it against the side of the house and climb on it, but I eventually learned to just put the crank with the pedal at the bottom of the stroke and I could climb on and immediately start pedaling, and I wouldn't have to lean it against anything.
Riding that bike, my head was level with the school bus windows. The brakes barely worked, because of the length of the cable. The cable would stretch before it would apply much brake pressure.
I eventually torched the back end off again, and used the rear end of the contraption shown in the pictures above, same angle-iron and wheel, and put a 5 HP engine on it.
I had the engine mounted to two pieces of angle-iron with nuts welded over holes, and 3/4" threaded rod ran through those nuts, into nuts welded to the frame. That way I could adjust the chain alignment perfectly. I did it that way because my fabricating/fitting skills weren't the greatest and I KNEW that if I welded a permanently located engine mount, it wouldn't be perfectly lined up with the sprocket on the wheel and the chain would keep falling off. The threaded rod only adjusted the front part of the motor mount left and right. To adjust the chain tension, the rear end had a vertical threaded rod that was adjustable.
I took that thing for ONE RIDE.
It was WAY too dangerous, even for a wild, crazy teenager.
It did about 30 mph, and at that speed, the front fork started wobbling fore-aft, putting one hell of a lot of stress on the frame head where the fork goes through. It had actually kind of mushroomed the top of the bike frame's cross-bar right at the weld and where the tube from the pedal crank to the fork head was welded there, it was starting to crack. And there really wasn't a good way to brace it, because the fork itself didn't seem strong enough.
I imagined what would happen if that thing snapped at 30 mph. I took some measurements to see if I could cable-brace it off the pedal crank, and still allow it to turn, but the geometry/fork rake angle made that impossible. So I just scrapped it.
I got bored with that quickly, so I torched off the rear end behind the seat post. I used 3/4" electrical conduit to simply make it longer. I re-used the original tail ends down by the wheel. So the top crossbar of the bike was horizontal again, even with the extended fork. The seat was 5 feet high. I had to connect three 10-speed bicycle chains together to make it long enough to reach the rear wheel.
At first you had to lean it against the side of the house and climb on it, but I eventually learned to just put the crank with the pedal at the bottom of the stroke and I could climb on and immediately start pedaling, and I wouldn't have to lean it against anything.
Riding that bike, my head was level with the school bus windows. The brakes barely worked, because of the length of the cable. The cable would stretch before it would apply much brake pressure.
I eventually torched the back end off again, and used the rear end of the contraption shown in the pictures above, same angle-iron and wheel, and put a 5 HP engine on it.
I had the engine mounted to two pieces of angle-iron with nuts welded over holes, and 3/4" threaded rod ran through those nuts, into nuts welded to the frame. That way I could adjust the chain alignment perfectly. I did it that way because my fabricating/fitting skills weren't the greatest and I KNEW that if I welded a permanently located engine mount, it wouldn't be perfectly lined up with the sprocket on the wheel and the chain would keep falling off. The threaded rod only adjusted the front part of the motor mount left and right. To adjust the chain tension, the rear end had a vertical threaded rod that was adjustable.
I took that thing for ONE RIDE.
It was WAY too dangerous, even for a wild, crazy teenager.
It did about 30 mph, and at that speed, the front fork started wobbling fore-aft, putting one hell of a lot of stress on the frame head where the fork goes through. It had actually kind of mushroomed the top of the bike frame's cross-bar right at the weld and where the tube from the pedal crank to the fork head was welded there, it was starting to crack. And there really wasn't a good way to brace it, because the fork itself didn't seem strong enough.
I imagined what would happen if that thing snapped at 30 mph. I took some measurements to see if I could cable-brace it off the pedal crank, and still allow it to turn, but the geometry/fork rake angle made that impossible. So I just scrapped it.
Ok, at first I thought it was the Ducks dad but I'm switching sides. Ducks dad is the cool one. I think he should start his own webpage and not allow his son to visit it. All I see is negative comments. I see ingenuity. New inventions, creative sleeping arraignments and so on.
Duck
Sarcastic remark goes here
The current project is on hold until tomorrow when we get a 5/8" drill bit that can fit in a 1/2" drill press chuck. I drilled one hole in a piece of angle-iron for the axle, and it was a pain in the ass. At the RPM the chart on the drill press said to run it at for that size bit in mild steel, (very slow) when I put enough pressure on the dull bit that it would actually cut, even after the hole had been piloted with smaller bits, it would cut a little and then bind and the belts would slip. That bit was dull, but it's the only one we have in that size.
I found a better piece of angle-iron to use, but the old geezer, naturally, wants to go with this light flimsy stuff that's barely strong enough. So we're using the flimsy bed-frame angle-iron. It'll work, as long as stresses are distributed evenly. I'm not worried about any kind of catastrophic frame failure with that angle-iron, just cracking around the engine mounts where it'll have lots of vibration on it.
The parts that go up and over the bicycle wheel are going to be 3/4" electrical conduit. But the flimsy indoor stuff worked fine on the one the old man made 20 years ago, with a 3.5 HP engine. This 6 HP engine weighs about the same. We're going with the conduit made for outdoor applications, which is almost as heavy as black plumbers pipe. We do have some plumber pipe in that size, but what we don't have is a hydraulic press and dies needed to bend it. We're just going to use a manual pipe conduit bender.
Since it's a brand new engine, and the old man doesn't plan on doing oil changes on the side of the road, we'll be testing it quite a bit on the back-roads around here before he heads to TN with it. We're going to idle it for 30 minutes, then change the oil, run it a few hours, change the oil again, etc. And I'm going to put one of those magnetic oil drain plugs on it too.
The gearing the old man has settled on will have the engine running 2600 RPM at 35 mph. The idea is to have it "assist" and "cruise" rather than be power-wagon type of thing.
I also talked him into letting me take the time to rig up either a parking brake, or a center-stand like on a motorcycle that will hold the back wheel off the ground in case the engine has any problems starting with the throttle all the way down. The throttle control will be on the handlebars of the bicycle like a motorcycle, but the starter rope will be on the engine. So we're going to have to work out some way of also controlling the throttle right on the carburetor to make it easier to start the engine when it's cold.
There's also going to be a kill switch on the bicycle handlebars just in case he's happening to go past some place where a cop is standing outside of his car. We're going to make the exhaust quiet, but I don't expect it to be as quiet as an electric motor or anything. The idea is he can kill the engine and pedal the bicycle until the cop is out of sight, then stop and re-start the bike.
A kick-stand will not be needed because the hitch will be like a universal joint, making the trailer lean with the bike. All he has to do to "park" it is simply turn the bike 90 degrees to the trailer, and it won't fall over.
I found a better piece of angle-iron to use, but the old geezer, naturally, wants to go with this light flimsy stuff that's barely strong enough. So we're using the flimsy bed-frame angle-iron. It'll work, as long as stresses are distributed evenly. I'm not worried about any kind of catastrophic frame failure with that angle-iron, just cracking around the engine mounts where it'll have lots of vibration on it.
The parts that go up and over the bicycle wheel are going to be 3/4" electrical conduit. But the flimsy indoor stuff worked fine on the one the old man made 20 years ago, with a 3.5 HP engine. This 6 HP engine weighs about the same. We're going with the conduit made for outdoor applications, which is almost as heavy as black plumbers pipe. We do have some plumber pipe in that size, but what we don't have is a hydraulic press and dies needed to bend it. We're just going to use a manual pipe conduit bender.
Since it's a brand new engine, and the old man doesn't plan on doing oil changes on the side of the road, we'll be testing it quite a bit on the back-roads around here before he heads to TN with it. We're going to idle it for 30 minutes, then change the oil, run it a few hours, change the oil again, etc. And I'm going to put one of those magnetic oil drain plugs on it too.
The gearing the old man has settled on will have the engine running 2600 RPM at 35 mph. The idea is to have it "assist" and "cruise" rather than be power-wagon type of thing.
I also talked him into letting me take the time to rig up either a parking brake, or a center-stand like on a motorcycle that will hold the back wheel off the ground in case the engine has any problems starting with the throttle all the way down. The throttle control will be on the handlebars of the bicycle like a motorcycle, but the starter rope will be on the engine. So we're going to have to work out some way of also controlling the throttle right on the carburetor to make it easier to start the engine when it's cold.
There's also going to be a kill switch on the bicycle handlebars just in case he's happening to go past some place where a cop is standing outside of his car. We're going to make the exhaust quiet, but I don't expect it to be as quiet as an electric motor or anything. The idea is he can kill the engine and pedal the bicycle until the cop is out of sight, then stop and re-start the bike.
A kick-stand will not be needed because the hitch will be like a universal joint, making the trailer lean with the bike. All he has to do to "park" it is simply turn the bike 90 degrees to the trailer, and it won't fall over.
Duck
Sarcastic remark goes here
When working together on projects, we disagree on almost everything.
I want to make stuff stronger than it needs to be, and compensate for the extra weight with more power.
The old man likes to make everything lightweight and efficient, barely strong enough for it's intended purpose. He would be using a weed-eater engine if I hadn't talked him into going with the 6 HP Robin-Subaru engine.
[MENTION=8978]SkateBoard[/MENTION], I don't read it that way. [MENTION=7569]Rubber Duck[/MENTION] seems pretty proud of his dad, in my opinion. I'm seeing a guy posting a thread showing a lot of love and respect for his dad.
If he didn't support what his father is doing, then why is he bothering to help him do it? Every great team is made up of differing personalities in order to capitalize on the best of every member. Dad is the dreamer...the creative idea man, while Duck is the practical, down to Earth, let's make this thing work guy. Together, they will fashion a successful project.
If he didn't support what his father is doing, then why is he bothering to help him do it? Every great team is made up of differing personalities in order to capitalize on the best of every member. Dad is the dreamer...the creative idea man, while Duck is the practical, down to Earth, let's make this thing work guy. Together, they will fashion a successful project.
Duck
Sarcastic remark goes here
When I was 8 yrs old, he chopped the rear end of my bicycle off and converted it to a minibike, with the engine over the wheel. The top of the sprocket was hooked to the rod that pulls on the drum brake on the minibike wheel. But he didn't even LOOK at the front wheel. It was wobbly and had loose spokes. It might have been fine on a regular bike, but not at 40 mph with an 8 yr old kid on it. The fork started wobbling and eventually it slammed all the way to one side and I went over the handlebars & tore all the skin off my right side. I was 8 years old. What 8 yr old kid is going to question the structural integrity of something like that? For one, my dad made it, so therefore the God-damn thing was assumed to be the best minibike ever built, and two, .. I was 8 years old and had a bicycle that went 40 mph by itself. It was COOL and I wanted to ride it.
A few years later the old man crashed a Challenger ultralight aircraft in a field because he had ignored several other pilots who had repeatedly told him not to fly the thing until he'd replaced the worn out spark plug wire boot & upgrade to hotter plugs that wouldn't foul. He had the thing down to about 25 mph before setting it down, but it was a plowed field and the aluminum tubing holding the nose wheel in place immediately gave way and dropped the nose on the ground. It tore the whole front end off. He's lucky he didn't get killed. Another guy we knew wasn't so lucky.
So with my dad's history of cutting corners to speed up a project or save a few bucks on parts or materials, I'm going to make sure I'm involved in this project just because I can't stop him from doing it on his own. I don't want to have to drive hundreds of miles to go get him. So I want to make sure it's strong enough it's not going to break, & that it's reliable enough to make the trip. I'm pretty sure the engine will make it. It wasn't made in China (or Milwaukee).
now i only have one.....i got hungry soon after.
Duck
Sarcastic remark goes here
Birds. Right before they **** on my car.
R
Racer X 69
Guest
Really? What did I do?
Sounds wicked!
Now that is just way cool. Looks like the chassis got its start as a shifter kart. As long as a guy was careful to use good body english that could actually be fun to play with. Especially on a polished concrete floor in a warehouse.
Why don't you sharpen it? It is easy to do with a fine stone on a bench grinder. Just go easy, take light cuts, don't get it hot and take the temper out of the steel. I keep a tin of water on my grinder pedestal and frequently dip the drill into it when I am sharpening it.
Oh, and you hold the drill with your left hand, and support it on your right forefinger.
Easy Squeezy. No Pain, No Stain.
I gotta ask.
What is it with you and EMT?
You know that when you weld on it the zinc in the galvanized coating crates a toxic gas that will make you very sick, if not kill you.
And it was never intended to be used in structural applications. It has a seam that was created when the flat ribbon of steel is rolled into the tubular shape comes together and it is resistance welded together.
You would be better off going to the steel supply house and getting mild steel DOM tubing. Plenty strong and DOM tubing does not have a seam like steel pipe that is welded as it is made.
catalinaflyer
Well-Known Member
Nothing but it sounded good. Actually I'm trying to get my truck as wired as yours but I'm afraid any more load on the alt. and the engine won't have enough power to get the trailer moving.
Not quite a shifter cart, it was purpose built and if you look real close you can see where I extended the fram from the motor back. We still have a couple shifter karts in the garage and have thought about barstooling them. The only thing close on this is the wheels and tires, everything else is pretty much yard-kart equipment. And yes it's a ******* riot on a slick floor.
Similar threads
