Lazy Bike

http://www.youtube.com/user/crimpmasterc?feature=watch#p/a/u/0/yS9LB1ki-c4

A couple posts ago I talked about building an engine attachment for my longboard. My wife was convinced that the motor board was a serious accident just waiting to happen... she may well have been right. I built the engine trailer as a kind of modular unit so it could be fashioned with different attachments so it could have a wide range of applications.

Not long after finishing the longboard I was ready for the next project, preferably one that didn't scare my wife to death. I haven't covered too many on the blog, but anyone who has stepped foot in the orange garage knows that it is full of bikes. I thought it would be fun to make an attachment allowing me to hook the engine up to a bike, not just one bike, but my mountain bike, road bike, recumbent, and tandem (not the elliptical, apparently it already has the ability to break bones at the mind boggling speed of 4 mph...another story for another post .)
This is what I came up with.

So the bottom end (on the left) has a hitch that slips over the attachment on the engine, and the other end has a tube that can slip onto any seat post. This tube allows the trailer to swing to the left and right for turns, and it also has a hinge on it (interesting fact, there is a door somewhere that now only has 2 of its original 3 hinges) allowing vertical movement for uneven road surfaces (like speed bumps). The two lines coming off the end are the kill switch and throttle (the throttle was previously a gear shifter on a bike which I modified to make it move smoothly instead of clicking through its positions).

Here is the final product

It turned out to be a lot of fun. Maria and I even did the 13 mile loop at Red rock, there is nothing more fulfilling than seeing serious looking bikers sweating up steep hills, then blowing by them at speeds up to 30 mph.
One of the limiting factors is traction due to limited weight on the back wheel, but because of the angle between the wheel and where it attaches to the bike, it ends up pushing itself forward but also pushes itself into the ground creating a surprising amount of traction.


here is a quick video

http://www.youtube.com/user/crimpmasterc?feature=watch#p/a/u/0/yS9LB1ki-c4