Hi all! Long time lurker here. I just got a 4-wheel, 4-person electric assist Rhoades Car!! I live in the Oakland/Berkley CA area and would love create an incredible looking body/fairing on this thing and use it to drop the kids off at school and other neighborhood stuff.
I think the Rhoades Cars are pretty hideous in their default aesthetic - but I've always though that they are basically blank canvases as far as a starting point for a great pedal-powered/E-assit family city car.
So.. if anyone is interested, here is my thought. I would love to organize some sort of crowd-sourced design for a nice looking and relatively economical fairing for this model of Rhoades Car. By open sourcing and documenting the blue prints, BOM, etc., there is an opportunity to make a electric assist, four-person vehicles that are pretty accessible. These "bikes" are often available for under $2K on Craigslist etc. Cost aside, it would be a TON of work to design and weld something like this up from scratch - so there is a real advantage over a full DIY solution as well.
If you are not familiar with Rhoades, here are a bunch of photos: http://www.bikeforest.com/rhoades_car.php I have a shared workspace with tools available, but not a ton of time.
Below are some links to get the juices flowing. Mostly aesthetic and ‘form-factor’ ideas - versus practical approach ideas at this stage.
Toyota Pedal Concept with decent body styling options:
http://www.superstreetonline.com/features/news/eurp-1206-toyota-pedal-car-concept/
Local Motors has done some really excellent work crowd-sourcing designs for their various vehicles, including the 3D printed roadster:
https://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/a16726/local-motors-strati-roadster-test-drive/
The only Rhoades I've found with a full body built. Little too utilitarian for my taste:
http://www.bikeforest.com/rhoades_car.php
One of the only production pedal cars with a body I've found. This is getting more toward what I am thinking, but a bit more retro than I lean:
http://www.auburnjr.com/
And then this concept that is pretty awesome looking:
https://gas2.org/2014/01/11/pedal-power-sc-1-biposto-concept-brings-sexy/
I think the Rhoades Cars are pretty hideous in their default aesthetic - but I've always though that they are basically blank canvases as far as a starting point for a great pedal-powered/E-assit family city car.
So.. if anyone is interested, here is my thought. I would love to organize some sort of crowd-sourced design for a nice looking and relatively economical fairing for this model of Rhoades Car. By open sourcing and documenting the blue prints, BOM, etc., there is an opportunity to make a electric assist, four-person vehicles that are pretty accessible. These "bikes" are often available for under $2K on Craigslist etc. Cost aside, it would be a TON of work to design and weld something like this up from scratch - so there is a real advantage over a full DIY solution as well.
If you are not familiar with Rhoades, here are a bunch of photos: http://www.bikeforest.com/rhoades_car.php I have a shared workspace with tools available, but not a ton of time.
Below are some links to get the juices flowing. Mostly aesthetic and ‘form-factor’ ideas - versus practical approach ideas at this stage.
Toyota Pedal Concept with decent body styling options:
http://www.superstreetonline.com/features/news/eurp-1206-toyota-pedal-car-concept/
Local Motors has done some really excellent work crowd-sourcing designs for their various vehicles, including the 3D printed roadster:
https://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/a16726/local-motors-strati-roadster-test-drive/
The only Rhoades I've found with a full body built. Little too utilitarian for my taste:
http://www.bikeforest.com/rhoades_car.php
One of the only production pedal cars with a body I've found. This is getting more toward what I am thinking, but a bit more retro than I lean:
http://www.auburnjr.com/
And then this concept that is pretty awesome looking:
https://gas2.org/2014/01/11/pedal-power-sc-1-biposto-concept-brings-sexy/