e-Rickshaw

[GCinDC]

a neighbor lived in cambodia? vietnam? - i forget.. anyway he brought this back and rides his daughter to school in it. i see it everywhere now, and in talking with him about it learned that drutledge (the cupcake man) converted it. and with their permission i'm posting up some pics.

dual brakes on the rear!

my kids in it:

with the top up:

it's CA limited to 12-13mph. Any more and tipping and braking become problems.

 

[ohzee]

that looks pretty sweet.. bet the kids love it

 

[ambroseliao]

Where are the batteries located?

 

[whereswally606]

loving the leaf spring suspension. bet it feels like being in an old horse drawn carriage.

 

[SamTexas]

Very nice! That "cyclo" came from Vietnam.

 

[SamTexas]

Clarification: That's a Vietnamese cyclo. It could very well be imported from Cambodia, Thailand or Laos.

I really like it especially the dual real brakes.

 

[drutledge]

The cyclo is from Cambodia, it's possible that it came from Vietnam originally but the whole region has riffs on the same basic design. I have a chromed one from Vietnam. It rides higher but is essentially the same.

This winter's project is to get some better braking. The disc brakes just aren't cutting it which is why I added some extra stopping power to the blue cyclo. I'm looking at brakes made for tandem bikes. One manufacturer has hydraulics coupled with a 10" rotor; that's larger than the motor's circumference! Any other ideas?

 

[SamTexas]

The cyclo is front heavy and very front heavy with passenger(s). So even with the most effective rear brake(s), the cyclo would still move forward while the rear wheel skids. Would be best if you could figure out a way to add front disc brakes.

 

[drutledge]

Skid? I'd be happy to skid the rear tire but it's not even close. 400+ pounds on 700C / 2 3/4" tires is a tough job to brake. Weight plus the angular momentum I suppose, plus the driver sits right on top of the rear tire so it's got a little more weight on it than a normal bike. The fronts would be impossible to put brakes on without welding on some major hardware unfortunatly. I have another bike, a cargo bike that weights about the same and has two V brakes on the two tiny 20" fronts. That stops pretty darn well. I think the small circumference is the difference.

 

[SamTexas]

Yes, skid! I have seen cyclos' rear wheels skid more times than I can remember. With two passengers going down slight 2-3% slope at around 20kph, immediate stopping does not happen! A careful cyclo driver always pumps his rear brake continuously in such situation to maintain a very low speed.

 

[drutledge]

I dream of having that sort of braking action. Going down hill would certainly take some weight off the back wheel though. Perhaps those old drum brakes were not only cool looking but effective. Too bad they would never fit with the motor on there. I think retrofitting a tandem bike brake system is the way to go.

 

[cal3thousand]

The cyclo is front heavy and very front heavy with passenger(s). So even with the most effective rear brake(s), the cyclo would still move forward while the rear wheel skids. Would be best if you could figure out a way to add front disc brakes.

Perfect candidate for a rear hub and some e-juice in the back somewhere

 

[GCinDC]

not sure if this image of the batts/charger(?) will work... from dtrutledge's collection he showed me...

how many lipos are there? i thought four but now i see a row below. so what config? 12s4p?

edit: oops. that's the chrome one. my bad... same config anyway?

 

[drutledge]

I've actually got it up to 12s8p now. I converted my cargo bike to a homemade A123 lifepo pack and moved the 12s4p that was in it over to the chrome rickshaw. I'd like to have the A123s in the rickshaw as well but I'd have to design a much flatter battery for it to fit.

Here's the A123 battery that's in my cargo bike, for what it's worth:

 

[GCinDC]

the cyclo is awesome but let's get the cupcake up here! what do you say, d?

the e-Rickshaw and e-Cupcake thread!

or would you prefer it be separate. outstanding pics of that on your flikr pages.. i think everyone would love to see them!

 

[Sancho's Horse]

I am trying to work out some heavy duty braking also. I keep looking around at all kinds of options, everything from motorcycle hydraulics to eh...so many options. I have even considered stagecoach braking. Some foot pedal with a big chink of wood jamming down on the two wheels wedging between them and some part of the bike's metal structure. A real Fred Flintstone saves the family kind of thing. For some reason these google search terms are not turning up what I had hoped. Good luck! If I find the Fred Flintstone model, or something more refined, I will definitely let you know.

Love the cupcake.