gestalt
10 kW
Been saving all my money for first and last on a new shop space, so no money for parts right now. Just working with what I have lying around.
I have been living car free for almost four years now, and living in the city I only ever miss it when I have a lot of stuff to move from one place to the other. The basket I have on the front of my regular rider just isn't cutting it anymore, anytime I go get groceries I eventually end up with my basket full, my bag loaded up and bags hanging from my handlebars. Any time I have to grab a 40lb bag of dog food I end up having to shoulder it the whole way home. All of the commercially available trailers out there seem so wimpy so modding an existing trailer is out for that reason of $ to buy one.
I have a bit of 1 1/2" square steel tubing, a non functional BMX, the rear triangle from a suspension MTB and a shopping cart. Lets see what we can come up with
The tubing made a for a nice frame and the BMX fork ends made for a nice way to mount the wheel on the back. I used four large bolts welded right to the frame to secure the basket of the shopping cart to it. Some nuts and washers cranked down ensure that that basket isn't going anywhere. I hacked the top tube and head tube off of the BMX to make for the pivot between the bike and the trailer but it's going to need some reinforcement to deal with the side to side forces that will be placed on it especially when loaded down. I think some steel plate welded along the sides to essentially make it one large tube should do the trick.
So with just a bit of work this project is coming along quite nicely. Next up will be to mod the rear triangle to me mounted to whats left of the BMX fork. I tried to figure out ways to make it so that the pivot parts could be taken apart but I think that in the spirit of "fvck it" I will just weld it all together. It will be stronger than if i tried some bolt on solution, if I ever need or want to I can just hack it apart and upgrade from there.
Now I have neither the parts, nor the money to electrify it right now, but have been building it around the idea of eventual addition of a motor and batteries. For the motor I was thinking of a sturdy geared hub motor laced into a 20" wheel. I usually think DD is best but I want this thing to coast with no drag from cogging if I either do not have, or want to use the assist. The nice thing is there is all the room in the world under the frame for batteries and controller. Maybe even a charger, But chargers are so tempermental that it is probably best to keep that somewhere away from all the shocks and vibration of the road.
I have been living car free for almost four years now, and living in the city I only ever miss it when I have a lot of stuff to move from one place to the other. The basket I have on the front of my regular rider just isn't cutting it anymore, anytime I go get groceries I eventually end up with my basket full, my bag loaded up and bags hanging from my handlebars. Any time I have to grab a 40lb bag of dog food I end up having to shoulder it the whole way home. All of the commercially available trailers out there seem so wimpy so modding an existing trailer is out for that reason of $ to buy one.
I have a bit of 1 1/2" square steel tubing, a non functional BMX, the rear triangle from a suspension MTB and a shopping cart. Lets see what we can come up with
The tubing made a for a nice frame and the BMX fork ends made for a nice way to mount the wheel on the back. I used four large bolts welded right to the frame to secure the basket of the shopping cart to it. Some nuts and washers cranked down ensure that that basket isn't going anywhere. I hacked the top tube and head tube off of the BMX to make for the pivot between the bike and the trailer but it's going to need some reinforcement to deal with the side to side forces that will be placed on it especially when loaded down. I think some steel plate welded along the sides to essentially make it one large tube should do the trick.
So with just a bit of work this project is coming along quite nicely. Next up will be to mod the rear triangle to me mounted to whats left of the BMX fork. I tried to figure out ways to make it so that the pivot parts could be taken apart but I think that in the spirit of "fvck it" I will just weld it all together. It will be stronger than if i tried some bolt on solution, if I ever need or want to I can just hack it apart and upgrade from there.
Now I have neither the parts, nor the money to electrify it right now, but have been building it around the idea of eventual addition of a motor and batteries. For the motor I was thinking of a sturdy geared hub motor laced into a 20" wheel. I usually think DD is best but I want this thing to coast with no drag from cogging if I either do not have, or want to use the assist. The nice thing is there is all the room in the world under the frame for batteries and controller. Maybe even a charger, But chargers are so tempermental that it is probably best to keep that somewhere away from all the shocks and vibration of the road.
